Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown

Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown
Genre	Animated TV special
Created by	Charles M. Schulz
Written by	Charles M. Schulz
Voices of	Wesley Singerman (Charlie Brown) Serena Berman (Lucy van Pelt) Corey Padnos (Linus van Pelt) Daniel Hansen (Peppermint Patty) Melissa Montoya (Marcie) Christopher Ryan Johnson (Schroeder) Megan Taylor Harvey (Sally Brown) Bill Melendez (Snoopy and Woodstock)
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Running time	22 mins
Production company(s)	United Feature Syndicate
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	August 29, 2003
Chronology
Preceded by	Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales
Followed by	I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown

Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown is a Peanuts special. It originally aired on the ABC network on August 29, 2003. It was released on DVD on March 2, 2004, and again on May 1, 2012, as part of a single disc called Happiness is...Peanuts: Team Snoopy.

It's the beginning of baseball season, and Charlie Brown is looking forward to the new season with a mixture of joy and apprehension. The apprehension is mainly due to Lucy, who is constantly bothering him with idiotic questions, sarcastic remarks and non-sequiturs, to the point where poor Charlie literally becomes physically ill on the pitcher's mound.

After his team loses their first game to Peppermint Patty's team, Charlie Brown then thinks of a great idea of trading one of his team players to Peppermint Patty. He decides to trade Snoopy for five of Peppermint Patty's players (because Snoopy is the only player Patty would want). However, the team is angry with Charlie Brown for this, and Charlie Brown finally decides to rip up the contract made for the trade (which is just as well, as the five players Patty was going to trade declared they'd give up baseball before they'd ever play for Charlie Brown). The team continues to play throughout the season normally until Peppermint Patty suggests that they should trade Lucy for one of Peppermint Patty's team members, which Charlie Brown does.

Unfortunately, Lucy's replacement, Marcie, who is traded from Peppermint Patty's team, always ends up on the pitcher's mound with Charlie Brown. Meanwhile, Lucy, over on Peppermint Patty's squad, gets into her usual fuss-budget business by failing Peppermint Patty at every game the team plays by doing something stupid. When Peppermint Patty re-trades Lucy to get Marcie back, Charlie Brown's team begins to return to its losing ways. At the end, everyone but Charlie Brown leaves due to rain. Charlie Brown stays on the pitcher's mound as the credits roll, only leaving the field when the credits end.

The storyline involving Snoopy's botched trade to Peppermint Patty's team was based on a lengthy Peanuts storyline from the fall of 1967. The storyline involving Lucy's and Marcie's trades originated in a storyline from 1988.

Of note is the fact that Peppermint Patty refers to Snoopy as "the little kid with the big nose," which is in line with the content of Peanuts in 1967 when the original strips were drawn. In the actual strip, Peppermint Patty did not learn Snoopy was a dog until 1974 and never referred to him as a "kid with the big nose" afterwards.

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