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''She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown'' is the 19th
prime-time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...
television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...
based on the
comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
''
Peanuts ''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...
'' by
Charles M. Schulz Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz (; November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was an American cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip ''Peanuts'', featuring what are probably his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. He is wid ...
and a spin off around
Peppermint Patty Peppermint Patty is a fictional character featured in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip ''Peanuts''. Her full name is Patricia Reichardt, which is very rarely used in the strip. She is one of a small group in the strip who live across town from C ...
and
Marcie Marcie is a fictional character featured in the long-running syndicated Daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday comic strip ''Peanuts'' by Charles M. Schulz. Marcie is a studious girl who is sometimes depicted as being terrible at sports. ...
. It originally aired on the
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
network on February 25, 1980, making it the first ''Peanuts'' special of the 1980s. It is also one of the few Peanuts animated specials to feature clear and intelligible adult voices. From 2010-2019,
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
had the rights to air this special, which it pairs with ''
Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! ''Happy New Year, Charlie Brown!'' is the 30th prime-time animated television special based upon the popular comic strip ''Peanuts,'' by Charles M. Schulz. It aired on the CBS network on January 1, 1986. The special focuses on Charlie Brown's dif ...
''.


Synopsis

Peppermint Patty Peppermint Patty is a fictional character featured in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip ''Peanuts''. Her full name is Patricia Reichardt, which is very rarely used in the strip. She is one of a small group in the strip who live across town from C ...
is practicing figure skating with her coach
Snoopy Snoopy is an anthropomorphic beagle in the comic strip ''Peanuts'' by Charles M. Schulz. He can also be found in all of the ''Peanuts'' films and television specials. Since his debut on October 4, 1950, Snoopy has become one of the most recog ...
for an upcoming competition, but the many days of getting up to practice at 4:30 A.M. are starting to take their toll, and she falls asleep constantly in class. One of her practices is halted briefly when a group of ten ice hockey players threatens her if she does not leave the ice so they can play. Patty and Snoopy take care of the situation by shoving the lead ice hockey players on each squad, causing both teams of ice hockey players to fall on top of each other like dominoes and be swept off the ice by Snoopy. Later that day after an afternoon practice, Marcie, who is observing, invites Patty over to her house for hot cocoa and cookies. Once there, Patty notices that Marcie has a sewing machine. Despite Marcie explaining that it is her mother's machine, and that she does not know how to sew, Patty commissions her to make a dress for the competition. With that settled, they head to a fabric store and buy the supplies. As expected, the dress does not come out good on Marcie's part, looking more like a sleeveless poncho, to which Marcie defends her mistake by reminding her that she told her she did not know how to sew, and that the homespun outfit was Patty's idea, not hers. Patty heads back outside and almost tearfully shows Snoopy the mangled dress. He leads her back to Marcie's and, taking the dress from Patty, returns to the sewing machine and almost instantly sews the dress into a top-notch skating outfit. However, Snoopy is less helpful when Patty complains that her hair is a "mousey blah" style. Snoopy brings in a large red gift box, and inside is a large red curly-haired wig that makes Patty look like
Little Orphan Annie ''Little Orphan Annie'' is a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by the Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and it made its debut on Aug ...
. After trying it on, Patty rolls her eyes and dumps the wig on Snoopy's head. The day of the competition has arrived. All the contestants are first practicing altogether, then they clear while Snoopy clears the ice. The first two contestants end up falling and get rather low scores. The third contestant does not fall, and gets such a good score that the pressure is on for Patty. Unfortunately, disaster seems to strike as her music tape goes haywire in the cassette deck. While Snoopy frantically tries to fix it and ends up in a fight with the machine on the ice, Patty is starting to sweat as she holds her opening pose longer than she expected, and all the rest of the Peanuts characters in the audience worry that she will be disqualified. However, disaster is averted when
Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...
steps up to the microphone and whistles the music "
O mio babbino caro "" ("Oh my dear Papa”) is a soprano aria from the opera ''Gianni Schicchi'' (1918) by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is sung by Lauretta after tensions between her father Schicchi and the family of Rinuccio, the boy she ...
". Peppermint Patty receives the highest score, and has won the competition. She is shown on the stand with her trophy, while the runners-up stand below her with silver and bronze medals. On the way out, she is talking with Snoopy about her performance, and Snoopy is back as his grumbling, coaching self. She finally asks if he has anything nice to say, and she gets kissed on the cheek by him, much to her delight. Woodstock is shown bringing up the rear whistling the music again.


Figure skating animation

Although the plot line is implausible, the actual skating portrayed in the film is quite accurate for the time. Peppermint Patty is seen practicing
compulsory figures Compulsory figures or school figures were formerly a segment of figure skating, and gave the sport its name. They are the "circular patterns which skaters trace on the ice to demonstrate skill in placing clean turns evenly on round circles". For ...
and her free skating routine uses realistic figure skating jumps, spins, and choreography. The skating scenes were animated using the
rotoscoping Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, animators projected photographed live-action movie images onto a glass panel and traced ov ...
technique, using Schulz's own daughter (credited as Amy Schulz) as one of the models. Some of the skating footage appears in the concluding animation associated with the credits.


