Thanksgiving Special
Gymd...@webtv.net
Donald Hargraves
> Why didn't Charlie Brown tell Pepermint Patty to go to hell?
Because Charlie Brown's something of a wimp, and (by the time this
special was made) is unable to say "no" to someone forceful enough to
push herself onto him. Not only that, but just saying "Go To Hell (or
whatever Charles Schultz would have had him say)" was probably
inconceivable to C.B.
Besides, had C.B. been able to tell Peppermint Patty to go to hell,
there would have been no special to speak of.
KentB3
>From: hun...@yahoo.com (Donald Hargraves)
>Date: 11/27/2004 9:30 AM Eastern Standard Time
>Message-id: <9a88a89c.04112...@posting.google.com>
>
>Gymd...@webtv.net wrote in message
>news:<10268-41A...@storefull-3178.bay.webtv.net>...
>> Why didn't Charlie Brown tell Pepermint Patty to go to hell?
>
>Because Charlie Brown's something of a wimp, and (by the time this
>special was made) is unable to say "no" to someone forceful enough to
>push herself onto him. Not only that, but just saying "Go To Hell (or
>whatever Charles Schultz would have had him say)" was probably
>inconceivable to C.B.
Well, he could've just said, straight out, we won't be home then!
>
>Besides, had C.B. been able to tell Peppermint Patty to go to hell,
>there would have been no special to speak of.
I guess that explains everything! ;-)
I also noticed that Lucy was absent from their Thanksgiving "dinner", which was
odd, since the Thanksgiving special opened with Charlie Brown trying to kick
the football from her, with no success, as usual! Possibly they though Lucy
was too abrasive to react to Charlie Brown's failure
to serve a REAL Thanksgiving dinner, since Peppermint Patty was bad enough! :-D
Howard Fein
> >Subject: Re: Thanksgiving Special
> >From: hun...@yahoo.com (Donald Hargraves)
> >Date: 11/27/2004 9:30 AM Eastern Standard Time
> >Message-id: <9a88a89c.04112...@posting.google.com>
> >
> >Gymd...@webtv.net wrote in message
> >news:<10268-41A...@storefull-3178.bay.webtv.net>...
> >> Why didn't Charlie Brown tell Pepermint Patty to go to hell?
> >
> >Because Charlie Brown's something of a wimp, and (by the time this
> >special was made) is unable to say "no" to someone forceful enough to
> >push herself onto him. Not only that, but just saying "Go To Hell (or
> >whatever Charles Schultz would have had him say)" was probably
> >inconceivable to C.B.
The usually scatterbrained Sally hit the nail right on the head when
she laid the blame for Charlie's predicament squarely on him: his
being so wishy-washy. Surely, some assertiveness training would be in
order for our hero.
In fact, C.B. DID grow somewhat of a spine in the last decade or so of
the strip. There was a memorable story arc sometime in the nineties in
which he stood up to a bigger kid who was threatening, or stole
something from Rerun. I forget exactly what happened, but it was quite
refreshing to see him trash-talking instead of rolling his eyes and
saying "Oh, good grief!"
> Well, he could've just said, straight out, we won't be home then!
>
> >Besides, had C.B. been able to tell Peppermint Patty to go to hell,
> >there would have been no special to speak of.
>
Likewise, story license was granted by the usual non-existence of
parents- except to drive the gang to Grandma's. When my son and I
first watched this one, which was still on CBS, he was in preschool,
and you KNOW how kids that age ask questions. I could only explain the
non-action of Mr. and Mrs. Brown by saying that Dad was busy watching
football and Mom was having her hair done so as to impress Grandma.
>
> I also noticed that Lucy was absent from their Thanksgiving "dinner", which was odd, since the Thanksgiving special opened with Charlie Brown trying to kick the football from her, with no success, as usual!
Many of the pre-title sequences in the earlier specials had little to
do with the actual story- much like WELCOME BACK KOTTER, CHEERS or the
whole James Bond canon.
Possibly they though Lucy was too abrasive to react to Charlie Brown's
failure
> to serve a REAL Thanksgiving dinner, since Peppermint Patty was bad enough! :-D
This wasn't Peppermint Patty's first appearance in a special. That
would be HE'S YOUR DOG, CHARLIE BROWN from 1968 or '69. Here she
succeeds in ticking viewers off with her pushy, ballsy attitude more
than Lucy's abraisiveness EVER did. P.P. does exhibit some rare
character development after Marcie tactfully tells her what a jerk
she's been. I love the line "Why can't I act right outside of a
baseball game?" But you wish she'd receive more come-uppance than a
half-hearted lecture from Marcie- someone who should be Charlie's
classmate in an assertiveness training course.
