The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Thread!

[Drtooth]

I finally caught the new Peanuts show on Boomerang. Mainly because I just sort of forgot that it was on at a weird time every day for the past 4 days.

It's good, but it really doesn't lend itself to a programming block. There is room to have the series as intended a series of shorts inbetween shows, similar to Super Hero Girls and Mixels (though only series 1 and 2, even when Lego does cut the longer form specials into segments for its website), or at least there should be. But it works fine enough for a 15 minute series pared with an extra Looney Tunes classic short or two to round out the programming run (as on both CN and Boomerang it precedes a Looney Tunes cartoon block).

They seem to have the same consistent voices for the characters. Snoopy makes the occasional dog sound, but is mostly silent vs his backwards sped up laughter and growls, as is Woodstock who makes a completely different sound when they decide to have him "speak." The adults are completely silent, giving it a more original comic strip feel, rather than the muted trumpet. Though that was suggested at in one cartoon. It's essentially motion added to the strips with a little French animation humor present. It's no Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, but it's a fund watch so far.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Today, after watching "The Great Pumpkin" on Youtube, I came across another special that I had never seen before "You're in Love Charlie Brown". I think it's a real shame they never show the Peanuts' non holiday specials on TV anymore, because all the ones from the 60s and 70s are just as great as the more well known specials. "Your in Love" had some nice character development for Charlie as it was the first time we hear about the little red haired girl outside of the comics, although she wouldn't actually be shown on screen until ten years later. It's also the first appearance of Peppermint Patty.

So, in it, Charlie Brown is trying to work up the nerve to introduce himself to the red haired girl before the end of the school year. There's a lot to love here, one visual gag I really liked was closer to the beginning when Pigpen walks through the sandbox and all the sand just ends up getting sucked out of the sandbox and on to him. I also liked the scene where, through a misunderstanding, Peppermint Patty ends up setting Charlie Brown up on a date with Lucy, much to the shock and disgust of both people involved.
Also, there's a scene when Charlie is sent to the principal's office, and on his way to the office he starts praying a fairly dramatic prayer to get himself out of trouble, lol I loved that scene because I used to do that (it never worked though, lol). I also love how innocent, yet direct Linus is. Overall, it's a really great special and like most of them, it's truly underrated as it's not only really funny, but it's also very important to the history of the franchise.

 

[D'Snowth]

The Peanuts seem to have this misfortune of sort of being ghettoized into this holiday product, but you have to keep in mind that the Christmas special was the very first time the Peanuts were ever animated, and back then, it was kind of a big deal, because people were anxious to see the Peanuts move, hear them talk, and of course what Snoopy would be like. But yeah, there's a ton of non-holiday specials that are really great: the one with the girl at school who had cancer was perhaps the most heartfelt Peanuts special ever.

But, unfortunately, I think the same can be said for Dr. Seuss specials as well, because what's the one special of his that we see on TV every year? The Grinch. But there's so many other specials that aren't even holiday specials that you rarely, if ever see, but some of them seem to be aired around Christmas in conjunction with the Grinch, which feels a little odd. It's bizarre, because I have the Lorax taped off Disney Channel from the early 90s, and it's not a holiday special at all, but I somehow come to associate it with Halloween, because most everything else on that tape happens to be other Halloween that were on during that time: Casper, spooky Looney Tunes, and others; so, seeing the Lorax being aired at Christmastime years ago felt really odd and out of place, lol.

But then, you've also got the problem of certain entire series falling victim to this, such as THE ADDAMS FAMILY and THE MUNSTERS - you only see them around Halloween, but you have to remember these were primetime sitcoms back in the 60s, and would air from fall to spring.

 

[mr3urious]

But yeah, there's a ton of non-holiday specials that are really great: the one with the girl at school who had cancer was perhaps the most heartfelt Peanuts special ever.

And who could forget You're a Good Sport, where Chuck got his first ever victory for once? Or how about What Have We Learned, which aired on Memorial Day and included a moving recitation of "In Flanders Fields". The music really drives it home, using an orchestral style as opposed to usual jazzy score.

