It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown
The source of this gif is the 1969 Peanuts television special “It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown.” I have to admit, before I snagged the video for giffing purposes, I’d never seen this particular Charlie Brown animated feature before. It appears that it was the first “flop” of the Peanuts TV specials, insofar as it was the first that received no Emmy nominations.
As far as it goes, it’s not an awful show (although not particularly memorable either) and it does have some cute moments. The story starts with the Peanuts gang going back to school after summer vacation, where they recount their summertime adventures for an assigned essay. In the flashback, we learn that Lucy, in her typical overly-bossy fashion, had signed everyone up for summer camp, where the boys and girls seperated into opposing teams and completed at various summer camp events. The well-disciplined girls are victorious in all the contests over the boys. The disorganized and disspirited boys, in a desperate attempt to pull off a win, propose that a disguised Snoopy arm-wrestle Lucy. In preperation for the battle, Snoopy gets into shape, training and giving up his self-cooked gourmet meals for the unappealing health food of the camp mess hall. At the competition, the arm wrestling contest remains close until Snoopy, as is his nature, kisses Lucy, forcing her to abandon her resistance in defeat. But she cries foul, curses dog germs and declares victory.
Their reveries complete, the story returns back to the reality of the classroom. Charlie Brown, who had been goofing off and playing hangman with Linus instead of focusing on his essay assignment, gets a C-. Linus gets an A and remarks “It was a short summer, Charlie Brown.” A gloomy Charie Brown responds that it looks like it’s going to be a long winter.
This production, the sixth Peanuts TV special, was the first to not feature a majority of the the original voice actors, as they were begining to age out of their roles. It was also the last in which Peter Robbins voiced the Charlie Brown character. As an amusing side-note, this Peanuts feature marked the first time that the voice of Lucy was performed by Pamelyn Ferdin who had acted alongside Robbins in the short-lived non-animated sitcom reprisal of the Blondie television series, based on the cartoon strip of the same name.
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I was nine years old when this special aired but I only remember the part with Snoopy and Lucy's reaction to the "kiss". I would have recognized Pamela Ferdin's voice though as she was my nemesis. Well, sort of. She guested on a lot of shows I watched and I was so envious because I wanted to act on tv. We were about the same age and looked like we were related but I wore glasses (curse my bad eyes}. I felt I was the superior actor, well, in my mind anyway. I haven't thought about her in decades.
Pamelyn Ferdin! I remember her from the (one-season wonder) THE PAUL LYNDE SHOW, back when television sold us Lynde as a sitcom Dad.
She was also in the exploitation movie THE TOOLBOX MURDERS starring Cameron Mitchell as a psycho apartment super who goes on a killing spree of "immoral women", then kidnapping Ferdin's teenage girl character and keeping her tied up in his late daughter's bedroom. It's an odd duck—clearly low-budget exploitation/horror, but shot in Hollywood with a mix of Seventies television actors and porn stars (so they could get nude scenes in!), and with Movie-of-the-Week production values so it looks competently-done but uninspired.
Shortly afterward, Ferdin largely walked away from acting and became a registered nurse and animal-rights activist.