It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: Parenting?

On this week's episode, Aly and Sarrah celebrate Halloween a little bit early with our Season 2 Opener: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966).

Aly talks about the life of Peanuts' sole creator, Charles M. Schulz, and gets a little obsessed with his life philosophy. You might get inspired.

Sarrah walks us through the different stages of Peanuts' journey on television, starting with some commercials for Ford! She also points out differences between the comic strip, and the animated specials.

Our recap has us wondering why Lucy is such a brat, why Linus is so amazing, how we understood what Snoopy was doing as kids, and pondering the popularity of Peanuts.

So pull yourself on up to the most sincere pumpkin patch you can find, and join us while we wait for the Great Pumpkin to arrive!

Podcast Music by: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music

Weeeeee're Baaaaack!

After a hiatus that lasted a little longer than anticipated, we are back with Season 2!
Aly finished her show, Sarrah got married, our worlds are a little less chaotic now and THAT means more breakdowns of animated movies for you!

And what better way to bring in Season 2 than with a couple of HALLOWEEN SPECIALS!
And that brings us to our very first Holiday Special, in which we discuss the classic October staple: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, from 1966.

Aly takes us on the journey of Peanuts, including the fact that creator Charles M. Shulz hated that name. She tries to get us all into the cult of Shultz by quoting him mercilessly, warning: you will probably be inspired.

Sarrah walks us through the many television appearances of the Peanuts crew, including their endorsement of Ford. She also highlights some of the differences between the comic strip and the television specials, and the positive reception of both.

Together we ponder the popularity of Peanuts, question why Lucy has to be such a freaking bitch all the time, and fall a little bit in love with Linus.

This week's shoutouts:
Thomas! Thank you for the lovely e-mail! We hope we address your questions to your content on this episode.
Check out the amazing Disney Trivia Blog. She's a smarty-pants (and already has more followers than us on Instagram. Come on you guys!).

A note:
We know you all have special movies you would like to hear us cover, and we will be trying to talk about as many as we can. But we are limited by the following: availability (can we find a decent enough quality copy to watch that doesn't involve us pirating it?), amount of information (can we find enough interesting details to fill at least half an hour of content?), release (is it a theatrical release? We have to make some rules here, there is just too much content out there). That being said: No, Mary Poppins is not happening, Yes, Roger Rabbit will be, Yes, of course, we'll be covering Shrek, Yes, we will be talking about Space Jam.

A secondary note:
Aly wants everybody to know that she has no lost love for the original cast of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. She just acknowledges that the 1999 revival cast is probably more recognizable, and she loves Roger Bart and Kristen Chenoweth. Can you blame her?

For your viewing pleasure...

A performance by Kristin Chenoweth and Stanley Wayne Mathis of the song "My New Philosophy" by Andrew Lippa from the Broadway musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. On the Rosie O'Donnell Show, June 3, 1999.

Source Material:

Wikipedia Article for Peanuts
Wikipedia Article for It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Imdb Page for It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Wikipedia Page for Charles M. Schulz

Vulture.com Article on It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Washington Post.com Article on It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
HorrorGeekLife.com Article on It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
 

My Life with Charlie Brown. Charles M. Schulz. Ed. M. Thomas Inge. 2010