Like most long-running works, status quo is king in the world of Peanuts, which largely meant the strip avoided live-changing events. No character ever died, or even had family members who died. No one's parents split up. Romantic entaglements were almost entirely unrequited. Linus and Lucy did move away, but were back by the end of the arc (and the end of the special based on said arc). There were two major births in the strip, Sally's in 1959 and Rerun's in 1972, though both quickly were aged up (Sally, of course, became a major part of the cast, while Rerun was essentially a minor figure for roughly a quarter-century, until Schulz aged him to kindergarten age and made him far more important than he had been previously). And there was one wedding, of the only major character who could conceivebely get married, though, by the end, status quo was king.
Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown was, like many of the 80s specials, drawn directly from a lenghty strip arc, in this case one that had ran in 1977. While working as a watchdog for Peppermint Patty, Snoopy meets a cute French poodle named Genevieve (who looks remarkably like the French poodle he fell for in Life is a Circus, Charlie Brown), and it's love at first sight. The two have a wirlwind courtship and decide to get married.
The special is mostly split between wedding preparations (from Snoopy's point of view--we barely spend any time with Genevieve) and the joureny from Needles, California by Snoopy's brother, Spike, who was a semi-regular in the stirp but hadn't appeared in animated form before. We see Spike try to earn money (most prominently by partiicapating in a dog race), and traveling, while Snoopy remodels his dog house and gets fitted for a tuxedo. Meanwhile, nearly the entire gang gets jobs for the wedding. Linus is the minister, Schroeder provides the music, and Peppermint Patty, Marcie, and Lucy handle the food.
Much of this is amusing, though not all that consequencial, and the special feels like it contains a lot of filler (Snoopy trying on unsuitable tuxes, Spike traveling, a bachelor party sequence that seems to exist soley to end with Snoopy drenched with root beer, the whole early bit where Charlie Brown was forced to be Peppermint Patty's watchdog after Snoopy runs off), one of the hazards of adapting a relatively short comic strip arc into a 22-minute special. Indeed, there feels like there's a lot of characters repeating information over again, perhaps in a way to kill time. What they coudld have possibly focused on, instead, is fleshing out the romance between Snoopyu and Genevieve, which gets largely restricted to one short date montage. For a special concentrating on a wedding, the bride-to-be is strangely absent throughout the entire thing.
This was the final special for the voice cast, including Stacy Ferguson, aka Fergie, though almost everyone would go on to voice their characters for the short second (and final) season of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, which would premiere on CBS that fall after roughly a year and a half of nothing but reruns. Oddly, even though Sally has a solo at the wedding, the young Fergie did not provide her singing voice, instread leaving those duties to Dawnn D. Leary. Bill Melendez was back to directing solo, and the rather intrusive music was written by Judy Munsen, working solo without her usual partner Ed Bogas (who, like director Phil Roman, was defecting to the Garfield specials).
As I mentioned before, status quo has to prevail, so the special ended the only way it could, with Snoopy still single. I wanted to like Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown a lot more than I did, but it ultimatrely feels like a rather empty special. Before adapting a four-week strip arc, its probably wise to make sure you have enough additional material to cover the remaining time in the special.
Next week: The iconic musical finally gets an animated adaption in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
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