Charlie Brown is amazing mostly because after all the abuse and derision he took he didn’t eventually bring a gun to school, take out half the cafeteria, help himself to a few extra meatballs over the cowering lunch lady, and die in a shootout with the SWAT team in the Kingergarten classroom where he was pondering where it all went wrong.
I just watched Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving Special the other day with the kids and was horrified at this scene in particular. Though the kids treated him like garbage 98% of the show, this seemed especially awful.
December 1, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Is this clip for real?
I am a big Peanuts fan. I have at least 20 different Charlie Brown specials and movies on DVD or VHS, and this scene isn't in any of them.
It definitely isn't in the version of the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special that I watched with my kids a few days ago. Now it is possible, even probable, that the version I watched was shortened to allow more commercial time, since I recorded it from broadcast TV several years ago. Nevertheless, this scene doesn't seem to be a perfect fit with the musical style or animation style of the Thanksgiving special. And this scene is an even worse fit with the story, since there was nothing about a spelling bee in the Thanskgiving special.
I don't know. It's theoretically *possible* that this could be a scene from the full, unedited version of the Thanksgiving special. And if it's a fake, it's very well done, which makes me think it must be an authentic Peanuts clip. But something about it just doesn't quite ring true to me, especially if it's supposed to be from the Thanksgiving special.
December 1, 2010 at 2:09 pm
OK, now I have it figured out. This clip must be from A Boy Named Charlie Brown. It fits perfectly with the plot as described in the linked wikipedia article. Also the animation style, the musical style, and the inclusion of Patty and Violet all make much more sense for a Charlie Brown movie made in 1969 than for the Thanksgiving special made in 1973.
And as I now recall, "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" is one of the very few old Peanuts movies or specials that I either have never seen, or at least have not seen since I was a kid.
Mystery solved for me. Sorry to take up so much comment space. 🙂
And to get to the point of your post, yes you're right — this goes above and beyond even the normal shabby treatment that Charlie Brown gets. This is pretty bad.
December 2, 2010 at 4:17 am
I have to admit that when I first saw the title I assumed someone had taken clips of Charlie Brown specials and set it to a spoof of Lady GaGa's "Poker Face"
December 5, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Paul, thank you for clearing that up…I was just about to go throw out my VHS copy of the Thanksgiving Special!