Charles Schultz was a huge sports fan, from his young days playing baseball, football, and hockey in Minnesota to building his own ice rink after his move to California just so he would have a place to play hockey (The Redwood Empire Ice Arena in Santa Rosa is still going strong). Indeed, he's a member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame for his contributions to the sport. While sports frequently made its way into the strip, the Peanuts animated specials had largely steered clear of athletics, with the notable exception of the second special, Charlie Brown's All-Stars, which concentrated on Charlie Brown's beleaguered baseball team. Other than that, the only real athletic endeavors that the specials presented until 1975 were Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown, and Snoopy and Woodstock playing basketball, both in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and Lucy and Snoopy's arm wrestling contest in It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown.
Apparently realizing it has been nearly a decade since a sports-themed special, Schultz and the Peanuts team centered You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown around competition, specifically motocross racing. Schultz was evidently a fan of the sport, as several strips prior to the premiere of the special featured Snoopy participating in races. I don't know how big motocross was in the mid-70s, but from the vantage point of 2021, it seems like an awfully obscure sport to build a special around, but given the race aspects of it, the visual appeal probably had something to do with that.
Before motocross, the special opens on another sport, tennis, specifically Linus complaining that the "big kids" never let little kids like him get any court time, and a match between Snoopy and an unknown opponent (at first, I thought this was all in Snoopy's head, but it turns out he was playing a flesh-and-blood-and feathered rival). Then Peppermint Patty (of course) rides up in her new dirt bike, and invites Snoopy and, a bit later, Charlie Brown to participate in a big motocross race. Charlie Brown is unsure, but Linus convinces him to pool their money together and get a bike. Of course, the only bike they can afford is barely staying in one piece. Snoopy, as "The Masked Marvel", also enters, somehow being able to afford a gleaming new bike.
Naturally, the race comes down to the three of them (with rest of the large field seemingly getting wiped out early on), with Peppermint Patty and Snoopy's overconfidence ending up being no match for Charlie Brown's determination. It's nice that the special allows for Charlie Brown to emerge as the undisputed victor for once, even if it comically takes his since of pride away in the special's final moments.
There's a few other amusing subplots, including Marcie getting recruited to interview the racers, only to cut them off after only a syllable (I'm not sure if this was a parody of a specific sports interviewer of the time, or just a parody of broadcast interviews in general). Meanwhile, both Snoopy and Charlie Brown get taken away by ambulances at one point, and I'll leave it up to you to guess who goes to the hospital and who goes to the vet clinic. Also, given that this originally aired in late October, there's a nod to the Great Pumpkin
You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown is a rather minor entry in the Peanuts special filmography, but it's an amusing one. Schultz apparently decided he liked writing sports-related specials, because the very next one also prominently includes athletics.
Next week: Charlie Brown doesn't like where Lucy decides to plant some new trees in It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown
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