Peanuts is a
syndicatedPrint syndication distributes news articles, columns, comic strips and other features to newspapers, magazines and websites. They offer reprint rights and grant permissions to other parties for republishing content of which they own/represent copyrights....
dailyA daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays....
and
SundayA Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...
American
comic stripA comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
written and illustrated by
Charles M. SchulzCharles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.-Early life and education:Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Schulz grew up in Saint Paul...
, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. The strip is considered to be one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, with 17,897 strips published in all, making it "arguably the longest story ever told by one human being", according to
Professor Robert ThompsonRobert J. Thompson is an American educator and media scholar.Thompson is the Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture at the S.I...
of
Syracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
. At its peak, Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of 355 million in 75 countries, and was translated into 21 languages. It helped to cement the four-panel gag strip as the standard in the United States, and together with its merchandise earned Schulz more than $1 billion. Reprints of the strip are still syndicated and run in many newspapers.
Peanuts achieved considerable success for its television specials, several of which, including
A Charlie Brown ChristmasA Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
and
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie BrownIt's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a 1966 American prime time animated television special based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz....
won or were nominated for
Emmy AwardAn Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s. The holiday specials remain quite popular and are currently broadcast on
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
in the United States during the corresponding season. The property is also a landmark in theatre with the stage musical
You're a Good Man, Charlie BrownYou're a Good Man, Charlie Brown is a 1967 musical comedy with music and lyrics by Clark Gesner, based on the characters created by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz in his comic strip Peanuts...
being an extremely successful and often-performed production.
It has been described as "the most shining example of the American success story in the comic strip field", ironically based on the theme of "the great American unsuccess story", since the main character,
Charlie BrownCharles "Charlie" Brown is the protagonist in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Charlie Brown and his creator have a common connection in that they are both the sons of barbers, but whereas Schulz's work is described as the "most shining example of the American success story", Charlie...
, is meek, nervous and lacks self-confidence, being unable to fly a kite, win a baseball game or kick a
footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
.
1940s
Peanuts had its origin in
Li'l FolksLi'l Folks, the first comic strip by Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, was a weekly panel that appeared mainly in Schulz's hometown paper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, from June 22, 1947 to January 22, 1950...
, a weekly panel comic that appeared in Schulz's hometown paper, the
St. Paul Pioneer PressThe St. Paul Pioneer Press is a newspaper based in St. Paul, Minnesota, primarily serving the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Circulation is heaviest in the eastern metro region, including Ramsey, Dakota, and Washington counties, along with western Wisconsin, eastern Minnesota and Anoka County,...
, from 1947 to 1950. He first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like the early 1950s version of
SnoopySnoopy is an fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. He is Charlie Brown's pet beagle. Snoopy began his life in the strip as a fairly conventional dog, but eventually evolved into perhaps the strip's most dynamic character—and among the most recognizable...
. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to
The Saturday Evening PostThe Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
which published 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz. The first of these was of a boy sitting with his feet on an ottoman.
In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped in early 1950. Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best work from Li'l Folks. When his work was picked up by United Feature Syndicate, they decided to run the new comic strip he had been working on. This strip was similar in spirit to the panel comic, but it had a set cast of characters, rather than different nameless little folk for each page. The name Li'l Folks was too close to the names of two other comics of the time:
Al CappAlfred Gerald Caplin , better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner. He also wrote the comic strips Abbie an' Slats and Long Sam...
's
Li'l AbnerLi'l Abner is a satirical American comic strip that appeared in many newspapers in the United States, Canada and Europe, featuring a fictional clan of hillbillies in the impoverished town of Dogpatch, Kentucky. Written and drawn by Al Capp , the strip ran for 43 years, from August 13, 1934 through...
and a strip titled Little Folks. To avoid confusion, the syndicate settled on the name Peanuts, after the
peanut galleryA peanut gallery is an audience that heckles the performer. The term originated in the days of vaudeville as a nickname for the cheapest seats in the theater; the least expensive snack served at the theater would often be peanuts, which the patrons would sometimes throw at the performers on stage...
featured in the
Howdy DoodyHowdy Doody is an American children's television program that was created and produced by E. Roger Muir and telecast on NBC in the United States from 1947 until 1960. It was a pioneer in children's television programming and set the pattern for many similar shows...
TV show. Peanuts was a title Schulz always disliked. In a 1987 interview, Schulz said of the title Peanuts: "It's totally ridiculous, has no meaning, is simply confusing, and has no dignity—and I think my humor has dignity." The periodic collections of the strips in paperback book form typically had either "Charlie Brown" or "Snoopy" in the title, not "Peanuts", because of Schulz's distaste for his strip's title. From 11/28/66 to 1/4/87, the opening Sunday panels eventually typically read Peanuts, featuring Good Ol ' Charlie Brown.
1950s
Peanuts premiered on October 2, 1950, in eight newspapers:
The Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, The Chicago Tribune, The Minneapolis Tribune, The
AllentownAllentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...
Call-Chronicle, The
BethlehemBethlehem is a city in Lehigh and Northampton Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 74,982, making it the seventh largest city in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie,...
Globe-Times,
The Denver Post-Ownership:The Post is the flagship newspaper of MediaNews Group Inc., founded in 1983 by William Dean Singleton and Richard Scudder. MediaNews is today one of the nation's largest newspaper chains, publisher of 61 daily newspapers and more than 120 non-daily publications in 13 states. MediaNews...
,
The Seattle TimesThe Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...
, and
The Boston GlobeThe Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
. It began as a daily strip. The very first strip was four panels long and showed Charlie Brown walking by two other young children, Shermy and Patty. Snoopy was also an early character in the strip, first appearing in the third strip, which ran on October 4. Its first
Sunday stripA Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...
appeared January 6, 1952, in the half page format, which was the only complete format for the entire life of the Sunday strip. Most of the other characters that eventually became the main characters of Peanuts did not appear until later: Violet (February 1951), Schroeder (May 1951), Lucy (March 1952), Linus (September 1952), Pig Pen (July 1954), Sally (August 1959), Frieda (March 1961), "Peppermint" Patty (August 1966), Woodstock (introduced April 1967; given a name in June 1970), Franklin (July 1968), Marcie (July 1971), and Rerun (March 1973).
Schulz decided to produce all aspects of the strip himself from the script to the finished art and lettering. Thus, the strip was able to be presented with a unified tone, and Schulz was able to employ a minimalistic style. Backgrounds were generally not used, and when they were, Schulz's frazzled lines imbued them with a fraught, psychological appearance. This style has been described by art critic John Carlin as forcing "its readers to focus on subtle nuances rather than broad actions or sharp transitions."
While the strip in its early years resembles its later form, there are significant differences. The art was cleaner, sleeker, and simpler, with thicker lines and short, squat characters. For example, in these early strips, Charlie Brown's famous round head is closer to the shape of an American football or rugby football. Most of the kids were initially fairly round-headed. As another example, all the characters (except Charlie Brown) had their mouths longer and had smaller eyes when they looked sideways.
1960s–1970s
Peanuts is remarkable for its deft
social commentarySocial commentary is the act of rebelling against an individual, or a group of people by rhetorical means, or commentary on social issues or society...
, especially compared with other strips appearing in the 1950s and early 1960s. Schulz did not explicitly address racial and gender equality issues so much as he assumed them to be self-evident in the first place. Peppermint Patty's athletic skill and self-confidence is simply taken for granted, for example, as is Franklin's presence in a racially integrated school and neighborhood. The fact that Charlie Brown's baseball team had three girls was also at least ten years ahead of its time (and in fact, the TV special
Charlie Brown's All-StarsCharlie Brown's All-Stars is the second prime-time animated TV special based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was the second such TV special to be produced by Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez , and originally aired on the CBS network on June 8, 1966...
dealt with Charlie Brown refusing sponsorship of the team because the sponsor said the league does not allow girls or dogs to play).
Schulz would throw satirical barbs at any number of topics when he chose. Over the years he tackled everything from the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
to school dress codes to the "
new mathNew Mathematics or New Math was a brief, dramatic change in the way mathematics was taught in American grade schools, and to a lesser extent in European countries, during the 1960s. The name is commonly given to a set of teaching practices introduced in the U.S...
". One strip on May 20, 1962 even had an icon that stated "Defend Freedom, Buy US Savings Bonds". In 1963 he added a little boy named "5" to the cast, whose sisters were named "3" and "4", and whose father had changed their
family nameA family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
to their
ZIP CodeZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
, giving in to the way numbers were taking over people's identities. In 1958, a strip in which Snoopy tossed Linus into the air and boasted that he was the first dog ever to launch a human, parodied the hype associated with Sputnik 2's launch of "
LaikaLaika was a Soviet space dog that became the first animal to orbit the Earth – as well as the first animal to die in orbit.As little was known about the impact of spaceflight on living creatures at the time of Laika's mission, and the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, there...
