Charlie Brown's All Stars! (1966)

If you were to ask somebody to name the very first Peanuts special, odds are they would correctly guess A Charlie Brown Christmas. But, if you were to ask that same person to name the second special, they would probably say It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, when, in actuality, it's this little known one that first aired in between them. I know I'd never heard of it until I bought the Peanuts 1960's DVD Collection, so I went into it with no expectations whatsoever. But, I must say that when I watched it, I thought it was a fairly good one and not worth the relative obscurity it's found itself in (likely a result of it's not having had an annual reairing since 1971 and often getting clumped together with other baseball-themed specials on home media). While it's from that very early era where the character designs and animation were still a bit rough and hadn't been fine-tuned (although there are moments of really spectacular animation here), and there are some very noticeable character errors, it makes up for it with plenty of funny moments and a fairly profound plotpoint that concerns Charlie Brown having to make a moral decision for the good of his friends, which is probably why, like The Great Pumpkin the same year, it was nominated for an Emmy.

Charlie Brown's baseball team has an absolutely humiliating record of losses and game performances, with the previous year being the worst yet. Naturally, as the manager, Charlie Brown himself is blamed for it all. Come the first game of the new season, he's the only one sporting a positive attitude, but that immediately evaporates when they start playing and the opposing team crushes them. Worst of all, he catches but then drops a flyball, resulting in their losing the game, 123-0. Fed up, everyone, including Snoopy, quits, and he even considers resigning as manager. But then, Linus tells him that Mr. Hennessey, the owner of the local hardware store, is offering to sponsor their team and place them in an actual baseball league, complete with official uniforms. Believing that the prospect of uniforms with their names on them will inspire them to rejoin his team, Charlie Brown attempts to tell the others. At first, they're reluctant to listen to him, but when he finally gets to speak, they decide to give him one more chance if he delivers the uniforms. Unfortunately, he later gets a phone call at home from Mr. Hennessey, who tells him the league won't allow the girls or Snoopy to play. Unwilling to kick five of his friends off the team, Charlie Brown turns down the offer. Knowing they'll quit again if they find out, he decides not to tell them until after the next game, hoping that if they win, they'll be too happy to care. Of course, the odds of their actually winning are less than slim to none.

Having scored an unexpected hit the previous year with A Charlie Brown Christmas, Bill Melendez and his producer, Lee Mendelson, the one who first saw the potential of the Peanuts comic strips in animation, had been entrusted by Charles Schulz as the only ones who could produce specials, cartoons, and movies based on the strip, leading to the fairly rapid production of this one, which was aired just six months later (it was originally titled, Good Grief, Charlie Brown). Of course, this was only the start of the many, many Peanuts projects Melendez, his studio, and Mendelson would be involved with, as the franchise would more or less dominate the rest of their working lives.

Charlie Brown (voiced by Peter Robbins) starts off as rather demoralized when Linus reads off some statistics that show just how badly his baseball team did the previous year and feels even worse when just about everyone, including Snoopy, blames him as their manager for their poor performance. Regardless, when the first game of the new season comes around, he's determined to make a difference. When he first arrives on the field, he tells them of his strategy to avoid double-plays, but the team just lobs various complaints at him. Things don't get any better when the game starts, as he throws the first pitch over the backstop (according to Lucy, he nearly hit her mother), gets knocked out of his socks, shoes, cap, and baseball mitt by a ball getting hit back at him, can't get a strike to save his life, and, worst of all, he catches but then drops a flyball, much to the others' consternation. With that, everyone decides they're sick of being on a ball-team that never wins and they all quit on him. Feeling down, Charlie Brown wonders if he should resign as manager (Snoopy then promptly runs up with a pen and paper so he can make it official), when Linus tells him of Mr. Hennessey's offer to sponsor the team and get them into an official baseball league. Feeling this will inspire everyone to rejoin, he attempts to tell them but is unable to make them listen until they're all in a swimming pool together. Sure enough, they do agree to come back for the uniforms but, shortly afterward, Charlie Brown is told by Mr. Hennessey that the league won't accept Snoopy or the girls. This prompts him to turn down his offer for their sake, meaning no uniforms. While Linus tells him the others, especially Lucy, will be furious at him, Charlie Brown decides that if they win the next game, the ecstasy over their victory will make it easier for them to accept it. Much to his delight, it does go quite well, especially when Snoopy manages to steal second, third, and home with very little effort. And when, Charlie Brown himself is up to bat at the bottom of the ninth, he scores a hit and manages to steal second and third... but then, he gets caught up in the idea of being the hero and unsuccessfully attempts to steal home, causing them to lose yet again. Furious, the team tells him they'd leave him flat if it weren't for the uniforms, which is when he breaks it to them that they're not getting them. Sure enough, they then leave Charlie Brown lying on the field, apparently having lost his team forever...

