Charlie Brown & the Relentless March of Technology

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"What a fool I was. I could have had candy, apples, and gum. And cookies and money and all sorts of things. But no, I had to listen to you. You blockhead. What a fool I was. Trick or Treats comes only once a year. And I miss it by sitting in a pumpkin patch with a blockhead!" — Sally Brown

It was the early 1970s. The single speaker in the dash of the cars in my small town in Ohio pumped out Neil Diamond or the Rolling Stones and fuel efficiency was typically an afterthought. It was a time of year that was exciting for most kids my age. We were both cursed by leaf cleanup duty and also the promise of Reese cups and M&Ms and rare once-per-year television specials.

Halloween marked a special time in the heart of a young kid—and it was about more than merely a good sugar high. This was the beginning of the Charlie Brown cartoon specials on TV. In the pre-streaming analog world of yesteryear, before people began collecting VHS tapes and DVDs, you either watched the special on the timetable of the network (in this case, CBS) or you missed it. And if you missed it, you had to wait another year. Ouch.

My grandmother, who lived two blocks from my house, was one of the few homes in the neighborhood to feature a large color TV. It was a Zenith console model surrounded in wood. It's funny how Americans used to shroad their technology in wood. Today the only wood in my world is my bamboo desk. The thin 4K monitors that hang over my workstation are mostly plastic and absolutely zero wood.

You can still watch those cool Charlie Brown cartoons. Some of you continue to own DVD players (hey, I'll never point the finger) and a collection of discs that you pull out for the holidays. I get access via my Apple TV+ subscription. When I'm not watching Bad Sisters plot a murder, I'm pulling down the gentle and wise words of Charles Schulz via Linus or Lucy.

Enough Nostalgia—What about the Tech?

Oh, but back to the relentless march of technology. So I have witnessed the transition of the consumption of cultural favorites like It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown from live broadcasts to analog VHS tapes to digital DVDs and Blu-ray Discs to streaming video services like Apple TV+. All in my short life.

Similarly, my collection of classic rock albums by The Who and The Doors has migrated from analog formats such as vinyl LPs and cassette tapes to digital media like CDs to our current standard of streaming services (I use Tidal because I like fancy headphones).

But Here's My Point

But here's my point, beyond merely waxing nostalgic about Charlie Brown cartoons and Dolly Madison commercials (which you don't get on Apple TV+, BTW). Have you noticed that our most cherished cultural media icons, from Beatles albums to television shows to classic films, are always safely available (as long as we have a credit card)?

The White Album by The Beatles sounds better on Tidal than any cassette tape or LP that I have owned in the past (of course, good headphones and speakers also help). The Charlie Brown specials look fantastic on any of my display devices, from my smartphone to my workstation monitors to my bedroom TV. Technical speaking, it's a time to celebrate, because the quality of our most cherished entertainment and media continues to increase at an astonishing rate (you'll think of me when you purchase the family an 80" 4K OLED panel for the holidays this year).

But the content itself never seems to get stale. For both audio and video, remastering and other refinements have managed to keep our favorite albums and TV shows in pace with the technology of 2024 and beyond.

So enjoy those Charlie Brown specials. 'Tis the season. And now you can watch them when you want. No more schedule TV. No more static. No more low fidelity.

But that's just my opinion. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

— Curt Robbins, Senior Technical Writer

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