The opening of Charlie Brown’s All-Stars! sums up the title character perfectly.
Charlie Brown is on the pitcher’s mound. He pitches the ball, and the batter hits it. In an attempt to catch the ball, Charlie Brown runs into the outfield, has to hop a fence, runs up and down the bleachers, through someone’s backyard, past some of the girls playing jump rope (he stops and jumps rope himself), he runs into a house, up to the second floor, then finally winds up running out to the backyard and when he finally tries to catch the ball, it drops onto the grass and he misses it.
The whole Peanuts gang then gathers round and yells, “You blockhead, Charlie Brown!”
Poor Charlie Brown. He tries so hard, always just misses, and his friends don’t give him a break. That’s at the center of Charlie Brown’s All-Stars!, celebrating its 60th anniversary this summer. The second prime time Peanuts TV special, following A Charlie Brown Christmas, and the first special not themed to a holiday.
Set during the summer, and based around Charlie Brown’s favorite sport of baseball, Charlie Brown’s All-Stars! centers on Charlie Brown’s baseball team, which is not doing well. In fact, the whole team quits, but Linus comes to the rescue. He gets Mr. Hennessey, who owns the local hardware store, to sponsor uniforms for the team.
Charlie Brown (Peter Robbins) is so excited that he tells the team, and Lucy (Sally Dryer) says that if he can really get the uniforms, they will all give him another chance and rejoin the team.
However, after this, Mr. Hennessey calls and lets Charlie Brown know that it’s against league rules to have a dog or girls on the team and tells Charlie Brown that if he can get the girls and the dog to leave, he will support the team and get the uniforms. But Charlie Brown stands his ground and refuses this, telling Mr. Hennessey thanks, but no thanks.
Charlie Brown elects not to tell the team about this, but he confides in Linus (Christopher Shea). Thinking that if he doesn’t tell them, Charlie Brown hopes their spirits will still be lifted, and they might win their next game. Sadly, they don’t, and it’s Charlie Brown who loses it for them by getting tagged out at home.
It’s after this that Charlie Brown confesses to the team what Mr. Hennessey said, and that the deal with them playing in the league and the uniforms is off.
Everyone is furious with Charlie Brown, and they all storm off. After, Linus tells the team why Charlie Brown did this, and the team feels bad.
Searching for a way to make it up to Charlie Brown, they create a managers uniform using Linus’ blanket.
They present Charlie Brown with the special uniform bearing the words “Our Manager,” and he is so touched that he sheds a tear.
He tells his team he knows that they’ll win the game the next day. But it rains, and the game is canceled. Charlie Brown, dressed in his new manager uniform, goes out to the field anyway and stands on the mound, in the pouring rain.
Linus comes out to the field to tell Charlie Brown that no one will be coming and reveals that the manager’s uniform was made using his blanket. So, Charlie Brown gives him a corner of the uniform. Holding a portion of the blanket and sucking his thumb, Linus stands there, alongside Charlie Brown, rain coming down on the baseball field, as the special ends.
Directed by Bill Melendez and written by Charles M. Schulz, with animation by Ed Love, Bill Littlejohn, and others, Charlie Brown’s All-Stars!, like the Christmas special that preceded it, does perfect work of melding Schulz’s comic strip panels with the world of animation.
Of note is the gag where Charlie Brown, as the pitcher, finds himself flipped in the air, his clothes flying off, as the ball hit by the batter soars past him with such force. This had been used by Schulz in the comic strip, over the course of several panels, and segues perfectly to a cartoon sight gag.
Schulz also brings his pointed humor, which is peppered nicely throughout All-Stars. There are subtle moments, such as Charlie Brown wondering if he should resign as manager, followed by Snoopy (Melendez) appearing to hand him a pencil and paper.
This is coupled with sharp dialogue, such as Charlie Brown saying, “For one brief moment victory was within our grasp,” to which Linus replies, “And then the game started.”
Charlie Brown’s All-Stars! also features the familiar, comforting music of Vince Guaraldi (for more about the soundtrack, read Greg Ehrbar’s 2017 article). For the fiftieth anniversary, the score was recently re-released.
Essentially a summer-themed remake of A Charlie Brown Christmas (Charlie Brown attempts to be a leader for his friends, who turn on him, and Linus steps in to make them all aware of Charlie Brown’s good intentions), Charlie Brown’s All-Stars! is still an entertaining half-hour filled with all the hallmarks audiences have come to love and expect from Peanuts specials. Snoopy even gets his moment, as he fantasizes about being a great surfer.
Originally airing on June 8, 1966, on CBS, the special may not have had the staying power of the Peanuts holiday outings, but sixty years later, Charlie Brown’s All-Stars! most definitely has its fans who, like Linus, would stand out in the rain alongside Charlie Brown.
Login