Even though this is considered one of the classic specials along with
CHRISTMAS and GREAT PUMPKIN, I consider it rather weak. The earliest
ones (CHRISTMAS, C.B'S ALL-STARS, PUMPKIN, YOU'RE IN LOVE C.B., HE'S
YOUR DOG C.B. and the theatrical A BOY NAMED C.B.) had just the right
balance of strip rehash, dry humor, original plot and Snoopy
pantomime, all well-timed to Guaraldi underscore. They had a
low-budget knockabout charm similar to concurrent TV cartoons from Jay
Ward and Format Films.
But there was somewhat of a shark jump with 1971's PLAY IT AGAIN C.B.
I recently caught that one at NYC'S Museum of TV & Radio, and could
see why CBS seldom repeated it. This special is almost entirely strip
vignettes, and while it's novel to see Schroeder be the focus for
once, there's entirely too much piano playing and too little action.
As for THANKSGIVING, it suffers from, among other things, a very poor
replacement voice for Charlie Brown. Throughout the years, puberty
made it necessary to replace the actors on a regular basis with new
hires trying to recreate the characterizations established in A C.B.
CHRISTMAS. Peter Robbins had given Charlie an engaging, self-effacing
rasp. In THANKSGIVING, he comes off entirely too high-pitched and
whiny, which is all the more off-putting considering how much dialogue
he has. There's entirely too much footage devoted to Snoopy and
Woodstock's antics with the basketball, ping-pong table, Pilgrim
costumes, etc. (Here we go with the old
stubborn-folding-chair-come-to-life bit again!) There IS a welcome
reprise of the classic Guaraldi theme under the decently staged
toaster bit, although one wonders where C.B. and Linus got so many of
them!
(Mendelsohn and Melendez have always used children roughly the
characters' ages in the interest authenticity. Considering Schulz has
always written their dialogue as if coming from adults, this casting
method has had decidedly mixed results. Throughout the specials, the
voices for Linus and Lucy seem to fit best in relation to their strip
personalities- especially when durable 1970s child star Pam Ferdin
performed the latter. C.B.'s animated voice is a bit too low-key and
Sally too cutesy-wootsy. Snoopy's high-pitched gutteral sounds, though
often grating and awkward, is still probably a better method than
having him "think" his dialogue a la Garfield- which was done to
annoyingly distracting effect in 1988's adapation of SNOOPY: THE
MUSICAL. Whenever I read Snoopy's dialogue in the strip, I 'hear' it
in a low-key Mel Blanc voice as used in such throwaway lines as "When
you're a camel, you learn to put up with a lot" in 1954's Pepe LePew
short CAT'S BAH.)
Subsequent specials from the seventies through today mostly lack the
runabout charm of the early ones mentioned above. The passing of Vince
Guaraldi was one contributing factor, with replacements Ed Bogas and
Desiree Goyette making valiant- but often futile- efforts to recreate
his unique style. As with the strip, the specials came to concentrate
less on the core human characters than Snoopy/Woodstock shenanigans,
Snoopy fantasy sequences and endless P.P/Marcie exchanges. As the
franchise ran out of holidays to use for the basis of plots, the shows
relied ever more heavily on strip rehashes strung together to form a
story.
This hit a low point in 1980's SHE'S A GOOD SKATE C.B., based on what
Schulz called his longest strip story arc. Other than it focusing
entirely on P.P. (whom you can tell I'm not especially a fan of), it
committed the ultimate sin of replacing the usual muted-trumpet
offscreen adult dialogue with ACTUAL SPOKEN offscreen adult dialogue!
Mendelsohn and Melendez must've felt it necessary to carry the story,
but it still destroyed the mythology of both the strip and the
specials.
Further violation was committed in that summer's theatrical BON VOYAGE
C.B.- AND DON'T COME BACK, noted for being the last PEANUTS
theatrical. During the course of their adventures in France (even more
of an incompatible setting for the gang than the camp/whitewater
rafting mileu of their previous theatrical RACE FOR YOUR LIFE C.B.),
they encounter an elderly woman roughly their size who appears ON
SCREEN speaking in standard cartoon "how-you-say" French-accented
English. This is not the first on-screen appearance of an adult; that
would be a few seconds of a mute, befuddled doorman in A BOY NAMED
C.B. But it's still off-putting, and the sign of No Return. This
continues in the multi-segmented THIS IS AMERICA C.B., the less about
which said the better.
