Most kids experience the pains of moving at some point in their childhood. Even if they're not the ones who leave their home and school and friends to move to a new town, they almost inevitably will have at least one friend who does. Charles Schulz himself had experience in that, as his family moved from St. Paul to Needles, California (which he later memorialized as the hometown of Snoopy's brother, Spike) for a few years during his childhood. As an adult, he moved his family from Minnesota to Colorado Springs, and later to northern California.
The strip also dealt with kids coming and going. In 1963, the strip introduced new arrival to the neighborhood, 5, who never became a major character and is best remembered for being one of the dancing kids in A Charlie Brown Christmas (he's the one shuffling his feet while bobbing his head from side to side). In 1969, the Little Red-Haired Girl moved away, much to Charlie Brown's chagrin (the storyline also featured a rare example of Linus getting angry at Charlie Brown over his endless wishy-washiness). But probably the most memorable example was a set of strips from 1966 when Linus himself, along with Lucy, moved away.
The strips mostly focused on how the move affected both Charlie Brown and, Schroeder, who found himself unexpectedly missing Lucy's presence while he was playing. Of course, the move was short-lived, as Schulz wasn't going to deprive himself of arguably the most important characters outside of Charlie Brown and Snoopy. So, at the end of the two-week arc, the Van Pelts were back.
Those two weeks of strips were rather faithfully adapted into Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown? Of course, as we discussed last week with A Charlie Brown Celebration, it is hard to adapt a handful of strips into a 30-minutre special. So this one greatly expands on the source material, in ways both amusing and not.
After a cold opening in which Snoopy tries repeatedly to steal Linus's blanket, he calls Charlie Brown with the bad news that his dad has been transferred and they're moving far away. Of course, it takes him a while to talk to Charlie Brown because Sally answers the phone and insists on talking to her "sweet babboo", which culminates in her talking herself into believing he's coming to take her to a movie.
The big pre-move setpiece, not from the strips, was a catered goodbye lunch that Linus and Lucy hosted for their friends (not including Sally or Schroeder, neither of whom actually believed that the siblings were moving). Unfortunately, Linus made the mistake of hiring Joe Cool's Catering, who could somehow afford a catering truck and chafing dishes, but also assumed that a party full of humans would like what the owner would like (popcorn and toast would have been a better choice).
After the Van Pelts leave, the special for a while follows the strips, with Charlie Brown getting a postcard from Linus and Schroeder discovering that he had grown accustomed to that face (a joke that was repeated from Play It Again, Charlie Brown from 12 years earlier, which itself was lifted from this series of strips, which, it should be noted, came out a bit over a year after My Fair Lady played theaters nationwide). However, it soon begins to follow Peppermint Patty's plans to cheer up Charlie Brown, which somehow involves calling him at 1 am and, in a mirror of Sally's conversation with Linus, comes away with her thinking he's asked her out. Charlie Brown, on the other hand, has vague memories of talking to her, but assumed it was part of a dream.
The special concludes the way the series of strips did, with the Van Pelts moving back. Linus explains that his father didn't like the new job (gone unmentioned was just how much money their parents shelled out to move themselves and all their possessions across the country, and then back again, not to mention what Mr. Van Pelt's bosses must think of him bailing out of the new job after just a few days).
This sort of shows the dangers of adapting a strip to a full-length special. A lot of the new stuff felt a bit like an add-on to eat up time, and we didn't really need two entirely separate plotlines about girls waiting for dates that they were never invited on. Still, the special is frequently funny and, even though we know that, just like the original readers of the strip, there was no way that Linus and Lucy were really leaving for good, there is quite a bit of poignancy in the story.
This special marks the introduction of a new voice cast for the kids, and in a change from most of the previous performers, many of the new actors have extensive lists of credits both before and after their time voicing the Peanuts gang. As noted last week, it also marks the end of an ear, as this would be the final special that Phil Roman, who has directed nearly every special over the previous decade, would direct solo (he would contribute segments to the follow-up special, It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown, as well as segments for the Saturday morning series The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show). He left to take charge of the directing of the Garfield specials, and in the 1990s, his animation house would handle much of the production on such iconic series as The Simpsons and King of the Hill.
Oddly, this gives adults some of the most extensive screen time of any Peanuts special to date. The movers are seen several times during the first half, and as the Van Pelts are leaving, we get a clear look at Mr. and Mrs. Van Pelt's faces, the only time, as far as I know, we get to see what any of the gang's parents look like in any medium. It should be noted that none of them have any dialogue, not even via the trombone wah-wahs.
The early 80s had been a rough time for Peanuts specials. While it had its flaws, and couldn't hold a candle to the classics of the late 60s and early 70s, Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown? is still an improvement on its immediate predecessors and the best Peanuts special since You're a Good Skate, Charlie Brown. It's not an all-time classic, but it was a nice improvement.
Next week: Another hour-long special of vignettes in It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown.
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