AIRDATE: 3/11/73STORY: One of the most oddly-paced specials in the long history of Peanuts on television starts out with Peppermint Patty lamenting to Charlie Brown that "there's no time for love". Jump to a succession of classroom scenes that redefines the term "staying true to the source material". At one school sit Linus, Lucy, Charlie Brown and Sally; at the other, Marcie, Peppermint Patty and Franklin. Despite the remove, all the kids share a basic common-sense disgust at the tedium of education and proclivity for exasperated exclamations.
Seven minutes in, class is dismissed. Charlie Brown is in dire educational straits; the upcoming field trip to an art museum is weighing his head down ever lower than usual, as he must ace the report due after or fail the whole class for that year.
Marcie is also nervous, albeit only about the journey itself. Peppermint Patty assures her that the teachers organize students via a "buddy system", and there is no doubt that they will be paired up. Now armed with a new anxiety--letting down her "buddy"--Marcie wakes up at 4 AM and races over to Patty's house.
Hours later, buses line up to deposit the eager youths crammed within. Sally is as always existentially self-absorbed, much to her big bro's chagrin. The mild drama surrounding the Brown siblings holds up not only them, but also Patty, Marcie and Snoopy. (Why is Snoopy there, you wonder, after all he's not a student. He's there 'cause he's Snoopy. Capice?) Soon they find themselves standing alone outside and unsure which set of doors to enter. Following Charlie Brown's logic that "It must be on the right, it's the closest" they proceed into...a supermarket.
As the other kids enjoy the paintings and sculpture, our quizzical quintet wander the aisles, aghast at the "clearance" prices of these doubtless precious works. Love is the elephant in the market, however, and Peppermint Patty's encroaching somnolence leads her to cajole Charlie Brown. Soon after she conks sitting up against a shelf of cans, he wanders off to take in some more fine art in the frozen foods. Meanwhile, Snoopy is ringing up customers and checking the freshness of fruit en route to getting his leg stuck in a shopping cart. Sheer and utter.
Marcie and Sally find Peppermint Patty and wake her up--it is time to go. Where's Charlie Brown? No one knows, but Marcie lets slip something she thinks she knows: that Patty has a crush on the shy non-achieving boy. Patty's reply still has the crust over its eyes:
"How could anybody ever be in love with boring, dull, wishy-washy old Chuck?" Ha Ha Herman. Charlie Brown just happens to be in the next aisle and walks away, dejectedly. Peppermint Patty, with an assist from Marcie, figures out what 2 plus itself is and realizes what she has inadvertently done.
The bus ride back is depressingly reflective for both Chuck and Patty; he has not only been insulted by a girl, he faces being held back a grade if his report is not up to snuff. She just "hate[s] to hurt anyone's feelings" and proposes that she and Marcie invite Charlie Brown over to work on their respective reports.
This latter gathering is a greater success; Marcie gives Chuck a kiss on the walk home ("If you want that kiss to be from me, Charles, consider it a good-night kiss from Peppermint Patty. 'Cause I think she likes you.").
The next day is a return to the dregs when Charlie Brown realizes, watching Linus' slides of the field trip, that he and the others were in fact in a supermarket. The dread that pools up in the center of his body evaporates when his report garners the only A of the entire class for its "genius" analogy of the artwork to food in a supermarket.
The show ends as it began, Patty and Chuck underneath a tree waxing philosophical-like. Her tentative ruminations on even more timid feelings are undermined when Charlie Brown brings up the Little Red-Haired Girl.
"I can't stand you, Chuck!"
