It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown

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It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown is a prime-time animated TV special based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was originally aired on the CBS network in 1976 [1]. It was released as a bonus feature with DVD release of It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown on March 4, 2003.

It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown was the last "Peanuts" special to feature original music composed by Vince Guaraldi, who was best known for the Peanuts' signature tune, "Linus and Lucy." Guaraldi died of a sudden heart attack a few hours after completing the soundtrack for this special.

1 Plot
2 Controversy
3 Voice actors and their characters
4 External links

[edit] Plot

To celebrate Arbor Day, everybody works together to plant a garden. Unfortunately, the garden is located in Charlie Brown's baseball field, and he has a game with Peppermint Patty's team approaching.

[edit] Controversy

It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown is considered by many to be a low point in terms of the history of the Peanuts animated TV specials. Many critics at the time questioned the purpose of the special, given the obscurity of "Arbor Day" as a major national holiday. The special is often held up by critics as an example of the downward decline in quality of the Peanuts specials, in terms of resorting to obscure holidays for storyline ideas. As such, the special has rarely been aired since its original broadcast, though it was included in the syndication package of Peanuts specials that aired on Nickelodeon in 1997. In its actual content, however, many rank it among the better specials to come after the "early period".

With the untimely death of Vince Guaraldi, Peanuts animated TV specials produced after It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown lack the same kind of jazzy musical score as previous entries. As such, It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown marks for many the end of Golden Years for Charlie Brown's TV run.