Stubs - A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

 

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973) voices by Bill Melendez, Todd Barbee, Stephen Shea, Hilary Momberger, Robin Kohn, Christopher DeFaria, Jimmy Ahrens, Robin Reed. Directed by Bill Melendez, Phil Roman. Teleplay by Charles M. Schulz. Based on Peanuts Created by Charles M. Schulz Run time: 25 minutes. Color, USA. Animated. Holiday, TV Special 

There are some TV specials that are perennials. For many people, the holiday specials based on Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip are something to watch annually. The tradition started with A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), followed by It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966). Seven years later, Schulz tackled Thanksgiving with A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. The special first aired on CBS on November 20, 1973, two days before the holiday.

Lucy (Robin Kohn) suckers Charlie Brown (Todd Barbee) into trying to kick the football she's holding.

The special opens with a call back to The Great Pumpkin, with Lucy van Pelt (Robin Kohn) offering to hold the football for Charlie Brown (Todd Barbee). But rather than a signed document, she uses the tradition of Thanksgiving football to convince him to try. And, as we all know, she pulls it away at the last second, leaving Charlie Brown flat on his back.

Later, Charlie Brown had plans for Thanksgiving; his family is planning to go to his grandmother's house for Thanksgiving dinner at 4:30. But things change quickly when he gets a phone call from Peppermint Patty (Christopher DeFaria). Her father got called away and wouldn’t mind if she spent Thanksgiving with Charlie Brown. She invites herself over before Charlie Brown has a chance to say anything. He barely hangs up before she calls back and invites Marcie (Jimmy Ahrens) and Franklin (Robin Reed) to come with her.

Linus (Stephen Shea) recites part of the prayer spoken at the first Thanksgiving.

Charlie Brown doesn’t know what to do until Linus (Stephen Shea) suggests that he could have two Thanksgiving dinners: the first at home for himself, Peppermint Patty and the others, then a second with his family at grandmother's. But Charlie Brown can only make cold cereal and toast, and the latter is questionable. Since Linus has had Charlie Brown's toast, he recruits Snoopy (Bill Melendez) and Woodstock (Bill Melendez) to help. Not only do Snoopy and Woodstock set up a ping pong table and chairs outside, but Snoopy is also the chief cook, as he, Charlie Brown, Woodstock and Linus prepare a feast of toast, pan-fried popcorn, pretzel sticks, jelly beans and ice cream sundaes.

Charlie Brown doesn't appreciate Snoopy's costume.

Snoopy takes great pains to get Woodstock dressed in a pilgrim’s hat, which matches the outfit he’s picked out for himself. But when they get to Charlie Brown’s house, he makes them take off the outfits because he wants Snoopy to be wearing his chef’s hat when he serves dinner.

Peppermint Patty (Christopher DeFaria) isn't impressed by the food Snoopy is serving.

Peppermint Patty, Marcie and Franklin are led outside by Linus and once everyone is seated, Linus leads the group in a prayer told at the First Thanksgiving. But after Snoopy serves the meal, Peppermint Patty, who expected turkey and other traditional Thanksgiving food, yells at Charlie Brown, who dejectedly leaves the table.

Peppermint Patty's complaining upset Charlie Brown.

Marcie suggests Peppermint Patty was too hard on Charlie Brown and when she complains again about the food, Marcie asks her whether he invited her or she just invited herself. Realizing she’s in the wrong, Peppermint Patty asks Marcie to apologize to Charlie Brown on her behalf.

Marcie reluctantly agrees, but while she’s talking to Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty follows and apologizes to him herself. Realizing that he and Sally are late for the Brown family dinner, Charlie Brown explains the situation over the phone to his grandmother, who invites all his friends to come along. On the drive over, they sing "Over the River and Through the Wood", but as they finish the song, Charlie Brown says there's one problem with that song: His grandmother lives in a condominium, not a house.

Left alone, Snoopy and Woodstock have a feast of their own.

Later, Snoopy and Woodstock go to Snoopy's doghouse and cook their own traditional Thanksgiving meal, complete with a turkey, which they sit down to eat. They break the wishbone, with Woodstock receiving the larger piece. Over the end credits, the two eat pumpkin pie.

I have read that the scenario between Charlie Brown, Marcie and Peppermint Patty imitates the situation in “The Courtship of Miles Standish,” a poem by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem focuses on a love triangle among three Mayflower passengers: Miles Standish, Priscilla Mullins, and John Alden. Even though the story he tells is highly fictionalized, the poem has been credited with cementing the Pilgrim story in American culture. But I wonder how many casual viewers would be aware of all of this subtext as they watch.

The special was a hit when it was first broadcast, placing third in the Nielsen ratings for the week, behind All in the Family and Sanford & Son, and won an Emmy Award the following year. CBS continued to air it every year on CBS (skipping 1982, 1983, and 1988) through Nov. 23, 1989. After that, it switched to basic cable and aired on the Disney channel and Nickelodeon through the 1990s before returning to broadcast on ABC. Starting in 2020, the special (along with the rest of the Peanuts library) has exclusively aired on Apple TV+. It is also available on 4K Blu-ray, which is how we watched it recently.

There are many things that make A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving memorable. Not only is it fun, but it’s also silly, only kids would think toast and popcorn are appropriate dinner items because that’s all they can make. But there is something deeper at the same time. Not just the Standish reference that no one would get, but, like he did in A Charlis Brown Christmas, Linus brings us a sense of what Thanksgiving is really all about. It’s not the relationships of the people celebrating nor is it the food they share, it is the getting together to give thanks that is important.

It is not a holiday without a Charles M. Schulz special, and if you haven’t seen A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, or haven’t seen it in a while, you really owe it to yourself to watch it before you sit down with your family and friends. And you never know, next year you might want to watch it again.