Happy New Year, Charlie Brown

"No book report has ever been finished by just reading the dust jacket."

The history of Charlie Brown is a timeline of things that happened while he was looking the other way. Everyone has that story of how they left the ballgame early and missed the greatest play in sports history. Poor Charlie Brown lives every day like that. You can keep your Willie Loma and John Procter. The greatest tragic hero in American literature is a boy named Charlie Brown.

This is a very good special, and it includes the famous "Pig-Pen" Hoedown scene.

This has one of my all-time favorite lines. Sally wonders to Charlie Brown, when will her Sweet Babboo invite her to the party? Linus responds from outside, "I AM NOT YOUR SWEET BABBOO! AND I WOULDN'T INVITE YOU TO A GARAGE SALE!"

I think this also marks the only appearance ever of the Little Red Haired Girl, whom we not only see, but also find out that her name is Heather.

Poor Charlie Brown... trying to learn to dance, read War and Peace, make an appearance at at New Year's Party, and still deal with his crazy dog!

The teacher assigns Charlie Brown's class to do a book report on War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Peppermint Patty tells Charlie Brown about her New Year Party. He drops in on dance class and Peppermint Patty grabs him. He continues to struggle with the book while she keeps dropping hints about an invitation. He tells her about inviting the little red haired girl, Heather. He decides to put the invitation in her mail slot but his hand gets caught. At the party, Peppermint Patty wins musical chairs and continues to drop hints on the clueless Charlie Brown. He is left alone reading the book and falling asleep. Heather shows up and Charlie Brown miss her. In the end, he gets a D- for his book report. Even worst, they have to read Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky.

I just can't get over that Charlie Brown is reading War and Peace. It's pretty outlandish. I do like a jealous Peppermint Patty. She has a great awkward charm about her. They could have had more fun with her and Marcie in this one. The style is still as charming as ever.

This is a good show and I don't understand why it hasn't been put on DVD like the other Holiday Charlie Brown Shows.

Poor Charlie Brown the worst he can think of always seems to happen to him, like when he gets his hand caught trying to deliver an invitation to the red hair girl.

Then when she does show up for the party he's not there to bring in the New Year.

It's funny how much time Peppermint Patty spends trying to get Chuck to notice her.

Great Show!

Well, New Year's Eve is coming up but poor Charlie Brown is stuck with having to read "War and Peace" (which is about a thousand pages) for his school book report. On top of that, Peppermint Patty invites him for her and Marcie's party while Linus tries to avoid Sally and her calling him her "Sweet Baboo". Oh, and there's a certain "Little Red Haired Girl" that Charlie's crazy about...Another funny and insightful "Peanuts" special with a wonderful script by creator Charles Schulz, direction by Sam Jaimes and usual helmer Bill Melendez, and a not bad musical score by Ed Bogas and Desiree Goyette who also wrote a couple of songs as well as sang on one of them. Too bad no one thought to put the late Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy" in there but otherwise, this was another fine "Peanuts" holiday special.