I'm Reviewing All Your Specials, Charlie Brown: You're in Love, Charlie Brown (1967)

Unrequited love is a common theme in Peanuts.  There's Lucy's for Schroder, Sally's for Linus, Linus's for Miss Othmar, Peppermint Patty's and Marcie's for Charlie Brown (and not each other), and of course, Charlie Brown's for the Little Red-Haired Girl.

The Little Red-Haired Girl, who Charlie Brown had been trying--and failing--to work up the nerve to talk to in the strips since 1961 wasn't mentioned at all during the first three specials, but is the focus of the fourth, which aired in early June 1967, almost exactly a year after Charlie Brown's All-Stars! (meaning the first four specials all premiered within a year and a half.  The pace would slow down after this one).  Like the strips, where she was an unseen character (save for her silhouette appearing in a 1998 comic), the Little Red-Haired Girl is never actually seen in the special, but she is very much on the forefront of Charlie Brown's mind.

Appropriate for the original June airdate, this takes place over the last two days of school.  It opens with Charlie Brown realizing that he's almost completely missed his chance to meet her (despite them being classmates) until September, and the rest of the show concentrates on his various attempts to strike up a conversation with her, all of which, of course, end in failure.  There are other humiliations along the way, including him accidently reading out the love note he was writing to her instead of the book report he was supposed to be presenting, and getting sent to the principal's office after yelling at his teacher, which results in him missing the last recess of the year.

Apparently realizing that watching Charlie Brown try and fail and try and fail for 25 minutes straight might be monotonous, there are a few distractions.  Lucy, upset that Schroeder doesn't find her fantasy of him breaking his arms forcing her to be the breadwinner romantic, destroys his piano with his bust of Beethoven, but the stinger shows that he is well-prepared for Lucy's fury.  The special also marks the animated debut of Peppermint Patty (who had made her first appearance in the strip less than a year earlier).  It's not a long appearance (she doesn't appear until 15 minutes in, and she's gone a couple minutes after that), but she does leave an impression, which explains why she got a much bigger part in the next special.  

While the special is amusing, it does sort of paint itself into a corner because there's no really good way to come to a non-depressing conclusion without violating the spirit of the strip.  I don't think the one Charles Schultz came up with works that well, but I'm stuck on a better way to end it.  At least it allows You're in Love, Charlie Brown to go out with a happy (if a bit melancholy) ending.  

Next week: Snoopy is supposed to go to obedience school, but he moves in with Peppermint Patty instead in He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown