TV & VIDEO - July 27, 1988

Charlie Brown, the famous round-headed and wishy-washy Peanuts character, has received a new voice--a girl’s. Erin Chase, 14, of Rolling Hills was picked from “at least” 50 auditioners, after Jason Riffle, the previously voice of Brown, became a victim of age. “He grew up and his voice changed,” said Nina Skahan, casting director for Charles Schulz’s animator. “We loved him. He’s 11, going on 12.” Riffle of Los Angeles had been Charlie Brown’s voice for nearly two years, doing several specials and about a dozen Metropolitan Life insurance commercials. Chase, who played Martha on the TV series “Aaron’s Way,” will be featured in a Peanuts cartoon miniseries, “Birth of the Constitution,” set to air on CBS this fall. “We were looking for the ‘Charlie Browniest’ voice, that distinctive kind of gravelly, world-weary voice,” Skahan said. “It’s hard to find kids that sound like that, but she was it.”