You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (TV special)

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown is the 29th prime-time animated musical TV special based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. This adaptation of the 1967 musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown^[1] originally aired on the CBS network on November 6, 1985. The special was produced by Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates. It is the first Peanuts special to have input from the Japanese animation studio, Studio Pierrot, and like the other specials, had input from Toei Animation, also from Japan.

Contents of the program

The program opens with the other Peanuts characters singing the title song to Charlie Brown.

In the next scene, Schroeder plays Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" and Lucy sings along. She tries to tell him that they should get married. Schroeder ignores her, then Lucy says, "My Aunt Marian was right, never try to discuss marriage with a musician."

Charlie Brown hopes for the first time to be able to keep a kite but he once again fails. Sally writes a letter to Ann Flanders about the Valentine's Day card she gets.

Charlie Brown gives Lucy a Valentine's Day card and mistakenly says "This is for you Lucy, Merry Christmas!" Charlie Brown sees Marcie and thinks that she is going to give him a Valentine's Day card but she does not. Lucy comes up to Schroeder again and talks about saucepans, and, again, Schroeder cannot stand it.

Snoopy imagines that he is a wild animal. Charlie Brown, Schroeder, Linus, and Lucy work on their book reports on Peter Rabbit ("Book Report"). Lucy teaches Linus about nature in her own way while Charlie Brown tries to correct her, but to no avail ("Little Known Facts").

Charlie Brown writes a letter to his pencil pal about his downfall at his baseball game. Charlie Brown pleads his baseball team to win the game by chanting "T-E-A-M" but fails. Lucy dreams of becoming a queen but gives up dreaming. Charlie Brown tries to get the Little Red-Haired Girl to know him better but fails.

Schroeder's Sing Along has songs for the play in the "The Concert" by singing "Home On the Range" with his friends. And the five friends sing while Lucy, Linus, and Sally argue. Lucy wanting her pencil back from Linus, and threatening to tell Sally what he said about her if he didn't give back the pencil (Linus called Sally an Enigma). Snoopy sings a song devoted to "Suppertime" when he sees Charlie Brown serving him his supper.

In the end, Charlie Brown and all of his gang learn all about "Happiness" and why its all around them; the special ends with Lucy telling Charlie Brown that he is a good man.

Voice cast

• Kevin Brando - Charlie Brown (singing)
• Michael Dockery - Marcie
• Brad Kesten - Charlie Brown
• Jeremy Reinbolt - Schroeder
• Tiffany Reinbolt - Sally Brown
• Jessica Lee Smith - Lucy van Pelt (credited as Jessie Lee Smith)
• Robert Towers - Snoopy (singing/speaking)
• David T. Wagner - Linus van Pelt (credited as David Wagner)
• Bill Melendez - Snoopy/Woodstock (non-speaking) (uncredited)

Peppermint Patty, Franklin, 5, and Frieda. Appeared but had no lines.

DVD release

Warner Home Video released You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown on DVD for the first time on January 26, 2010, as a part of their Charlie Brown "Remastered Deluxe Edition" line. The DVD, for once in the line, did not include a bonus special on the disc (likely because this animated feature is twice as long as the majority of them.) It did, however, include a featurette entitled "Animating a Charlie Brown Musical".

Notes

• The original 1967 musical version of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown featured the original Patty (not to be confused with the later character of Peppermint Patty) as part of the Peanuts gang. As characters like Patty, Violet and Shermy gradually faded from the group, Charles Schulz opted to replace the lesser known characters with Sally and Marcie.
• This special also marks the first time Snoopy's thoughts were conveyed in voice over (though his communication through growls or laughs were still voiced by Bill Melendez).
• While the songs "My Blanket and Me" and "Dr. Lucy" are not sung, they are heard instrumentally during the Valentine's Day scene and the lunchtime scene respectively.

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

• You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown at the Internet Movie Database
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