 

[minor muppetz]

I just saw that the Peanuts property is up for sale.

http://www.cbr.com/report-peanuts-charles-schulz-snoopy-for-sale/

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I just saw that the Peanuts property is up for sale.

http://www.cbr.com/report-peanuts-charles-schulz-snoopy-for-sale/

Hmm, I wasn't expecting that. But at the same time, it makes sense. The property wasn't as flexible as it used to be. Outside of the movie, they haven't really reached as many child fans as they could have. So, hopefully Peanuts will get sold to a company that really respects the property but also tries to adapt it to keep up with the times.

And maybe this means we'll get that sequel soon. Although, they're being no sequel probably had more to do with the Shulz family than it did the company that owned it.

 

[mr3urious]

Hopefully the Schulz family will remain as protective as ever of their property regardless of ownership.

 

[minor muppetz]

Recently I saw the strip where Charlie Brown talks about how he got Snoopy for the first time, a strip that was adapted into scenes in Snoopy Come Home and Life's a Circus (in fact I saw that I asked about this a few pages ago). It was recently reprinted in the sunday comics.

So at the end, after telling Linus about how he got Snoopy, there's a panel showing Snoopy laying on his dog house, thinking "good grief!" Seems kinda confusing, there's nothing to indicate that Snoopy's nearby to hear Charlie Brown talk about how he came to own him (if Snoopy was there as Charlie Brown told the story it would make sense).

It does make sense that that part wasn't included, not just because Snoopy's thoughts are rarely heard in the animated specials and such, but also because in both cases, he's away from Charlie Brown, and it seems to be a dramatic point that, being part of a movie or special as opposed to a stand-alone installment in the strip, doesn't really need a punchline (though in Snoopy Come Home, the scene ends with Linus making a comment about people getting dogs for strange reasons, which I can't really decide whether it's funny or not, can't remember if Life's a Circus had any kind of new punchline to the scene).

 

[minor muppetz]

Yesterday I've been thinking about the period of years when the school building had thought balloons. That was weird, other inanimate objects don't seem to do this (I want to say I've seen a strip where the pitchers mound had thought balloons but can't remember, the kite-eating tree seems to function as a character but doesn't have thought balloons). Anybody know if Charles Schultz ever talked about this "character"? I looked up info on the school building at Peanuts Wiki and didn't find any quotes or anything from Schultz, so I'm guessing there's not (or they're hard to come by).

The character seems limited, since it's just a regular school building who has thoughts, can somehow communicate with Sally (the one who talks to the building the most often), and is capable of dropping bricks on people. I don't think it could have worked well in the animated specials (though looking at some strips on Peanuts Wiki, I saw that one was adapted into It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown, I don't really remember this being in the special but it's also one I don't watch often). After all, Snoopy's thoughts were rarely heard, why should the school's thoughts be any different? Of course looking at some strips and reading about the history of the character, it seems like there are a lot of real funny, clever jokes.

I remember first seeing strips where the building has thought balloons in the book And a Woodstock in a Birch Tree and thought it was weird, when I got the internet saw a listing of characters and debuts and knew what it was talking about when it listed the school building, saw it's first appearance on a site that showed debut strips (and thought it was weird that, in it's first "appearance", it's only "dialogue" was a sigh, as opposed to a thought balloon, though maybe the sigh wouldn't have been so funny if it came after it was established that the school can think). And I remember reading somewhere about the school "committing suicide", putting an end to the character, I didn't know until yesterday that that's what led to Charlie Brown going to Peppermint Patty's school for a brief period (which was adapted into an episode of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show), and didn't know that Sally talked to that school building as well. I was also surprised to see that when the school was rebuilt that it had thought balloons, at least at first. I figured the building committing suicide was to put an end to that running gag. After all, it seems the schools only had thought balloons from 1974-1976.

 

[minor muppetz]

Recently I've been thinking about the Peanuts specials of the 1990s, mainly how there were so few that decades (with most of them being in the early 1990s) and how some of them were released straight to video (even It's Christmas Time Again, Charlie Brown was released on video a few months before it's CBS broadcast).

