It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown

First aired on network television 3/16/76, Arbor Day is one of the least-recalled and least-rerun of the "classic" era Peanuts programs. This is due to a few things, none more obvious than the fact that this holiday the show celebrates is one in which no gifts are received, and no unhealthy vittles are devoured. One must simply love trees enough to take time out to cultivate and nurture one or a few. Did you know Arbor Day is celebrated the last Friday of April? Likely you did not. Arbor Day, then, is the Aquaman of holidays.

STORY: Sally is compelled to do a school report on Arbor Day, while the rest of the kids (and Snoopy) dedicate themselves to growing a garden within the confines of the baseball field imminently due to host a game between Peppermint Patty's squad and that of the oblivious Charlie Brown. 7.5

MUSIC: More Vince Guaraldi "music to clink wine glasses to", with the notable exceptions of the baseball action and end credits, sequences featuring uptempo, danceable jazz playing that 30 years on is still smooth as summer lemonade sipped sitting in the shade under the largest tree you can find. 8

(This was the final Peanuts special to feature the music of Vince Guaraldi. Hours after finishing up the soundtrack for Arbor Day on 2/6/76, he went to Butterfields in Menlo Park, CA to perform the first of two sets. Back in his hotel room after the initial performance, he died of a sudden heart attack. The death of Vince Guaraldi at age 47 affected things of greater significance than mere children's shows, but the Peanuts animated legacy lost an immeasurable key to its appeal when Mr. Guaraldi passed away. The sound of cool jazz in the background with neurotic children in the foreground was the rare stroke of genius so well-executed, so singular, that no attempts at borrowing it could ever be made.)

ANIMATION: Subdued; fine coloring on the garden, as well as great renderings of the flowers, bushes, plants and trees that obtrusively decorate the site of the zig-zag warriors Waterloo. 10



VOICES: Dylan Beach gets a 7 for his attempt at Charlie Bizz, and his consistently flat, perfectly-enunciated performance is only that high thanks to his being given the highlight line of the show, stated below in the "great things" section. Sister Sarah gets an 9.5 for Lucy...this is about as good a Lucy as you'll hear, covering the fine line between shrill, shrewd, and crabby with panache.

Gail M. Davis is Sally, the girl who thought Arbor Day was "when the ships come into the arbor" and thus must atone by presenting a detailed history of this overlooked holiday to the class. Occasionally screechy, but redeemed to a score of 9 by her delivery of the lines meant to get laughs.

Vincent Dow as Rerun (animated debut), Greg Felton as Schroeder, and Michelle Muller as Frieda get 6, 5, 6, respectively. Rerun on the back of his mothers bike was done much better almost 30 years later in I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown (and the kid doing his voice sounds like an ideal Sally), Frieda was limited, and no one in the history of ever has ever given Schroeder good voice. A suitably dull history for an overrated character, I say.

Liam Martin as Linus does not start out great; his are the first words spoken in the special ("Okay Mom, Rerun's on the bike!") and they are screeled out in a voice that makes me want to rub sandpaper all over my private area just to calm the general discomfort. 7.5 Finally, Peppermint Patty is voiced by a boy, Stuart Brotman. It is very hilarious to consider this young lad voicing the insecurities of a rugged, love-starved tomboy. ("You're holding my hand, Chuck! You sly dog!") For overall gender fuckery, a solid 9.5.



Overall, the show gets an 8. Novelty both helps and hurts; there's nothing to compare a special like this to, but the rewatch value is lower than many of the other Peanuts presentations.

I SAID HUG THE TREE, NOT DRILL A HOLE WAIST-LEVEL THROUGH IT--GREAT MOMENTS
9. Well, not great, exactly--when the ball is hit to Lucy and Frieda in the outfield, they ignore it and continue conversing. This is not odd, if you know your Peanuts. But why are their voices garbled? I have yet to find an official explanation. Possibly the Mendelsohn/Melendez/Schulz trio getting all avant on us.

