Peanuts specials

There have been over forty animated specials based on the Peanuts comic strip, between 1965 and the present. When I was a kid growing up in the 80s, I must have seen several that I've forgotten (and I've even seen a few newer ones as an adult). There are far more that I've never seen at all, and probably most of them I'd have little or no interest in. But there are some that are of some importance (several of which I've given their own pages). But this will be the page where I list any specials I remember having seen, which are of lesser importance to me. There have also been several movies, starting with A Boy Named Charlie Brown.


1. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)


3. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)



tek's rating: ½
10. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, on CBS
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The tenth "Peanuts" special, which first aired in 1973. I must have watched this when I was a kid in the 80s, but I didn't find it all that memorable. Eventually I watched it again in like... I dunno, 2012, maybe? And it was okay, I guess. Though I guess some scenes were cut from the original, which is too bad. Not that I'd remember them, anyway.

As for the basic plot, there's like a misunderstanding... Peppermint Patty sort of invites herself and everyone over to Charlie Brown's house for Thanksgiving dinner, and Chuck and his friends have to work to prepare something, since his folks were going to go to his grandmother's place, or whatever... and the dinner they make is uh, rather unconventional... I dunno what else to say. (Man, why didn't I write a better review when I watched it?)



tek's rating:
12. It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown, on CBS
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The twelfth "Peanuts" special, which first aired in 1974. I suppose I must have seen a rerun sometime when I was a kid, in the 80s, but I've never really remembered anything other than the title. I finally watched a rerun again on Easter of 2013. It wasn't bad... a few parts were reasonably amusing (like how the department store the kids go to at one point had Christmas stuff on sale, about nine months early). But basically I just found it sort of innocuous... a sort of pale retread of "It's the Great Pumpkin," which in fact Sally references when Linus talks about the "Easter Beagle" showing up on Easter morning to pass out eggs to children. (Spoiler alert: unlike the Great Pumpkin, the Easter Beagle actually does show up in the end. Sort of.)

Anyway... there are various plot threads going on, including Snoopy buying a birdhouse for Woodstock, who was upset about getting rained on. And Peppermint Patty trying to teach Marcie to color Easter eggs, except Marcie finds every conceivable way to cook the eggs wrong. And, um... I don't know what else to say. It's no wonder I didn't remember the plot from my childhood, considering that as I type this, I just finished watching it half an hour ago, and already my memory of it is fading. Oh, but apparently (according to Wikipedia), some scenes have been cut from the original special. That's a shame, I'd like to see the whole thing, sometime. Maybe someday I'll get a DVD collection of specials.


13. Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (1975)



tek's rating:
19. She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown, on CBS
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The nineteenth "Peanuts" special, which first aired in 1980. I have no idea whether I ever saw this in my youth. I watched it in 2014, paired with "Happy New Year, Charlie Brown." So, that might be the first time I ever saw it, or it might not. in any event, I didn't find it all that memorable, but it wasn't bad. Peppermint Patty is training for a figure skating competition, and Snoopy is her coach. Finally we see the competition itself, which is fairly decent. And that's pretty much all there is to say.


30. Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! (1986)


This Is America, Charlie Brown (limited series, 1988-89)



tek's rating: meh and a quarter
40. A Charlie Brown Valentine, on ABC
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The fortieth "Peanuts" special, which first aired in 2002. I'm fairly sure the first time I saw it was in 2015, paired with the 1975 special Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown is once again upset about never getting any Valentines. He spends most of the special pining for the Little Red Haired Girl, but never having the courage to actually talk to her, or anything. And to an extent, I can sympathize... but often throughout the story, I couldn't help thinking he seemed a bit stalkery, which made it hard for me to really enjoy the special. Meanwhile, both Marcie and Peppermint Patty are clearly interested in Charlie Brown, a fact which just seems to mildly confuse and/or annoy him, and while I can sort of understand that, he's kind of subtly a jerk about it, I felt. Their feelings really don't seem to matter to him at all, which is another reason I couldn't really enjoy the special. Anyway, there's eventually a Valentine's Day dance. And other stuff happens. As with the 1975 special, I thought this one seemed a lot like a collection of comic strips rather than a cohesive story. (I guess that's because it was based directly on comic strips, rather than just being inspired by them, or whatever.) And I don't know what else to say. I suppose some bits were mildly amusing, but on the whole I didn't find it particularly amusing, nor could I manage to really care much about the story.



tek's rating: I don't remember this well enough to rate.
44. He's a Bully, Charlie Brown, on ABC
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The forty-fourth "Peanuts" special, which first aired in 2006. Um... I guess I watched this when it first aired, and at the time (or sometime later) I wrote a little something about it on my site. But later, when I was reorganizing my site, that got deleted. And now, years later, I've decided to look up my review on the Wayback Machine. So, even though I now have no memory of watching it, here's what I said back then:

Everyone goes to camp for the summer, except Peppermint Patty, who's jealous of everyone else. Especially Marcie, who over the phone keeps pretending to be having a bit too much fun with Charlie Brown. Meanwhile, there's a kid named Joe Agate who is a champ at marbles, and wins a bunch of them off the other kids at camp, including Rerun, who had found a jar of his grandfather's marbles in the attic before coming to camp. So Charlie Brown gets angry and decides to win them back for Rerun, after a training session with Joe Cool (aka Snoopy). Anyway, the special wasn't that bad, I guess. Not exactly essential Peanuts, but at least it didn't hurt trying to watch it, like some other new special I tried to watch a few years back but couldn't stand (which isn't included here). I don't even think I finished watching the whole thing. So it was a nice surprise to find that this one wasn't bad. (Note: I have no idea which special I was referring to when I wrote this.)



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