That is, until Linus (voiced by Christopher Shea) intervenes. Throughout the cartoon, Linus, as usual, tries to be a good, reassuring friend to Charlie Brown but ends up unintentionally causing him grief, especially when he reads off the statistics for how badly the team performed the previous season. While everyone else on the team wonders how he's going to screw up this time, Linus just believes they have no hope of succeeding in general, though he does also get frustrated when Charlie Brown does something bone-headed that causes them to lose. Regardless, he tells him of Mr. Hennessey's offer to sponsor the team, but he's not convinced the promise of actual uniforms and a league deal will do much to improve their playing. He does go along with it when Charlie Brown tells the others (despite turning his nose up to him like everyone else and not helping when he initially tries to), but when he's then forced to turn it down upon learning of the league's stipulations, Linus knows how badly this will go over, telling him that Lucy will tear him to pieces and they'll never play for him again. He even goes as far as to suggest he leave town. But Charlie Brown, instead, decides to hope they win the next game and they'll forget about the uniforms as a result... which, of course, is wishful thinking. Weirdly, when the kids become angry with him when they learn they're not going to get them after they lose, Linus looks just as shocked and frustrated at the news as everyone else. It makes sense that he'd be just as mad about him costing them the game by trying to steal home, but for him to get angry about the uniforms, then turn around and admonish the girls and Snoopy for giving him a hard time when he turned the offer down for their sake, comes off as downright schizophrenic. In any case, when the girls decide to make it up to Charlie Brown by making a manager's uniform for him, Linus is forced to surrender his blanket to be used as the material. And just to add a little more to his trauma, he's forced to be the model for it as well!

Naturally, Lucy (voiced by Sally Dryer) is harder on Charlie Brown than anyone else. Right at the beginning, after Linus lists off those statistics, she tells him to do the best thing he could for his team and not show up at the first game of the season. Before said game begins, she tells him they can't keep cheering him on from the infield, as they're being hypocrites when they say he can do it, and then, during the game, she unintentionally catches a ball when she holds her mitt out while talking with Frieda. She gives it back to Charlie Brown, saying, "That's the old pepper, Charlie, old boy!", as if it were a pitch she caught from him. When he goes to catch the flyball, Lucy, like everyone else, is rooting for him, but also suggests they all kick him if he misses. While they don't do that when he catches and then drops it, they do quit on him, with Lucy echoing everyone else's sentiments that it's ridiculous to stay on a team that never wins. Both she and everyone else refuse to listen to him when he first tries to tell them of Mr. Hennessey's offer to sponsor them and give them uniforms, but when he does get the chance, Lucy herself says they'll give him just one more chance. And then, they lose the next game and Charlie Brown breaks it to them that he turned down the offer for the uniforms, prompting them all to walk out on him for good. But, after Linus tells them why he did it, and they get further admonished for their behavior by Schroeder, Lucy and the girls feel genuinely bad and decide to make it up to Charlie Brown. Significantly, Lucy is the one who comes up with the idea of giving Charlie Brown a manager uniform made out of Linus' blanket, complete with the title of "OUR MANAGER" on the front. But, just because it was her idea doesn't mean she refrains from reminding him of how he lost the game and is the goat.

Though she's not on the ball-team, Sally (voiced by Kathy Steinberg) appears briefly here when the kids are trying to enjoy their summer without worrying about baseball. She approaches Linus while he's blowing up an inflatable pool, asking him if she looks cute in her swimsuit and if she looks like a "beach bunny,"; to both, Linus answers a flat, "Nope." Sally, though, is unfazed, saying he's cute because, "He never says what he means." For some reason, she's just as upset at her brother as everyone else, turning her nose up like them when he tries to talk with them as they're riding around on their skateboards (or, in her case, roller-skates, and while she's still in her bikini). She's also seen playing around with the others in the pool and seems happy about the idea of uniforms, even though, again, she's not on the team.

Most of the other members of the Peanuts gang have small roles as part of the team, including Violet (voiced by Karen Mendelson), Frieda (voiced by Ann Altieri), and Patty (voiced by Lynn Vanderlip). Violet is, in some ways, even more cruel to Charlie Brown than Lucy, flat-out calling stupid after they've lost the second game of the season and learned about the uniforms, while Frieda is often more concerned about the audience being able to see her hair and how well she'll look

in the uniform. The two of them also tend to play double-dutch with Patty, who's just as down on Charlie Brown as everyone else. Also, while Schroeder (voiced by Glen Mendelson) calls the girls out on how cruel they were to Charlie Brown over the uniforms, saying they don't act like they're really his friends, he has no room to talk, as he was also upset about losing the uniforms, even if he didn't give Charlie Brown the same amount of crap over it as the girls. Also, at the beginning of the

special, he cops an attitude and tells him that he's not going to continue pitching if he doesn't get time off to practice Beethoven. Pig-Pen (voiced by Geoffrey Ornstein) is also part of the team, often coming off as well-spoken and somewhat sophisticated, despite how dirty and dusty he is. His main concern about the uniforms is whether they'll be bone-dry (I guess so as not to wash away his dirt), and when Frieda chews him out for how filthy he is, he responds, "Yes, but I have clean thoughts." She then asks, "Can't you even keep

your shoelaces tied?", to which he answers, "What do you want me to be? Inconsistent?" And Shermy (voiced by Gail DeFaria) resigns from the team at the beginning of the special, telling Charlie Brown, "It's hard to play on a team that always loses. It's depressing. I'm the kind who needs to win now and then. With you, it's different. I think you get sort of a neurotic pleasure out of losing all of the time." While he's present when Charlie Brown tells them about Mr. Hennessey's deal and is seen before the pivotal game afterward, at no point do you see him actually taking part in it.

Like the girls and just about everyone else on the team, Snoopy (voiced by Bill Melendez) is annoyed with Charlie Brown's less than stellar management skills and quits along with the others when they lose the first game of the season. Moreover, when Charlie Brown wonders if he should resign as manager, Snoopy is quick to arrive with a pen and paper so he can make it official (Charlie Brown argues, "What's the rush? After 999 games, don't I deserve one more chance?"). After that, he joins the kids in enjoying the summer without having to worry about baseball, such as fantasizing himself surfing in Linus' swimming pool and getting so into it that he actually wipes out. He's also as unwilling to listen to what Charlie Brown has to say when he joins the kids in their skateboarding (though, like Linus, he already knows about Mr. Hennessey's offer). When the team returns to play under Charlie Brown, Snoopy proves to be quite an invaluable player (even though he can't pitch the ball), as he and Linus are able to do a nice double-play, and when he's up to bat, he not only gets a hit but manages to steal second, third, and home, earning them a much-needed run (yeah, he can't pitch, but he can apparently bat with the best of them). But then, when they lose again because of Charlie Brown and he tells them they're not getting their coveted uniforms, either, Snoopy is just as aggravated and disgusted as the girls. However, when Linus tells them why Charlie Brown turned down Mr. Hennessey, Snoopy not only feels as down as the girls but is especially hurt when he learns the league wouldn't have let him play, howling in despair. He then joins the others in making a manager uniform for Charlie Brown in order to make it up to him.

Like its infinitely more famous predecessor and successor, Charlie Brown's All Stars! is most definitely from that rough early period where Bill Melendez and his studio were finding their way when it came to animation and design. In regards to the former, it is a bit more refined than it was in A Charlie Brown Christmas, and there are notable instances of really smooth and impressive work, like in the opening where Charlie Brown runs through the neighborhood, attempting to catch a flyball, when Snoopy imagines himself surfing in

Linus' pool, when the kids are first seen skateboarding, and when Snoopy steals the bases for a run. But, for the most part, it is still often pretty choppy and stiff, with some obvious short-cuts taken, like when the kids roll past Charlie Brown on skateboards, sometimes looking like still images that are being dragged across the screen, and how, when he peeks out from behind third base, Snoopy's head literally just appears in a cut rather actually sticking out. Design-wise, the characters are in that prototype sort of state, with the faces not quite as finessed as they would later be, Snoopy's snout not as wide as it would eventually be, and their bodies coming off as a bit misshapen in some shots.

