To help celebrate 75 years of Peanuts, it's decided to look back at some of the specials, but not just any specials. With the announcement that an ultimate TV Special Collection is coming out on Blu-ray, it is suggested that 5 TV specials did not make the cut on Blu-ray. In addition, these 5 specials could alos not be found on Apple TV +. Throughout the years, the Charles M Schulz family and Peanuts Worldwide had been comitted to keep and preserve the legacy of Schulz and his Peanuts creations, but what were these 5 specials? Where did they go? Why are they "lost"? This is our story.
Snoopy: The Musical
The first lost special seems to be a really good one too. It is the animated adaptation of the broadway sequal of You're a Good Man Charlie Brown. Like its predessecor, the musical and the special shows off different scenes from the comic strip set to original songs. Some songs such as Poor Sweet Baby and Just One Person would become fan favorites; the latter of which would be performed at Jim Henson's funeral. Another thing to note is that Cam Clarke would voice Snoopy in this special (he would talk and sing a la thought bubbles like how Garfield does in his specials). Clarke did so well that he voiced Snoopy again for a Teddy Ruxpin like Snoopy doll that told stories from select books. Clarke would be best known for his role as Leonardo in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and would be the voice I would hear in my head reading Snoopy's thought bubbles in the actual strip. The reason for its exclusion may be due to music clearance rights, and with the actual musical fallen off the map in recent years unlike You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, there really is no need to clear the music for now which is a shame.
It's the Girl in the Red Truck Charlie Brown
Here's one that is more bizzare in this case. Here we see Snoopy's brother Spike in animated form mixed into a live action world where he meets a girl that he kind of likes, but just like any Peanuts special, is full of unrequited love as he helps this girl get with her true lover. Now, not to sound harsh, but I have another name for this special, It's Nepotisim at it's Finest, Charlie Brown. What does that mean? It means that the special was basically made by Schulz to help kick start his daughter Jill's acting career. Jill was already best known for her ice skating career and has appeared as Snoopy in ice skating shows especially those early ones at Knott's Berry Farm. Jill even shows off her skating skills at the roller rink in this special. However, an actress she is not. Or at least, at the level that agencies wanted it to be. To this day it is widely critiziced and while it has been released on VHS by Paramount, it has not been seen since then for obvious reasons.
You're In the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown
Up next is one that was acuatlly done for the Super Bowl since it's a holiday of itself (even though it really isn't). Charlie Brown and Linus compete in a field goal competition to win Super Bowl tickets and win the heart of a young girl who they thought was just watching them from the sidelines when in all actuallity she was competing for the tickets too and ended up beating both of them. Because it involved the Super Bowl officially teaming up with the NFL, two things happened. The first is that this special aired on NBC as opposed to CBS since the Super Bowl was airing there that year. The other, because of this, the special was never packaged with the other TV specials due to the NFL's full ownership of the special. It was available on VHS at various Shell Oil locations, but otherwise has had no official home video release since. It remains very unlikely it will be re-released due to the fact that many of the Peanuts characters associated themselves with different NFL teams of the day, some of which no longer exist such as Houston Oilers and the Washington R*dsk*ns. At one point the special was even more outdated when the LA Rams moved to St. Louis, but have since moved back. This would make it the most dated special ever made. Even more so than the earliest of TV specials.
It's My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown
The remainng specials left are not so hard as to see why they dissappeared. The success of Peanuts specials on home video led to Paramount commissioning a made for video special. If my memory recalls, Linus ends up inviting a girl he barely met to his birthday party. It was the first special to use digital ink and paint, and it shows. Because of its made for video status and it being one of the least remembered specials, it has not been seen since the days of VHS
It's the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown
Likewise this special was made for home video as well. This time for DVD, which was not well promoted. So much so, you don't remember it ever existing. It was pretty much a retelling of the story of the Pied Piper with Charlie Brown telling Sally the story and Snoopy starring as the Pied Piper. Due to the made for video status from Paramount, it has not been seen once Warner Bros. took over full home video control of the Peanuts specials.
No comments:
Post a Comment