The fully-drawn figure of the Little Red-Haired Girl made its debut in 1977's It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown. Here, the Little Red-Haired Girl is the Homecoming Queen, and the football team is serving as her escorts. Linus explains to Charlie Brown that each escort must walk with her at the Homecoming Dance and give her a kiss on the cheek. Because Charlie Brown is on the football team, he realizes that he has to kiss the Little Red-Haired Girl. While this special is decent and it is a nice setup, it suffers from some big story blunders that viewers were able to point out when it first aired. It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown drew controversy from the fanbase over the Little Red-Haired Girl. In the comics and previous specials, the Little Red-Haired Girl was only mentioned, but never seen. Here, it turns out that the Little Red-Haired Girl not only has a fully-drawn figure, but also a first name (Heather). After already seeing The Peanuts Movie, the debut of her fully-drawn figure doesn't really bother me as it did to everyone else in 1977.
But that's not the real complaint that I have with this special. During the Homecoming game, despite the fact that Charlie Brown did make a few mistakes, it was Lucy that blew the game because she pulled the ball away from Charlie on not 1, not 2, not 3, BUT FOUR FIELD GOAL ATTEMPTS!!!!!!!! It was obvious that those field goals were very key for them. In fact, even Lucy herself told Charlie that she has no need to pull the ball away from him. So if you know that the game is on the line, and you know that you shouldn't do it, then DON'T DO IT!!!!! Sure, this football gag has provided funny moments in other times when they were just practicing for fun. They're not in that setup here, THEY'RE IN AN ACTUAL GAME! YOU HAVE TO KNOW BETTER! Then after the game, when everyone's at the Homecoming Dance, Lucy and the girls gang up on Charlie and blame him for the loss. I know it's part of your character to criticize him, BUT LUCY, LAST TIME I CHECKED, YOU PULLED THE BALL AWAY FROM HIM FOUR TIMES! OWN UP A LITTLE!
And here's another complaint that I have with this special. After Charlie Brown gives a kiss to the Little Red-Haired Girl, he has a dream sequence where he's flying through clouds and hearts, and then he wakes up in his bed. So, the Homecoming Dance, or even the game, was all a dream, right? WRONG! The next day, Linus told Charlie Brown that they lost the game by one point, AND THAT HE DID KISS THE LITTLE RED-HAIRED GIRL AT THE DANCE, AND THAT HE DANCED WITH HER AND EVERY OTHER GIRL THERE, AND THAT HE WAS THE LIFE OF THE PARTY! I JUST SAW HIM WAKE UP FROM A DREAM! HOW DOES THAT WORK?
Overall, I don't hate It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown, but I was very disappointed by it, and the Peanuts have done better than this.