It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown

It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown is the sixth TV special based upon the Peanuts comic strip, created by Charles M. Schulz. It was directed by Bill Meléndez and originally aired on CBS on September 27, 1969.

It was the first Peanuts special not to feature the majority of the original voice cast from the inaugural A Charlie Brown Christmas, except for Peter Robbins and Sally Dryer.

It was also the first Peanuts special not to receive any Emmy Award nominations.

Plot[]

School is out for the summer and Charlie Brown, Linus van Pelt, Schroeder, and "Pig-Pen" are planning to spend it reading every comic book, watching television, practicing baseball, and classical music. However, Lucy tells them that she signed them up for camp. The girls are eager to go, but the boys hate the idea. (Charlie Brown adds that it's like finding out that he was drafted.) The boys shove each other to get on the bus, while the girls get lined up in order. At camp, Charlie Brown is chosen captain of the boy's camp. The boys and girls have a swim race and the girls win easily. Then they have a softball game, which the boys lose with only one run. Other competitions are just as lopsided.

Afterwards, the boys sit around a campfire and reflect on how miserable they are. In one scene, the colors of the shirts of Schroeder and Linus are mixed up. When Linus was asked to gather more firewood, Shermy plays a practical joke on him twice about a spider on the log causing Linus to panic and fall on his back. Then the girls show up to try and cheer up the boys with a few campfire songs.

Charlie Brown and Shermy, disillusioned by their continued defeat, see Snoopy arm wrestling with some boys. They realize that the boys might get even with an arm wrestling game, with, The "Masked Marvel" (Snoopy) as their champion. Snoopy goes into training, eating the camp's awful food, doing exercises, and drinking a nutritious and noxious concoction. In the contest, Snoopy goes against Lucy. They both get sweaty and tired in the match, which ends when Snoopy kisses Lucy. He pins her hand: but she says that kissing her was a foul, and she is the winner.

Back at school, Charlie Brown only came up with 13 words on his first essay that he and Linus were forced to write on the first day. Linus got an A but Charlie Brown got a C-, Linus then says, "Oh, well, it was a short summer, Charlie Brown", followed by Charlie Brown saying gloomily, "And it looks like it's going to be a long winter".

Notes[]

• When Snoopy pretends to be a bus driver, he passes by a map that includes the names of several crew members, including Schulz City, Levitttown (for Ed Levitt, one of the designers), Leesville (for Lee Mendelson), Gruverberg (for Bernard Gruver, another one of the designers), and Cuidad (misspelled) de Melendez (for Bill Melendez).
• Charles Schulz once stated that the arm wrestling competition between the Masked Marvel and Lucy was his all-time favorite piece of animation.
• Even though this was the last Peanuts TV special to be released in the 1960s, the last Peanuts animation adaptation to be released in the 1960s was the first ever Peanuts Feature-Film "A Boy Named Charlie Brown", which premiered in theaters three months after "It was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown" aired on television.
• This was the first special to not premiere early in Canada, having instead premiered on CBC on September 13, 1970.
• This was the final TV special to feature Peter Robbins as the voice of Charlie Brown. Robbins' voice would also be heard in the feature film A Boy Named Charlie Brown which was released later in 1969. It would appear that this special was recorded after said film, as Robbins’ voice is noticeably deeper here.
• This was the first TV special to feature Hilary Momberger as the voice of Sally Brown, Pamelyn Ferdin as the voice of Lucy van Pelt, and Christopher DeFaria as the voice of Peppermint Patty.
• This is Peppermint Patty's third appearance in the Peanuts TV specials, following after You're in Love, Charlie Brown and He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown.
• This is the first special in which Peppermint Patty calls Charlie Brown by his real name instead of Chuck.
• The version on the He's a Bully, Charlie Brown DVD and on Apple TV+ is very heavily edited and is missing four minutes. This edited version had previously been released on VHS by Hi-Topps video during the 80s.
• This was the final Vince Guaraldi score to primarily rely on acoustic instruments. (Although he played Hammond organ for A Charlie Brown Christmas and harpsichord in You're in Love, Charlie Brown.) Beginning with Play It Again, Charlie Brown, Guaraldi would primarily experiment with electronic instruments such as the Fender Rhodes, synthesizer, electric harpsichord, and ARP String Ensemble.
• This was the first special to reuse a comic strip that was already adapted. In this case, the opening scene where Charlie Brown tells Sally to go to school was previously adapted into A Boy Named Charlie Brown, with Lucy and Linus replacing the respective characters.
• In an original television promo for the special, the scene where Sally launches 10 feet in the air at the mention of "kindergarten" had a rocket sound, instead of it having a dash sound like in the special.

