Line #40 WesternAnimation/ItsTheEasterBeagleCharlieBrown


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/easterbeagle.png]]
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3	The twelfth ''Franchise/{{Peanuts}}'' special, ''It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown'' was first broadcast on Creator/{{CBS}} in 1974. It continued to air annually on that network through the year 2000. From 2001 to 2014, [[Creator/AmericanBroadcastingCompany ABC]] aired it intermittently, pairing it with the 1966 special ''WesternAnimation/CharlieBrownsAllStars''. ''Easter Beagle'' had not been broadcast on television since 2014, incidentally the year of its fortieth anniversary, through to ABC losing the Peanuts special rights to Creator/AppleTVPlus in 2020. The special was added to the service in 2021.
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5	An EasterSpecial, obviously, it essentially consists of three interconnected storylines. Linus insists that they don't have to worry about painting Easter eggs because the Easter Beagle will give Easter eggs to all the good little children on Easter Sunday. [[WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown Given how consistently wrong he's been about the Great Pumpkin]], no one believes him except, of course, for Sally. Meanwhile, Peppermint Patty is trying to teach Marcie how to make Easter eggs, but Marcie keeps ruining the eggs before they can even get started. Finally, Snoopy has to get Woodstock a new home.
6	----
7	!!''It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown'' contains examples of:
8	* AchievementsInIgnorance: Marcie's attempt at boiling the eggs, which involves her [[EpicFail cracking them]], results in her creating what Peppermint Patty can only describe as, "egg soup."
9	* BiggerOnTheInside: The tiny birdhouse Snoopy got Woodstock has a surprisingly roomy living room with ultramodern furnishing and a minimalist spiral staircase leading up to... somewhere.
10	* BodyPocket: Snoopy demonstrates this while buying two birdhouses for Woodstock at different times in this.
11	* ButtMonkey: Who else but Charlie Brown? By the time the Easter Beagle (who is his ''own dog'') gets to him, he's ran out of eggs to hand out. Justified, as he tossed loads of eggs everywhere that he wouldn't have enough to give to everyone.
12	* CassandraTruth: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zizagged.]] Given Linus' unreliability with the story of the Great Pumpkin, the idea of the Easter Beagle is naturally seen as ridiculous by the other kids, that is, until the Easter Beagle ''actually'' arrives. ...Then again, it's just Snoopy putting on an act.
13	* ChristmasCreep: It's just before Easter, but the mall is already set for Christmas:
14	-->''ONLY 246 DAYS UNTIL XMAS''
15	* CostumeTestMontage: Sally and Snoopy trying out hats.
16	* CoversAlwaysLie: Some covers for the special show Charlie Brown receiving an Easter egg from Snoopy. In the special, he's the one who does NOT get an Easter egg (because Snoopy had run out by the time he gets to him).
17	* CrappyHolidays: Right up until Snoopy arrives as the Easter Beagle, everyone except for Woodstock and Lucy are having a ''really'' bad Easter morning. Peppermint Patty grieves over the fact that she and Marcie are left without any eggs, Sally is chewing Linus out for seemingly deceiving her again, and Charlie Brown is confused as to why he's alone, on a holiday, no less. On the other hand, Woodstock is busy sleeping, while Lucy is hyping herself up for her (one-sided) Easter egg hunt.
18	* DisneyAcidSequence: Snoopy dancing with the bunnies. Charles Schulz once said in an interview that the bunnies Snoopy dances with are none other than the Bunny Wunnies, Snoopy's favorite children's book characters.
19	* DontCallMeSir: At the beginning, after Peppermint Patty lets Marcie in her house with some eggs to make Easter eggs, she tells her to "Please quit calling me 'Sir'!".
20	* DumbassHasAPoint: While Lucy seeing Easter as "the gift-getting season" is painted as her being selfish as always, it does hold water in how much of a ChristmasCreep is made out of Easter when the gang head to the mall, leading to her [[KnewItAllAlong reaffirming her sentiment]] to Linus.
21	-->'''Sally:''' It's Easter, and they already have the Christmas decorations up!\
22	'''Charlie Brown:''' Good grief...\
23	'''Linus:''' I ''can't'' believe it.\
24	'''Lucy:''' I told you. It's the gift-getting season!
25	* EasterEpisode: The gang prepares for Easter:
26	** Linus attempts to convince the others that the Easter Beagle (c.f. the Great Pumpkin) exists.
27	** Marcie tries making Easter eggs by cooking them in a multitude of ways before learning that she needs to boil them.
28	** Lucy hides eggs for an Easter egg hunt so that she can find them all herself, but Snoopy gets them first.
29	** On Easter, the Easter Beagle (Snoopy) shows up and distributes the eggs he got from Lucy to everyone but Charlie Brown, who gets the basket instead.
30	* EasterBunny: Linus believes in the Easter Beagle instead. It's actually Snoopy, of course.
31	* ElevatorGag: Woodstock has an invisible elevator he uses to get in and out of his nest. He's clearly just flying up and down, but that doesn't explain the elevator sounds, or him standing in mid air before going down.
32	* EntitledBastard: Compared to her hypocritically criticizing Christmas as one, big commercial racket, Lucy embraces the belief of Easter being, "the gift-getting season."
