I grew up loving the various Peanuts cartoons and holiday specials. Its a world that felt magical, where adults didn’t talk and beagles cooked Thanksgiving dinner. The voices and tone of these cartoons would change over time, but one thing I thought I could count on was that we would never hear the Snoopy says words. That all changed in 1985.
When Snoopy was first animated, Bill Melendez who was integral to the creation of the TV version of the Peanuts, wanted to know what Snoopy would sound like. He went to Peanuts’ creator Charles Schulz who told him that Snoopy does not talk. When Bill pointed out that Snoopy has a lot of word bubbles in the comic strip, Schulz said give the lines to Charlie Brown. Snoopy doesn’t talk, he can’t, he is a dog. Ultimately Melendez would come up with sounds for Snoopy based on his own voice and he would voice him for decades.
Here is Melendez telling the story about how it all came about:
So Snoopy isn’t supposed to talk! Case closed.
Not so fast. In 1967, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, a stage musical was first performed and it became very popular. In that musical we actually get to hear Snoopy. I guess you can see where I am going with this, 18 years later, in 1985, they made an animated version of the musical and in it we get to hear Snoopy not only sing but speak (Voiced by Robert Towers).
I remember seeing this at the time and not liking it one bit. They would repeat the use of a speaking/singing Snoopy one more time in the 1988. This time voiced by Cam Clarke in the special, Snoopy! The Musical. You might know Clark better from his work in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons, where he voiced Leonardo and Rocksteady
Both are nice specials and I like Cam Clarke’s singing voice, but happily that would be the last time we would hear Snoopy speak.
(If you have retro finds you would like for me to share, I want to hear them. What old useful website are still lurking on the web? Some old TV show streaming online? Old tech being brought back? Let me know.)
ONE COOL VIDEO
Another rules of the Peanuts Universe seemed to be that adults were never heard, instead you just heard a trombone sound whenever they spoke. Well, in the Peanuts Universe rules were meant to be broken in the special, She’s a Good Skate, Charlie Brown, we actually get to hear a teacher in the Peanuts’ real voice. This wouldn’t be the last time we hear adults, and in future specials, they even showed them in cartoons like Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown and others.
TEN THINGS RETRO
❤️ Peanuts – Recently, I did a podcast on Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. It is a fine special that I have seen many times over the years, but I wouldn’t have done the podcast if Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack to the 1975 animated Peanuts TV special hadn’t been released. Amazingly, this release has found its way onto a host of Billboard Album Charts.
📜 Typewriters – The Actor Tom Hanks owns around 300 vintage typewriters. With typewriters not as common as they used to be, its great to see that a selection of his collection will be on display at a show at The Church in Sag Harbor, New York until March 10th.
🦇 Comics – The story about the creation of Batman is a complex story about artists. Bob Kane was originally credited as Batman’s sole creator for a very long time (until 2015), but as you might guess, the story of how Batman came to be in a lot more complicated and messy.
📺 Television – 10 years before Breaking Bad became a huge hit, Bryan Cranston had a memorable role on The X-Files episode, Drive. That episode was written by Breaking Bad series creator Vince Gilligan, who never forgot about Cranston’s performance. Cranston believes that if had not been that episode of The X-Files, he never would landed his career defining role.
🕹️ Video Games – When someone tries to remake a classic video game of my youth, I will usually try to check it out. Mike Birken remade Activision’s Pitfall!, so that you can play it on your browser. This is something I have seen before, but Birken also decided to try to improve the game and the results are pretty satisfying. Now I wish I could get a version to play on my original Atari.
🎥 Movies – Movies keep appearing and disappearing from paid streaming services and its hard to know which to subscribe to from month to month. Recently a surprising trend has started with major studios publishing full movies to YouTube. Will this continue? History would say no, so enjoy them while you can.
📱 Phones – Sony’s PSP was a big hit, and with its form factor, it seemed like it would make for a pretty good phone. But when Sony Ericsson tried to bring the PlayStation brand to mobile, it fell flat.
🎸 Music– Nowadays one doesn’t associate MTV with music. But one of my favorite artist from the height of the music television era, DEVO’s Mark Mothersbaugh, is still earning a good amount of money from the channel.
🚗 Cars – For a few years, when you bought a car, you might get to bring home your owner’s manual in a new format, VHS. So from the comfort of your living room you could sit back, relax and learn all about your new car. These video tapes, which act as pretty great time capsules are fun to watch nowadays. Here is one from 1993 for the Dodge Neon.
📺 Commercials – David Lynch passed away recently. In addition to groundbreaking film and TV shows, he also did some notable advertising including this commercial for the Playstation 2.
FEATURED RETRO COUPON
In the 1980s, granola bars were hitting shelves and although nutritionally they were almost the same as candy bars, many thought they were a healthy alternative. Cereal Bars like the Rice Krispies Bars found their way into people’s home under the same halo. It was a great time to be a kid!
SUBSTACK RECOMMENDATION
Daniel Best is a historian of pop culture and his Substack reflect that. I have recently been enjoying his posts on comic book history. I mentioned one above, but you might also want to check out this newer one about A New Superman Legal Battle. I am also looking forward to reading his newest book Terror Down Under: A History of Horror Film in Australia, 1897-1973, which I just ordered.
FROM THE RETROIST ARCHIVE
Let’s take a moment to look back at four posts from the Retroist’s past. I have been at this a long time.
One Year Ago…
🥤 The Coca-Cola MagiCan Contest
Five Years Ago…
Ten Years Ago…
🤖 It’s the K-Tel Records’ Music Machine with Robby the Robot!
Fifteen Years Ago…
🕹️ The Earth Dies Screaming for the Atari 2600
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