The art direction of the environments and backgrounds is often very simplistic, with the many exterior scenes being little more than a stretch of bright green grass and a blue, cloudless sky, with occasional additions to the background like trees and houses, and with little in the foreground except for maybe a sidewalk or, in the case of some scenes, Linus' swimming pool. You never get an establishing shot of the whole baseball field (the opening just has the pitcher's mound in the center of a big, blank clearing) and there's little

more detail to it than the pitcher's mound, the bases, the bench, some stands, and a fence. The indoor settings also typically look like a big void of one particular color, with only slight variations between the wall and floor, a notable seam near the bottom of the wall, and some occasional furniture to let you know you're actually in a room. In fact, the only place with any noteworthy detail to it is Mr. Hennessey's storefront, and even that's not much to write home about. As is often the case

with this franchise, no adults are ever seen (or heard, for that matter), with Mr. Hennessey kept completely offscreen, and the same also goes for the opposing baseball team. And while there's only one truly stylized part of the special, when Charlie Brown starts to write down his resignation as team manager, with the words and a bunch of nervous scribbles appearing in the air above his head, it would set the stage for frequent uses of that motif whenever someone is writing, the same way that Snoopy's surfing fantasy can be seen as a prelude to the World War I Flying Ace sequence in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

The special opens with Charlie Brown pitching a ball, only for an offscreen batter to hit it hard enough to send it flying over him. He desperately runs everywhere to catch it: over the stands and a fence, between two houses, down the sidewalk, past Violet and Patty turning a jump-rope for Frieda (he himself gets briefly caught up in the jumping), through a house's front door, up the stairs, into a children's playroom, where he leans out the window for a catch, through various other

rooms, back down the stairs, and out the back door, where it finally comes down at him. He holds his mitt out and does catch it, but it then drops off his glove and to the ground. That's when his team, including Violet, Patty, and Frieda, storm up to him with angry expressions on their faces and scream, "You blockhead, Charlie Brown!", sending him flying backwards (at least he was trying instead of playing around, like those three girls). He gets up in front of a section of wooden fence with the title painted on it and walks off through a loose board

on another section that has Charles Schulz's writing credit on it. The special then truly starts with Linus reading off the less than flattering statistics about their team: the previous year, the opposing team scored 30,000 runs to their 6, 4,900 hits to their 11, made only 4 errs to their 375, and so on. Having heard enough, Charlie Brown sends Linus off, while Lucy advises him not to show up for the first game of the season the next day. That night, as he prepares for bed, he laments how his team never lets him forget any of the mistakes he's made. You then see Snoopy standing on his bedpost, glaring at him, and Charlie Brown reiterates, "Never."

The next day, the team hopes Charlie Brown won't show up, but when he promptly does, they yell, "Disaster time! We're doomed!" Grumbling about the crap he gets, Charlie Brown declares that this season's going to be different and shows off his strategy to avoid double-plays against them, which entails Linus fielding the ball and Snoopy coming and crashing into him to try to break up the play. He then asks if there are any questions, which there are, but they have nothing to do with the game

itself. Instead, they range from Frieda not wanting to play right-field because no one in the stands can see her curly hair and Schroeder grumbling about wanting time to off to play Beethoven, to Lucy saying, "And we can't keep up all that ridiculous infield chatter, like, 'Come on, Charlie Brown! Atta boy! You can do it!' Because you can't do it, Charlie Brown. So, you're turning us into a bunch of hypocrites." When Frieda comments they don't like being hypocrites because baseball's supposed

to build character, Charlie Brown decides he's had enough and tells them to take their positions on the field. He asks Pig-Pen if the other team has shown up and he answers, "Unfortunately, yes." The game then begins, with Charlie Brown throwing the season's first pitch, which he lobs over the plate and backstop. Lucy admonishes him both for this and for almost hitting her mother with the ball. The ball is tossed back to him and, before he pitches again, he talks about how great it is to be playing

