Happy New Year, Charlie Brown

Premiered January 1, 1986

Charlie Brown (Chad Allen) and Linus (Jeremy Miller) are looking forward to Christmas vacation, but they're disappointed when their teacher assigns them to read War And Peace by Leo Tolstoy over the break, and write a book report about it. Charlie Brown feels that his vacation is ruined.

Peppermint Patty (Kristie Baker) invites Chuck to a New Year's Party and tells him it's a "boy invites girl" party. She says this is his chance to invite "the girl of your dreams," meaning herself. Charlie Brown tells her he can't do anything over vacation until he reads the book. Lucy (Melissa Guzzi) and Sally (Elizabeth Lyn Fraser) are also invited. Lucy enrolls them all in a dance class to prepare for the party. Charlie Brown also declines this, but he shows up to the dance studio, reading War And Peace on the side.

Charlie Brown eventually decides to attend the party, and invites Heather, better known as "that little red-haired girl" to the party, much to Peppermint Patty's disappointment. He slips an invitation through Heather's mail slot, getting his hand stuck in the process.


On the night of December 30, Heather still hasn't responded to Charlie Brown's invitation, which makes him sad. And he still hasn't finished War And Peace.
New Year's Eve arrives and Charlie Brown attends Peppermint Patty's party. He brings his book along and sneaks out to the front porch to read it. Charlie Brown waits there, hoping Heather will show up.





Will Charlie Brown finish his book review of War And Peace before the end of Christmas break? Will Heather show up to the party? Will Lucy get "dog germs" from Snoopy at the party? You'll have to watch and see!

J.A. Morris says:

I'll say upfront that I'm a huge fan of Peanuts. I own books of the comic strips and DVDs of most Charlie Brown specials. But I hadn't seen nor heard of Happy New Year, Charlie Brown until 3 years ago. It's a good special, if not quite as good as the classic Peanuts specials of the 60s and 70s. Charlie Brown simply wants to enjoy himself on vacation and at the party, but things that are (mostly) beyond his control keep getting in the way. But we do get two rare scenes where Chuck gets to actually smile and seems to have a good time. And much of the story feels like it was taken straight from the comic strips.

Hardcore fans of Snoopy may be a bit disappointed, since he doesn't have a big role here. But we do get a classic confrontation between him and Lucy (spoiler alert:Snoopy gets the best of her). The voice actors do a pretty good job too.

I have two problems with this special: It's unlikely that a teacher would assign War And Peace to be read and reviewed over Christmas vacation. And I'm also not sure what age group Chuck and friends are supposed to be in this special. Elementary school? Middle school? How many kids of those age groups are assigned to read Tolstoy?

Beyond that, it's a fun special. There aren't many New Year specials, but this has become one I've watched every year since I learned about it.

My rating:






3 champagne flutes

RigbyMel says:

Like J.A. Morris, this special was new to me until three years ago. It's quite a cute special, but I am mildly disappointed that Snoopy and Woodstock didn't have more to do in it.

Still, it's fun to see the Peanuts gang learning the foxtrot during the dance lesson scene and playing musical chairs at the New Year's Eve party. (Musical chairs seems much more of an age-appropriate activity than reading War and Peace over Christmas vacation for the Peanuts kids.) I find it interesting that Linus is in the same class as Charlie Brown yet he doesn't seem concerned about the hefty reading assignment at all (in fact, Linus seems to know a lot about Tolstoy and his wife already). Maybe he's a fast reader or has already read the book?

There are a lot of fun little side bits that feel episodic in a comic strip like fashion, my favorite is a sequence where Linus, Lucy and their little brother Rerun are blowing up balloons for the party. Rerun's balloons turn out in a very unique fashion.

As J.A. Morris says, this is an enjoyable special but not quite in the same league as many of the earlier Peanuts specials. That being said, it is good fun and well worth adding to one's regular holiday viewing!

RigbyMel's rating:






3 champagne flutes (or should they be sparkling cider flutes since the Peanuts kids are underage?)

Happy Days: "Guess Who's Coming To Christmas"

First aired December 17, 1974

We open with Howard Cunningham (Tom Bosley) telling Richie (Ron Howard) and Joanie (Erin Moran) that they will celebrate Christmas Eve together with only family members invited. They ask if it’s okay to have a friend or two over, Howard says no.

The Cunninghams are putting up Christmas decorations, including a (creepy looking) robotic Santa in their front yard. The Santabot isn’t working properly and keeps hitting Richie in the head, they’re upset that the Santabot won’t be working on Christmas Eve.

Richie's older brother Chuck (Randolph Roberts) has returned home for Christmas. Chuck is trying to put lights on the tree, but like the Santabot, the lights aren't working.

Richie meets up with Ralph & Potsie (Donny Most and Anson Williams, respectively) at Arnolds. Fonzie (Henry Winkler) shows up with gifts for everyone. Potsie has nothing to give the Fonze, but invites him to spend Christmas Eve with his family. Fonzie declines and says he's spending Christmas with his cousin in Waukesha. He tells of all the presents and elaborate dinner plans await him in Waukesha. Richie & the gang are a little skeptical about Fonzie's Holiday plans.

At Howard’s hardware store, the company Christmas party is ending, so he and Richie close up and plan to drive home. But their car breaks down, so Richie calls Fonzie to ask if he can fix it. Fonzie tows the car to his garage and repairs it, delaying his “bus” to Waukesha, so Howard offers him a ride as payment for the repair. He declines and says goodnight to the Cunninghams.  As they're about to leave, Richie realizes he forgot to give Fonzie his Christmas present. He opens the door sees and Fonzie opening a can of food; it’s obvious he’s not going anywhere and will be spending Christmas alone.  Fonzie doesn’t notice Richie, so he walks back to the car, not wanting to hurt Fonzie's pride.

