Welcome to Year 3 of I'm Reviewing All Your Specials, Charlie Brown! The first Peanuts special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, debuted on December 9, 1965. The 30th, Happy New Year, Charlie Brown, debuted twenty years and three weeks later, on January 1, 1986. During that timespan, the Peanuts animation machine was well-oiled, not only churning out those thirty specials, but four feature films, a Saturday morning series, several documentaries, and numerous commercials, all while Charles Schulz was producing 365 new newspaper strips per year. But by the mid-80s, the seams were beginning to show. Composer Vince Guaraldi had died in 1976, and while the replacement team of Ed Bogas and Desirée Goyette (who was married to Peanuts producer Lee Mendelson, whom she would eventually divorce, and then marry Bogas) were capable, they never came close to topping Guaraldi's contributions. Longtime director Phil Roman left the franchise to take the reigns at the competing Garfield (Bogas and Goyette eventually moved over there as well). The last theatrical movie was in 1980, and the Saturday morning show, The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, was an unexpected flop, getting cancelled after only 19 episodes. The prime time specials were getting weaker, with more recycling storylines from the strip, and then they did an out-and-out musical, It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown, which relieved Schulz from having to write more than ten minutes worth of script. That was followed by an actual musical adaption, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Two months later, after Happy New Year, the franchise suddenly shut down. Previous lengthy hiatuses between new specials could be explained by the feature films productions, but this was the longest break at the time ever, and no new movie was on its way.
Then, just over two years after Happy New Year, a new special emerged, and with it, it looked like the machine was up and running again. Six specials would debut over the next 6 years, along with a new TV series, This is America, Charlie Brown. But the renaissance would be short-lived, and it would take 15 years for the next 9 specials to come out.
But most of that is for later this summer. For now, let's focus on the comeback special, Snoopy: The Musical.
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown had been a huge hit when it debuted in 1967. After its off-Broadway run ended, it became very popular with community and school theaters because of its familiar characters, small cast, catchy songs, and minimal needs for costumes and sets. Naturally, such a success deserves a sequel, and Good Man producer Arthur Whitelaw decided to write one himself, or at least co-write one. Unlike Good Man, which was mostly written by Clark Gesner with contributions from the original cast, while Schulz took a hands-off approach, Snoopy: The Musical debuted in 1975 with two songwriters (Larry Grossman and Hal Hackaday), three book writers (Whitelaw, Warren Lockhart, and Michael L. Grace), and an additional bookwriting credit over the other three for "Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates". In other words, the sequel was basically a corporate affair, and like most sequels, it didn't come close to living up to its predecessor. Despite debuting in San Francisco in 1975, it wouldn't arrive in New York until 1982, and even then only have a six-month off-Broadway run. Reviews were mixed, and by the New York opening, the show's most famous song had already been co-opted by another major family media franchise. Still, the show did well on the regional circuit, with theaters that couldn't get the rights to Good Man, or wanted to present the follow-up (full disclosure: while I have seen Good Man live on stage, I've never seen a production of Snoopy).
With Good Man already having received an animated adaption, Snoopy seemed like a natural choice for the next special when Peanuts productions restarted. It would debut in January 1988.
Like Good Man, Snoopy is a vignette-based musical, with each scene accompanied by a song. Like the earlier show, this one features Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, and Lucy, but subs out Schroder and Original Patty for Sally and Peppermint Patty (Sally had already replaced Original Patty in the animated adaption of Good Man, and would also replace her in the official licensed version after 1998). The stage show also features an actor or actress as Woodstock, who, like the character in both the strip and in animation, is largely mute.
The special almost completely ignores the song order of the stage show. The opening credits number, "The Big Bow-Wow" is the next-to-last number on stage. The next number, a fast-paced ensemble song, "Don't Be Anything Less Than Everything You Can Be", came on stage about halfway through Act II. It's a nice number about reaching for your full potential, but seems a bit odd coming from the mouths of perpetually self-doubting Charlie Brown and seemingly confident but not-so-secretly insecure Peppermint Patty.
Much of the show seems like that. Songs seem out of place for a Peanuts show, and/or seem like retreads of Good Man songs. After a number of school-based gags (that dumps all five of the kids into the same classroom), the number "Edgar Allan Poe" is awfully similar to "The Book Report". "I Know Now" feels like an answer to "Little Known Facts", though the does number has a cameo from Rerun and (from the neck down) Mr. and Mrs. Van Pelt.
Up next is "The Vigil" which manages to boil the entirety of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown to 5 minutes, complete with recycling the "Santa has more publicity" line. That's followed by what may be the best segment of the show, "Clouds", where the gang (except for Charlie Brown, who can't get a word in edgewise) describes the amazing things they see in the clouds overhead. I also enjoyed the next number, "The Great Writer", though it mostly just musicalized Snoopy's pre-existing literarily magnum opus, "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night".
The next scene appears to be one of those conversations that Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty have about love, with Patty all but confessing her feelings toward Chuck and Charlie Brown being, as usual, completely oblivious, but it soon segues into the song "Poor Sweet Baby", which seems to be an actual sincere long song. It's undercut by a joke at the end, but still, it's a rather odd number (it also contains recycled footage from the decade-old It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown). After that, we get the full version of "The Big Bow Wow", which is supposed to be about Snoopy's promotion to Head Beagle, but seems to be more about Snoopy's showbiz dreams.
For viewers in 1988 who were unfamiliar with the stage show, the inclusion of the final number "Just One Person" might have come as a surprise, as by that point, the song had become closely associated with The Muppets. Jim Henson loved the number and incorporated into several Muppets productions in the years after Snoopy's premiere. Frankly, the song works a lot better for the Muppets than the Peanuts gang. It suffers from the same problem that "Don't Be Anything Less Than Everything You Can Be" does, namely that its hard to believe these characters would be singing this song (maybe Linus, but usually moments of spirit-raising in Peanuts is a group effort, not individuals joining together one by one). Still, the song does allow for some cameos, including Marcie, Schroeder, and Frieda. But for the finale of a musical, it feels way, way, way too low key (the stage show follows that by a reprise of the aforementioned "Don't Be Anything", but here, they just cut to the final commercial and then the closing credits).
Technical credits are fine. Sam Jaimes directs solo again, and while he may not be Phil Roman, he does his usual decent job. Despite the two-year hiatus, two vocal actors from Happy New Year, Charlie Brown were retained: Jeremy Miller, who voiced Linus, and Kristie Baker, who voiced Peppermint Patty. Growing Pains co-star Miller wasn't the only semi-celebrity voice, as Sally was voiced by Punky Brewster regular Ami Foster. Snoopy was voiced by Cam Clarke, who was OK, but not as good as You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown's Snoopy, Robert Towers. The kid singers were marginally better than the rather poor kid singers in Good Man, but not by much.
"Just One Person" is the only song from the show that has achieved much life outside the musical, and based on the other songs, that is not too surprising. It's hard not to think that Snoopy: The Musical the stage show as a cynical cash grab. The TV special isn't all that better. All in all, this is not a great TV comeback for the Peanuts gang.
Next week: Spike and Schulz's daughter take center stage in the mostly live-action(!) It's the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown.
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