Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown

Linus:I think our team is in trouble this year, Charlie Brown.We're weak at every position.
Lucy: Except for right field.  She's exceptionally cute!
Linus:Our right fielder is completely hopeless.
Lucy:But cute.

Premiered August 29, 2003.

Lucy misjudges a fly ball...

Charlie Brown (Wesley Singerman) is getting ready for another baseball season.  He wishes his team could become a winner.  Chuck believes the only thing preventing his team from winning is his right fielder, Lucy Van Pelt (Serena Berman).

...and another.

Charlie Brown calls her "the worst player in the history of baseball."

Linus looks at their team roster & isn't optimistic.

In their first game of the season, Charlie Brown's team plays a road game against Peppermint Patty's (Daniel Hansen) team.  But Chuck's first batter, Snoopy (Bill Melendez) is accidentally hit by a Peppermint Patty's first pitch.

Two managers shake hands, while Marcie snubs Snoopy.

Charlie Brown takes his team off the field, resulting in a forfeit.  Peppermint Patty is humiliated by this.

Snoopy gets beaned on the first pitch of the season!

Their team gets off to a bad start, losing its first 11 games.  Charlie Brown tries to trade Lucy to Peppermint Patty's team.  She's not interested, but says she'll trade Chuck 5 players for Snoopy.  Charlie Brown is torn, he wants to win but doesn't want to trade his own dog.

Linus & Snoopy are shocked when Chuck considers trading his own dog

He gives in to his desire to win a game.  Linus (Corey Padnos) and Schroeder (Christopher Ryan Johnson) are shocked that he traded Snoopy.  Chuck realizes his mistake and cancels the trade.

But Peppermint Patty says it doesn't matter.  The players traded to Charlie Brown's team would quit baseball before they'd play for him.

Snoopy is pleased to learn he won't be traded.

Peppermint Patty is having her own troubles in right field.  Marcie (Melissa Montoya) plays that position and is the team's worst player.  In desperation, Peppermint Patty trades Marcie to Charlie Brown's team for Lucy.

Chuck calls it "the greatest trade in the history of baseball," Peppermint Patty even throws in a pizza to sweeten the deal.

Will the teams improve after the trade?  Or will Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty regret making the deal?
J.A. Morris' says:
This is a good special, very different from the other two baseball themed specials I covered earlier this week. Unlike the earlier specials, there is no dramatic finish, no bottom of the 9th inning heroics or failures.

Lucy chats with Frieda while ignoring the ball she should be fielding.

It mostly focuses on how bad Lucy is at baseball.  We get multiple scenes of her missing fly balls.  You might think that would get old, but they found enough different depictions to keep it funny.

How Charlie Brown sees the sunrise on the first day of baseball season.

 Charlie Brown might seem a bit out of character in this special.  He almost trades Snoopy because he thinks it will help his team win a game.  As a sports fan (and someone who played a sport as a kid), I can admit that sports can make us act irrational at times.

Lucy's plan to perch atop the right field fence backfires & results in a homerun.

I was glad that we got to see Linus and Schroeder call him out for trading his own dog, but I understand why Charlie Brown wanted to know what it felt like to win, just once.

Charlie Brown's obsession with winning and the word "win" scares Linus & Snoopy

Peppermint Patty is used well here.  I don't recall too many scenes featuring her and Lucy in past specials over the years.  It was fun to see Peppermint Patty tell "Lucille" (as she calls Lucy)  exactly how she felt about her right fielding abilities.   She's a great character and this is her first appearance in a special built around baseball.  She hadn't been created when Charlie Brown's All Stars was produced and was (strangely) left out of It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown.

Peppermint Patty finds a "glove" big enough to help Lucy catch fly balls.

 While Lucy's athletic abilities (or lack thereof) are pointed out multiple times, you hardly feel sorry for her.  In addition to calling Charlie Brown a blockhead (her go-to epithet) she calls him "garbagehead."  She usually limits her insults to Chuck and Linus, but here she refers to Marcie as "that stupid girl with glasses."

Lucy "helps" Charlie Brown after he gets hit by a line drive.

David Benoit composed new music for Lucy Must Be Traded Charlie Brown.  In addition, the soundtrack features new recordings of some of Vince Guaraldi's earlier tunes recorded by Benoit's group. All the music sounds good.

Charlie Brown's field has an "automatic sprinkler system."

Availability:

It looks like this special is currently out of print on dvd, but that dvd can still be easily found online.  It's also available for streaming on Amazon Instant Video and iTunes.

Schroeder sleeps in his catcher's mask & worries about making errors the night before opening day.

Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown is fun special and is recommended.  Since it was produced in 2003 it doesn't have the nostalgic pull that other specials have, but I think Peanuts fans of all ages will enjoy it.

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sparkys.

Charlie Brown's All Stars

Premiered June 8, 1966.
Charlie Brown: I really thought we were going to win this one.  For one brief moment victory was within our grasp. 
Linus: And then the game started.

Charlie Brown gets nailed by a comebacker!

Baseball season has arrived, and pitcher/manager Charlie Brown (Peter Robbins) is very confident about his team's chances.  But his teammates are not optimistic.  Last season they lost every game.

Charlie Brown's teammates react to their latest loss.

When the first game arrives, Charlie Brown drops a fly ball late in the game and they lose again.  The rest of the kids are despondent and decide they've had enough.  Lucy (Sally Dryer) leads the chorus of those calling Charlie Brown a blockhead.

All of Chuck's players quit the team and decide to spend the rest of their Summer partaking in activities like skateboarding, jump-rope and swimming.  Charlie Brown is depressed by this development.