Howard and Richie return home to trim their tree with their family. Marion (Marion Ross) has popped popcorn for stringing. Unfortunately the lights aren’t working. Chuck tries to fix the lights again, they still don't work, but everyone is satisfied with the tree. Richie is feeling bad for Fonzie, so he and Howard go visit him to give him the present. Richie also wants to ask Fonzie to join the Cunningham family Holiday celebration. Can they convince Fonzie to spend Christmas with them, or will his own pride and stubbornness force him to spend Christmas alone?

J.A. Morris says:

When I was kid growing up in the 70s, I was a big fan of Happy days, but I've found the series hasn't aged well since then.  But "Guess Who's Coming To Christmas" is a very good Christmas episode. It shows that spending Christmas alone is a painful prospect for anyone, including people as cool as Fonzie.  And I can relate to Richie and Howard here, sometimes it's difficult to offer help to a friend or family member without offending them.

One thing that makes this an interesting episode is Fonzie's voice. Henry Winkler hadn't perfected it yet, so his voice is a bit higher-pitched than the one we knew and loved.

Fans of TV trivia will be interested to know this was the last appearance of Chuck Cunningham on Happy Days. The character was never mentioned again and eventually written out of existence. Because of this, there's a TV Trope known as Chuck Cunningham Syndrome.

This episode can be found on the "Happy Days-The Complete Second Season" dvd set, and also streams on Hulu.

My rating:

3 Candy Canes

A follow-up about "I Wish It Was Christmas Today"

A week or two ago, I posted a brief history of the song "I Wish It Was Christmas Today" from Saturday Night Live. Near the end of the piece, I wrote this:

"But we may get another performance on SNL. This week's (December 17,2011) host will be none other than Jimmy Fallon. Will we get cameos by Sanz, Morgan and Kattan? Will "the band" back together for one more Christmas performance? I certainly hope so!"

Well, maybe Jimmy Fallon reads this blog (just kidding), because we got a brand new performance of the song and a reunion of the "band"! Here's the 2011 edition of "I Wish It Was Christmas Today":



So perhaps there's still hope that one day, we'll turn on an All-Christmas radio station and hear this song right after Bing Crosby and Mariah Carey!

Harry And The Potters At The Yule Ball 2008

Recorded December 21, 2008, released December 2009.

Harry and The Potters are the world's first "Wizard Rock" band, made up of two brothers, Joe (vocals,keyboard, tenor saxophone, glockenspiel and theremin) and Paul DeGeorge (vocals, guitar, baritone saxophone and melodica). They formed in 2002 and have been playing songs about Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Voldemort and co. ever since. On stage, Joe and Paul both perform as "Harry Potter," with older brother Paul playing an older version of Harry and younger brother Joe as a younger incarnation of the boy wizard. The Potters have used their concerts as a way to promote literacy and often perform at libraries or book stores. Every year around the Holidays, they've played Yule Balls, inspired by the event featured in the book (and film) Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire.




At The Yule Ball 2008 captures the Potters' performance from the 4th annual Yule Ball held at the Middle East club in Cambridge, MA. They come on stage in Santa hats and open up with "We Wish You A Merry Christmas", then segue into their original song "Yule Ball." In addition to their usual repertoire of songs about all things Potter ("Save Ginny Weasley", "Dumbledore", "I'm A Wizard"), the Potters also perform several original Christmas songs including "Xmas Rulez, Voldmort Droolz," "Christmas Shopping for Dobby," "Xmas at Hogwarts" and a (mostly-spoken word) story-song called "How Hagrid Saved Christmas." During the encore, they lead the audience in a singalong of classic seasonal songs like Rudolph and Frosty.

The Brothers DeGeorge are backed by Brad Mehlenbacher on drums, and several fans are invited on stage to play clarinet, flute and saxophone. "Santa Claus" himself shows up to play lead guitar on a few songs.

J.A. Morris says:
I was fortunate enough to attend a Yule Ball in Washington, DC this past December. It was one of the most enjoyable concerts I've been to in a long time! The De Georges are great entertainers who obviously love what they do on stage. They took turns singing lead and usually harmonized nicely on the choruses. They also acted as MCs of the Ball, introducing other Wizard Rock bands. If you're a fan of Harry Potter books and movies, I strongly recommend you get to a Yule Ball next year. You will not be disappointed.

At The Yule Ball can't compare to attending a Yule Ball in person, but it's the next best thing. It's a fun concert movie, we watched it while we put up Christmas decorations in our living room. I mentioned that Mr. Claus himself shows up to play lead guitar on a few songs. Watching "Santa" shred is always cool. I especially liked the original Christmas songs the Potters performed here. Christmas plays an important role in the Harry Potter series, these songs feel very true to both the spirit of the Holidays and J.K. Rowling's stories.

When I rate films & movies here, I don't usually add caveats, but:
At The Yule Ball is only available for purchase at the official store of Harry And The Potters and is not available via Netflix, Hulu, etc. So it's not as easy to watch as most of what we review here. If you're unfamiliar with their music, you can sample some of it here.

Having said that, it's highly recommended if you're a fan of Harry Potter, Christmas or both!

My rating:





4 candy canes.


RigbyMel says:

I agree with J.A. Morris generally about Harry and the Potters and about the At The Yule Ball DVD in particular. I really like the homemade with love ethos and positive energy that is evident in the Potters' perfomances. J.K. Rowling should be pleased to have people riffing on her work like this! Highly recommended! I also recommend checking out a Yule Ball live and in person for yourself if you can manage it - our trip to the 2011 Yule Ball in D.C. was tons of fun!

RigbyMel's rating:





4 candy canes

2011 Yule Ball Poster