Not pulling any punches, 1975’s Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown successfully translates cartoonist Charles M. Schulz‘ conflicted feelings about love and romance within the standard Peanuts TV special framework. It took guts to put something out there that might make little kids sad—as well as giving the adults watching pause for thought. Continue reading ‘Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown’ (1975): Emotional & engaging, one of the best Peanuts specials
Seriously, guys: put that damn dog down! Continue reading ‘Benji’s Very Own Christmas Story!’ (1978): Yo humans, let Benji be Benji!
Do the things they call “TV series” today have Christmas episodes? I wouldn’t know, because you couldn’t pay me to watch new television. The last time I tried, it was some CBS Medical Center Meets Doogie Howser, M.D. mash-up, featuring an autistic savant hero who head-ciphers in Hemo the Magnificent graphics (I went straight for the gin bottle…). Why play Russian roulette with your limited holiday time? You know what’s easier when you need your Christmas TV fix? Get a disc of pre-selected old-timey television favorites, like Merry Sitcom! Christmas Classics From TV’s Golden Age, from Shout! Factory. Continue reading ‘Merry Sitcom! Christmas Classics From TV’s Golden Age’: Shout!’s yuletide DVD collection
Classic stop-motion Christmas fun, SpongeBob-style!
Continue reading ‘It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!’ (2012): Modern holiday special is a hit!
In the Midwest, the chilly arrival of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas creates the perfect environment to draw the drapes and hunker down to watch some television. To TV lovers in my age bracket (the Punic Wars) who are rooting around for something nostalgic, triggered memories of annual CBS airings of Charlie Brown animated specials, such as A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, are inevitable.
Continue reading ‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’ (1973): A fun warm-up to better Peanuts specials
Since you’re not watching the NFL this Thanksgiving…how about some vintage Hanna-Barbera holiday fun?
