Why, Charlie Brown, Why?

Why, Charlie Brown, Why? (1990)

A new girl comes to the neighbourhood school and Linus is smitten with her. Unfortunately, she develops the symptoms of leukemia and must go to the hospital for cancer treatment. Linus and Charlie Brown help her through the traumas of chemotherapy as best they can while Snoopy plays at being the world's greatest doctor.

Date of release
1990-03-16
TMDB
7.2 / 10 (30)
Runtime
24m
Genres
Family, Animation, Comedy, Drama, TV Movie
Director
Sam Jaimes

Casting

Interesting facts

Why, Charlie Brown, Why? is a 1990 American animated television special, and the 33rd prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. It originally aired on March 16, 1990, and was also nominated for an Emmy.

Production and reception

The idea for Why, Charlie Brown, Why? was conceived by Sylvia Cook, a registered nurse at the Stanford Children's Hospital. In December 1985, Cook sent a letter to Charles M. Schulz, asking him to produce a short animated film about cancer for young patients featuring the Peanuts characters. Schulz was initially doubtful because of the anticipated high production costs.

The special has been shown in hospitals and in public education systems, primarily elementary schools and junior high schools, as a method for explaining the subject to children, and is also a part of the Pennies for Patients fundraiser campaign organized by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

A book adaptation of the special, titled Why, Charlie Brown, Why? A Story About What Happens When a Friend is Very Ill, was published by Pharos Books some weeks before the special's premiere on CBS, and was reissued in 2002. The original printing featured a foreword by actor Paul Newman.

Critical reaction to the special was overwhelmingly positive, with reviewers praising it for its realism, emotional weight, and poignancy, and for Janice's bravery in facing her disease.

The first airing of this special brought in an 8.7 household rating and a 16 percent audience share, ranking 65th out of 86 shows that week, and was watched by 15 million viewers.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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