8. After Sally's faux pas, a classic Peanuts gag: attack of the killer HA's.



7. From the "the hell with it, kids like Snoopy, we need more Snoopy, could you possibly fit Snoopy in somewhere anywhere, Snoopy Snoopy Snoopy!" pile--Linus and Sally are walking home from school. Behind them, the decidedly non-BOE-approved Snoopy and Woodstock.



6. Despite everything going wrong for him--the flora orgy that is his ball field, the tree on the mound, the fact a dog is his shortstop, his mighty pinstriped opponent--Charlie Brown manages to take his team to the brink of victory. Then it rains. Mightily. As animals go off two by two, Charlie Brown pleads for mercy. "We were Winning!" This matter of wins and losses bothers no one...only poor round-headed kid.

5. Linus and Sally study up in the library. It does not take long for Sally to get distracted and swoon over her reluctant tutor and chase him down the street ("We can sip a drink from the same cup! A loving cup!" Yet another mildly-funny line in writing made classically hilarious by a top-notch reading.)

4. Snoopy and Woodstock, conversely, find the library hilarious. Snoopy is so overwhelmed with glee by the absurdity of the advice contained within a book that purports to help owners control their dogs, he runs to make copies of the choicest pages. A loop of heart-tickling Snoop guffaws follows, ceasing only when the bungling beagle brings his best buddy a little too close to the action.

3. In the throes of her education, Sally has no time for those who lack basic Arbor Day knowledge. "Mister Morton was an early voice for conservation!" Add in a raised fist and this is golden overkill. If you knew anyone who talked like that in real life, you'd never speak to or of them again.

2. Lucy hits a homerun (check for 'roids, I say) and Schroeder has to eat crow. Then, he has to kiss the heroine as she crosses home plate. As the moment of truth nears, Lucy glares at the reluctant catcher and spats, "If that's what it takes for you to kiss me, forget it! Another victory for women's lib!" Lucy was a great feminist.

1. Charlie Brown can't wait to see what his team has done to make the ball field immaculate for play. Ah, the fresh grass; the even dirt of the mound and base paths; maybe even fences with a new coat of paint. What a shock it is for him, then, when he sets his beads upon all the plant life. Despite passing out when all the blood rushes to his bowling ball, he rises to gaze yet again at the vines and leaves sprouting all over the scene of his always-imagined, never-realized glory. He points and proclaims, "My pitchers mound! It's got a tree on it!"

Those lines are wickedly absurd, and thus funny as all git-the-hell-out. They are elevated into the realm of "rewind until the button gets stuck and you have to beat it against a couch arm to free it back out" by Dylan Beach's recitation. It's a voice that may as well be saying, "My testicles! They've got hair on them!" Oh Dylan, today you are a man. And oh man, thank Jebus that the Peanuts creative crew didn't get a boy who had any real personality to do the voice of Chuck in this special.

It is a mistake, then, to disregard this in the overall canon. It would also be erroneous to take a Master of Puppets-type view (if I may dare to liken a relatively innocent show for children with one of the classic heavy metal albums of all time). That particular axis-altering album was the last Metallica would release before the death of their linchpin bassist, stoner gas-station attendant impressionist Cliff Burton. To many, although certainly not all, the band would not only never reach such heights of metal thrashing mad again, they were a demonstrably less able and impressive band, as if Burton's demise also claimed the heart and hunger that drove 4 young California metalheads to be "greater than" in the first place. Everything after was "Metallica Jr."

Some have said that with Vince Guaraldi's death, so too went much of the charm of the animated specials. Guaraldi's music gave Peanuts an indelible stamp, an air of cool and style that no other kids show in history has matched to date. Yes, tis true, later specials were often musically unspectacular, and in the case of a few Judy Munsen-composed shows, downright hideously scored. But the core of Schulz/Melendez/Mendelsohn was too good, too dedicated, too in sync, too unable to stop. It would take a full 24 years for the trio to release their St. Anger.


Charlie Brown Peanuts Snoopy arbor day