7.8 /10 1 Votes
7.9/10 TV Network CBS Cast Bill Melendez | 7.6/10 IMDb First episode date 1988 Program creator Charles M. Schulz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genres Animation, Comedy, Drama, Children's television series, Educational television Similar A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, It's Christmastime Again - Ch, Lucy Must Be Traded - Charlie B, I Want a Dog for Christma, It's the Easter Beagle - C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This Is America, Charlie Brown is an eight-part animated television miniseries, depicting events in American history with characters from the Charles M. Schulz comic strip Peanuts. It aired from 1988 to 1989 on CBS. These eight episodes, originally released singly on videocassette, were released in a two-DVD collector's set on June 13, 2006 by Paramount Pictures. However, the DVD set went out of print once Warner Bros. bought all rights to the Peanuts TV specials. Warner Home Video has since reissued the miniseries on DVD as of June 17, 2014. It was also released on the digital format.
Contents
Due to the nature of the events portrayed and the historical figures included—such as The Wright Brothers and George Washington—many adults were shown in full view along with the Peanuts gang, something that happened rarely in the animated films and specials (Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!) being another exception) and not at all in the comic strip. These adults were drawn in a style similar to other productions by Bill Melendez.
Traditionally, these episodes have not been rerun on television, but one episode, "The Mayflower Voyagers", was paired with A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (with which it was released on DVD) in 2008 by ABC, in order to fill the remaining half-hour filled the previous two years by He's a Bully, Charlie Brown. However, the special was edited to make room for Dancing with the Stars. ABC continues to broadcast an abridged version of "The Mayflower Voyagers" on or shortly before Thanksgiving Day, after A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving; the time slot following the Thanksgiving special is less than 30 minutes, due to the network airing the special with longer commercial breaks than those in the original broadcast.
Music
The series included music by many composers and performers including Peanuts regular Ed Bogas, Dave Brubeck, David Benoit (who would later take over scoring the specials starting with It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown), George Winston, Wynton Marsalis and Dave Grusin. This continued a tradition of using jazz musicians for the musical score; original composer Vince Guaraldi had died in 1976. This miniseries featured The Winans, Desirée Goyette, and Lou Rawls as the singing vocals (Goyette and Rawls had previously worked with Melendez on the Garfield TV specials).