That's love. Or at least it's damn convinced it is. 10
MUSIC: The slow, loping jazz of Vince Guaraldi...now with 65% more electric piano. "Linus and Lucy" and "Peppermint Patty" are two of the standards cutting a rug up with Vince's new favorite instrument, joining a dance floor packed with new tunes. None is more enchanting than "Pitkin County Blues", the lengthy funk that snakes underneath the classroom bits. If you don't already have it, please pick up Vince Guaraldi and the Lost Cues From the Charlie Brown Television Specials. In addition to the envelope filter-frenzy of the aforementioned "Pitkin", it contains a few other cues from this special and many other rare gems. (If only it contained the caffeine-blasted "Peppermint Patty" heard here! Ah well.) 10
ANIMATION: From the bodies of the familiar denizens of the Peanuts universe, to the artwork in the museum, to the goods on sale in the market, the overall look is subdued and smudged. It nudges you instead of poking you in the ribs. The story is so strong it doesn't need to. 9.5
VOICES: Two characters made their animated debut in this li'l ol' show: Marcie and Franklin. While the latter has very little to say, and thus can't be fairly more than an 8 for the efforts of Todd Barbee, Marcie is the conscience of the program. Her lines are delivered in a sweetly measured, hilariously hesitant tone (especially towards the end) as she tries to keep the peace between her best friend and the boy she likes. Even better, Marcie was voiced by a boy, Jimmy Aherns. 10.
Peppermint Patty is impossible to fuck up, so Christopher DeFaria should keep the 9 I give him in perspective. I wonder if he and Jimmy Aherns still talk, bonded as they are by having female Peanuts characters in their credits.
Lucy and Linus are used sparingly; 8 and 9 for the respective efforts of Robin Kohn and Stephen Shea as the quarrelsome siblings. Hilary Momberger gives a performance of Sally that improves minute by minute, up to a solid 8 by the end. Last but far from least is Chad Webber's turn as Charlie Brown. Wishy-washy uber alles and he utters the most quintessential-sounding "Oh good grief!" ever in this one. 10.
"LOVE IS THE WISDOM OF THE FOOL, AND THE FOLLY OF THE WISE"
--Some tremendous kid yak from the school bits:
"By the time we grow up, the metric system will probably be official." (That's a timeless joke that Schulz could not have ever suspected would be timeless when he wrote it, seeing as he didn't mean it as a joke in the first place.)
"Who is the father of King Henry the Fourth? I could not possibly care less!"
--
Ah, so ya like the Cardinal, eh? Wish Pat Donovan would give ya a tumble, eh?
Oh, I see...you basically root for the entire state of California. (John Elway totally banned his kids from watching this growing up.)
--
Snoopy don't need no words!
--Fun superfan fact. On the ride back, Peppermint Patty refers to Charlie Brown as, well, "Charlie Brown". I'll have to go through the specials and make sure, but this may be the only time she calls him anything other than "Chuck".
--Speaking of General Blockhead, he is shown eating BAM Cereal. Years later, Schulz would take the naming of breakfast grains to a whole other level when Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown depicted a box of Corn Pow cereal.
--
"How much more pimptastic could this be, Linus? And the answer is none. None more pimptastic."
--The most jawache-inducing part of the whole 25 minutes is Peppermint Patty's impromptu scolding of the woefully philistine Marcie.
"Marcie, that's pop art! Don't you know Pop Art when you see it?"
"LOVE IS A HOLE IN THE HEART"
--The close, unlikely proximity of a museum to a supermarket reminds of me of my trip to Portland, Oregon two years back, when I stumbled upon a Mexican restuarant connected to a strip club that featured the most "unimpressed by naked chicks" clientele ever.
--How does the A on Charlie Brown's report go from this....
to this...
I personally suspect that he had the teacher rewrite the grade on a separate, smaller sheet of paper so he could gaze proudly upon it and not the actual work that earned it for him.
--
"Why aren't you featured in the credits, sir?"
"I have no idea, Marcie. And quit calling me 'sir'!"
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The jerky pacing and plot absurd enough to rouse a chuckle from the specter of Rabelais are the reasons this special succeeds for me, whereas another viewer may find the patchwork nature of the story jarring and may also not be able to suspend disbelief enough to enjoy the supermarket/museum confusion. The sensitive soul of Peanuts is here in abundance, but with a twist that befits a show heavy on the Peppermint Patty. It's not a special that you will likely appreciate on first viewing (ex., the holiday trilogy, Charlie Brown's All Stars) but give it a few spins in the DVD player before you render a final verdict.
Charlie Brown Snoopy Peanuts
The best part is when Joe Cool appears
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