It's a Lookback ,Charlie Brown : It's your First Kiss,Charlie Brown

Peanuts The Flashback 

              We wrap up our look at non-holiday specials from the 1970's yes, this is final non-holiday lookback of Peanuts specials from the 1970's since we didn't go in chronological order. This is one is a controversial special and  I'll get to that in this look.

    "It's Your First Kiss" premiered on October 24th 1977 on guess where? (C B S!)   For a note about most of the Peanuts series  the Little Red Haired Girl didn't really have a name or a look in any of the comics. The reader would never see what she looked like.  Now, Schulz did have a design for her in the 1950's but, never used it and really he is later said the reason was because he didn't  think there was a look to satisfy the readers.   Though, it would be been interesting to have her be built up by Charlie Brown so much and think she is the most beautiful girl in the world and see her  and not look much different to any other peanuts character would have been amazing.

              The little red haired girl  in the specials took a different note - she was seen.  Though not a real consistent look besides that she has red hair.    Personally, I like  the design in "The Peanuts Movie"; the most.

 copyright Blue Sky which is owned by Disney by this point probably I don't even know anymore please help me! 

   Also, her name wasn't really in the comic strips so some specials and the 2015 movie gave her the name Heather, which is fine or something. 

          Anyway, this special was the first special to show her in face, she had been mentioned in past specials but not seen before. The first to use the name too.   So, after all that let's start. 

     

            It starts with Woodstock using Snoopy as a helicopter because  Peanuts doesn't have any logic to it, if you think it does then you are in the wrong world.   Just like what kind of elementary school has a homecoming?  Anyway the town is is having a homecoming parade , Charlie Brown and Linus and some others are escorts. (don't think that way) The homecoming queen is  Heather. (I'm glad I don't have to the other name this time)  Charlie Brown will be her date and also will get to kiss her. (this town has interesting customs) 

    For those that don't  know homecoming involves football, again I'm not sure why an elementary school's football thing is such a big affair when it's usually a high school thing but this might not be  a very good special either.  (Didn't you just say that the dog became a helicopter for a while?)  For 1977 this special is advanced having two girls on football team (Lucy and Peppermint Patty) good work special.  Even the crowd is children and Snoopy of course, is the ref. ( We are now taking calls , Delaware Hello. Hey yes, first time caller long time show watcher, I have a Peanuts theory.  Yes sir, what is it?  I think all the adults are dead and Snoopy is the supreme leader which is why he takes all things you see adults doing. Thanks caller, this gag is over now)    Meanwhile, Lucy decides not to take this football game seriously and decides that  the best way to start the game is to do the football gag with Charlie Brown. and both teams pile on top of  flopped over Charlie Brown. He crawls out and gets some boos because these people must be stupid and not able comprehend what just happened.  Or this might not be a very good special.  (Kansas Hello.  Hey yeah, I think Lucy is a --, thanks caller we don't wanna have to use the 7 second delay again) 

         More football action because football football.  Now there's a chance for Charlie Brown to be hero and get the extra point. Again, Lucy is  there and guess what she does with the football? So yes, she moves the ball away during the game that's supposed be serious game not her and Charlie Brown faffing around in the park and does this because reasons. (Indiana Hello.  Yeah, I think Lucy Van Pelt is worst person ever!  I'm glad you didn't try to swear! %#@! You.  Mean!)   Charlie Brown flies and lands on the other football players. (Pause!) 

Gotta love how causal this team dresses/Copyright Peanuts 

     

       Hello, I'm Bret Baxter here to tell you a fun fact!  At about 7:41 into this special you will notice that Peppermint Patty was possessed  by the devil where she starts speaking in tongues.  This is not actually, her being possessed by the devil it also not your VCR or DVD player being possessed either , it is instead an edit.  In the original clip Peppermint Patty speaks like a normal human being  as shown here :

            

     So yes, you don't need to call an exorcist   but instead... (Hey! Who are you?) I'm trying to tell the people about -- (Get out!)  