Soundtrack[]

(All compositions for this special by Guaraldi, unless otherwise specified)

1. "Charlie Brown Theme" (horn section version)
2. "Linus and Lucy" (flute and trio version)
3. "It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown" (two versions)
4. "Oh, Good Grief"
5. "You're in Love, Charlie Brown"
6. "Schroeder"
7. "Bus Blues" (composed by John Scott Trotter)
8. "Who Stepped on My Toe?" (composed by John Scott Trotter) [discarded and unused, and therefore unknown]
9. "Bus Blues" (composed by John Scott Trotter)
10. "It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown"
11. "Frieda (With the Naturally Curly Hair)" (big band version)
12. "Come and Get It" (composed by John Scott Trotter) (based on "Mess Call")
13. "Bon Voyage"
14. "Peppermint Patty"
15. "Nova Bossa" (composed by John Scott Trotter) [discarded and unused, and therefore unknown]
16. "Love Will Come"
17. "Nova Bossa" (composed by John Scott Trotter) [discarded and unused, and therefore unknown]
18. "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag" (traditional, arranged by Guaraldi)
19. "There's a Long, Long Trail A'Winding" (traditional, arranged by Guaraldi)
20. "A.M. Break" (composed by John Scott Trotter) (based on "Reveille")
21. "He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown"
22. "Pebble Beach"
23. "You're in Love, Charlie Brown"
24. "He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown"
25. "Tah-Dah" (composed by John Scott Trotter)
26. "Masked Marvel" (subsequently re-recorded for I)
27. "Air Music" (subsequently retitled "Surfin' Snoopy")
28. "The Masked Marvel"
29. "You're in Love, Charlie Brown"
30. "Masked Marvel"
31. "Oh, Good Grief"
32. "Charlie Brown Theme"
33. "It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown"

Quotes[]

• Linus van Pelt: "Oh well, it was a short summer, Charlie Brown."
• Charlie Brown: "And it looks like it's going to be a long winter."

Goofs[]

• Between the two scenes of Charlie Brown writing, he is shown to have written a minimum of 21 words, not counting the title. At the end of the special, he says he only wrote 13 words.
• In one scene of the girls singing to the boys at the campfire at night, Linus and Schroeder have swapped the colors of their shirts.
• In one shot of the crowd watching Masked Marvel and Lucy's arm wrestling competition, Sally is missing her cluster of hair curls.
• Sally Brown is nervous on her first day of Kindergarten. However, in an episode two years before (You're in Love, Charlie Brown), she is seen practicing her graduation from Kindergarten.

Voice cast[]

• Peter Robbins – Charlie Brown
• Hilary Momberger – Sally Brown
• Glenn Gilger – Linus van Pelt
• Pamelyn Ferdin – Lucy van Pelt
• John Daschback – Schroeder
• Christopher DeFaria – Peppermint Patty
• Gail DeFaria - "Pig-Pen"
• Ann Altieri – Frieda/Violet Gray
• David Carey – Shermy
• Sally Dryer – Shirley/Clara/Sophie
• Matthew Liftin – Roy
• Lisa DeFaria - Patty
• Bill Melendez – Snoopy

Gallery[]

It was a short summer charlie brown-promo

Tv Ad From June 27, 1983

TV Guide Ad

External links[]

• It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown on the Internet Movie Database.
• It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown on AllMovie.