This Is America, Charlie Brown:"The NASA Space Station"

Premiered November 11, 1988.

America's next space station will be launched in the mid-1990s.  It will carry a crew of 8 and the 8 will be together for 90 days.  

-Linus Van Pelt

Summary:
Linus Van Pelt (Brandon Stewart) and Charlie Brown (Erin Chase) are working on a project for school. They have been assigned to build a model of the International Space Station (ISS), which will open in the 1990s.  Chuck's dog Snoopy is also in the process of building...something.  

When Linus goes to sleep, he dreams that he is an astronaut working on the ISS as a scientist. 

Charlie Brown is also working on the station.  They're joined by their friends Franklin (Grant Gelt) and Peppermint Patty (Jason Mendelson) and Chuck's sister Sally (Brittany Thornton).  Their commander is none other than Linus' sister Lucy (Erica Gayle)!  She calls her command status "one small step toward becoming a queen." 

Each astronaut plays a special, defined role:
Peppermint Patty serves as the station's exercise instructor. 

Charlie Brown is their cook and photographer. 

Sally conducts onboard experiments.  

Franklin, a social scientist, will observe how living in the station impacts the astronauts.  

Snoopy (Bill Melendez) serves as the space station's operator.  

Pigpen conducts tests outside the space station.   

Woodstock (Melendez) is onboard the station in order to test how birds fly in a zero gravity atmosphere.  

They will serve on the station for 90 days.  Lucy says that since is he is commander, everyone must do as she says.  Franklin worries that if an emergency strikes, the crew will be unable to deal with it.  

The crew of the ISS is interviewed live on TV by news anchor Jason Welker (Frank Welker). The astronauts show Welker many devices that are used on the station. 

Everything seems to be going well at the ISS, but suddenly the station is struck by a meteorite!  It damages the station's truss structure and has broken one of its solar panels.  When Lucy calls for volunteers to repair the ISS, Snoopy steps forward.  Charlie Brown joins him, believing he can't let his dog go out in to space alone.  

It's a very dangerous mission and even mission control doesn't have a lot of faith in Chuck and Snoopy.  

Will Snoopy and Charlie Brown succeed in saving the International Space Station?  Or will Linus' dream of being an astronaut turn into a nightmare?

Review:
This is an overall good special, even if the plot is razor-thin.

One of the interesting aspects of This Is America is that it placed the Peanuts characters in unusual settings.  It's fun to see Charlie Brown and the others in space and working on the ISS.  This episode is also interesting because it was produced before the International Space Station was operational.  The ISS would eventually be launched on November 20, 1998, ten years after this aired.

"The NASA Space Station" has lots of fun scenes that focus on how the zero gravity setting impacts the characters.  These include Linus' hair standing straight up, which is amusing.  What makes it even funnier is that no other character ever mentions it!  Lucy gets Charlie Brown to try to kick the football.  When he (SPOILER ALERT!) misses, he ends up bouncing all over the space station.  

However, I some issues with "The NASA Space Station."  It includes the presence of adult characters, who always feel out of place alongside Charlie Brown and friends.  News reports of  the Peanuts gang's space exploration are anchored by a reporter named Jason Welker.  

The crew also interacts with NASA's Mission Control, which is made up of adults.  

This is completely unnecessary.  This special depicts the Peanuts kids as adults, why couldn't it have also featured children as news anchors or working in Mission Control? 

During one of Welker's newscasts, we're told Snoopy has gone on more space missions than anyone else on the space station.  This is (likely) a reference to the Peanuts characters' history with NASA.  In 1969, NASA's Apollo 10 mission used Charlie Brown and Snoopy's names as call-signs and the mission's lunar module was named Snoopy.  Charles Schulz also drew artwork for the mission and Snoopy became NASA's mascot for safety.  

Apollo 10 Commander Tom Stafford touches Snoopy's nose for luck before before he's rocketed into space.

The voice cast is most of the same kids who voiced the characters in the other episodes of This Is America.  They're all well-cast and they sound great in this special.

Cartoon voice legend Frank Welker voices Jason Welker.  Welker is fine here, even if his presence doesn't make me any more receptive to adults appearing in Peanuts specials.  

It's worth noting that "Jason Welker" looks a bit like legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite.  

During his long career, Cronkite was very enthusiastic about covering space launches and in 2006, he became the only non-NASA individual to receive NASA's Ambassador of Exploration Award.

Walter Cronkite holds a model of a lunar module while covering the 1969 moon landing.

Music:

Dave Brubeck composed new music for this special.  Brubeck was one of the greatest jazz pianists of the 20th century and his music here is excellent.  It's worth noting that Brubeck was Lee Mendelson's first choice to create music for Charlie Brown specials before Vince Guaraldi eventually got the job.  In addition to the new music, Brubeck and his group also puts their own spin on Guaraldi's classic "Linus And Lucy."  

Availability:
"The NASA Space Station" has been released on as part of the This Is America, Charlie Brown DVD set. 

This Is America, Charlie Brown:"The NASA Space Station" is an enjoyable special and kids who are interested in space will especially enjoy seeing Chuck, Snoopy and the gang bounce around a space station.  The presence of adults prevents means it gets a one-Sparky deduction from me.

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sparkys.