It is a part of the national consciousness, and generations have grown up with it. Since A Charlie Brown Christmas was first aired in 1965, it has become a yearly part of holiday traditions, and made the Peanuts television specials a part of households across America, and the world. For a while now, the specials have been re-mastered and re-released onto DVD. Each special was packaged with another all new special, and a special feature about the making of the main special on that release. Now, the six specials from the 1960’s have been released onto a two disc set with an all new special feature exclusive to this set. Each of the specials have gone through one more restoration for the set, for extra clarity for the viewer. The Peanuts 1960’s Collection is a collection of the six Peanuts specials from the 1960’s as the name would suggest.

The specials are A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie Brown’s All-Stars, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, You’re In Love, Charlie Brown, and He’s Your Dog, Charlie Brown. Only the two most famous of the bunch have been re released as re-mastered editions. You’re In Love, Charlie Brown, and He’s Your Dog, Charlie Brown are premiering on DVD here in this collection, having no previous releases on DVD.

Episodes:
A Charlie Brown Christmas: The first, and classic, Peanuts special where Charlie Brown is asked to direct the Christmas play to help him work through his loss in the Christmas Spirit due to the mounting commercialism of the season.

Charlie Brown’s All-Stars: The second Peanuts special, where we deal with the fun of spring, and Baseball season… and the problems of having an unlucky, and untalented pitcher who is also manager of the team.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The third Peanuts special, which is another one of the classics. It’s Halloween, and everyone is going trick or treating… except Linus, who is waiting for the Great Pumpkin to arrive, a mythical Santa Claus or Easter Bunny type figure for Halloween that only he believes in.

You’re In Love, Charlie Brown: The fourth Peanuts special, where we learn of Charlie Brown’s crush on Heather, the little Red-Headed Girl, and all the trouble it causes him.

He’s Your Dog, Charlie Brown: The fifth Peanuts special. Charlie Brown’s famous puppy Snoopy has become a mischievous puppy bothering everyone in the neighborhood. Charlie Brown sends him back to get a refresher course on his obedience training, but has a detour on the way.

It Was A Short Summer, Charlie Brown: The fifth Peanuts special, and the last of the decade, Lucy signs all of the neighborhood kids up for summer camp. Throughout the summer, the boys have sporting competitions with the girls… and lose. But they have one last trick up their sleeve before camp ends.

This release comes with only one special feature, Vince Guaraldi: The Maestro Of Menlo Park. It is a half hour documentary on Vince Guaraldi, the composer of the Peanuts specials until his death in 1976. It briefly talks of his growing up, spends some time on his career before he scored A Charlie Brown Christmas, and talks of the lasting influence he has had on Jazz. The featurette consisted of interviews with his former band mates, other Jazz musicians who were influenced by him, Lee Mendelson the executive producer of the Peanuts specials, and his son, David Guaraldi. The featurette gave an overview of his life and contribution to Jazz and the Peanuts specials, which in turn allowed for a better understanding and appreciation of his music. The quality of this release is a vast improvement over what you would normally see on television each year with either A Charlie Brown Christmas or It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown in their yearly airings.

This I would expect since they have already been re-mastered and released on to DVD. The thing that surprises me is that this actually looks shaper, and sounds cleaner than previous releases. It seems as if they whet ahead and re-mastered the specials one more time to give he people who buy this release an added surprise of an even better version of the specials than those who purchased it previously. This is one of those releases that I’d recommend to anyone to pick up. I like the idea of collecting all of the specials from the 1960’s into one set, and hope that they keep doing this with each subsequent decade. With this release, Charlie Brown’s All-Stars and You’re in Love, Charlie Brown finally get re-mastered. Even more of a treat is finally getting He’s Your Dog, Charlie Brown and It Was A Short Summer, Charlie Brown on DVD for the first time in this set. For those of you who just want the two holiday specials, I’d say go ahead and skip this release, but if you have loved the Peanuts gang, even just enough to pick up only one of the other releases, I’d say go out and get this one, you’ll be doing yourself a favor.

Comics Online Gives the Peanuts 1960’s Collection 4.5 WWI Flying Aces out of 5.