It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown

It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!
Original 1974 title card
Also known as	A Charlie Brown Easter
Genre	Animated TV special
Created by	Charles M. Schulz
Directed by	Phil Roman
Voices of	Todd Barbee Melanie Kohn Stephen Shea Lynn Mortensen Greg Felton Jimmy Ahrens Linda Ercoli Bill Melendez
Composer(s)	Vince Guaraldi Johann Sebastian Bach Ludwig van Beethoven
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Executive producer(s)	Lee Mendelson
Producer(s)	Bill Melendez
Editor(s)	Chuck McCann Roger Donley
Running time	30 min.
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	April 9, 1974
Chronology
Preceded by	It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown
Followed by	Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown
External links
Website

It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown! is the 12th prime-time animated TV special based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. In the United States, it debuted on CBS on April 9, 1974 at 8 PM. Thereafter, CBS aired it each Easter season from 1974 to 2000. ABC repeated the special in some years during the period 2001 through 2014.

Summary

While most of the Peanuts gang is getting ready for Easter, Linus, certain it is all a waste of time, tries in vain to convince them that the "Easter Beagle" (who is really Snoopy in disguise) will take care of everything. Only Charlie Brown's sister, Sally, believes him—although she still has some suspicions after their staking-out the pumpkin patch (in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966).

Peppermint Patty and Marcie attempt to color Easter eggs, but as it is Marcie's first time, she does not know how to prepare the eggs properly. Marcie's first attempt fails as she fries the eggs on a griddle and flips them with a spatula. In their second attempt, Marcie tries cooking eggs on a waffle iron, in a toaster, and in an oven. Peppermint Patty, who has now spent the last of her money on more eggs, explains to Marcie that the eggs must be cooked in boiling water. When Marcie puts the eggs in the pot of boiling water (after she's told that the eggs must be boiled), however, she puts the eggs in the pot of water without the shells. When she does, she makes egg soup. At the end of the final attempt, Peppermint Patty is out of money. Then they end up with no colored eggs and cannot make any more attempts.

Woodstock wakes in his nest, shivering after a chilly spring rain. He goes to Snoopy for help, and Snoopy goes to a department store to buy a birdhouse. At first Woodstock hates it, but soon redecorates it into a bachelor pad, complete with television, contemporary artwork, a sunken bed, carpeting, and quadrophonic stereo system. Curious to see more of the inside, Snoopy's nose gets stuck in the door, causing the birdhouse to break, and forcing him to buy a replacement.

Lucy believes that Easter is a "gift-getting season"—much to Schroeder's chagrin. She decides to have her own egg hunt, and hides each Easter egg she paints to find them all on Easter morning. Unknown to her, Snoopy follows her and takes the eggs.

Easter morning arrives, and so does the Easter Beagle—Snoopy. He tosses eggs to everyone, and even tosses one into Woodstock's new birdhouse. Unfortunately, by the time he gets to Charlie Brown house, he has no more eggs. He gives Charlie Brown an embarrassed smile and hands him the empty basket. When Peppermint Patty and Marcie receive their eggs, Marcie asks what she should do with them. Patty tells her that you put salt on them and eat them. Marcie salts an egg and takes a bite; she eats her egg without removing the shells.

Lucy soon realizes that Snoopy gave her one of her own eggs. Ten weeks pass, and Lucy is still brooding about it. Linus suggests that she talk about it with Snoopy. She visits Snoopy's doghouse to pick a fight, but Snoopy takes the fight out of her with a disarming kiss on the cheek.

Voice cast

• Todd Barbee – Charlie Brown
• Melanie Kohn – Lucy van Pelt
• Stephen Shea – Linus van Pelt
• Greg Felton – Schroeder
• Linda Ercoli – Peppermint Patty
• Lynn Mortensen – Sally Brown
• Jimmy Ahrens – Marcie
• Bill Melendez – Snoopy/Woodstock

Notes

• It was the last special for Todd Barbee. He would be replaced by Duncan Watson, respectively.

Television

The program's rights are held by ABC Television, where it runs annually. It ran annually on ABC from 2001 up to April 11, 2006.^[1] In 2007, the network, without any explanation, did not air the program, but it returned on March 18, 2008, as filler programming against American Idol. The TV special was watched by 6.32 million viewers, in fourth place behind Idol, NCIS and The Biggest Loser, and fifth place if Spanish-language Univision is counted.^[2] ABC didn't air the special in 2011 or 2012, but it aired on Easter Sunday 2013 along with Charlie Brown's All-Stars (1966), watched by 2.56 million people, tied for fourth place behind the end of the NCAA Championship Basketball Game between Duke and Louisville and a rerun of The Voice.^[3][4] The special aired again with Charlie Brown's All-Stars on Easter Sunday in 2014. To date this is the last broadcast airing of the special.

ABC telecast

To make room for more commercial advertisements, ABC cuts off the following scenes in this special:

• The part where Lucy had a talk with Schroeder was cut.
• The escalator scene in the department store was cut, as well as the parting of the friends when they are done shopping.
• The part where Linus explains to Peppermint Patty and Marcie about the Easter Beagle was cut.
• The last minute of the scene (a fight between Lucy and Snoopy) was cut.
• The credits for this special was shown for a short time until ABC's own credits took over, until the 2013 airing where the credits were shown in their entirety.

Video and DVD releases

It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown was released to DVD twice, first on March 4, 2003 by Paramount Home Entertainment and again on February 15, 2008 on a Remastered Deluxe Edition DVD from Warner Home Video. It was also released in the UK by Firefly Entertainment in 2004, with Life Is a Circus, Charlie Brown.

VHS releases of It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown have, in the past, been available in the 1980s from Kartes Video Communications, Media Home Entertainment and subsidiary Hi-Tops Video and in the 1990s by Paramount.

Music

In the second mall scene, Peppermint Patty, Marcie and Snoopy dance to a band quartet music box including an angel, a triplet band, and a spinning duck carousel, all which play Johann Sebastian Bach's "Menuet from the Anna Magdalena Notebook (BWV Anh. 116.)." Snoopy arrives as the Easter Beagle to the sound of the first movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, a rare occasion in a Peanuts special in which Beethoven's music is heard but Schroeder is not playing it. The music played in the scene immediately before the Easter Beagle arrives, in which Peppermint Patty and Marcie talk about their Easter preparations being a failure and Sally accuses Linus of ruining her Easter, is the funeral march from the second movement of the same Beethoven symphony. The music heard when the dancing bunnies went in circles was later heard in Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas during the Belles on Ice episode as a set of bars heard in the credits with the train scene's music. The rest of the music score features funk-inspired guitar riffs, a departure from the usual Vince Guaraldi jazz compositions used in previous Peanuts specials.

References

External links

• It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown on IMDb