Stephan Pastis is the new writer for Peanuts
Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown is a Peanuts television special animated by Wildbrain that was released in 2011. The special is the 45th in the series and the first without the late Bill Melendez on the production team. It is also the first special without the direct involvement of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, Lee Mendelson Productions or Bill Melendez Productions (it is unknown, though, if Lee Mendelson also worked on this special).[1] The special was released on DVD on March 29, 2011, and first aired on television on October 1, 2011, on Teletoon in Canada. The special will premiere in the United States on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2011 at 8:30PM ET/PT on Fox, the first Peanuts special to air on the network; with this airing, Peanuts specials would have aired on all four major networks, including ABC, CBS and NBC. Ironically, the first half of the special on Fox will be competing directly with a Peanuts special that will be airing at the same time on ABC (“The Mayflower Voyagers” from This Is America, Charlie Brown).[2][3]
And this is some mixed messaging from Stephan Pastis.
The teleplay for the Peanuts special was written by Pearls Before Swine creator Stephan Pastis.
Ironic, because he is one who goes off on the Legacy strips on the comics page going on after the death of the original creators. I suppose there’s something in the limitless land of dvd and television as against the limited space offered in newspapers
I do have the thought about a comment that appears in the Chipp Kidd designed Peanuts book from Charles Schulz about the Peanuts comic books. Charles Schulz didn’t consider them a real part of the Peanuts ouvre. That seems about right for a post-Schulz television special.
Maybe there’s something in comparison with the Muppets here. I hear that the new Muppets movie revives the franchise from two decades of post-Henson doldrums. But Muppets seems more liable to exist outside the world of Jim Henson than Peanuts outside the world of Charles Schulz.
It is Christmas time again… times to reminisce about the Tickle Me Elmo craze and the… ensuing “Tickle This Elmo” t-shirts.