For over 50 years, few characters have shaped the landscape of meaningful animated TV specials in the way that Charlie Brown and his friends have. Each and every special in the Charlie Brown canon manages to offer a meaningful lesson about life and humanity, without coming off as preachy or moralizing in any way - something that so many other specials and series struggle with.
Regardless of what holiday or theme the specials are focused around, any entry in the Charlie Brown universe manages to incorporate key lessons about life, love, friendship, and kindness. While every special in the series has its merits, some of the animated classics are much better than the others. We're taking a look at the best and worst of them here.
Best: Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown
Valentine's Day is one of those holidays that can be exciting or stressful for anyone who celebrates it, regardless of how old you are. Leave it to Charlie Brown and his friends to perfectly capture that feeling. The special Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown features our beloved characters experiencing many highs and lows and mixed signals associated with the romantic holiday. Linus deals with unrequited love for his teacher, Miss Othmar, while Sally still waits in vain for Linus to return her affections.
The saddest storyline of them all finds poor, downtrodden Charlie Brown receiving no Valentine's at all, but ultimately hoping that things will be better next year. The episode's concluding scene, in which a defeated Linus rages against the very notion of love and flings chocolate around, is one of the sweetest and funniest scenes in all of Charlie Brown canon.
Worst: It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown
Charlie Brown covers many holidays that aren't conventionally featured in any series or movies, but sometimes, not even Charlie Brown can offer an interesting message about so banal a holiday as Arbor Day.
It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown follows the gang through their attempts to plant trees and improve their environment, all leading up to a climactic baseball game. But of course, misfortune befalls Charlie Brown when it turns out that the gang's newly planted trees have been planted in his baseball diamond, and impact the team's ability to play baseball. It's one of many specials with a confusing message, no matter the cute moments that come along the way.
Best: Happy New Year, Charlie Brown!
You never really think about little kids having New Year's Eve traditions of their own, but Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! shows that these kids can throw quite the party when they want to. Even when they're tasked with reading the likely age-inappropriate War and Peace over the Christmas holiday break.
As Charlie Brown struggles with his school assignment, the gang prepares for an amazing New Year's Eve bash. Charlie Brown invites his longtime crush, the Little Red-Haired Girl, to attend, but misses her by sitting outside reading and falling asleep as the clock strikes midnight.
Worst: Charlie Brown's All Stars!
Any special that finds the group of friends at the center of the Charlie Brown universe coming together toward a common goal is usually a special easy to enjoy. But unfortunately, that's not the case for Charlie Brown's All Stars!
The baseball-themed adventure is enjoyable enough for the most part, and involves some more adult themes, including a botched sponsorship deal for their baseball team as a result of narrow-minded beliefs on the sponsor's part. But the episode ends with a well-intentioned but ultimately mean-spirited move that ruins it for good. In an attempt to win back Charlie Brown's favor, Lucy steals Linus's security blanket and cuts it up to make a uniform for Charlie Brown, leaving poor Linus lost.
Best: It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown
One of the more frequently overlooked specials in the Charlie Brown series, It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown also happens to have some of the sweetest moments in the entire series. As with Halloween and the Great Pumpkin, the eternal optimist Linus believes that Easter is handled by the Easter Beagle. Luckily enough, there just so happens to be a beagle in their presence.
The special features an adorable sequence that finds Snoopy helping Woodstock find a new birdhouse to call home, Marcie and Peppermint Patty's many failed attempts at coloring eggs, and Snoopy stealing eggs from an Easter egg hunt to become the famous Easter Beagle himself.
Best: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is another holiday that often gets overlooked in the television special season, but Charlie Brown delivers a real classic in the iconic A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. As a result of Peppermint Patty's bully-like persistence, Charlie Brown finds himself forced to throw a Thanksgiving party for all of his friends, despite the fact that he cannot cook, he has no food to prepare and he has to go to his grandmother's for the holiday.
Charlie Brown finds some help from some unlikely sources - both Woodstock and Snoopy, who as it turns out, are apparently culinary experts. At least as far as one can consider popcorn, jelly beans, and buttered toast high cuisine. After the chaos of the friend feast, Charlie Brown and all his friends pile into a car to travel to his grandmother's condominium, while Woodstock and Snoopy treat themselves to a proper feast all of their own.
Worst: This Is America, Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers
While A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is a great example of how beloved animated classics can make the most of the Thanksgiving holiday, there's another Charlie Brown special that doesn't quite measure up in terms of capturing the holiday and its meaning. The historically focused This Is America, Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers is one of the few specials that can actually be called boring.
Though the special tries its best to incorporate our familiar friends and heroes into the now outdated telling of the pilgrims' interactions with native Americans, the special fails to capture any of the signature Charlie Brown warmth and charm.
Best: It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Few television specials are as entirely emblematic of the Halloween experience as the beloved classic It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. The episode finds Linus convinced of the existence of the Great Pumpkin, a magical figure who chooses the most sincere pumpkin patch to visit every Halloween eve. He recruits Sally in his efforts to ensure a visit from the Great Pumpkin.
In the meantime, the rest of the gang prepares for typical Halloween festivities, including pumpkin carving, making homemade costumes, and trick or treating. Poor Charlie Brown winds up with nothing but a bag of rocks, and when morning comes, Linus and Sally have spent the whole night waiting in the pumpkin patch, and no Great Pumpkin ever arrived.
Worst: You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown
Politics isn't exactly an easy topic for most people to talk about, and unfortunately, that even holds true for the adorable characters of the Charlie Brown universe. You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown initially finds Charlie Brown running for Student Body President, at Linus's suggestion, despite having no interest in the position.
But of course, Charlie Brown winds up not being popular enough to be voted for by almost anyone. Linus winds up running instead, and nearly blows his considerable lead when he discusses his belief in the Great Pumpkin. But in the end, Linus wins, only to be turned against by his own friends for being seen as a spineless politician - an odd message for an animated special to be sure.
Best: A Charlie Brown Christmas
Though It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was a really close contender for the best Charlie Brown special of them all, the title for the best of the best truly belongs to the all time holiday classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas.
The episode is chock full of truly iconic and memorable moments and set pieces, including the school nativity performance, Linus's speech about the true meaning of Christmas, and tirades against the presence of commercialism in the holiday season.
The special is most memorable, and most beloved, for its final act, which finds Charlie Brown picking the world's smallest and weakest Christmas tree to celebrate the holiday. The friends all realize the errors of their ways and come to celebrate with him, helping him decorate his miniature tree, and singing "Hark, The Herald Angels Sing!" as they wish their true friend the Merry Christmas he deserves.