Leon Reviews "PEANUTS: 1970's Collection, Vol. 1" DVD

What’s hard about writing for an audience of such divergent ages is that I don’t know what the Peanuts cartoons mean to you collectively. As child growing up in the 70s - long before there was any concept of YouTube, DVR, DVD or at home VHS- watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas” or “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” were events! You waited all year for CBS to broadcast them (God forbid you should forget which night) and they were almost as enjoyable as the respective holiday itself.

Now that there have been so many other Peanuts movies, TV specials and even a short-lived Saturday morning cartoon series and all of them are on DVD – not to mention all the competition for other holiday cartoons that have spawned in their wake- I doubt that they’re nearly as special to anybody these days.

Oh wait, did I say ALL of them are on DVD?

On the heels of Peanuts: 1960's Collection comes Peanuts: 1970's Collection Vol.1, featuring six remastered peanuts TV specials from the 1970’s available together for the first time.

So what makes this set so special?
It’s pretty stripped down as far as packaging design and special features. The cartoons are remastered but even though they look a little better than previous editions the film stock looks just as grainy as it ever was. It’s that last part that’s the hook: some episodes that have never been released on Region 1 DVDs before. *.Hardly seen by anybody since their original broadcast.

Sure, we’re entering the holiday season when the sale of Peanuts DVDs hit their big numbers due to the nostalgia factor, but it’s hard to imagine that anybody who wants them doesn’t already own one of the previous DVD collections that were released over the last few years.



A fervent collector might even have all of the individual non-holiday movies and specials. But what almost NO ONE would have are some of the rare TV specials that have never been transferred to DVD until this collection *:

-DISC 1-

“Play It Again, Charlie Brown” *

After relentless badger by the rest of the Peanuts gang, Schroeder compromises his integrity as a strictly classical pianist to play keyboards in their rock ‘n roll band. He’s then consumed with angst at what a “sellout” he’s become.

“You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown”

Linus is running in the school election but another speech about The Great Pumpkin may ruin his chances.

“There's No Time For Love, Charlie Brown”

This one is a little weird in that it’s just a long series of quick-cut animated vignettes adapted straight from old Peanuts 4-panel comic strips. Watching so many in succession they start to lose their magic. Half way in the actual plot kicks in. This show is most notable for having the first appearance of the character "Marcy".

“A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving”

To me this was the last of the great specials. ‘Chuck’ ends up hosting Thanksgiving Dinner for the rest of the gang after Peppermint Patty invites herself over. With help from Snoopy and Woodstock make enough popcorn and buttered toast for everybody but pull out a real Thanksgiving dinner for themselves after everybody. So much of Snoopy’s character is summed up in that scene.

-DISC 2-

"It's A Mystery, Charlie Brown" *

On the heels of stealing the show with the last special, Snoopy and Woodtsock headline this special with the rest of the humans as only supporting players. Snoopy (dressed as Sherlock Holmes) tries to find Woodstock's missing nest. Meanwhile Sally worries about a science project.

"It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown"

This plays as sort of a sequel to “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown”, where Linus gets to be right this time. Snoopy goes out Easter morning passing out colored eggs as the Easter Beagle. This one is just short of great, but still one of the more memorable specials

The new only featurette in the collection is “Woodstock: Creating Snoopy's Sidekick”, in which creators and other people related to Charles M. Schultz discuss the zen of Woodstock for about 15 minutes. You don’t learn anything in this you couldn’t pick up on just by looking at the character.


What's funny to me is that I've watched these so many times since childhood and it never occurred to me that they came from different decades. All-in-all I suppose these new peanuts collections would be good to pick up if you don’t have any of the DVDs already or if you’re a fanatical completist - because the "lost" episodes just don't gel as cohesively as the holiday specials.

But if you’re looking for a good deal these sets are perfect in that they're broken down in a way that is quite affordable.
In fact, they’re so affordable it’s hard to imagine there won’t be a cheap box set of all the DVDs in this line by this same time next year…or a single Blu-ray disc.

You can purchase PEANUTS: 1970's Collection, Vol. 1 here.