Today, Charles M. Schulz would have been — yikes! — 86. Twenty years ago, there was a series of Peanuts animated cartoons called This is America, Charlie Brown. I’ve seen most of them and they’re a very good introduction to American history. Unfortunately, the videos are out of print, but they’re available on Netflix. I have some of them on good, ol’ LaserDisc, including “The Mayflower Voyagers”, five minutes of which you’ll find on the embedded video player. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/NOV/PeanutsMayflower.flv 480 360]
Hi Doug! Now I remember some of the ads during the Peanuts cartoons but they seemed to base them more on the holidays for the kids and not as overtly as sales pitches to parents. I’m sure when I hit my 50’s I’ll feel as you do, Doug, but at the same time I want to be and feel as vibrant as I can thru my remaining years. I’m at peace with the thought of the end especially since I was with my grandmother at the hospital the whole last day of her life. She had a couple strokes her last year and I was always with her alot so it seemed I should be there at the end. That night she passed but that day at times we communicated with her and as she was sedated but lucid, she answered yes and no thru hand movement. I was 36 at the time and developed a calmer outlook to death after that. I just figure no matter how it happens, when your time comes you just have to accept its inevitability. And it’s really as my grandmother used to say: “When you gotta go, well, you gotta go!”.
Hi All! Jean, that last comment made my day! My sister is 51 and she and I, my cousins, grandmother (Mom’s mom), and Great Uncle Warren (my late great link to the late 1800s- early 1900s) are and were always into pop culture and these showbiz people passing are like a link to the timeline of memories for us during their stardom. As you get older you realize “Hey, these people are just like us, actually some with alot of issues”-like on VH1s “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew”. I got into all types of music and comedy, drama and mysteries because of those stars of the 60s and 70s, and of course those from earlier who now unfortunately have mostly all passed on. It’s great that alot of the older performers have websites and many allow you to post messages, which some apparently do answer, even if an assistant sends you the e-mail. I’m not a star worshipper, but do like when you hear of the ones who are accessible to the public.
P.S. Joan, you were born in 1961??? You’re a KID! 😉
Wow! Glad I came back here. Joan, this is weird. I actually sat two feet from Paul Benedict during an entire dinner in Cambridge, MA, years ago. I was dating an assistant professor at Harvard (a really weird Spanish guy) and he kept wanting to interrupt Paul (who was also with actor Bob Dishy and some other people I did not recognize). As star-struck as I sound on paper, I do not feel comfortable intruding on their privacy in public. Naturally, he had the same fabulous British accent that he had on TV and everybody was relaxed and laughing at the table. How I longed to join them! but I kept whispering to Ricardo to keep to ourselves! After dinner, though, he went back and did anyway! It was a pretty posh restaurant near the campus, and it was right near Christmas, too, like now, around 1981.
Doug, yes, when did ABC buy out “Charlie Brown?” This marks its 43rd showing. It’s the 44th for “Rudolph.” OH! I’m so sad to hear about Beverly Garland. I always liked her. She was on a lot of great B&W shows in the fifties. I think she had a dinner theatre later, didn’t she?
Another Boomer make you feel older: If you look quickly during a new Christmas Hallmark talking card ad, you’ll see Ronnie Troupe, age SIXTY! playing the charmed grandma who opens the card. She played Chip’s college-aged wife who lived in the married dorms with him. She is the daughter of the late songwriter Bobby Troupe (“Route 66”).
Monte,
This is the first I’ve heard of Ed Doty’s passing. My condolences. I’m sure this is rough on your mother.
This year is the year I’ve decided I have truly started to age. As Alec Guinness says in “Bridge Over The River Kwai,” at some point a man realizes he’s closer to the end than the beginning. Well, that’s been me this year.
Hi Doug! My sister said earlier that Beverly Garland who was on “My Three Sons” died at age 82. And I read last night that Betty Page, the pinup queen in the 50s was in critical condition after a heart attack. She is 85. Paul Benedict’s brother said Paul’s cause of death is being investigated in Martha’s Vineyard. He was in the movie “The Front Page” in 1974 too with Lemmon and Matthau. I always liked his accent. It is a shame how many 60s and 70s stars are dying or have died. But then I have to remember that I was born in 1961 and I’m no spring chicken now! I know the darn time has gone by fast enough!
The “Peanuts” TV specials were never commercial free. First it was Coca-Cola sponsoring, then Dolly Madison, as I recall. But I remember being so wrapped up in watching them, the commercials really didn’t register all that much in my mind until I was in my teens.
I didn’t watch a lot of TV in the 70’s, so what comes to my mind about Paul Benedict is a line from “This is Spinal Tap” when he’s called “a dried up old fruit” — “I’m just as God made me, sir.”
There are too many obits. All of these “older” people are passing away, and we’re moving up the age ladder. Very bothersome.
Hi All! Doug, wasn’t it CBS that always carried the Peanuts cartoons, and didn’t they show them without commercial interruption? I watched “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” for the first time in ages and they had commercials in the dumbbest places. I felt cheated in a way and figured kids would lose interest really quickly. When I had the flu I watched a few cartoons and one I really like is “Little Bear”. I like the illustration and the background music is relaxing. The fact that a cat is a main character doesn’t hurt! In the Peanuts cartoons I was wondering who decided to use the “Wa-wa-wa-wa” sound for adults talking. That always cracks me up when I hear it! I know what you mean, Jeanie Beanie. I’m avoiding news and politics for a while. I get too riled up over it and it’s just too much bad news, story after story. The only thing I’ve read is “Odd News” and obits-sad to read Paul Benedict of “The Jeffersons” died.
I’ll never get used to seeing “A Charlie Brown Christmas” on ABC! 😉
Monte, my daughter (nearly 13) and I had a long talk last night. She is really worried about the future, her future, and that of her peers. It made me want to cry. My favorite representation of spirituality is this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKk9rv2hUfA
Your father was an amazing man, who gave the world an incredible gift.
Now we’re being forced to do three more shows. Not my idea. Dad’s birthday this year was sort of washed over by the death of my stepfather that same week over in Hawaii where he and my mother have lived since about 1982. It was a sad week. He built the ice arena. I’d known him most of my life. Just another marker to show we’re all getting older and the world we once knew is sliding behind us.
The Mayflower show was on TV? I didn’t know. I’m really not keeping up on a lot of things, ya know. It’s been many years — decades, in fact — since I’ve seen “Charlie Brown’s All Stars.” I remember well laughing so hard the first time it aired, in 1966, when Lucy gritted her teeth and cried, “Get a hit!”
Happy Thanksgiving Doug! A couple nights ago “It’s Thanksgiving Charlie Brown” was on, followed by “The Mayflower Voyagers”. This is the first time I’ve watched any of the Charlie Brown specials in a while but they are almost required viewing for the holidays!