It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown

It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown is the sixth prime-time animated TV specials based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. It was directed by Bill Meléndez and originally aired on CBS on September 27, 1969. This was also the first Peanuts special not to feature the majority of the original voice cast from the inaugural A Charlie Brown Christmas, except for Peter Robbins.

Plot

School is out for the summer and Charlie Brown, Linus, Schroeder, and Pig Pen are planning to spend it reading every comic book, watching television, playing baseball, and playing classical music. However, Lucy tells them that she signed them up for camp. The girls are eager to go, but the boys hate the idea. (Charlie Brown adds that it's like finding out that he was drafted.) The boys shove each other to get on the bus, while the girls line up in order. At camp, Charlie Brown is chosen captain of the boys camp. The boys and girls have a swim race which the girls win easily. Then they have a softball game, which the boys lose with only one run. Other competitions are just as lopsided.

Afterwards, the boys sit around the campfire and reflect on how miserable they are. In one scene, the colors of the shirts of Schroeder (Peanuts) and Linus are mixed up during this scene.

Charlie Brown and Shermy, disillusioned by their continued defeat, see Snoopy arm wrestling with the boys. They realize that the boys might get even with an arm wrestling game, with "The Masked Marvel" (Snoopy) as their champion. Snoopy goes into training, eating the camp's awful food, doing exercises, and drinking a nutritious and noxious concoction. In the contest, Snoopy goes against Lucy. They both get sweaty and tired in the match, which ends when Snoopy kisses Lucy. He pins her hand: but she says that kissing her was a foul, and she is the winner.

Back at school, Charlie Brown only comes up with 13 words on his essay that he and Linus are forced to write on the first day, after both boys are caught playing hangman in class. Linus gets an A but Charlie Brown gets a C-. Linus then says "Oh, well, it was a short summer, Charlie Brown", followed by Charlie Brown saying gloomily "And it looks like it's going to be a long winter".

DVD

On July 7, 2009, it was released on DVD for the first time, in remastered form as part of the DVD box set, "Peanuts 1960s Collection."

Voice cast

• Peter Robbins ... Charlie Brown
• Pamelyn Ferdin ... Lucy van Pelt
• Glenn Gilger ... Linus van Pelt
• Hilary Momberger ... Sally Brown
• Ann Altieri ... Frieda/Violet Gray
• David Carey ... Shermy
• Christopher DeFaria ... Peppermint Patty
• Gail DeFaria ... Pig-Pen
• Sally Dryer ... Clara/Shirley/Sophie
• Matthew Liftin ... Roy
• Lisa DeFaria ... Patty
• John Daschback ... Schroeder
• Bill Melendez ... Snoopy

This was the last Peanuts TV special for Peter Robbins as Charlie Brown.

Production credits

• Written by Charles M. Schulz
• Directed by Bill Melendez
• Produced by Lee Mendleson and Bill Melendez
• Original score composed and performed by Vince Guaraldi
• Music supervised, arranged and conducted by John Scott Trotter
• Storyboard: Jan Strejan
• Animators: Bob Carlson, Brad Case, Herman Cohen, Sam Jaimes, Ruth Kissane, Bill Littlejohn, Don Lusk, Spencer Peel, Phil Roman, Frank Smith, Hank Smith, Rudy Zamora, Richard Thompson, Bob Matz, Hal Ambro, Manuel Perez
• Layout: Evert Brown, Bernard Gruver, Ed Levitt, Robert Givens
• Backgrounds: Ellie Bonnard, William Butler
• Ink and paint: Gwenn Dotzler, Faith Kovaleski, Beverly Robbins, Eleanor Warren, Manon Washburn
• Editors: Bob Gillis, Chuck McCann, Steve Melendez
• Voices: Radio Recorders, Sid Nicholas
• Music: United Recorders, Arte Becker
• Mix: Producers' Sound Service, Don Minkler, Bill Mumford
• Camera: Jim Dixon, Nick Vasu, Wally Bulloch

Notes

• The wrist-wrestling contest was loosely based on a series of Peanuts strips which appeared in 1967.
• When Snoopy is driving the bus, in his fantasy, all the other "people" and animals are Snoopys too.
• Peppermint Patty frequently calls Lucy "Sir", as Lucy is the head of the girls' group at the camp. Marcie would subsequently call Peppermint Patty "Sir" in later strips and TV specials (starting with There's No Time for Love, Charlie Brown in 1973).
• The concept of the Peanuts gang going to a summer camp and the boys and girls being two different teams with Charlie Brown the leader of the boys' team would recur eight years later in the movie, Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown.

External links

• It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown at the Internet Movie Database