I'm Reviewing All Your Specials, Charlie Brown: A Charlie Brown Valentine (2002)

In September 2000, about seven months after the death of Charles Schulz and the formal end of the Peanuts comic strip, a bombshell announcement appeared in the trades: Charlie Brown was moving.  After 35 years of association with CBS, the Peanuts specials were moving to ABC starting the following year.  Even though a CBS exec groused that they couldn't believe that the producers were turning their back on the history and tradition in favor of more money, in truth, ABC offered a much better deal.  By 2000, the only special still airing regularly was A Charlie Brown Christmas, and the Eye hadn't been interested in any new specials since they premiered It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown back in 1992.  Not only was ABC committed to airing all the classic holiday specials every year, but they also made it clear that they were open to new specials.  After one final airing of Christmas that December, the specials, specifically It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, would start airing in their new home the following October.

Less than four months after Great Pumpkin christened ABC, the network fulfilled its promise of funding a new special as, appropriately enough on Valentine's Day itself, A Charlie Brown Valentine became the first Peanuts special to debut on network TV since You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown 8 years earlier.  Oddly enough, even though he had been dead for two years by this point, Schulz was given sole writing credit.  It's easy to see why, however, as the special was largely adaptions of various Peanuts strips over the years, focusing on love and the titular holiday.  While there are plotlines, the special feels more like a collection of quick, lowly related vignettes than a coherent whole.

The special's primary storyline is once again Charlie Brown's all-consuming love for The Little Red-Haired Girl, and his complete inability to go and talk to her.  While the special will leave that to focus on other (always unrequited love) stories, it will always return to Charlie Brown, always planning out big grandiose gestures to win her over, and always never following through.  A few of them aren't his fault (Lucy grabs the Girl's dropped pencil out of his hand to return it instead of letting Charlie Brown do it himself), but others of them are (somehow, getting entangled in the class pencil sharpener).

All his pining over the Girl leaves him, as usual, utterly blind to the fact that both Marcie and Peppermint Patty like him like him, and they get (mostly justifiably) annoyed when he responds to their not-all-that-subtle hints with utter confusion.  Meanwhile, Sally doesn't want to accept that her Sweet Babboo--Linus, of course--doesn't want to return her affections and Lucy is annoyed that Schroeder continues to ignore her, as well.

If all this sounds familiar, its because most of this feels recycled from earlier Peanuts specials, most particularly You're in Love, Charlie Brown and Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (at least this one drops Linus's crush on his teacher that took up a lot of screentime in the first Valentine special).  Of course, you're average viewer in 2002 will have been unlikely to see those prior specials, but even so, this one still feels mostly like a retread.

With a new cycle of specials comes a new voice cast.  Playing Charlie Brown is Wesley Singerman, who would keep the role for the next three specials, and then go on to co-star in the Disney animated comedy Meet the Robinsons.  He is now a musician and songwriter who contributed a song to the Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings soundtrack.  New Lucy voice Lauren Schaffel continues to work regularly, recently appearing on an episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.  Marcie actress Jessica D. Stone has done a number of English dubs for anime.  Schroeder voice Chrystopher Ryan Johnson has, appropriately enough, grown up to be a musician.  The only voice holdover from It's the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown is Linus voice Corey Padnos, who'd actually voice his role for longer than most of his castmates.  Bill Melendez continues in his role as the franchise's primary director, and David Benoit once again used many of Vince Guaraldi's cuts, including some modern-day arranging.

I wish I could say A Charlie Brown Valentine was a triumphant return to network television.  It is a significant improvement over Super Bowl, the last special to premiere on TV, and is better than much of the output of the 1990s.  Sadly, that doesn't really keep it from feeling fairly warmed over.  This is one Valentine that probably should be exchanged.

Next week: Gather round, children, and let's pad out the timeslot while listening to Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales.