Good Grief!

June 2, 2015 9:03 AM

"Thank you dear sister, greatest of all sisters, without whom I'd never survive."
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show aired on Saturday mornings on the CBS network from 1983 - 1986. Only 18 episodes were ever produced.

Background
* Peanuts, from TV Tropes.
* The Lucy and Linus scene linked above was based on this strip.

The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show
Season One: 1983
* "Snoopy's Cat Fight" (Woodstock, Baseball, Sally, Peppermint Patty, Piano, Blanket)
* "Snoopy: Team Manager" (Shoveling, Rerun, Lost Blanket, The Manager)
* "Linus and Lucy" (Sally and Snoopy, Football, Beads, Love, Snowballs, Kite Flying, Linus and Lucy, Baseball)
* "Lucy VS the World" (Straws, Lucy Baseball, Peppermint Patty, Daisy Hill Puppy Cup, Linus and Lucy)
* "Linus' Security Blanket" (Snoopy and Woodstock, Sally, Piano, Baseball, Sunsets, Football, Security Blanket, Kite, Woodstock, Clinging Snoopy)
* "Snoopy: Man's Best Friend" (Kiss, Peppermint Patty, Charlie Brown is Lost!, Snoopy)
* "Snoopy the Psychiatrist" (Charlie Brown & Lucy, Kite, The Dance, Thibault)
* "You Can't Win, Charlie Brown" (Shaking, Spaghetti, Football, Baseball, Toast, Snow Sculpture, Sit, School, Kite, The Blanket, Sally)
* "The Lost Ballpark" (Crawl, Marcie, Truffles, The Lost Ballfield)
* "Snoopy's Football Career" (Gold Stars, Blanket, Piano, Teaching)
* "Chaos in the Classroom" (Sally at School, Football, School Patrol, Blanket, The Team)
* "It's that Team Spirit, Charlie Brown" (Vulture, Blanket, Peppermint Patty, Rerun, Rainy Day)
* "Lucy Loves Schroeder" (Tree-Eating Kite, Sally, Camp, Lucy Loves Schroeder, Scared Snoopy)

Season Two: 1985
* "Snoopy and the Giant" (Snoopy's Foot, Giant, Rerun)
* "Snoopy's Brother Spike" (The Pelicans, Great Pumpkin, Spike)
* "Snoopy's Robot" (Snoopy's Robot, Linus and the Blanket, Friends)
* "Peppermint Patty's School Days" (School Days, Snoopy's Trick, Snoopy's Flight)
* "Sally's Sweet Babboo" (The Play, Sweet Babboo!, Snoopy's Story)

Feature Films
1969: A Boy Named Charlie Brown
1972: Snoopy, Come Home
1977: Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (Turn off annotations for a better viewing experience)
1980: Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!)

Specials (Some were not online. This list includes their names for a proper timeline.)
1965: A Charlie Brown Christmas
1966: Charlie Brown's All-Stars
1966: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
1967: You're in Love, Charlie Brown
1968: He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown
1969: It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown
1971: Play It Again, Charlie Brown
1972: You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown
1973: There's No Time for Love, Charlie Brown
1973: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
1974: It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown
1974: It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown
1975: Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown
1975: You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown
1976: It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown
1977: It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown (Alternate link)
1978: What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown!
1979: You're the Greatest, Charlie Brown (Alternate link)
1980: She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown, Parts 1, 2
1980: Life Is a Circus, Charlie Brown (Alternate link)
1981: It's Magic, Charlie Brown (Alternate link)
1981: Someday You'll Find Her, Charlie Brown
1982: A Charlie Brown Celebration
1983: Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown?
1983: It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown (Alternate link)
1983: What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?
1984: It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown
1985: Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown
1985: You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
1986: Happy New Year, Charlie Brown!
1988: Snoopy!!! The Musical
1988: It's the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown
1990: Why, Charlie Brown, Why?
1991: Snoopy's Reunion
1992: It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown
1992: It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown (Alternate link)
1994: You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown (Alternate link)
1997: It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown
2000: It's the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown (Straight to video - Unaired)
2002: A Charlie Brown Valentine (Alternate link)
2002: Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales
2003: Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown (Alternate link)
2003: I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown (Alternate link)
2006: He's a Bully, Charlie Brown
2011: Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown

This is America, Charlie Brown! Miniseries
* "The Mayflower Voyagers" (Alternate link)
* "The Birth of the Constitution"
* "The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk"
* "The NASA Space Station" (Alternate link)
* "The Building of the Transcontinental Railroad"
* "The Great Inventors"
* "The Smithsonian and the Presidency"
* "The Music and Heroes of America"

Documentary
2000: Good Grief, Charlie Brown (An hour-long documentary on Peanuts narrated by Walter Cronkite. Featuring interviews with "Peanuts" creator Charles Schultz and "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening)
2007: Good Ol' Charles Schulz (PBS American Masters Series) (Alternate link)

posted by zarq (25 comments total)

The legendary "I'll See You In Hell, Charlie Brown" special never aired, sadly
posted by thelonius at 9:05 AM on June 2, 2015 [10 favorites]

Parody
A Charlie Brown Christmas Reunion (Animation Domination Hi-Def)
O Great Pumpkin (Robot Chicken)
posted by Rob Rockets at 9:12 AM on June 2, 2015

Well this is fantastic.

The fact that 'Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown' still doesn't have a DVD release is a continual source of WTF-ness for me, especially now that there is a Baby Mintcake toddling around. That sucker was one of those first-couple-of-things-we-taped-off-HBO VHS tapes that my family watched about a zillion times. Do it, Paramount/whomever.
posted by mintcake! at 9:14 AM on June 2, 2015 [5 favorites]

I still have the horrible bubblegum from Snoopy, Come Home stuck in my head.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:16 AM on June 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

CB is a bit of a creeper about the little red-haired girl.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:39 AM on June 2, 2015

I remember Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown being utterly terrifying, but I've not seen it since I was a young child so I don't remember why.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:39 AM on June 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

mintcake!: It's not ideal, but they do have Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown on Youtube, though broken into parts. Here's part 1.

Also, this show looks surprisingly not crummy for a Saturday morning cartoon series. I'm guessing having original creative team Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez still on-board contributed to that.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:46 AM on June 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

'Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown' was apparently released on DVD in Feb. 2015. According to Wikipedia, it's also been released in VHS, Betamax, Laserdisc, and RCA's CED format.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:46 AM on June 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

I remember Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown being utterly terrifying, but I've not seen it since I was a young child so I don't remember why.

The characters are repeatedly menaced and attacked by bullies and a vicious cat named Brutus. Charlie Brown is left behind at a bus stop twice. Later in the movie, there's a storm and Woodstock gets lost.

It could easily be scary to a little kid.
posted by zarq at 9:50 AM on June 2, 2015 [3 favorites]

CB is a bit of a creeper about the little red-haired girl.

If nursing prolonged unrequited childhood crushes counts as creeping these days, then I guess everyone has a dark history of creeping.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:51 AM on June 2, 2015 [2 favorites]

Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown had a memorable dynamite blasting sequence that I thought was pretty scary. And Snoopy, Come Home is a guaranteed tear-jerker. I love that movie so much.
posted by asperity at 9:56 AM on June 2, 2015

'Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown' was apparently released on DVD in Feb. 2015. According to Wikipedia, it's also been released in VHS, Betamax, Laserdisc, and RCA's CED format.

WHAAAAAAAAAAT - ordering now. Thanks, ZH! Now I have to make up for the four months I could've been watching this.

All of the features get a little sad/creepy at points, no? I'm guessing that's why they stuck with me, maybe (along with that wild anime Jack & The Beanstalk & 'Hugo The Hippo' etc.)...
posted by mintcake! at 9:57 AM on June 2, 2015

Nobody ever believes me when I tell them about 'Why, Charlie Brown, Why?' (It's the one where the little red-haired girl gets cancer). Now I have proof. Thanks.
posted by sexyrobot at 10:02 AM on June 2, 2015

"Un Petit Garçon Nommé Charlie Brown" by Serge Gainsbourg
posted by Omon Ra at 10:26 AM on June 2, 2015

And then of course, there's Bring me the Head of Charlie Brown, from someone who insist watched way too many of these Armenians m specials.
posted by happyroach at 10:36 AM on June 2, 2015

The existence of Flashbeagle says a lot about the 80s. Though I also recall they manufactured a Snoopy doll dressed as Boy George, which was pretty subversive for the Reagan era.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 11:01 AM on June 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

It could easily be scary to a little kid.

It was scary to a non-little kid (me).
posted by blucevalo at 11:32 AM on June 2, 2015

I can no longer deal with anything Peanuts-related without thinking of this. Now THAT is scary for a non-kid. (Jason Yungbluth is a total Evil Genius, in all interpretations of the term)

But if you'd like a little brain wash, gocomics has put two Peanuts dailies reruns online, the one that is also still running in newspapers (currently pulling from mid-1968, definitely Snoopy's Golden Age) and "Peanuts Begins" that started in January of this year with day one (Oct. 1950 - the first "good old Charlie Brown") and going day-by-day through the slow growth and almost unrecognizable character designs. (All the long-running strips started out with the characters all wrong... if you don't evolve your design in the first five years, you end up with "Drabble".)
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:44 AM on June 2, 2015 [3 favorites]

FLASHBEAGLE! That's my childhood. Must show it to my kids pronto.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:30 PM on June 2, 2015

Nobody ever believes me when I tell them about 'Why, Charlie Brown, Why?' (It's the one where the little red-haired girl gets cancer). Now I have proof. Thanks.

It isn't the little red-haired girl, it's Linus's crush. Man, there were so many educational shows/cartoons about leukemia during my childhood.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 4:41 PM on June 2, 2015

Which was the one where Snoopy and Woodstock have to get back to Needles for Life Day?
posted by lagomorphius at 8:54 PM on June 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Did things ever get better after "You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown"? That thing hit me as such a low at the time that I stopped reading the strip too.
posted by parliboy at 9:02 PM on June 2, 2015

Most if not all of the missing specials can probably be found at this YouTube channel - under deliberately deceptive names, so start digging. Also, one 'episode' seems to be missing from it and I don't know which.
posted by BiggerJ at 9:56 PM on June 2, 2015

I remember what-used-to-be Disney Channel airing the series after-school in the early 90s, but I don't remember there being that few episodes.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 10:58 PM on June 2, 2015

I recently had the opportunity to visit the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa (CA) and it really brought home the humanism in Schulz's work and more than a little nostalgia for the days when Snoopy - a stuffed animal whose neck was hanging on by a thread to his body* - was my best friend. The museum is truly worth a visit if you are in the area. I went straight home and watched a number of the old specials back to back. I'll be saving this thread to continue that endeavour. Thanks for all the work putting this together!

*I believe my mother had to sew his head back on at least a couple of times.
posted by Halo in reverse at 4:33 AM on June 3, 2015