This is a rarely-seen celebration of the first 25 years of the Peanuts comic strip that began in 1950 (it has only 32 votes as I write this). The program aired on the CBS television network back in January 1976 and probably never aired on major network television again. That likely explains its somewhat anonymous reputation. I only stumbled upon its existence myself just recently. Luckily it can still be found on Youtube.

The show is roughly an hour long and consists of the Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz, talking about how his famous comic strip came about, how he finds inspiration to write a new one every day (by the time of this special it was mentioned that he had already produced over 10,000 individual newspaper strips), the origins of some of his characters, and various other minutiae.

Interspersed throughout are quick animated clips of the Peanuts gang. Many of them were familiar to me but there were a few I hadn't seen before; I suspect they may have been created specifically for this show. There were also some interesting insights Schulz provided as he was being interviewed by Carl Reiner. Most Peanuts fans probably know that Schulz largely created the Charlie Brown character after himself. However, I learned here that Schulz skipped a grade in school when a young boy. He went from the 2nd grade to the 4th. As a result, he was the smallest boy in his class, and the youngest, too. That puts the trials and tribulations of Charlie Brown in a whole new light. If you are the smallest and youngest kid in your grade, you probably aren't going to be very popular, or successful in sports. It was little factoids like this that made the show worthwhile for me. If you are a Peanuts fan, you'll likely feel the same!

7/10. Would I watch again (Y/N)?: Sure maybe again in a few years.

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