A Doonesbury Special

I saw this true work of art the first and only time it aired on broadcast TV, Thanksgiving weekend 1977. It left a deep and lasting impression (I was already a big DB fan), and I've spent the intervening 4 decades trying to see it again. Finally did, and found it just as good.

The storyline of this short little piece is dense with satirical references to its time (rock concert coverage conventions, Barry Manilow, Baby Boomers losing the mission, first-wave feminism, the Vietnam vacuum, hip youth pastors, and on and on); makes me homesick. And of course the thunderously talented Hubleys, possibly the Michaelangelos of animation. (Their magnum opus, a run-down of Ericsonian psychology theory [!] called Everyone Rides the Carousel, is another hard-to-see must-see.)

A Doonesbury Special is one of the few cartoons you'll ever see with ordinary voices and realistic drawing; no funny clownish performances, just actors talking like themselves. And as others here have said, the adaptation of the comic strip to animation is seamless; it feels neither contrived nor unfaithful, and manages to be both a delight for DB fans and entertaining for newcomers.

Hard to believe it was all once cutting-edge; the idea of a cartoon for adults, on adult themes, presented without burlesque.

If you have any interest in Doonesbury; the 60s; the 70s; animation; humour; history; or art, see this short.

If you can.