It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown

It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown
Genre	Animated TV Special
Created by	Charles M. Schulz
Directed by	Phil Roman
Voices of	Dylan Beach; Gail M. Davis; Sarah Beach; Stuart Brotman; Greg Felton; Liam Martin; Michelle Muller; Vinnie Dow; Bill Melendez
Theme music composer	Vince Guaraldi
Country of origin	USA
Language(s)	English
Production
Executive producer(s)	Lee Mendelson
Producer(s)	Bill Melendez
Editor(s)	Chuck McCann; Roger Donley
Running time	30 mins.
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
First shown in	March 16, 1976
Chronology
Preceded by	You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown
Followed by	It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown

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It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown is the 15th prime-time animated TV special based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was originally aired on the CBS network on March 16, 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 also appeared in remastered form in the DVD boxset "Peanuts 1970's Collection Vol. 2".

[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. However, Charlie Brown works to make the best of the situation by attaching baseball gloves to the trees as well as caps (to make them look like scarecrows), which results in Peppermint Patty's team being unable to score due to the large number of fly outs from the balls being hit into the gloves. Schroeder says he will kiss Lucy if she hits a home run, which he figures she will not. However, Charlie Brown is happy to see Lucy indeed hit a home run and score the only run in the game. The game is cut short by rain, and although Charlie Brown expresses agony that "We were winning!", he accepts it as a de facto victory and one of the few times his baseball team has won a game.

[edit] Reception

It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown received mixed reviews during the time of the original airing. The special was 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, even though Arbor Day is a 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".^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Vince Guaraldi dies

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." 47-year-old Guaraldi died of a heart attack several hours after completing the soundtrack for this special. The end credits include a dedication, "For Vince."

With the untimely death of Guaraldi, later Peanuts animated specials lack the same jazzy musical score as previous entries. As such, It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown is seen by some fans as marking the swan song of the "golden era" for Charlie Brown's television run.^[2]