    More after the jump

Scooby Doo 50: What's New Scooby Doo?

Scooby Doo 50 

      Preface : We continue a look at "Scooby Doo" related media for the 50th anniversary of the mystery solving great dane.  This is part of our Scooby Doo 50. 

             In 1969 Scooby Doo first appeared on our screens with the famous series called "Scooby Doo Where are You?" that aired on CBS  it was a big hit  that made CBS want more and made a series called "The New Scooby Doo Movies" in 1972. Then ABC had Scooby programming  and Scooby ran with out maybe a year with out a new something between 1975 and 1991.  The other market that happened for Scooby was syndication. It aired on TBS, USA Network,  and more. I've talked about Scooby Doo movie specials from the  Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 series. 

   Meanwhile, Ted Turner was taking over the world and bought up Hanna-Barbera in the early 1990's and at this point he made Scooby-Doo exclusive to his networks (TNT,TBS, and some new network called Cartoon Network).  If any exposure to Scooby Doo 90's kids would get it would be thanks to the Turner networks.   Before this point it did seem Scooby's popularity had waned and people had grown tired of it, this was the case seen before back during the let's add more Scrappy to boost the franchise phase.    Ted Turner had seemed to get tired of running the world and sold his stuff to Time Warner in 1996  and Hanna-Barbera ended up  being part of Warner Brothers animation. Reruns of the different Scooby-Doo series and movies aired on Cartoon Network. 

   With this new found popularity maybe it was time to have some new Scooby media.  From 1998 they made new direct to video movies that also aired on Cartoon Network.  Even a live action movie came out in 2001.  Over this time though, something hadn't been done, a Scooby Doo TV series.  This brings us to the 2002 series "What's new Scooby Doo?" 

          "What's new Scooby Doo" came out in September of 2002 airing on Cartoon Network and on broadcast TV with Kids WB.  The concept of the series was  a short of back to basics for the franchise after years of different gimmicks ,characters being side-lined, and etc maybe it was time to just try something new but familiar.  "What's New Scooby Doo?"  brings us back the concept that started Scooby Doo in the first place "Scooby Doo, Where are you?".  It's also the first series, that wasn't "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" to bring back  Velma and Fred.   It takes place in our modern (2002) times. 

       The voice cast was Frank Welker , who has been the voice of Fred since the start, had the return of Casey Kasem as Shaggy. Also Frank Welker is the voice of Scooby due to the death of Don Messick in 1997. Grey DeLisle was the voice of Daphne  and Mindy Chon is Velma. The series returns us back to random person in a mask format compared to them trying "hey the monsters are real now!"

      The Theme song is just as catchy as the original 

   The theme was done by a Canadian rock band called, Simple Plan,  which you call maybe a n alt-rock group with some emo added in for fun.  They even guest started in an episode and some of their songs ended up in the chase scenes.


  more after the jump

The Lookback: Two of a Kind and Little bit of T.G.I.F

Sitcoms  The Flashback

       It's time for us to get back into another bread and butter topic but something we've not touched in sometime-- A Short lived sitcom. There's a context to this sitcom that we must explain.

       First  let's talk about T..G.I.F on ABC. The block is well know for giving hit series from "Full House", "Family Matters", "Sabrina the Teenage Witch", "Boy Meets World", and more.  It was a highly successful block for ABC  who has thought to even bring it back twice. The original block was doing very well until about 1997-98 season this is where things took a turn.  Rewind back to 1996, ast this point TGIF had removed two veteran shows from focus to add in series to refresh the line up a little, this brings us "Sabrina the Teenage Witch"  It fit with new owner, Disney, idea to give the line up from a family show block to a more teen block.  Also Clueless  but that died. (We may talk about that one day)  This change allowed to end two series "Step by Step", and "Family Matters" which were going down in the ratings (with age) canceled.  These shows didn't want die so easily and another network had their eye on them ,CBS. (Yes I did that pun and don't feel ashamed about it.)

