It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown is the sixteenth animated television special based on the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz. It first aired on CBS at 8:00pm on Monday, October 24, 1977.
Plot[]
Charlie Brown's school hosts its annual homecoming event. He and Linus as well as their football team are among the escorts for the Homecoming Queen and her court. During the Homecoming Parade, when Linus tells Charlie Brown that he will be the attending to the Queen, the latter is surprised when he learns that the Queen is the Little Red-Haired Girl, whose name is revealed to be Heather. After Linus tells him about the Homecoming tradition—that the queen's escort gives her a kiss on the cheek before the first dance, Charlie Brown becomes more horrified and hyperventilates, fainting off the float.
The Homecoming Game begins with Snoopy as the referee and Charlie Brown on the team as kicker. But even in an actual football game with many spectators- and Woodstock as a TV cameraman, Lucy, also on the team as the placekick setter, is unable- or more likely unwilling, to resist humiliating Charlie Brown, pulling the ball away just as he tries to kick it, this after dishonestly telling him that she would never pull a prank so low or even embarrass him in front of everyone else.
To make matters worse, even though Lucy is clearly guilty, the rest of the team, particularly Peppermint Patty, blame Charlie Brown for missing the kicks. With just 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Charlie Brown has a chance to kick a field goal for the win, but Lucy yet again pulls the ball away, the team loses by only one point, and Charlie Brown unjustly ends up shouldering the blame, even from Lucy herself.
Chalie Brown kissing The Little Red-Haired Girl.
Despite the humiliation, Charlie Brown still arrives at the dance to the surprise of his teammates, who think it would have been better if he had not shown up at all. But remaining faithful to his duty, Charlie Brown, his nerves gradually deserting him by the moment as he walks up to Heather and escorts her to the middle of the dance floor, somehow finds the courage to give her the customary kiss on the cheek. But from that moment forward everything is a composite blur, with Charlie Brown having euphoric visions that he is flying, and doing many impossible things until he feels himself falling, and the very next thing he knows, it's daybreak as he wakes up in his bed.
Charlie Brown walks to the wall where he meets up with Linus, who proceeds to tell Charlie Brown that though he might have lost the game, he definitely took the honors at the dance. He expounds on how Charlie Brown surprised everyone there when he kissed Heather, and then how he was the life of the party, doing all of the latest dances with Heather and even the other girls in the court, to which Charlie Brown replies, "I did what??", revealing that he has no memory as to what happened the previous night.
In disbelief, Charlie Brown says "What good is it to do anything, Linus, if you can't remember what you did?" Regardless, Linus reminds him that at least it was his first kiss and the story ends with Charlie Brown smiling with quiet satisfaction.
Voice cast[]
- Arrin Skelley – Charlie Brown
- Daniel Anderson – Linus van Pelt
- Michelle Muller – Lucy van Pelt
- Laura Planting – Peppermint Patty
- Ronald Hendrix – Franklin/"Pig-Pen"/Shermy
- Casey Carlson - 3 cheerleaders
- Roseline Rubens – Frieda (laughing only)
- Bill Melendez -Snoopy/Woodstock
Sally, Violet, Schroeder, Marcie and the Little Red-Haired Girl all appear, but have no lines of dialogue.
Controversy[]
After its initial broadcast, It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown was heavily- and at the time surprisingly, criticized by fans who protested Charlie Brown being accused by his teammates for losing the game; it was unmistakably clear that Lucy was the culprit as she pulled the ball away on Charlie Brown four times- the most in any Peanuts special, preventing him from successfully making any scoring plays, particularly the final play of the game for their team- a field goal attempt, in which Charlie Brown could have put the team ahead by two points instead of losing by one.
While fans could tolerate Lucy's malicious habit of pulling the ball away, they strongly drew the line at Charlie Brown being wrongfully blamed for the loss. Viewer outrage also included the fact that Lucy herself hypocritically faulted Charlie Brown, and that Linus- his teammate as well as his best friend, failed to mention or even notice that Charlie Brown was innocent.
In an attempt to attenuate the injustice, two offending lines by Peppermint Patty were distorted in all subsequent broadcasts and home video releases. The edited lines were:
- "OK, Chuck, you really goofed up on that play." (at about the 7:30 mark)
- "Chuck, you can't do anything right!" (at about the 15:30 mark.)
Notes[]
- As of December 2024, according to user reviews on imdb.com, It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown ranks #32 out of the 45 original Peanuts specials aired on TV, with a rating of 7 stars (out of 10) based on 963 votes. A Charlie Brown Christmas ranks at #1 with an 8.3 rating based on over 45,000 votes, with It's The Great Pumpkin at #2 (8.1/23k votes) and Why, Charlie Brown, Why at #3 (7.8/1.1k).
- Although the Little Red-Haired Girl is shown and has a name (Heather) in this special, Charles M. Schulz considered the TV specials to exist in a different continuity to the comic strip, so, technically, the Little Red-Haired Girl in Peanuts remains unseen and unnamed. Schulz later came to regret having given permission for the character to appear and to be named in the special.
- The scene where Charlie Brown kisses the Little Red-Haired Girl on the cheek and then flies around was spliced into the "Poor Sweet Baby" scene in the TV version of Snoopy!!! The Musical.
- This special gave Peanuts fans the answer to the age-old question, "What does the Little Red-Haired Girl look like and what would happen if she actually appeared on screen?"
- This is the first Peanuts special with music composed by Ed Bogas and Judy Munsen.
- This is the first Peanuts special that aired as part of You're On Nickelodeon, Charlie Brown.
- This is one of two specials to recycle the Football gag sequence from 1973's A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, the first being You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown, two years earlier.
Goofs[]
- Peppermint Patty's sandals turn brown while she is waiting for Charlie Brown. As she turns away, they become green again.
- Charlie Brown's team scores 14 points in the second half to bring the score from 21-6 to 21-20. To have scored the 14 points Charlie Brown would have to have successfully kicked 2 extra points, which would have meant that either Lucy didn't hold the ball for those two kicks or she didn't pull the ball away on those two kicks. It can be likely Charlie Brown's team could have scored two touchdowns with missed extra points and a safety against their opponents, which would be 12 points for the touchdowns and 2 points for the safety.
- When Lucy pulled the football away from Charlie Brown, the play did not end, even as Charlie landed on the opposing team. It's still a live ball (think of the 'fake field goal' plays in games).
Soundtrack[]
- Linus & Lucy, First Kiss Opening Theme
- Football Strategy
- Kick Off
- Touch Down
- Patty's Team Gets The Ball
- Chance To Be A Hero
- Field Goal Missed
- She Wouldn't Dare Pull That Ball Away
- Is It Baseball Season Yet?
- Let's Get Em
- Peppermint Patty Runs With The Ball
- Field Goal Missed Again
- Linus and Lucy2
- I'm The Escort For The Queen
- This Is It Charlie Brown
- Charlie Brown Kisses Her
- That Game Was A Heartbreaker
- First Kiss Closing Theme
Gallery[]
External links[]
- It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown on the Internet Movie Database.
- It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown on AllMovie.