Tagged: Charlie Brown

As [[[the Peanuts]]] gang further cemented themselves into the fabric of American society, one could always count on the animated specials arriving each year. Unfortunately, as the 1970s progressed, the strip and specials continued to lose their charm and appeal, coasting on their heyday a decade previously.

That regression is fairly evident in [[[Peanuts 1970’s Collection Volume 2]]], out today from Warner Home Video. The two-disc set contains six episodes, one of which makes its home video debut. Absent are two self-congratulatory specials which also aired during this period.

The vocal cast changed as actors aged but remained in the same range and was likely not as noticeable year to year but is more obvious in rewatching these in a short order. There are also some odd proportional changes, notable in the final two specials contained here. There’s a different change as Vince Guaraldi’s death robbed the specials of their jazz-inspired music, which was often the best thing about any one of these.

[[[Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown]]] (1/28/75) opens the set as the gang at Birchwood Elementary School grows obsessive about the romance in the air. Linus suddenly has the hots for his teacher at one end and then there’s Schroeder, who’s fairly oblivious to the day. And then there’s poor Charlie Brown, hoping for valentines and receiving none.

There are several lapses in logic beginning with Sally and Linus suddenly in the same class as their older siblings while Peppermint Patti and Marcie are now attending the same school as their cross-town pals. Worse, the teacher has abandoned the class in the middle of the class party (with Shermy making a final cameo appearance). In during the more lax era, no adult would walk out of school leaving a room full of children unattended. Perhaps the best bit is Linus tosses away the chocolates he failed to give his teacher, unaware each piece is being gobbled up by Snoopy and Woodstock.

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I’ll be honest and tell you that I am in the minority who felt that [[[Peanuts]]] stopped being funny after 1972 and should have been retired long before Charles M. Schulz’s death. All its charm and whimsy had been drained out of it as witnessed by the 1970s material that has been reprinted since his passing. The world had changed and their innocent worldview ceased to feel at all relevant.  But once Schulz found his characters and voice, the strip was brilliant for quite some time.

By 1965, Charles Schulz’s Peanuts had grown to become one of the most popular comic strips launched since the end of World War II if not the 20th Century. It made perfect sense that the characters would eventually find their way onto television. They were first licensed for use as pitchmen for Ford in 1961 and appeared in black and white commercials animated by Bill Meléndez. When Lee Mendelson tried to make a documentary on Schulz in 1963, he hired Meléndez to create a short segment while hiring Vince Guaraldi for the score. The proposed show never sold but sowed the seeds for what came soon after.

As we know today, that first holiday special, was something unique and heartwarming from Guaraldi’s amazing score to the characters being funny and poignant.  While the holiday-themed specials have become television perennials, several of the others have not achieved the same attention.

That oversight is rectified in the Peanuts 1960’s Collection
, coming Tuesday from Warner Home Video. Those first six half-hour cartoons which set the standard for animated specials thereafter, are collected on two discs. In addition to [[[A Charlie Brown Christmas]]], there’s also [[[Charlie Brown’s All-Stars]]], [[[It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown]]], [[[You’re in Love, Charlie Brown]]], [[[He’s your Dog Charlie Brown]]], and [[[It was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown]]].

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