One day, Sally Brown returns home from school and tells Charlie Brown that she cannot open her locker. Charlie Brown promises to help her open her locker every day from now on, and Sally takes him in for show and tell. At school, Charlie Brown sees an election poster for Student Body President. Linus thinks that Charlie Brown would make a great president, but the latter is convinced that no one would vote for him. Lucy appoints herself as his campaign manager and takes a student poll, which only confirms Charlie Brown's belief. When Lucy announces they need to find another candidate, Sally suggests Linus, and Lucy takes another poll, which is almost unanimously favorable toward Linus, so he enters the election. Linus' campaign, assisted by Lucy and Charlie Brown, is vigorous and enthusiastic, and he takes a huge early lead in the polls against his opponent, Russell Anderson. At an assembly, Linus and Russell each make a campaign speech, with Linus receiving a rapturous response from the audience. However, at a subsequent assembly, he commits a major blunder when he goes off-script and begins talking about the Great Pumpkin. This gets him laughed off the stage, much to the anger of Lucy. When election day finally arrives, it is a back and forth affair with the lead changing hands several times. The votes are tied when the final vote is submitted by Russell himself, who decided that Linus would be a better president; the final ballot count, 84 to 83, declares Linus the winner. Following his victory, Sally prods Linus to go to the principal and lay down the law, only to have the law laid down to him by the principal. After he reveals this to Sally, she accuses Linus of selling out like all other politicians. She angrily kicks her locker and walks away, whereupon she doesn't notice that she finally opened it.
The plot from You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown was taken from a story that ran in the comic strip in October 1964, in which Linus runs for school president with Charlie Brown as his running mate. In the original storyline, Linus blows the election after bringing up The Great Pumpkin in his final speech and being laughed off stage-again after leading in the polls at the time. Unlike the television special, Linus' opponent is never seen or mentioned. This special first aired under the title You're Elected Charlie Brown. It was subsequently changed after Charles Schulz realized that Charlie Brown was neither elected nor does he run. This explains why there is a caret between the words "You're" and "Elected" on the chalkboard.
Music score
The music for You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown was composed by Vince Guaraldi and conducted and arranged by John Scott Trotter. The score was performed by the Vince Guaraldi Quintet on August 22, 1972, at Wally Heider Studios, featuring Tom Harrell, Pat O'Hara, Seward McCain and Glenn Cronkhite. is notable for marking the debut of Snoopy's "Joe Cool" theme song, sung by Guaraldi.
"Incumbent Waltz "
"You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown"
"Incumbent Waltz "
"Oh, Good Grief"
"Fast Piano Jazz"
"Blue Charlie Brown"
"Incumbent Waltz "
"Trombone"
"Linus and Lucy"
"Poor Charlie Brown"
"Joe Cool"
"Incumbent Waltz "
"Dilemma"
"Woodstock's Wake-Up"
"Joe Cool"
"Deserted Charlie Brown"
"You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown"
"You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown"
"Linus and Lucy"
"You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown"
No official soundtrack for You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown was released, although select music cues have been made available on several compilation albums:
"Oh, Good Grief" and the chimes-driven version of the Peanutssignature tune, "Linus and Lucy" appeared on Vince Guaraldi and the Lost Cues from the Charlie Brown Television Specials, Volume 2.
In October 2006, You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown began airing the following of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on ABC. In order to fit both specials in a one-hour time slot, the following edits were made to You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown:
The opening scene where Sally comes home from school and announces she will not be going back, then takes her brother for show-and-tell, was removed entirely.
The part when Lucy told Charlie Brown that he will never be elected the second time was cut.
Woodstock walking up and down to get paint was shortened.
Linus and Lucy's talk show was shortened.
The part where Linus tells the audience during his speech about "across the board wages for custodians, teachers, and all administrative personnel" was removed.
The theme song for this special, "You're Elected, Charlie Brown", was replaced by "Linus and Lucy" in the title sequence.
In the ending segment, Sally kicked the locker and forced it open. In the ABC version, the locker stayed closed and the ABC credits rolled.
Vince Guaraldi stock music cues were added to scenes without music.
Home media
The special was first released on home video in the 1980s by Hi-Tops Video. On June 25, 1994, it accompanied It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown on a Snoopy Double Feature release from Paramount Home Entertainment. It has been released on DVD twice, first as a "bonus feature" on the September 12, 2000 It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown DVD then on its own as part of Warner Home Video's "Remastered Deluxe Edition" line of Peanuts specials on October 7, 2008.
In 2008, iTunes released a quasi-remake of You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown from Warner Bros. as the first of the Peanuts Motion Comics series. The two-part webisode, entitled "Linus for President/The Election," followed the original comic strip segments rather than the TV special. It was released under the permission of Charles Schulz's wife Jeannie. Rather than the traditional Peanuts special animation, Warner Bros. used the original comic segments and used the latest technology to move the characters' body parts.
