Is there any holiday more beloved than Arbor Day? I remember as a kid getting up early, running to the Arbor arbor, and opening my Arbor Day gifts. Of course, that never happened, because Arbor Day has never been widely celebrated. Stores never had sales, decorations were never put up, no school or business ever closed for the day. So why in the world is there an Arbor Day Peanuts special while there still isn't one for Independence Day, and the New Year's special wouldn't debut for another decade?
I haven't been able to find an official explanation as to why Charles Schultz, Lee Mendelson, Bill Melendez, Phil Roman, or CBS would want to produce It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown, but I suspect it has a lot to do with the times. The 70s saw arguably the first big wave of the environmental movement of the modern era, with the rise of Earth Day, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, and a general movement to reduce pollution and restore forests and plant life. A special where the Peanuts gang (sort of) promotes ecology would fit right in.
The plot is pretty simple. Sally has to do a report for school on Arbor Day, which inspires Lucy to plant a garden. She picks the perfect open space to do it--the neighborhood baseball field. Charlie Brown is kept in the dark about what's going on in the field, other than that everyone is pitching in to "renovate" the place, which he is thrilled by--until the moment he sees the geraniums at first base, the scarecrow and tomato plants in the outfield, and the newly-planted tree on the pitcher's mound. Unfortunately, he discovers this only minutes before Peppermint Patty and her team (including Franklin and Marcie, neither of whom have any lines) show up for a game.
As it turns out, this Arbor Day special has little to do with Arbor Day (other than the whole "let's plant plants!" idea), and more to do with baseball, as this is the first special since Charlie Brown's All-Stars a decade prior to devote much of its screen time to the sport. As it turns out, this is one of the funnier Peanuts specials in a while, from Lucy's infectious enthusiasm (her actions, while obviously wrong-headed, aren't malicious--she genuinely believes that turning the baseball diamond into a garden is the right thing to do, and she simply doesn't see how doing that would possibly interfere with the sport), to Charlie Brown's naïve joy that his friends are doing something special for him, to the game itself, during which it turns out the garden somehow acts as a good-luck charm for Charlie Brown's team--at least until the rain starts.
It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown both kicked off the second decade of Peanuts specials (debuting about three months after the tenth anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas), and marked the end of an era, as it was the final special scored by Vince Guaraldi, who had passed away of a heart attack a little more than a month before this premiered. It also marked the end of a very productive stretch of new specials, as it was the eighth new one since October 1972. The next one wouldn't be until late in 1977, as the production staff turned their attention to the third Peanuts feature film, Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown, which would hit theaters during the summer of 1977. Early 1976 also saw CBS air an hour-long documentary, Happy Anniversary, Charlie Brown, in which Schultz was interviewed by actor and comedian Carl Reiner, in honor of the strip's 25th anniversary. The special also marked the animated debut of Rerun Van Pelt, Linus and Lucy's younger brother, who had a fairly minor role, mostly during the cold open. Rerun would pop up infrequently in both the specials and the strips until the 1990s, when a now-kindergarten-aged Rerun would take a more prominent role in the strip. This led to him being one of the main characters of 2003's I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown (he would be the "I" of the title).
I was surprised by how much I really liked this special. I was fully expecting it to be a rather dry paean to the environment, but it was a lot more clever than that. I wouldn't call it an all-time classic, but it, I suspect, does belong in the top tier of Peanuts specials.
Next week: We're going on hiatus until Memorial Day, when we'll kick off reviewing the next batch of 15 specials, which takes us out of the 70s and into the 80s. We'll start then with It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown. Happy Labor Day!
No comments:
Post a Comment