Last year, in my discussion of You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown, I noted that athletics had, with only a couple of exceptions, not played a big part at all in most of the Peanuts specials up to that point. Apparently, the creative team of Charles Schultz, Lee Mendelson, Bill Melendez, and Phil Roman agreed, as for the next half-decade, every special revolved to some extent, around sports. You're a Good Sport featured motocross, It's Arbor Day involved baseball, It's Your First Kiss prominently featured a football game, and while there was no indication that the sled dogs in What a Nightmare were involved in a race, sled dog racing is very much a thing. Even the feature film that came out during this stretch, Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown, centered on a river raft race.
The trend continued with You're the Greatest, Charlie Brown, the final special of the 1970s, in which Charlie Brown enters a decathlon. From the vantage point of 2022, building a special around that sport seems like an odd choice. However, 1979 was just three years removed from when the then-Bruce Jenner (who is name dropped twice in the special) became a superstar with his gold medal performance in the event at the 1976 Olympics. Also, it turns out that the decathlon is a near-ideal event to base a 30-minute special around, as each event is short enough to be shown relatively quickly, but there are enough of them that they collectively take up most of the special's running time.
Indeed, there's only a short training montage, as we get to the main event only about 7 minutes into the special. There are four competitors in the decathlon: Charlie Brown, surprise entrant Marcie (who, along with Peppermint Patty, are once again schoolmates of the rest of the gang), the defending champ, with the rather fun name of Freddie Fabulous from Fremont, who stands a head taller than everyone else and seems to exist only to insult the other competitors, and a late entry going by "The Masked Marvel" (guess who).
As it turns out, the fact that Charlie Brown is relentlessly and equally mediocre at all events across the board actually proves to be an advantage, as the other competitors prove to be more talented in some areas but less talented in others. The special does get a tad repetitive, but the variety of events, as well as some genuine suspense on how the characters will do in them, is able to hold our interest.
After receiving much criticism a year and a half earlier for everyone blaming Charlie Brown for Lucy's obvious sabotage in the football game in It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown, Schultz's script makes it clear that Charlie Brown's inevitable downfall is entirely his own fault, and occurs in perhaps the most Charlie Browniest way possible. It ends with him actually being pretty OK with his defeat, as well as a rare shot of Marcie without her glasses.
After sharing the director's credit with Bill Melendez on What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown, Phil Roman returned to being the solo director on this project. While Arrin Skelley returned from It's Your First Kiss to voice Charlie Brown again, this was the first outing for Peppermint Patty's voice actress Patricia Patts and Marcie's voice actress Casey Carlson. After this, production shifted to the fourth and final Peanuts feature film (until 2015), Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back!), which would open during the summer of 1980.
You're the Greatest, Charlie Brown is a fun special to watch, but it's also not particularly memorable, except for the brief nods to the then-present with the mentions of Bruce Jenner. It's not a bad special, but it's a long way from the greatest.
Next week: The sports themes continue, and Peppermint Patty finally gets the spotlight to herself, in She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown.
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