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A new Charlie Brown speical, "Lucy Must Be Traded Charlie Brown" is airing tomorrow night on ABC. If you watch it, let us know what you think.
Below is an article on the new speical as well.
Charlie Brown and His Crew, All Fired Up to Lose
By ANITA GATES
If Kermit the Frog can still be a scintillating talk-show guest more than a decade after Jim Henson's death, then surely Charlie Brown and his "Peanuts" circle of friends can carry on now that their creator, Charles M. Schulz, is gone.
"Lucy Must Be Traded Charlie Brown," a half-hour special tonight on ABC, is the fourth "Peanuts" film made since Schulz died in February 2000 at age 77. It's no classic, but it puts forth the same sweet, sad, empathy-provoking charm as its predecessors.
Since "A Charlie Brown Christmas" had its premiere in 1965, the "Peanuts" characters have starred in 40 or so movies, most of them made for television. Beyond Christmas, they've dealt with Thanksgiving, New Year's, Easter, Valentine's Day, Halloween, Arbor Day, the Super Bowl and various topics not related to national holidays. "Lucy Must Be Traded Charlie Brown" (a title that could use a comma but hasn't been granted one) focuses entirely on baseball, an endeavor at which Charlie Brown failed repeatedly over the 50 years that "Peanuts" ran as a newspaper comic strip.
Charlie Brown (the voice is Wesley Singerman) is facing another baseball season, dressed in his traditional mustard-gold shirt and standing on a pitcher's mound that's bigger than he is. As usual, Lucy Van Pelt (Serena Berman) repeatedly visits him there to tell him what a miserable team manager he is. The team does have a losing record, usually playing against the one managed by Peppermint Patty (Daniel Hansen), a girl who was born to be a physical education teacher and always calls Charlie Brown "Chuck."
In this story, Lucy is the real problem. The others agree that she is the worst player in the history of the game (well, she did confuse her pizza with her mitt once) and that the only answer is to trade her to another team. Bill Melendez, a co-director, and Lee Mendelson, the executive producer, say they work exclusively from the comic strip now that Schulz is gone, but somehow I missed this aspect of Lucy's character. Isn't she usually just obnoxious, not incompetent? When she's told to keep her eye on the ball, she says, "That's hard to do when you keep moving it around."
And Charlie Brown certainly has a toothy smile this time around. Not that he has any reason to look genuinely happy. As he announces, horrified: "I've traded away my own dog. I've become a real manager." Yes, at one point he trades Snoopy - the only player Patty will accept, even though she still refers to him as the kid with the big nose - for "five good players," but that isn't the end of the story.
The other children are in familiar form. Linus still has his blue blanket, Schroeder still has his piano and Sally still has baby-sister attitude. Snoopy, the world's most lovable beagle and World War I flying ace, has a few moments, but this special doesn't have a musical number or give him any other opportunity for silent slapstick. Maybe you remember his battle with the lawn chair in "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving."
"Peanuts" has always been a low-key entertainment; when Charlie Brown says "Good grief," he says it quietly. A big part of the strip's appeal is its acceptance of continual disappointment and constant failure. But the specials often come equipped with moral lessons: about the potential beauty of a tiny, scraggly Christmas tree when it's loved or the true meaning of Thanksgiving. If "Lucy Must Be Traded" has a moral, it's "Better the devil you know," which isn't exactly uplifting but, come to think of it, does match the "Peanuts" gestalt nicely.
And why would anyone want to get rid of a player as well informed as Lucy? When she asks Charlie Brown to get shoes with cleats for his team because she keeps sliding off the mound, she adds a little jab: "I bet Babe Ruth had cleats on her shoes."
LUCY MUST BE TRADED CHARLIE BROWN
ABC, tonight 8/29 at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time.
Animation produced and directed by Bill Melendez and Larry Leichliter; Lee Mendelson, executive producer; original music composed by Vince Guaraldi and David Benoit, arrahnged and performed by Mr. Benoit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/29/arts/television/29GATE.html?ex=1062734400&en=9aa6af4662299a50&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
Below is an article on the new speical as well.
