The Friday Link for 10/2/15

It is well documented I love the Peanuts comic strip and all of it's various holiday TV specials.  Always have.  One of my earliest memories of going to a movie was going to see a Peanuts one.  I think it was "A Boy Named Charlie Brown."

Today, October 2nd is the anniversary of the comic strip debuting!  Sixty five years ago, in 1950, the strip began, and it looked a lot different from today:

If you get the complete works, you get to see the characters transform over time.  The entire book series is very gratifying.  

I'm very excited to see the new version of the Peanuts coming to the theaters this Fall.  I've been surprised the amount of people bashing on the new movie re-launch.  My guess is they're bothered by the idea of changing anything from the original TV specials.  No one is trying to do that, no one could, but it is a popular franchise, and the desire is to keep the money coming in.  It's why they have, successfully, relaunched the Muppets, again.

These doubters and haters must not realize there are tons of specials they've made over the years.  I buy a DVD of Charlie Brown Christmas, and it comes with three other features I've never even heard of, and I'm a fan!  If anything, I think a reboot will do the franchise some good, with less focusing on the secondary characters.  I like my Shermy, Violet and Rerun like the next guy, but not at the cost of losing one of the main characters.

October means "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!"  I give you two great scenes from the special.  First the opening scene with the iconic music, and the second is a jewel of a scene with Snoopy and Schroeder.  The end of his sing along always makes me laugh.  Enjoy!