You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown is the thirty-seventh prime-time animated TV special based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It first aired on NBC January 18, 1994.
VHS cover art.
Plot
This special begins with Snoopy, as the World Famous Coach, getting his football team, The Birds, ready. It consists entirely of Woodstock and his tiny friends. The announcer says, this game will decide the Eastern Division Champs for the "AFL" (Animal Football League). They are playing the team "The Cats" a ferocious group of cats. The Birds crush The Cats, 38-0, making them the Eastern Division champs. The Birds will be moving on to the East-West Conference Championship, but not before pouring a victory bath of "Chirpade" on the coach.
Lucy is seen asking Charlie Brown to kick a football. Charlie Brown refuses to do it. Lucy then asks him "Are you gonna go through life not trusting anyone? That's no way to live." Charlie Brown decides, she is right and tries to kick the ball, until Peppermint Patty comes, with Marcie, Franklin, and Linus. She tells Charlie Brown and Lucy there will be a football punt, pass and kick contest and first prize wins a new bicycle and a trip to the Super Bowl. She suggests that they should all enter. While Lucy is looking at the poster for the event, Charlie Brown realizes now is his chance to kick the football. He runs up to kick it but Lucy pulls it away.
While Charlie Brown and Linus are practicing for the contest they notice a very pretty girl, who catches Linus's attention. They both walk over to her and introduce themselves to her. The girl says her name is Melody-Melody and she has been watching them. They flirt with her, and take her out for hot fudge sundaes. They then try to impress her and try to tell how they will be entering the punt-and-kick contest. Melody says she will be rooting for them at the contest.
A quick time-out for more Animal Football Action occurs as The Birds are seen playing against The Dogs in the East-West Conference Championship. Once again, The Birds crush the other team, this time 58-0. It is then onto the World Championship, but not until another bath of Chirpade is poured onto the coach.
At the punt-and-kick contest. Charlie Brown and Linus see Melody watching them, and they argue over which one of them Melody came to watch.
The announcer announces every player, and each player gets a better score than the previous one, except for Marcie who does not want to kick the football (because the football did not do anything to deserve being kicked).
Charlie Brown's turn comes. He scores more points then anyone so far and Peppermint Patty, says, "That probably wins it for Chuck." However, Linus' turn comes and he beats Charlie Brown's score. Linus gets excited because he thinks he won. The announcer then announces the last contestant, Miss Melody-Melody. This gets Charlie Brown and Linus confused. They thought Melody came to watch them play, and not enter the contest.
Melody-Melody, after having won the compettion.
Melody goes, and beats Linus' score. Linus gets very upset. He admits to Charlie Brown that he was in love with her. Melody wins the new bicycle and the tickets to the Super Bowl, leaving Charlie Brown and Linus in shock.
Then comes the AFL World Championship. The Birds are playing against the The Bison. The announcer even admits he doubts The Birds have a chance against The Bison. The game begins, Lucy comes onto the field and tells Snoopy he is a horrible coach and his team will get crushed. However, once again, The Birds crush the other team, 62-0. The Birds are the World Champions and celebrate once more by pouring Chirpade all over Lucy!
The special ends with Charlie Brown and Linus at the wall. Linus says he is so upset that the girl of his dreams beat him in the contest. He says he will not trust anyone ever again. Charlie Brown tells him, "Your sister says we can't go through life doubting everyone. We have to learn to trust each other." Lucy then comes to them holding a football, to which Charlie Brown says, "I can't stand it."
Voice cast
- Jimmy Guardino - Charlie Brown
- John Christian Graas - Linus / Kid Who Yells
- Molly Dunham - Lucy
- Haley Peel - Peppermint Patty
- Nicole Fisher - Marcie
- Crystal Kuns - Melody-Melody
- Steve Stoliar - Announcer
- Bill Melendez - Snoopy / Woodstock
Notes and goofs
- This is the only animated Peanuts TV special that first aired on NBC.
- It was the last Peanuts special to be animated with traditional cel animation, all subsequent Peanuts specials beginning with It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown have used digital ink and paint.
- Although the special first aired in 1994, it is copyrighted 1993.
- Despite the title of the special Charlie Brown does not go to the Super Bowl and neither do any of the other Peanuts regulars.
- Every player on The Birds is named after a famous football player ( Unitas, Csonka, etc...) in the games against The Cats and The Dogs and a United States president (Polk, Tyler) in the game against The Bison.
- Melody-Melody wins the Punt, Pass, and Kick Competition wearing a Dallas Cowboys uniform. Less than two weeks later, the Cowboys won Super Bowl XXVIII, which also aired on NBC. Charlie Brown wears the uniform of the Cowboys' chief rivals at the time, the San Francisco 49ers.
- Each of the two competing Van Pelt siblings wear uniforms of the NFL teams that were based in Los Angeles at the time: Lucy wears a Los Angeles Raiders uniform while Linus wears a Los Angeles Rams one. Both teams would move out of Los Angeles the following year (the Raiders back to Oakland, California; and the Rams to St. Louis. The Rams, however, returned to Los Angeles in 2016).
- In addition to the two aforementioned Los Angeles teams, Franklin's uniform was also worn by an NFL team that has since relocated-in this case, the Houston Oilers, which relocated to Nashville as the Tennessee Oilers in 1996 before becoming the Tennessee Titans two years later. However, Houston itself is still represented by an NFL team, this one being the Houston Texans, which joined the NFL as an expansion team in 2002, six years after the Oilers left. Additionally, the Oilers were one of the few teams in the NFL at the time with a black starting quarterback, in that case (Warren Moon)
- "Pig-Pen's" uniform is the only one which was never worn by an NFL team; his Green Bay Packers uniform consisted of a dark-gold helmet and pants and a dark blue jersey (this design was proposed by Packers management in the early 1990s, but due to overall fan dislike, it was rejected).
- Marcie and Franklin are given last names in this special - Johnson and Armstrong, respectively; however, these cannot be considered canon, as Charles Schulz never gave them last names in the strip. These names are not used in any other special either.
- This is the only time that Peter Robbin's screaming is not used when Charlie Brown tries to kick the football.
- Snoopy does not interact with Charlie Brown in this special.
- The home video release of this special was available for purchase only as a promotional VHS tape from Shell gas stations. It was never reissued by Paramount Home Entertainment and it is unlikely that Warner Home Video has the rights to release this special on DVD or Blu-ray.
- Even though Snoopy's team, the Birds, and their opponents all play in the AFL (Animal Football League), the scoreboard for their games has the then-current NFL logo on it for an undetermined reason.
- During each of the three games played by The Birds and, to a lesser extent, in the Punt, Pass, and Kick Competition, the football constantly changes size.
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