Charlie Brown and His Crew, All Fired Up to Lose
By ANITA GATES
If Kermit the Frog can still be a scintillating talk-show guest more than a decade after Jim Henson's death, then surely Charlie Brown and his "Peanuts" circle of friends can carry on now that their creator, Charles M. Schulz, is gone.
"Lucy Must Be Traded Charlie Brown," a half-hour special tonight on ABC, is the fourth "Peanuts" film made since Schulz died in February 2000 at age 77. It's no classic, but it puts forth the same sweet, sad, empathy-provoking charm as its predecessors.
Since "A Charlie Brown Christmas" had its premiere in 1965, the "Peanuts" characters have starred in 40 or so movies, most of them made for television. Beyond Christmas, they've dealt with Thanksgiving, New Year's, Easter, Valentine's Day, Halloween, Arbor Day, the Super Bowl and various topics not related to national holidays. "Lucy Must Be Traded Charlie Brown" (a title that could use a comma but hasn't been granted one) focuses entirely on baseball, an endeavor at which Charlie Brown failed repeatedly over the 50 years that "Peanuts" ran as a newspaper comic strip.
Charlie Brown (the voice is Wesley Singerman) is facing another baseball season, dressed in his traditional mustard-gold shirt and standing on a pitcher's mound that's bigger than he is. As usual, Lucy Van Pelt (Serena Berman) repeatedly visits him there to tell him what a miserable team manager he is. The team does have a losing record, usually playing against the one managed by Peppermint Patty (Daniel Hansen), a girl who was born to be a physical education teacher and always calls Charlie Brown "Chuck."
In this story, Lucy is the real problem. The others agree that she is the worst player in the history of the game (well, she did confuse her pizza with her mitt once) and that the only answer is to trade her to another team. Bill Melendez, a co-director, and Lee Mendelson, the executive producer, say they work exclusively from the comic strip now that Schulz is gone, but somehow I missed this aspect of Lucy's character. Isn't she usually just obnoxious, not incompetent? When she's told to keep her eye on the ball, she says, "That's hard to do when you keep moving it around."
And Charlie Brown certainly has a toothy smile this time around. Not that he has any reason to look genuinely happy. As he announces, horrified: "I've traded away my own dog. I've become a real manager." Yes, at one point he trades Snoopy - the only player Patty will accept, even though she still refers to him as the kid with the big nose - for "five good players," but that isn't the end of the story.
The other children are in familiar form. Linus still has his blue blanket, Schroeder still has his piano and Sally still has baby-sister attitude. Snoopy, the world's most lovable beagle and World War I flying ace, has a few moments, but this special doesn't have a musical number or give him any other opportunity for silent slapstick. Maybe you remember his battle with the lawn chair in "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving."
"Peanuts" has always been a low-key entertainment; when Charlie Brown says "Good grief," he says it quietly. A big part of the strip's appeal is its acceptance of continual disappointment and constant failure. But the specials often come equipped with moral lessons: about the potential beauty of a tiny, scraggly Christmas tree when it's loved or the true meaning of Thanksgiving. If "Lucy Must Be Traded" has a moral, it's "Better the devil you know," which isn't exactly uplifting but, come to think of it, does match the "Peanuts" gestalt nicely.
And why would anyone want to get rid of a player as well informed as Lucy? When she asks Charlie Brown to get shoes with cleats for his team because she keeps sliding off the mound, she adds a little jab: "I bet Babe Ruth had cleats on her shoes."
LUCY MUST BE TRADED CHARLIE BROWN
ABC, tonight 8/29 at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time.
Animation produced and directed by Bill Melendez and Larry Leichliter; Lee Mendelson, executive producer; original music composed by Vince Guaraldi and David Benoit, arrahnged and performed by Mr. Benoit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/29/arts/television/29GATE.html?ex=1062734400&en=9aa6af4662299a50&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE