As is annual tradition, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving aired last week on ABC, and following that is A Charlie Brown Christmas on the 30th, also on ABC. Good grief, this Peanuts Movie-led revival of all things Charlie is prompting us to spend this week’s 24 Frames gallery on the animated history of Peanuts movies and TV specials.
When The Peanuts Movie came out earlier this fall, probably not much of its kid target audience had even held a
newspaper, the format the comic strip came packaged in since 1950. For 65 years, up until the death of Charles M.
Schulz in 2000, fans could thumb through the paper and find Charlie Brown succumbing to good grief, Snoopy in the
middle of a fantasy adventure, or some other wry observation on life. Schulz wasn’t concerned with being
hilarious, more happy to be engaged in dialogue with the public consciousness. He was a gentle reminder of a
special American workmanship.
But Schulz’s characters are bigger than him now, living beyond the pages of inkprint. In his lifetime, Schulz wielded
Charlie Brown, Linus, Sally et al. to create a merchandising empire of toys, books, clothes, and life
insurance commercials. If you can slap a drawing of a beagle on it, Schulz probably already did. And that includes
Peanuts animated specials…
Schulz partnered with director Bill Melendez and producer Lee Mendelson to translate Peanuts into animation and the two quickly cornered the holiday
market. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973), featuring Brown rushing to put together a big dinner after Peppermint
Patty invites herself over, is among the three most popular holidays specials, including Christmas and The
Great Pumpkin.
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), in which Charlie is infamously tasked with finding a tree for the school play,
features some of Peanuts‘ most notable emotional tenets: melancholia, self-examination, and joy and
celebration. The special has aired annual ever since its premiere.
One of Charlie Brown Christmas‘ most surprising and celebrated scenes is when Linus quells a crowd, who is out for
Charlie’s blood, by reciting a passage from the Gospel of Luke. In an increasingly secular nation, Linus’ heartfelt
rendition, for those who need and believe in it, means more than ever.
But if you’re looking for less Christ in your special, you could do well with 1992’s It’s Christmas Time
Again, Charlie Brown.
The first special to come out after A Charlie Brown Christmas was 1966’s Charlie Brown’s All-Stars,
which sees him and his team facing another catastrophic baseball season.
After All-Stars but in the same year came It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, the Halloween
special that produced the oft-parodied “I got a rock” running joke.
Great Pumpkin serves as a contrast to Charlie Brown Christmas. Linus, a philosophizer with all the
answers, has his faith comically tested during his annual pilgrimage to a non-existent giant vegetable.
Including The Peanuts Movie, there have been five movies based on the franchise. The first came in 1969: A Boy Named Charlie Brown, which sees Brown travelling to New York City for a spelling bee.
1972’s Snoopy, Come Home! is one of the more poignant works in the Peanuts filmography, which separates Snoopy from his friends as he searches for a sick girl who once owned him.
The film draws parallels to a later special, 1990’s Why, Charlie Brown, Why?, in which Linus comes to terms with a new friend who has been diagnosed with cancer.
But back to the films: in 1977, a year after composer Vince Guaraldi died, came Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown, tossing the gang into a rough-and-tumble summer camp.
The final theatrical movie before The Peanuts Movie revival was 1980’s Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don’t Come Back!!). An exchange program allows the gang to go abroad to soak in European history.
The 1983 special What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? is a direct sequel to Bon Voyage. As the gang continue their way home, they visit key battlefields of both World Wars. The question in the special’s title asks us to examine our world in respect to the sacrifice of soldiers.
But for some homegrown history, consider This is America, Charlie Brown, an eight-part miniseries that ran 1988-1989, each episode diving into a segment of United States history.
Another scene from This is America. The miniseries was one of the few works to break a Peanuts cardinal rule: adults frequently appeared onscreen and spoke intelligibly.
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show was a Saturday morning cartoon that premiered on CBS in 1983, which attempted faster deliveries of the strip’s storylines.
A truncated second season aired before getting cancelled.
Schulz was specific in how he presented Snoopy. For a long time, Snoopy was tormented by a cat, which Schulz removed because it made him too much like a dog. In the special, he spoke in gibberish because it made Snoopy more like an animal. Though in 1985, Snoopy sang and spoke in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, an adaptation of the musical of the same name.
Another musical, Snoopy!!!, was adapted in 1988.
You’re in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown aired on NBC in 1994, and was subsequently available on VHS if you filled up on gas at a Shell station.
The final special Schulz oversaw was It’s the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown, ultimately released direct-to-DVD in 2000.
After a hiatus due to the death of long-time director Melendez, an extra-long special called Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown premiered on Fox in 2011.
With all of the major creative participants of the Peanuts movies and TV shows having passed away, and no new comic strips to ever come, it rests more than ever on the next generation to guide where Charlie Brown’s story goes next. For 2015’s The Peanuts Movie, Schulz’s son and and grandson wrote the screenplay and it is a truthful work. It captures the essence of the characters (Charlie the doubter, Snoopy the daydreamer, Lucy the crank, Schroder the artist, and so on), reveals how each of Schulz’s little creations speak to a big part of us.
