For a generation of kids growing up in the 70s and 80s, CBS was the home of prime time cartoons. Sure, NBC and ABC had their own animated specials, but CBS had the lion's share, anchored by the the network's three big franchises: Looney Tunes, Garfield, and the king of the mountain, Peanuts. Like clockwork, a new Peanuts special would debut every few months, and between the new ones, the network would rerun the older ones. Seemingly at least once a month (and during the holidays, at least once a week), kids would settle in front of their TV sets at 8/7 Central, stopping all other activities when the drums-and-horns music of the CBS Special Presentation bumper began (a bumper so iconic that the current bumper pays homage to it).
But by the early 90s, the climate was changing. Animation was becoming more expensive, and the ratings were dropping. In addition, the success of The Simpsons meant that networks began investing heavily into adult-aimed animated series, leaving specials vulnerable. At some point in 1990, CBS made the decision to stop running specials outside of the holidays. The last Garfield special would premiere in 1991 (though the Saturday morning Garfield & Friends would last until 1994) and its last Looney Tunes special in February of 1992. And, after 27 years, the final Peanuts special on the network would premiere in November 1992. Fittingly enough for a franchise that started with a Christmas special, its CBS run would end with another one, It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown.
To their credit, Charles Schulz and company knew they couldn't compete with A Charlie Brown Christmas, so they didn't even try. Instead of a sustained storyline, this would be a vignette-heavy special, with all the stories adapted from the strip (some as recent as 1991). Like most vignette specials, this ends up being a mixed bag, but the ratio to funny stories to filler is higher than in many of the other ones.
The special opens, surprisingly enough, with Linus and not Charlie Brown being humiliated when an attempt to sled down a hill in a cardboard box goes disastrously wrong. Charlie Brown gets it soon enough, when his attempt to sell wreathes door-to-door does not go well. From there, we see Marcie and a confused Peppermint Patty attend a concert of Handel's Messiah and then write a report on it, Charlie Brown attempt to convince Sally that Christmas means more than just getting gifts (as well as her letter to Mrs. Claus, whom she is convinced is actually named "Mary Christmas"), and the animation debut of Charlie Brown's girlfriend, Peggy Jean, who had already been written out of the strip by the time the special aired (the fact that Charlie Brown even had a girlfriend was probably confusing to viewers who didn't read the comic). In a plot that harkens back to A Charlie Brown Christmas, the special ends with the main characters participating in a Christmas pageant (though Charlie Brown is not directing), in which Peppermint Patty is a very reluctant sheep (and comes out looking a lot like Snoopy's brother Olaf) and Sally panics over her one line.
More interesting than what was going on in the show was what was happening behind the scenes. Sam Jaimes had largely left the Peanuts franchise after Snoopy's Reunion, though he did work as an animator on some of the subsequent specials. This left Bill Melendez to take back over as director, a position he would keep for most of the specials over the subsequent decade and a half (Melendez may or may not have also directed another Christmas sequel, Frosty Returns, that year. However, even though most sources list it premiering in 1992, it doesn't appear to have aired until 1995. It does have a 1992 copywrite date on the closing credits, however. This might be an investigation more suited to A MarkInTexas Made-For-TV Christmas, however). Even more interesting is the music. After a number of specials with music provided by Ed Bogas and Desiree Goyette, and others with music by Judy Munson, the decision was made to reuse Vince Guaraldi's compositions, with the arrangement under the supervision of acclaimed jazz pianist David Benoit. Benoit arranging Guaraldi's work would remain for most of the subsequent specials, as well as the 2015 feature film The Peanuts Movie.
Among the voice cast, this would be the sole outing as Charlie Brown for Jamie E. Smith, who had just one other IMDB credits. John Christian Graas, however, would voice Linus for the next two specials, as well as maintain a healthy career doing both live action and animated voiceover through the 90s. Marnette Patterson, another busy young actress who would go on to co-star in the 1995 comedy Camp Nowhere, had the first of two outings as Lucy. While none of the other credited voice actors did much outside this special, IMDB lists Full House's Jodie Sweetin as the uncredited voice of Sally (though her credited voice was provided by Mindy Ann Martin), though I could find no confirmation of this.
CBS treated this fairly poorly, premiering it the day after Thanksgiving, after a Golden Palace rerun, instead of teaming it up with A Charlie Brown Christmas, which aired later that season (and would continue to air annually on the network until 2000). After that, CBS didn't even rerun it the next year. It is a shame that the network chose not to give one of its most storied franchises the sendoff it deserved, especially as It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown is a pretty solid outing. It isn't a top-tier special, by any means, but it is an improvement over many of the recent specials, and a decent finale to a 27-year run.
Next week: The NBC era begins and ends with the NFL-sponsored You're In the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown.
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