ball, saying it feels just like it did, "In the good old days." He then pitches and the ball flies past him hard enough to make him spin in the air and lose most of his clothes and gear. Lying on the mound, he moans, "Unfortunately." Going for another pitch, he comments, "Alright, so they have a man on first. If this team's gonna beat us, they're really gonna have to try." He pitches and they hit the ball high over his head, to which he grumbles, "I hate it when they try." He proceeds to throw pitch after pitch after pitch, only for the same thing to happen

each time, and then, it's only when she's not paying attention and talking with Frieda that Lucy unintentionally catches a ball. After she gives it back to Charlie Brown, Schroeder tells him, "The slow ball's working pretty well today, Charlie Brown. Let's fool this next guy. Give him your fast ball." Charlie Brown answers, "I've been giving them my fast ball!", when Snoopy comes up on the mound with his food bowl in his mouth. Not having it, Charlie Brown tells him to get back into position, take away the bowl, and pay attention.

Snoopy is then shown sitting in the field, still holding the bowl in his mouth, and looking very angry, when a ball is batted his way. He runs and manages to catch it in the bowl, then walks back over to Charlie Brown and spits them both at him, knocking him off his feet. Getting back up, Charlie Brown comments, "Some of these infields are kinda touchy."

He throws another pitch, which gets batted into a high flyball trajectory. Everyone yells for him to catch it and he desperately runs after it. They're both excited about him catching it but also nervous over the possibility of him dropping it. Standing between Violet, Linus, and Lucy, Charlie Brown has his hand out, watching the ball as it comes down at him, thinking, "If I catch it, I'll be the hero. If I miss it, I'll be the goat. I can hear it now: Charlie 'The Goat' Brown." And, just like

before, it falls right into his mitt but rolls out, as the others yell in total despair. Later, having lost the game, he grumbles about how badly he bungled that catch, saying, "I really thought we were going to win this one. For one brief moment, victory was within our grasp." Linus adds, "And then, the game started." Commenting on how they lost 123-0, Charlie Brown asks Linus where the others are and he answers, tearfully, "They all went off to cry." Cut to Snoopy lying atop his doghouse, howling mournfully. With that, everyone quits the team, throwing the caps down on the ground at Charlie Brown's feet until they've piled up. He wonders who's going to abandon him next, when Snoopy walks in and adds his own cap to the pile.

After telling Charlie Brown of Mr. Hennessey's sponsorship offer, Linus decides it may be best if he just forget the whole thing and do other things for the summer, just like the rest of the kids. Inflating a swimming pool and filling it up, he shouts, "Surf's up!" Hearing this, Snoopy jumps off his doghouse, runs inside, and comes back out wearing swimming trunks and carrying a surfboard. He jumps into the pool and fantasizes about swimming out into the ocean, catching a

wave, performing various poses on the board, skimming beneath the wave's bending top, and standing on his hands. However, that's when the wave closes in on him and he suffers a wipe-out, getting flung up into the air along with his board. Seeing his bottom half sticking up out of the water, Linus removes Snoopy from the pool, carries him over to and sets him down in front of Sally, water spewing up out of his mouth like a fountain. Linus yells, "Who wants to apply mouth-to-mouth 

resuscitation?!", but Sally just looks at Snoopy and goes, "Blech!" Meanwhile, some of the other kids, like Shermy, Schroeder, and Pig-Pen, are skateboarding, while Violet, Patty, and Frieda are, as before, playing double-dutch. The boys skate towards them and jump rope along with their boards (Pig-Pen's dust-cloud causes Frieda to momentarily choke), when Charlie Brown runs in and tries to get them to listen to him by doing the same. But he gets tangled up in the rope and accidentally does the same to them, making them

all the more annoyed with him than they were before. After Violet tells him how happy they'll be once he's back in school, he tries to tell them of Mr. Hennessey's offer, but Lucy rolls up on her own skateboard and tells him they don't want to hear it, especially if it concerns baseball. She then rolls away, along with everyone else, as they make it clear they have no intention of listening to him. It's only when they're later playing around in the swimming pool that Charlie Brown is finally able to tell them, which makes them agree to come back to his team, albeit reluctantly.

