In the wake of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, a Los Angeles schoolteacher wrote to Charles Schulz, asking about the possibility of introducing a Black character to the cast of Peanuts. At first, Schulz said no, concerned that, as a white man, adding a Black person would be patronizing. However, after getting reassurances from prominent African-Americans that a Black face showing up in the most popular comic strip in the country would be a net positive, Franklin was introduced in July of that year. His first appearance, where he meets Charlie Brown on a beach, lasted just three days. He would return in October, only to be weirded out by the other kids in Charlie Brown's neighborhood (being that time of year, Linus tried to evangelize him about the Great Pumpkin). He would start appearing semi-regularly in 1969, most often appearing in classroom scenes, serving as the foil for Peppermint Patty (the fact the two were seen going to school together was controversial at the time). However, once Marcie took over that role in the mid-70s, Franklin began appearing less and less.
His treatment in specials wasn't much better. Arguably his most memorable appearance was in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, as one of the people Peppermint Patty invites. His role in that is mostly remembered for the scene in which he has one side of the table all to himself, while Sally, Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty, and Snoopy are all crushed together on the other side. Other prominent appearances in the specials, such as him breakdancing in It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown and rapping in It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown, seem to mostly draw up on stereotypes. In the strips, however, the character has often been criticized for being so bland. He's smart, he's a good athlete, he's nice, and that's about it.
In the Apple TV+ specials, Franklin has been a regular, most notably joining Marcie and Linus in doubting Lucy's curriculum in Lucy's School and being the outgoing class president in One-of-a-Kind Marcie. Given that he has always been a relatively minor character, it is a surprise he is getting his own special, but 55 1/2 years after his debut, and after 50 other specials, he has one. Welcome Home, Franklin serves as an origin story to his arrival in the neighborhood, presumably taking place before the other Apple specials (though continuity has never been the franchise's strong suit).
Franklin Armstrong is a military brat (a nod to his second-ever appearance, where he says his dad is in Vietnam) used to moving around a lot, meeting new friends, but never having a deep bond with any of them (in the opening scene, the kids in his soon-to-be-former neighborhood are more concerned about a basketball pickup game than saying goodbye). After a cross-country trip, he arrives in his new neighborhood, where his tried-and-true methods of making friends doesn't seem to work (it doesn't help that the first two kids he encounters are the siblings Van Pelt, annoying Linus when he picks a pumpkin from his pumpkin patch and insulting Lucy when he mistakes her psychiatrist stand for a lemonade stand). Later, in a nod to his very first appearance, he meets and befriends Charlie Brown at the beach, and later, pairs with him for the big soapbox derby when they're the last two kids who haven't found partners.
While the two quickly become fast friends and work well together, adversity eventually strikes and we get to see Franklin do something he never is in the strip--be a quick-tempered jerk, in a surprising and well-written scene. Of course, he and Charlie Brown make up and resume their partnership, but there are a few tense moments, adding some flavor to the proceedings.
Indeed, as much as I've liked the Apple ones, there's been something a bit bland about them, like they have been afraid to allow the characters to get angry and upset. Even in the one exception, For Auld Lang Syne, Lucy's outburst at the end had been well-telegraphed before it happened and was the result of her deep-seated insecurity, not just because she could be a jerk. It's appropriate that the blandness of Franklin and the Apple specials get washed away in one fell swoop. Speaking of Lucy, she is actually written here more like her usual self--crabby and egotistical and rather jerky--as well.
Perhaps that is the result of this special's guest writer. While the screenplay was credited to the Apple specials' usual writing team of Craig Schulz, Bryan Schulz, and Cornelius Uliano, the fourth credited writer, who also came up with the story (with Scott Montgomery), was Robb Armstrong, the creator and writer of the long-running comic strip Jump Start and the actual namesake of Franklin (Schulz asked permission to borrow his last name for Franklin for the otherwise unmemorable special You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown). I suspect Armstrong is also responsible for Franklin noticing the "lack of variety" in his new town as he arrived (said while he watched Charlie Brown, Sally, Peppermint Patty, and Marcie all eat vanilla ice cream cones).
This special may also mark the first time one has contained a pre-existing pop song, namely Billy Preston's 1974 hit "Nothing From Nothing", played during Franklin's cross-country trip (incidentally, it looked like Franklin visited several distinctive looking places, including a old-fashioned gas station and a park with dinosaur statues. Someone with better knowledge of specific places might be able to trace his journey). It also contained music from legendary jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.
Caleb Bellavance provides the voice of Franklin, as he's done in all the Apple specials, as well as The Snoopy Show and Camp Snoopy. Etienne Kellici was back as the voice of Charlie Brown, and most of the other voice cast remained consistent as well. Raymond S. Persi is back to direct his third straight special and fourth overall of the six Apples.
In terms of the time period, Franklin's family owns a station wagon and he mostly listens to music on a record player. In addition to Coltrane, he's a fan of James Brown and briefly holds one of his records up. He also mentions Neil Armstrong, so it definitely takes place after 1969. My best guess is that all the Apple specials take place sometime in the 1980s.
After being disappointed by One-of-a-Kind Marcie, I was verry pleasantly surprised by Welcome Home, Franklin. Indeed, this might just be the best of all of the Apple specials, even correcting that table oversight from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. As of this writing, no new specials have been announced, though a new movie is in the works (most likely going straight to Apple TV+) and a new series, Camp Snoopy, was released earlier this month. If this is the final special ever, they went out on a good note, but it seems highly likely that, at some point, we'll get more. After all, there are still plenty of stories to tell about the Peanuts gang.
Next week: Now that I've reviewed all your specials, Charlie Brown, I'll be taking July (and early August) to review your feature films, starting with the gang's first trip to the big screen, A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
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