This is a brand-new origin story for Franklin Armstrong, but it retains elements of how he was introduced in the comics — for instance, Franklin and Charlie Brown meeting at the seaside and Franklin's father serving in the armed forces, whilst the comics specified he was in Vietnam.
Charlie Brown alludes to Neil Armstrong, who achieved the first moon landing aboard Apollo 11. On the preceding Apollo 10 mission, the Command Module and the Lunar Module were nicknamed "Charlie Brown" and "Snoopy" respectively.
Despite displaying the number 2, Snoopy's car has an air reminiscent of the Mach 5 from Speed Racer.
A scene near the end remedies an inadvertent slight from the Thanksgiving Special, in which Franklin was sitting all alone on one side of the table. In this programme the same situation is revisited, but Franklin is invited to join the rest of the group at the table.
Charles Shultz threatened to resign if Franklin weren't included in Peanuts.
Franklin, the first African-American character in the "Peanuts" comic strip, made his debut on 31 July 1968.
Ties into Franklin's original debut, when he first encounters Charlie Brown on the beach.
The notion of adding Franklin came from Harriet Glickman, a schoolteacher in Los Angeles. She wrote to Schulz in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, proposing the inclusion of a Black character to advocate for racial equality. Schulz replied to her letter, admitting he feared appearing patronising as a white cartoonist. Glickman persisted and persuaded several African American families to send letters to Schulz as well. After he read those messages, Schulz chose to introduce Franklin. When the syndicate that distributed Peanuts to newspapers objected to the idea, Schulz is said to have issued a straightforward ultimatum: "Either you run it the way I drew it, or I quit".
This marks the fifth Peanuts television special whose title does not include Charlie Brown's name. The preceding four are "Snoopy Presents: For Auld Lang Syne", "Snoopy Presents: To Mom (and Dad), With Love", "Snoopy Presents: Lucy's School" and "Snoopy Presents: One-of-a-Kind Marcie".
