You know I have lived in or near York PA for over 15 years and it never dawned on me that the candy was originally made there until a few years ago.
I’ve always been bugged by the sloppy animation in this, but only in one scene. When our intrepid protagonist visits Lucy in her psychiatry box, the front of the box says,
The
doctor
is
and for some reason, there’s a placard that says “real in” but it’s positioned after the word “doctor”, not after “is”. So it looks as if it says “The doctor real in is”. There are one or two shots from the side of the box and the front can still be seen, but in those shots it says “The doctor is in”.
It’s as if nobody noticed the sloppy placard placement.
Perfectionist? Me? Nahhh.
Is it possible that they ran fewer commercials when the special originally aired.
Without seemign to fluff it up with commercials too much, it still runs to about 8:35.
I still like this special. It’s just fucking nuts, ain’t it. There are continuity problems. There are color problems. There are long musical interludes. It totally slams consumerism. The kids are totally cruel. Violet is a flat-out bitch. It would never get made today.
One of the weirdest bits is when Lucy goes from “The Doctor is Out” to “The Doctor is In”.
First of all, the lettering on the sign is always changing.
Second of all, the sign actually says “The Doctor is Real In”. WTF does that mean?
And, because of the first two, at one point, it looks like the sign says “The Doctor Real Is In”.
It looks like it was put together by amateurs. But, it’s got great touches. I love when they’re whipping snowballs at the can on the fence, and Charlie Brown puts a snow ball together, and then leans in like he’s checking the signs from a catcher.
Anyway, go to youtube and serach for “charlie brown hey ya” for a video made from the Xmas footage set to “Hey Ya”. Hilarious.
Might also want to check out the “Charlie Borwn MLK day” video.
Animation. Fancy term.
As I recall from the strip, 5’s father named their children as a protest against being treated like a number by society/government/whatever.
I agree this term had me stumped. I have never used “blandishment” in a sentence, but I looked it up and it means “flattery to influence someone.” So I guess that clears everything up.
I watched a bit of the extra peanuts tacked on. Why did Schultz come up with the new character - Rerun? He is indistinguishable from Linus.
It says,
only 12/3 is a Monday. Who’s got the straight dope?
Beatnik or hippie talk (remember, this was made in 1965). “Hey man, like, the doctor is in–*real * in. Can you dig it?”
Lucy’s sign, in the strip, normally read, “The Doctor is In”. The phrase “real in” was a nod to the slang of the time meaning she was “hip” or “with it”.
Rerun was Linus’ brother and did look just like him only smaller. As time went on Schulz added characters to the basic cast to open up story possibilites. Rerun on the back of his Mom’s bicycle was a recuring element in the strip at that time.
Well according to this it is going to air on 12/3.
No, it was a bunch of short holiday-themed Peanuts shorts. for example, Snoopy as a street-corner Santa, Sally dictating her letter to Santa to Charlie Brown, and other similar cartoons.
This is probably a sign I’m mentally unravelling but after hearing Lucy for the upteenth time challenge the greatness of Beethoven because he never appeared on a bubble gum card, I automatically thought, “Famous composer cards–that’s not a bad idea.” Granted, it would be a niche item but there might be an audience for it.
(“I’ll trade you a Shastikovich, Debussey and Philip Glass for a Mozart rookie.”)
Checked my book. His full name is “5 95472”. The family’s last name is their zip code.
His full first name is 555, after his telephone exchange.
The way I recall it, ABC does go to commercial there, but when we come back, we do see Lucy running. The commercial comes after Snoopy makes a face of disgust. According to the official Charlie Brown Christmas companion book, the first line after this is “All right, all right, script girl. Continue with the scripts.”
As for what fills up the remainder of the hour: the first year ABC ran the special, it was a making-of special hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. From then on, it was originally-commissioned shorts under the title of “Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales,” taken directly from the strips. (The making-of special appears on the Paramount DVD as a special feature. Warner Bros. will be taking over the Peanuts specials DVDs next year- they plan to rerelease all the ones Paramount has in new editions, plus many obscure ones never-before released on DVD.)
The second airing is indeed Monday, December 3 at 8pm.
Thank you for posting this. I liked that video but what I liked even better was the Charlie Brown Christmas done by the cast of Scrubs that showed as a related video. It appears to have been out for a few years but better late than never.
5: . . . My Dad thinks modern society is replacing our individuality with numbers.
Linus: So, this is his way of protesting, huh?
5: No, this is his way of giving in.
Or, in her absence: “The Doctor is way out!” 
So, they’re from Sabastopol (CA), which is where Schultz’s studio was for a time.
Schulz lived from Sebastopol from 1958 until the late 1960s. According to the recent book Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis as well as the PBS special inspired somewhat by it, Good Ol’ Charles Schulz, the relationship between Lucy and Schroeder in the strip was inspired by Schulz and his first wife, Joyce Steele Halverson Lewis Schulz Doty, in Sebastopol: Joyce would comission and build extravigant expansions to the house to please her husband, but he preferred just working on his comic strip in peace. (The Schulz family has made a number of complaints about how Charles was depicted in the book, but I see no complaints regarding the portrayal of their mother- rather, their qualm regarding this era of Schulz’s life is the fact that Michaelis omits a black housekeeper who also took care of things during the family’s time in Sebastopol.) A New York Times article stated that Doty was offended by being portrayed as “overbearing and shrewdish,” her official comment to the Times was, “I am not talking to anybody about anything.”
OK, this thread has now passed way beyond the Geek Event Horizon even by Doper standards!