33	* EpicFail: Marcie repeatedly fails at trying to hard-boil Easter eggs prior to coloring them. Among her attempts, she tries cracking them and cooking them sunny-side up, cramming them in a waffle iron, and even cracking them into a pot and making "egg soup".
34	-->'''Peppermint Patty:''' MARCIE! You made egg SOUP! ''(Marcie jumps back in fear)'' AAUGH!!
35	* ExactWords: Peppermint Patty tells Marcie that the final batch of eggs they've bought must be boiled. She didn't tell Marcie not to crack them.
36	* {{Facepalm}}: Peppermint Patty does this when Marcie eats her Easter egg ''[[EpicFail without taking the shell off]]''. This is after Marcie asked for egg-eating instructions and got them. "Tastes terrible, Sir."
37	* HighHeelHurt: {{Downplayed\|Trope}} with Sally. She buys platform shoes because she needed new shoes to begin with, and she's ultimately happy with her purchase, since she [[IJustWantToBeSpecial likes being different]], but the problem is that she can barely balance on the shoes because of how tall they are.
38	* IdiotBall:
39	** Marcie is considered one of the smartest members of the Peanuts cast (as long as it doesn’t involve sports), and certainly smarter than Peppermint Patty, yet here she seems to know absolutely nothing about Easter eggs. When tasked by Peppermint Patty to prepare the eggs, Marcie ''fries them''. On the second try, Peppermint Patty instructs Marcie to boil the eggs this time. Marcie boils the water, then proceeds to ''crack open the eggs'' before dumping them into the boiling water.
40	** Likewise, Peppermint Patty could've avoided a lot of frustration had she simply boiled the eggs herself to show Marcie how it's done.
41	* InsaneTrollLogic: Lucy believes that because she's painting and hiding the eggs, she should be the one to find the eggs, despite it defeating the purpose of an Easter egg hunt since she already knows where all of them are hidden. She even takes notes as she hides them, making the hunt even more pointless.
42	* LethalChef: Peppermint Patty tries to teach Marcie how to make Easter eggs, but Marcie can't get a handle on how to prepare the eggs. First she fries them. Next she tries cooking them on a waffle iron, then a toaster, and then putting them in the oven. Finally, with help from Patty, she boils them... but cracks them open first, resulting in "egg soup".
43	-->'''Peppermint Patty:''' [[RunningGag AAUGH!!]]
44	* OutdatedOutfit: {{Discussed\|Trope}} with the platform shoes that Sally decides to buy.
45	-->'''Charlie Brown:''' Aren't those shoes almost out of date, Sally?\
46	'''Sally:''' That's why they're on sale! Besides, [[IJustWantToBeSpecial I like to be different, anyway]].
47	* RealAfterAll: The Easter Beagle. Granted, it's just Snoopy stealing the kids' eggs and giving them back to them.
48	-->'''Sally:''' See? Linus was right. There ''is'' an Easter Beagle.\
49	'''Lucy:''' Some Easter Beagle! He gave me ''my own egg!''
50	** Which raises the question: if Snoopy was giving the kids' eggs back to them, and he ran out by the time he got to Charlie Brown... who got HIS egg?!
51	* RecycledPremise: The main plot is essentially recycled from ''WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown'', with even the title being similar. That being said, this version has the superstition be RealAfterAll. This is {{Lampshaded}}:
52	-->'''Linus:''' Every Easter, the Easter Beagle comes dancing along with his basket full of eggs, which he hands out to all the good little children.\
53	'''Sally:''' That sounds faintly familiar. I remember sitting out in a stupid pumpkin patch all night waiting for the Great Pumpkin to come. That was the worst night of my life!\
54	'''Linus:''' This is different. That was Halloween. This is Easter.
55	* SantaClausmas: Unlike ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas'', this special sticks with the secular aspects of its holiday.
56	* ScoobyDoobyDoors: When the gang gets on the escalator, they go up while Snoopy goes down. They pass each other with only Sally noticing Snoopy passing by. The rest get on another up escalator and again pass Snoopy heading down the other side, without having time to have gotten up ''two flights'' of stairs.
57	* SealedWithAKiss: The special ends with Snoopy kissing Lucy's cheek, which causes her to forget her wrath over him.
58	* SequelEpisode:
59	** The main plot about Linus talking the Easter Beagle, with Sally doubting him after what happened with the Great Pumpkin. Thankfully unlike that Linus gets a happy ending.
60	** Woodstock's plot follows up from the previous special ''[[WesternAnimation/ItsAMysteryCharlieBrown It's a Mystery]]'' after his nest keeps getting damaged.
61	* StraightMan: Up until he falls back into his trademark ButtMonkey role at the end of the special, Charlie Brown serves as a foil for nearly everyone he interacts with, as he ceases Snoopy and Sally's tomfoolery with the hats, questions Sally's decision in picking platform shoes, and is even the first one (besides Lucy, who always sees Linus' sentiments as crazy) to dismiss the notion of the Easter Beagle as ridiculous.
62	* YankTheDogsChain: Near the end, Snoopy (aka the Easter Beagle) has eggs for everyone, but when he gets to Charlie Brown, there aren't any left. Justified, as he was tossing loads of eggs all over the place that he wouldn't have enough to give to everyone. Meanwhile, Lucy got the same egg that she was using much earlier.

Context WesternAnimation / ItsTheEasterBeagleCharlieBrown