           Back to 1997, CBS had launched a new block to compete with a slightly weakened T.G.I.F with the CBS block party.  Which,also allowed "Family Matters" and "Step By Step " to continue to live.  To be fair, the Block party did hurt T.G.I.F but it was more like a double sided sword where they stabbed T.G.I.F and let some blood out and slowly died while the block party got injured more and died after year.   T.G.I.F had tried the whole "hey this show works for us, so let's make more of that" with "You Wish" (one day will cover that maybe) and "Teen Angel"  to work on Sabrina's supernatural greatness, these shows failed and T.G.I.F for rest of the season was 2 shows.

   To 1998.  Where they kind of lost it , but we may have to talk more about T.G.I.F later.   In 1998 they had tried a new show with some star power , The Olsen Twins.  If you don't know this, the Olsen twins were big in the 1990's they starred on "Full House" and then branched off into movies, and specials, and series to the point of over exposure.  ABC had thought that maybe bringing them back to TV on their network would help  so much faith in this program they put it as the launch show at 8pm/7c.  Leading into vetrans, Boy Meets World, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.  This brings us to our topic  "Two of a Kind".

            More after the jump because we went long here.

Garfield: Garfield on the Town

 The Flashback Garfield

     We are back to writing about Garfield, everyone's favorite lasagna eating cat, and another TV special. Since this is how this blog rolls, we aren't doing them in order and already did the last special , now it's time for the 2nd special "Garfield on the Town".  "Garfield on the Town" has a "Peanuts" connection (this happens alot) with Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez  were producers for it though you won't get any Peanuts character style this time. Of course Phil Roman directed it.  It was originally aired on CBS on October 28th 1983.   It won a prime time Emmy in 1984 beating "A Disney Christmas Gift", "It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown", and "The Smurfic games". Being the first ,but not last Garfield special to win an Emmy.  Alright let's start.


     

            Garfield doesn't want to get out of bed and walk on the cold floor (we are all like Garfield)  , then Garfield and we get a theme song by Lou Rawls.  Odie and Garfield mess up the house and Jon scolds them and especially points out Garfield saying that the cat is being hyperactive.  So, Vet time. (eek) Garfield accidentally falls  out of the car and Jon apparently doesn't notice. (He's a bright bulb)  Garfield walks  around town (roll credits?)  and gets told by lady cats to buzz off. Meanwhile, Jon calls the pet hospital  to see if Garfield ended up there after all.


       Garfield wonders the back alleys and runs into a cat with a gold tooth (I don't know) and they start a cat rumble ( I think , it's more West Side Story cat rumbling). He thinks he won but then there are more alley cats. (more Alley cats in the alley, I'm surprised) Garfield runs while the horde of cats chase him and he finds an old run down building to run inside.  Then he meets a cat, that turns out to be his mother.

awww/ Copyright Jim Davis 

    It's the next morning and his mother tells him that used to be a kitchen of the Italian restaurant where he grew up.   The special gives us a back story into how Garfield likes lasagna and other Italian food  which is a nice touch.  His mother shows him his family or cousins. They are "mousers", cats who eat mice  which Garfield doesn't like personally.  Anyway, those Alley cats from earlier show up and his family decide to fight the gang of cats and an old fashioned rumble starts and they win!  His family decides he should go home because he's not suited to this life and he bids his mother a farewell.

awww 2 / Copyright Jim Davis 

        Just by timing somehow, Garfield finds Jon driving by  and chases the car then Odie notices and everyone is reunited.
 
    Another fun fact: This special was the only Garfield special co-written by  Lorenzo Music (the voice of Garfield) the other writer being "Garfield" creator , Jim Davis.
   It's  simple special but one with a lot of heart , I can see why it won an Emmy. It has touching moments between Garfield and his mother and the end with Garfield, Jon, and Odie. The music in the special is wonderful with the final song enough to bring some tears. I think it's fine special and can see why it's a Garfield classic.  Give this one a watch.