Some specials built around original stories were still quite
enjoyable, especially if driven more by plot than vignette. This
includes 1974's IT'S A MYSTERY, C.B. and 1981's IT'S MAGIC, C.B. The
latter features the stunning visual effect of an 'invisible' Charlie
walking in the rain, and a rare instance of him getting revenge,
however limited, on Lucy.
For a time in the mid-late nineties, Nickelodeon had rerun many of the
specials not still shown on CBS' prime-time schedule. Unfortunately,
they don't seem to be available, except perhaps on an
unavailable-to-NYC cable outlet like Toon Disney or Noggin.
nickelshrink
"Howard Fein" <hf...@nycboe.net> wrote in message
news:239c4fa3.04120...@posting.google.com...
(various snippings of very good Peanuts Specials analysis)
> >
> Likewise, story license was granted by the usual non-existence of
> parents- except to drive the gang to Grandma's. When my son and I
> first watched this one, which was still on CBS, he was in preschool,
> and you KNOW how kids that age ask questions. I could only explain the
> non-action of Mr. and Mrs. Brown by saying that Dad was busy watching
> football and Mom was having her hair done so as to impress Grandma.
> >
> > I also noticed that Lucy was absent from their Thanksgiving "dinner",
which was odd, since the Thanksgiving special opened with Charlie Brown
trying to kick the football from her, with no success, as usual!
>
> Many of the pre-title sequences in the earlier specials had little to
> do with the actual story- much like WELCOME BACK KOTTER, CHEERS or the
> whole James Bond canon.
>
> Possibly they though Lucy was too abrasive to react to Charlie Brown's
> failure
> > to serve a REAL Thanksgiving dinner, since Peppermint Patty was bad
enough! :-D
I always kind of expect Peanuts specials to be
a patchwork of gags. This one did have major story
problems. I always loved the way the kids in the
Peanuts world ran their own world, activities, and
social lives, and Schulz did a masterful job of maintaining
that thru holiday sequences. But this one didn't quite
work. HOWEVER, any "whole gang" special without
Lucy (in its main story) is missing its BEST part!
8~)) If she'd been there at dinner, i'd forgive the rest!
(more snipping of good insights)
> This hit a low point in 1980's SHE'S A GOOD SKATE C.B., based on what
> Schulz called his longest strip story arc. Other than it focusing
> entirely on P.P. (whom you can tell I'm not especially a fan of), it
> committed the ultimate sin of replacing the usual muted-trumpet
> offscreen adult dialogue with ACTUAL SPOKEN offscreen adult dialogue!
> Mendelsohn and Melendez must've felt it necessary to carry the story,
> but it still destroyed the mythology of both the strip and the
> specials.
Despite that, which definitely WAS jarring, i liked it,
because i like PP, and the relatively long story
unfolded and hung together quite nicely ... and
Woodstock's solo was so ...well, weird but lovely
and moving, to me.
"Flashbeagle" to me was the low point. NO plot at
all really, not terribly interesting, doesn't wear well.
cheers
ruth
--
Noir & More Books
http://stores.ebay.com/Noir-and-More-Books
http://www.amazon.com/shops/schliess
Garrison L. Hilliard
On Thu, 2 Dec 2004, nickelshrink wrote:
> "Flashbeagle" to me was the low point. NO plot at
> all really, not terribly interesting, doesn't wear well.
And it won the Emmy for best animated special the year it first aired.
And it DOES suck.
Heather M. Fieldhouse
(in message <3194d6F...@individual.net>):
[on "She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown"]
> Despite that, which definitely WAS jarring, i liked it,
> because i like PP, and the relatively long story
> unfolded and hung together quite nicely ... and
> Woodstock's solo was so ...well, weird but lovely
> and moving, to me.
When I was a kid, I had the "graphic novel" of "She's a Good Skate," and I
read it over and over until it fell apart. My brother liked it too. The
part that really cracked us up was the drawing of Peppermint Patty rolling
her eyes after Snoopy makes her put a big curly wig on.
I haven't seen the special (or the book) in years. It would be interesting
to see if I felt the same way about it as an adult.
Heather
Matthew W. Miller
Nominated, not won:
http://web.mit.edu/smcguire/www/peanuts-animation.html#AWARDS
The winner for Outstanding Animated Program (Prime Time) was "Garfield
on the Town", which, admittedly, wasn't much better.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0151573.html
--
Matthew Miller <mwmi...@columbus.rr.com>
"One of the best things about the internet is finding out how wholesome
you really are compared to the other freaks out there." --Anthony Myers