Happy New Year, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz

Snoopy’s Getting Married, Charlie Brown (1985)Īnother aimless Snoopy-centric special, this time about Snoopy’s short-lived love affair with Genevieve the poodle (boy, does this dog ever have a type …). There’s a reason this one went straight to direct-to-video: It’s pretty boring.Ĥ2. into Bible stories but fails to actually do anything funny beyond that. This straightforward adaptation of the Pied Piper fairy tale is kind of useless, like one of those dreary Simpsons episodes that inserts Homer and Co. It’s the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown (2000) Move along there is actually nothing to see here.Ĥ3.

Good Sport is arguably the episode where the Peanuts specials jumped the shark, except instead of having Fonzie surf over a carnivorous fish, they have Charlie Brown participate in a motocross race. You’re a Good Sport, Charlie Brown (1975) The rest of Snoopy: The Musical makes the song’s cloying choruses - like “Sit down, roll over, lie down, play dead,” and “Don’t be a cloud when you can be the sky” - seem not so terrible in comparison. The music and lyrics for the show are abysmal, thanks in no small part to Snoopy’s inane inner monologue, while Cam Clarke’s nasal voice makes Snoopy sound like Jason Alexander and Matthew Broderick’s obnoxious love-child. This little-seen, hour-long special was a vain attempt at adapting the theatrical musical of the same name to an hour-long cartoon format. Related StoriesĪn Ode to the Great Pumpkin’s Harsh Realities Few of them possess the early specials’ zeal for childlike play, but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth watching (or rewatching) this holiday season. But even some of the more recent shorts, like Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, are fun, and all of them are available online (even the ones that have only been released on VHS, like Snoopy: The Musical). Many of the short, frequently seasonal programs follow formulas established in the early specials, several of which were directed by Bill Melendez and scored by the inimitable Vince Guaraldi. There’s a fundamental irony to the family of Peanuts specials: While several of the Charles Schulz–scripted and post-Schulz-era installments complain about the evils of consumerism, there have been (to date) 45 Peanuts specials produced since the first - and, spoiler alert, best - one, A Charlie Brown Christmas, premiered in 1965. Photo: ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty Images Snoopy serving up that exquisite Thanksgiving popcorn.

Happy New Year, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz