Sally likes Linus. Lucy likes Schroeder. Linus is crushing on the teacher, Miss Othmar. And Charlie wants attention from anyone he can get, but especially from a certain little red-haired girl. None of them winds up particularly happy at the end of this show, but that is Peanuts for you. Charles Schulz had a way of showing how things don't always turn out the way you might want, but that's OK, and life will go on. The Peanuts specials were littered with that sort of sentiment.
Perhaps the oddest element to this one is Charlie's unshakable belief that he'll get so many valentines from his classmates that he'll need a briefcase to carry them home! How in the world did he reach this conclusion? Charlie has always been the lovable loser who gets rocks on Halloween, gets laughed at for picking a poor tree, misspells 'beagle' at the spelling bee....he has no right to expect that he'll be getting many valentines at all, much less a briefcase-full. But that's Charlie I guess. Ever the optimist.
Some notes for Peanuts aficionados: strangely, Peppermint Patty, Marcie and Franklin are shown here as being in the same classroom as Charlie, Linus and the rest. This is in complete contradiction to what had been shown before. In every previous episode where it was mentioned, those three lived 'across town' and attended a different school than the other Peanuts characters. No explanation was given for why they suddenly appeared here. It's also odd that, if PP and Marcie were in the class - why didn't they give Chuck a valentine? PP is always flirting with him, and Marcie even kissed him at the end of "There's No Time for Love Charlie Brown." If no one else, at least they should have given him one. Or his sister, Sally! Weird.
Strange also was Sally being in the same classroom with all of the older kids. Previous shows had already established she was in a lower grade. And the teacher, Miss Othmar, left the classroom unattended when she took off with her boyfriend! That can't be proper protocol. So this one is a bit inconsistent, albeit still very entertaining. I would say it lives up enough to the high standards some of the previous shows had set.
8/10. Not their best, but still very good. Would I watch again (Y/N)?: Yes.
