Product Description
This "Mission Control: We're Ready for Assignment" NASA Space Station This is America Charlie Brown Peanuts Limited Edition Hand-Painted Cel art features Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Peppermint Patty, and Franklin, and celebrates Snoopy and Peanuts in Space. Charles Schulz had a long history of collaboration.
This NASA Peanuts limited edition art is made with 22 paint colors and 3 ink colors and special wash effects to recreate Pig Pen’s dust, and it takes days to complete each individual piece of art. The cel is accompanied by a
Key Pose Model Sheet giclée print, signed by Larry Leichliter.
Both pieces are serial numbered and bear the studio seal of authenticity.
Great for lovers of space and Peanuts art!
Looking back to the January 1984 State of the Union address, President Reagan gave NASA the greenlight on developing what we now know as the International Space Station. The long-standing collaboration of Mr. Schulz, Peanuts and NASA led Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson, in 1987, to explore the idea of a space related episode for their new educational mini-series, This is America, Charlie Brown! Of course, this was a natural collaboration with NASA, yet to base an episode on a project that was in its infancy was quite a risk; Schulz, Mendelson and Melendez were willing to take the risk to support NASA’s latest venture.
Episode Synopsis:
The story unfolds with Charlie Brown and Linus talking about their project for the upcoming Science fair; both are building models of the NASA Space Station. Later that evening Linus dreams he’s aboard NASA’s Space Station. His nightmare is that his sister is the COMMANDER! After living on the space station for 30 days, a very Walter Cronkite looking commentator from earth conducts an interview. Lucy, the Commander, takes charge, giving the commentator a tour of the module. She introduces the crew and explains their assignments: Snoopy is the technician, Linus, Sally and Pig Pen are scientists, Peppermint Patty is in charge of physical fitness, Charlie Brown is the cook and photographer, and Franklin is a social scientist. Then a crisis ensues; a meteorite hits a solar panel on the Space Station and Charlie Brown and Snoopy go out to repair it! The stay on the Space Station abruptly ends with Linus not finding his blanket, startling him awake only realize it had all been a dream. The show cuts to the actual science fair and Snoopy has stolen the show with his science project, a supersized model of the Space Station…always a hard act to follow!
Trips to Houston to gather ideas were led by Bill and Lee. Viewing NASA’s concepts and models developed in the first 4 years of this project were top priority. Questions were asked, photos were taken, then Bill and Lee headed back to California and got busy. In 1988, Bill, together with his team of directors, animators and artists, docked the Peanuts characters on the Space Station long before Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalev landed in 2020!
NASA has shared a proud association with Charles M. Schulz and his American icon Snoopy since Apollo missions began in the 1960s. Schulz created comic strips depicting Snoopy on the Moon, capturing public excitement about America’s achievements in space. In May 1969, Apollo 10 astronauts traveled to the Moon for a final checkout before lunar landings on later missions. Because the mission required the lunar module to skim the Moon’s surface to within 50,000 feet and “snoop around” scouting the Apollo 11 landing site, the crew named the lunar module Snoopy. The command module was named Charlie Brown, Snoopy’s loyal owner. You can read more information about NASA and Peanuts HERE.
The cartoon is directed by Sam Jaimes
Carole Barnes, who worked for many years with Bill Melendez at his studio, was the production manager for this cartoon. I did an interview with her a few years ago: (here's the first of several videos of the interview)
She is one of many who say Bill Melendez was the nicest man to work for in the animation industry. Peanuts was in good hands!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An5fjuCD5vA
About Bill Melendez:
Born November 15, 1916 in Hermosillo, Mexico, (Bill) Melendez spent much of his early art career working for animation companies such as Disney and Warner Bros. Cartoons.
In 1964, he founded his own production company, Bill Melendez Productions Inc. and alongside his commercial work, Bill produced his first television special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Despite being forced to bring it in on a short schedule and tight budget, he managed to garner both an Emmy Award (the first of eight) and the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Children/Young People's program. The show is a classic, having aired on CBS-TV every year since. The stentorian tenor behind Snoopy's vocalizations, by the way, is the same Bill Melendez drawing Snoopy's aquiline nose.
In 1967 the Television Academy gave three nominations to Bill Melendez; two for producing the outstanding children's program for Charlie Brown's All-Stars and forIt's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Since then he has produced over 75 half-hour Charlie Brown specials, as well as four feature-length motion pictures: A Boy Named Charlie Brown (nominated for an Oscar),Snoopy, Come Home, Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown, and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown. Melendez also has to his credit half-hour specials based on the famous Babar the Elephant books.
Bill Melendez Productions was the first to animate Jim Davis' Garfield the Cat, and that first special won an Emmy Award in '82. In '87, Bill took on the character Cathy by Cathy Guisewite, and won a Best Animated Special Emmy for that show. Several other Cathy specials have followed, as well as numerous ad campaigns featuring the character. As always, the Peanuts Gang are very visible in commercials and Bill Melendez remains their sole animator, both domestically and internationally. Current campaigns include MetLife, A&W, Chex, Regina, Hallmark, Shell Oil, and numerous European, Asian and Latin American accounts. Notable productions include a special Bill produced in 1990 with the American Cancer Society called Why Charlie Brown, Why? -- a sensitive study of what happens when a child gets cancer. In the late 80's, Melendez produced TV's first animated mini-series. Designed to teach children about American History, it was titled This is America, Charlie Brown. Recently completed is an updated rendering ofFrosty the Snowman, in association with Lorne Michaels and Broadway Video, and starring the voices of Jonathan Winters and John Goodman.