Come the next game, Charlie Brown has learned that the girls and Snoopy wouldn't be allowed to play in the league and thus, has to refuse the uniforms. Hoping that winning the game will make them forget about them, he tries to pep and encourage them when they meet on the field, but the first thing Lucy asks about are the uniforms. Avoiding the subject, Charlie Brown tells them that he had Linus scout the opposing team. Linus gives them his report: "I've watched this team practice,

see? They were terrible! Anybody could beat them! None of their players can hit the ball out of the infield." Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Snoopy, are initially encouraged, when Linus goes on, "And they have this loudmouth girl in center-field who can't catch a thing. They also have some animal on second base who can't even throw. And their pitcher is a kind of round-headed kid who is absolutely no good at all! And..." They then explode at him, telling him that he scouted his own

team like an idiot. Now all the more frustrated and demoralized, the others make it clear they're only playing for the uniforms. Charlie Brown decides to just start the game and heads to the pitcher's mound, realizing how much he now needs for them to win. Before he throws the first pitch, he talks about it being lonely on the mound and how hard it is to bear so much responsibility, but then you suddenly realize, "You're surrounded by loyal teammates,"; at that moment, Lucy yells, "Come on, you blockhead! Try to get one over the plate!"

Charlie Brown pitches, the ball gets knocked past him, and though Linus tries to catch it, he gets tangled up in his own blanket and falls to the ground. Charlie Brown pitches again, planning to keep the ball low for a double-play, and though the ball whizzes by him again, this time through his legs, Snoopy catches it in his mouth and hands it over to Linus, who tosses it as he runs, which Charlie Brown calls the greatest double-play ever. After that, Shermy scores a hit, followed by Patty and then Pig-Pen, although the latter, again, stirs up so much dust that no one can see what's going on. Pitching again, Charlie Brown is amazed when, despite his blanket causing him to fall again, Linus manages to toss the ball over to Pig-Pen on second base. This ensures him that they can't lose.

Linus is next up to bat, and Charlie Brown tells him to go up to the plate and grit his teeth, which he does. He manages to get a hit, but when he runs for second base, his blanket trips him up yet again. Dismayed by this, Charlie Brown tells Lucy to grit her teeth as well, saying she'll scare the pitcher when she does. He tells her to go get a hit and she walks up to the plate with her teeth firmly gritted, but misses the first pitch. She comments, "Get a hit? I can't even see the pitcher," and ends up striking out. She sits down next to Charlie Brown,

complaining that her bat was too light, the opposition's ball is no good, and the sun is too bright. Charlie Brown next turns to Snoopy when he's up to bat, telling him it's the bottom of the ninth and they need at least two runs. He goes up to the plate and warms up for the pitch, only to whack his foot a little too hard with the bat, leaving it red and throbbing. Regardless, he grits his teeth like everyone else and manages to score a hit. Moreover, he manages to steal second, then runs and steals third, diving behind the plate, and makes

a break for home. Everyone yells for him to slide and he successfully does, earning them a much deserved run. Snoopy is carried off by the others and lauded as a hero, while Charlie Brown excitedly asks Frieda who's next up to bat. Turns out, it's him! Frieda gives him the bat and pushes him to the plate, telling him to grit his teeth and get a hit like everyone else. However, his teeth chatter as he horribly shakes from nervousness, and he misses the first pitch. From the bench, Frieda yells

for him to hit it, and then asks Schroeder, who's sitting next to her, if she'd like to see Charlie Brown hit the ball just once. Schroeder answers, "No, I'm not prepared to have the world come to an end." Truly gritting his teeth, Charlie Brown tries to focus but misses the second pitch as well. However, on the third, he manages to score a hit. Excited and gleefully happy, he runs to first base, then goes to steal second, which he succeeds in, and then decides to go for third. He makes that as well, sliding and reaching it easily, and becoming elated at his success.