Original strips

This program was written from a relatively long series of Peanuts comic strips originally published in 1974. The strip had other subplots that were left out of the special, and changes were made to the storyline by the time it went to the small screen. For instance: *In the strip, after the disaster with Patty's skating dress, Marcie's mother stepped in to make the alterations. It was Snoopy who altered the dress in the TV special. *After Patty gets her dress she wants to do something with her self-described "mousy-blah" hair, so she ultimately decides to go to Charlie Brown's dad's barber shop, but Charlie Brown forgot to tell his dad she was a girl (added to which Peppermint Patty told Charlie Brown's dad that she could strike him out in three pitches), so he gives her a boy's haircut, much to her despair. To cover up the mistake, Patty wears an afro wig several sizes too big. This scene is altered in the special, with the wig a gift from Snoopy and promptly refused. *Patty arrives at the competition and only at that point finds out that it is for
roller skating Roller skating is the act of traveling on surfaces with roller skates. It is a recreational activity, a sport, and a form of transportation. Roller rinks and skate parks are built for roller skating, though it also takes place on streets, sid ...
, not ice skating, but not before she gets into trouble inadvertently damaging the rink floor with her skate blades. Patty returns from the competition realizing she still owes Snoopy for her lessons. Having no money, she gives him her wig as payment.


Voice cast

* Patricia Patts as
Peppermint Patty Peppermint Patty is a fictional character featured in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip ''Peanuts''. Her full name is Patricia Reichardt, which is very rarely used in the strip. She is one of a small group in the strip who live across town from C ...
* Casey Carlson as
Marcie Marcie is a fictional character featured in the long-running syndicated Daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday comic strip ''Peanuts'' by Charles M. Schulz. Marcie is a studious girl who is sometimes depicted as being terrible at sports. ...
*
Bill Melendez José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Melendez (November 15, 1916 – September 2, 2008) was an American character animator, voice actor, film director and producer. Melendez is known for working on the Peanuts animated specials, ''Peanuts'' animated specials ...
as
Snoopy Snoopy is an anthropomorphic beagle in the comic strip ''Peanuts'' by Charles M. Schulz. He can also be found in all of the ''Peanuts'' films and television specials. Since his debut on October 4, 1950, Snoopy has become one of the most recog ...
* Arrin Skelley as
Charlie Brown Charles "Charlie" Brown is the principal character of the comic strip ''Peanuts'', syndicated in daily and Sunday newspapers in numerous countries all over the world. Depicted as a "lovable loser," Charlie Brown is one of the great American ar ...
, rude ice hockey player captain * Debbie Muller as Teacher, shopkeeper *
Scott Beach Scott Beach (January 13, 1931 – February 13, 1996) was an American actor, writer and DJ, best known for his performance in the 1960s-themed 1973 film ''American Graffiti''. Life and career Born Alvin Scott Beach, he appeared in numerous m ...
as Announcer * Daniel Anderson as Linus van Pelt * Laura Planting as Lucy van Pelt * Jason Victor Serinus as
Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...
(whistling)


Skaters

*Mary Ellen Kinsey (as Mary Kinsey) *Karen Hutton *Amy Schulz


Home media

On September 6, 1995, Paramount Home Video released the special on a double-feature VHS with ''
Play It Again, Charlie Brown ''Play It Again, Charlie Brown'' is the seventh prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip ''Peanuts,'' by Charles M. Schulz. It originally aired on CBS on March 28, 1971. This was the first ''Peanuts'' TV special of the 1970s, ai ...
''.
Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video ...
released it on October 18, 2011, under a single-disc DVD ''Happiness Is...Peanuts: Snow Days''. It was also released by
Hi-Tops Video Hi-Tops Video was a children's home video sublabel of Media Home Entertainment (a division of Heron Communications), active from 1986 until 1992. Some of its releases include some Charlie Brown specials, ''Madeline'' and primarily some of the or ...
in 1988, and previously released in 1985 by
Media Home Entertainment Media Home Entertainment Inc. was a home video company headquartered in Culver City, California, originally established in 1978 by filmmaker Charles Band. Media Home Entertainment also distributed video product under three additional labels — ...
with ''
It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown ''It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown'' is the 27th prime-time animated musical television special based upon the comic strip ''Peanuts,'' by Charles M. Schulz. It originally aired on the CBS network on Monday, April 16, 1984. The special is prese ...
''. This special was re-released as part of the DVD box set ''Snoopy's Holiday Collection'' on October 1, 2013.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown 1980s animated television specials CBS television specials Peanuts television specials CBS original programming Figure skating on television Television shows directed by Phil Roman 1980s American television specials 1980s American animated films 1980 television specials 1980 in American television Sports animation