I wonder if the early 1990s Peanuts specials had bad enough ratings for CBS to be less interested in new Peanuts specials. It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown was meant to be broadcast on CBS but ended up being released straight to video instead. You're in the Superbowl, Charlie Brown - the last of the regular fully-animated specials to premier on television during Charles Schultz' lifetime - aired on NBC instead (I've seen things that point out that NBC had the rights to broadcast the Superbowl that year, so I don't know if the other networks legally couldn't air anything related to the Super Bowl, or if CBS just didn't want to air this one, or if they felt this special would be better airing on the same channel as the actual Super Bowl). And after that, the remaining fully-animated specials that Schultz made (It Was My Best Birthday Ever and It's the Pied Piper) were released straight to video.

Don't really know if CBS had issues with airing new Peanuts specials, though they continued to air A Charlie Brown Christmas every year until ABC obtained the broadcast rights in 2000 (and ended up getting the rights to air new Peanuts specials). During the 1990s, CBS also had the broadcast rights to It's the Great Pumpkin and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, but I've read that CBS went five years without airing The Great Pumpkin in the early 1990s and didn't air Thanksgiving at all in the 1990s (I think CBS didn't broadcast it at all during the networks last 15 years with the broadcast rights).

It seems a number of franchises that were heavily featured in specials throughout the 1980s (and maybe earlier) got less specials in the 1990s, often ending around the early 1990s. Garfield's last special was in either 1991 or 1992, which I thought was more because of Garfield and Friends. CBS was airing new Looney Tunes specials in the late-1980s and early-1990s, I've read at The Bugs Bunny Video Guide that CBS' last Looney Tunes special, Bugs Bunny's Creature Feature, had such bad ratings that they canceled further specials (with Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes ending up direct-to-video and another special canceled during pre-production). And there haven't been many Muppet specials since Jim Henson's death (The Muppets Christmas Carol was originally going to be a special, which replaced plans for a Muppet Halloween special... man, we were so close to getting another Muppet special in the early 1990s!).

For the last several years I've noticed that it seems rare for there to be new television specials that don't involve a holiday (especially Christmas) or other current event/anniversary, but could this have occurred in the 1990s? I feel like there were a lot of television specials produced in the 1990s, but it seems like the majority of them were Christmas specials. Were networks suddenly less interested in specials during the 1990s? Of course aside from holiday specials, we got a good number of Sesame Street specials, a few Pete and Pete specials, at least one Eureeka's Castle special that didn't involve a holiday, Dr. Seuss' Daisy-Head Maisy, some Stick Stickly specials, and a network primetime Barney special.

Or maybe, in the case of It's Spring Training, CBS didn't like the special. It is interesting how that one was originally going to be on CBS but not only got released straight-to-video, but its first video release was as part of the Snoopy Double Feature label. Being its first release, I feel it should have been released on its own (put it under the "A Peanuts Special" label), as opposed to with a special that had previously been released on VHS (so fans with a previous copy of the special wouldn't be buying that one again for the new special). I recently read on the Peanuts Animation Guide website that it's first broadcast was on Nickelodeon in 1998, but I recall seeing it on The Disney Channel in 1996 (but I can't just rely on memory).

I am a bit mixed on this one (which I actually haven't seen in years). Seems like it is a bit too kiddie (I feel that's the case with a lot of '80s and '90s Peanuts), I don't really like Lucy's song, I forgot until a few days ago about Franklin's rap song (can't remember how I felt about that), in fact I tend to be mixed about singing when it comes to Peanuts (I like the musical numbers in the first two movies, and the specials based on the two musicals, and I like the song that plays at the end of Someday You'll Find Her, Charlie Brown, but at least as a teenager, I didn't really like It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown - though I have a feeling I would like the special better if I watched it now - or Sally's song from Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown). But on the other hand, it's a rare instance of Charlie Brown's team winning a baseball game, and it seems they get to keep the uniforms they get.