Though things look good, on the bench, Lucy and Patty worry that Charlie Brown might do something foolish, like attempt to steal home base. Sure enough, he's contemplating it and starts to go for it, but backs out, saying he doesn't have the nerve for it. He then attempts to go for it again, getting himself wound up, but steps back onto the plate. But, his need to be the hero of the day gets the better of him and he goes for it. After dancing around to try to throw off the pitcher, he takes off with the sound of the "Charge" fanfare. The kids

are horrified that he's trying this and yell for him to slide. But, when he does, he doesn't make it, and after the dust settles, he's surrounded by his very unhappy team, as they call him a blockhead and yell in anguish that he caused them to lose again. Telling him that he didn't even make it halfway, Lucy says that, were it not for the uniforms they're still expecting to get, they'd quit right then and there. That's when Charlie Brown breaks it to them that he turned down Mr. Hennessey's offer, much to their frustration. With that, all of them but Linus

leave him flat, as he laments, "If I had stolen home, I'd have been the hero. Instead, I'm the goat." He asks Linus, "Was I out by much," and Linus, walking off, answers, "By thirty feet." After that is when Linus tells the others why Charlie Brown said no to the uniforms, leaving the girls and Snoopy crestfallen over how they treated him. Lucy comes up with the idea of making him a uniform and, much to Linus' horror, she decides to use his blanket as the material. With him as the

model, Lucy, Violet, Patty, and Snoopy (I don't know why Frieda isn't part of this) make the uniform and take it to Charlie Brown, who's still lying on the ground, lamenting his crushing failure. Telling him what they've done, they stand him up and put it on him, and when he sees "OUR MANAGER" written on the front, he's so touched that he sheds a tear. He declares that the next day's game will be very different.

The next day is different, as it's pouring rain. Linus and Lucy watch it from inside their house, the former commenting that he's glad he's inside. Lucy comments, "Well, good grief, only a real blockhead would be out in a rain like this," and, as it turns out, she's right. Charlie Brown is standing on the pitcher's mound, which is basically an isle in the middle of his soaked baseball field, and wonders where everybody is. He complains, "A little rain never hurt anybody," as Snoopy literally surfs right by him. Linus shows up in a yellow raincoat,

asking him what he's doing, and he mentions the game they were supposed to have.  Linus says, "I don't suppose it has occurred to you that no one else may show up?", and Charlie Brown answers, "Not for a second." The two of them stand there on the mound, when Charlie Brown notices how desperately the shaking Linus is looking at him. He asks him why and he whines that they made his uniform out of his blanket. Hating to see him looking so pathetic, he offers him his uniform's shirt-tail and Linus takes it and sucks his thumb, as usual.

For just over half of this 25-minute cartoon, there's no music score, but when there is, it's Vince Guaraldi bringing a calm but more upbeat sound to the Peanuts, as opposed to the soft, mellow, and, at times, melancholic quality of A Charlie Brown Christmas' music. The opening scene of Charlie Brown trying to catch the flyball is scored entirely through a continuous beat of drum cymbals and a very subtle bass in the background, whereas the title theme is a sort of variation on the iconic "Linus and Lucy" piece. One piece of music, called the "Baseball Theme," is played in several different variations, first on a jaunty piano, second in a version where the piano is joined by some brass, and in a version where a smooth guitar accompanies the piano. A more melancholic-sounding combination of piano and brass is first heard after Charlie Brown's team has lost the first game of the season and is replayed various times when things look hopeless for the team, like when Charlie Brown gets the call from Mr. Hennessey about the league not allowing for the girls or Snoopy and during the ending when he and Linus are standing out in the rain. The familiar piece called "Pebble Beach" is heard when the kids are seen skateboarding, but for me, the most memorable theme in the special is "Surfin' Snoopy," a very upbeat piano/brass combo that, as you probably guessed, is first heard during his surfing fantasy but is also played when he successfully steals the bases and when he and the girls are making Charlie Brown's manager uniform. (That piece was actually used in one scene of A Charlie Brown Christmas but it stuck in my mind more here because it was played several times.)

A lot of Peanuts specials deal with baseball and, in my opinion, Charlie Brown's All Stars! is, along with It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown, one of the best. While it may not have much to make it stand out from the two well-known specials it's sandwiched in-between, is very simple in terms of its design and overall animation, and has notable errors in some of the characterization, it makes up for it with a simple but entertaining story that has Charlie Brown being forced to make a tough decision and facing the consequences, some truly funny moments and sequences, instances of really good animation, and a very nice music score. If you haven't seen it or even heard of it because of its relative obscurity, I would definitely recommend giving it a whirl if you're a fan of Peanuts or of baseball.