But not for long!  Linus (Christopher Shea) talks to Mr. Hennessy, proprietor of Hennessy's Hardware about sponsoring the team.  Mr. Hennessy will pay for new team uniforms and they will play in a real league.

Charlie Brown believes these changes will encourage the other kids to return to his team.  He tells Lucy and the rest about it and they rejoin the team.

Snoopy and Linus turn a double play.

But then "tragedy" strikes.  Charlie Brown learns that the league will NOT allow his team to join because they have girls and a dog on their roster!  He won't kick Snoopy (Bill Melendez), Violet (Karen Mendelson), Frieda (Ann Altieri) and Lucy off his team, so his loyalty costs him the uniforms.

Charlie Brown gets some bad news about the team uniforms.

However, Charlie Brown decides to keep this a secret from his team until AFTER his next game, believing they won't care about uniforms if they win.

Linus goes tries to field a ground ball & gets tied up in his blanket.

Will Charlie Brown's team finally win a game?  And if not, will his teammates finally quit for good!


J.A. Morris says:

Charlie Brown's All-Stars did not air very often on television and is somewhat forgotten today.  I recall seeing watching it 2, maybe 3 times when I was a kid.

Snoopy steals 3rd base!

This special is somewhat historically important, since it's the 2nd Charlie Brown special ever produced. It premiered 6 months after A Charlie Brown Christmas, but it's never been as famous as its predecessor.  This special also features the same (original) voice cast who appeared in the Christmas special.

Pigpen's (Geoffry Ornstein) cloud of dust messes up Frieda's naturally curly hair.

It's a great story that focuses on Charlie Brown being the eternal optimist.  Every game COULD be the game where he's the hero, pitching a great game or getting the big hit.  But he usually winds up being (in his words) Charlie "The Goat" Brown.  His attitude is admirable, even when his team is down by dozens of runs in the 9th inning.

Charlie Brown tells Lucy to grit her teeth "and bear down" if she wants to get a hit...

...but he fails to grit his teeth when he gets his chance to bat.

One thing that stands out is that Lucy is slightly nicer than usual.  Sure, she calls Charlie Brown a blockhead more than once, but she also gives Chuck some encouragement while he's pitching.  Lucy also gets the other girls to help her do something nice for Charlie Brown at the end of the special.

Charlie Brown slides into 2nd base.

Charlie Brown's All Stars gives just about every character at least one humorous line of dialogue. Shermy, a fairly obscure character today, gets one of the best lines of the special, when he suggests Charlie Brown gets "neurotic pleasure" from losing!

Shermy quits the team & says Chuck actually enjoys losing games.

Charlie Brown's All Stars is slightly more "action oriented" than most specials.  The baseball game features plenty of base running, hitting and fielding.  We also see the kids skateboarding and jumping rope.

Charlie Brown jumps rope held by Violet and Patty (Lynn Vanderlip)

I mentioned Shermy, another somewhat forgotten character that appears in the special is 5, who is best remembered for his dancing in A Charlie Brown Christmas.  These lesser-known characters, along with Patty and Violet would gradually fade into the background, replaced by Peppermint Patty, Franklin and Marcie. 

5 relaxes on his skateboard.

Vince Guaraldi composed the music for Charlie Brown All Stars and it's great as usual.  It opens with Charlie Brown chasing down accompanied by a simple but great bass and drum tune.  Guaraldi's most famous composition "Linus And Lucy" here gets a new arrangement with some horns added.

Snoopy surfs in Linus' pool.

Some aspects of the special clearly place it in 1966.  Surfing and skateboarding first gained major popularity in the 60s, they're both featured here.

And there's a scene where Charlie Brown runs through a house in pursuit of a fly ball.  The furniture he passes would fit in nicely in the Mad Men offices.

Check out the orange couch & lamp.

Availability:
There are currently several ways you can watch Charlie Brown's All Stars.  It's available on a dvd set called Peanuts 1960s Collection.  It also can also be streamed on Amazon Instant Video.

Charlie Brown's All Stars is lots of fun and it's a great way to celebrate the return of baseball season.  And since it only aired sporadically on TV, it might be new to folks in my demographic who grew up watching Charlie Brown specials.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sparkys!

Announcing Baseball Fest 2014!

"Baseball is my longest-lasting theme, and I think I'll always do it."

-Charles Schulz

Today is Opening Day of Major League Baseball's 2014 season. Various sports were featured in Peanuts comic strips and tv specials over the years.  But baseball loomed larger than anything else in Charlie Brown's universe.  Which makes sense, since baseball was America's National Pastime during the 20th Century, while Peanuts was the quintessential American comic strip of its day.  

  "Charlie Brown can never be a winner.  He can never win a baseball game because it would destroy the foundation of the strip"

-Schulz, in Peanuts Jubilee,1975.

Some of the most famous editions of the comic strip revolve around baseball.  Charlie Brown often gets hit by a line drive, knocking off his shirt and shoes.  His team never wins, losing sometimes by more than 100 runs.

When Charlie Brown competed in a Spelling Bee, his baseball fandom caused him to spell the word "maze" incorrectly.  He spelled it m-a-y-s, as in Willie Mays.  This made Chuck a "loser" in baseball and spelling! 

 "Winning is happy, but happy isn't funny"

-Schulz, interviewed in Sports Illustrated, December 23, 1985.

But despite his team's lack of success, Charlie Brown always believes the next game will be different.  During the early days of baseball season, every team has dreams of winning the Pennant and World Series.  By the end of the month, wins and losses will separate the contenders from the pretenders.  So today, you might say that on Opening Day, every player and manager is Charlie Brown!

   

There were several tv specials that were built around baseball.  Over the next few days, I will be reviewing them here.  Check back later for the first of these reviews.  Until then,

PLAY BALL!

J.A.