" the dog into space earlier that year. Another sequence lampooned
Little LeagueLittle League Baseball and Softball is a non-profit organization in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, United States which organizes local youth baseball and softball leagues throughout the U.S...
s and "organized" play, when all the neighborhood kids join
snowmanA snowman is an anthropomorphic snow sculpture. They are customarily built by children as part of a family project in celebration of winter. In some cases, participants in winter festivals will build large numbers of snowmen...
-building leagues and criticize Charlie Brown when he insists on building his own snowmen without leagues or coaches.
Peanuts did not shy away from cartoon violence. The most obvious example might be Charlie Brown's annual, futile effort to kick the football while Lucy holds it. At the last moment, she would pull the ball away just as he was kicking. The off-balance Charlie Brown would sail into the air and land on his back with a loud thud. There was also the ever-present (and often executed) threat by Lucy to "slug" someone, especially her brother Linus. Though violence would happen from time to time, only once or twice was a boy ever depicted hitting a girl (Charlie Brown, who accidentally hit Lucy; when Lucy complained about it, Charlie Brown went down to her psychiatric booth where she returned the slug much harder) August 8, 1965. Schulz once said, "There is nothing funny about a little boy being mean to a little girl. That is simply not funny! But there is something funny about a little girl being able to be mean to a little boy."
Peanuts touched on religious themes on many occasions, most notably the classic television special
A Charlie Brown ChristmasA Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
in 1965, which features the character
Linus van PeltLinus van Pelt is a character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. The best friend of Charlie Brown, Linus is also the younger brother of Lucy van Pelt and older brother of Rerun van Pelt. He first appeared on September 19, 1952; however, he was not mentioned by name until three days later....
quoting the
King James Version of the BibleThe Authorized Version, commonly known as the King James Version, King James Bible or KJV, is an English translation of the Christian Bible by the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611...
(Luke 2:8–14) to explain to Charlie Brown what
ChristmasChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
is all about. (In personal interviews, Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side.) Because of the explicit religious material in "A Charlie Brown Christmas," many have interpreted Schulz's work as having a distinct Christian theme, though the popular perspective has been to view the franchise through a secular lens.
1980s–1990s
Though other strips rivaled Peanuts in popularity during the 1980s (in particular
GarfieldGarfield is a comic strip created by Jim Davis. Published since June 19, 1978, it chronicles the life of the title character, the cat Garfield ; his owner, Jon Arbuckle; and Arbuckle's dog, Odie...
) and 1990s (in particular
Calvin and HobbesCalvin and Hobbes is a syndicated daily comic strip that was written and illustrated by American cartoonist Bill Watterson, and syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. It follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a precocious and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his...
), the strip still had one of the highest circulations in daily newspapers.
The daily Peanuts strips were formatted in a four-panel "space saving" format beginning in the 1950s, with a few very rare eight-panel strips, that still fit into the four-panel mold. In 1975, the panel format was shortened slightly horizontally, and shortly after the lettering became larger to accommodate the shrinking format. Beginning on Leap Year Day in 1988, Schulz abandoned the four-panel format in favor of three-panel dailies and occasionally used the entire length of the strip as one panel, partly for experimentation, but also to combat the dwindling size of the comics page.
Schulz continued the strip until he was forced to retire because of health reasons; he died the day before the final Sunday strip was published.
End of Peanuts
The final daily original Peanuts comic strip was published on January 3, 2000.
Although the daily strips came to an end, five more original Sunday Peanuts strips had yet to be published.
On February 13, 2000, the day following Schulz's passing, the last ever Peanuts strip ran in papers. The strip began with Charlie Brown answering the phone with someone on the end presumably asking for Snoopy. Charlie Brown responded with "No, I think he's writing." The bottom panel consisted of the final daily strip in its entirety, reprinted in color, and included various Peanuts characters surrounding it. The very last strip consisted simply of Snoopy sitting at his typewriter in thought with a note from Schulz that read as follows:
Many other cartoonists paid tribute to Peanuts and Schulz by homages in their own strips, appearing on February 13, 2000, or in the week beforehand.
After Peanuts came to an end United Feature Syndicate began offering the newspapers that ran it a package of reprinted strips under the title Classic Peanuts. The syndicate limited the choices to either strips from the 1960s or from the 1990s, although a newspaper was also given the option to carry both reprint packages if it desired. All Sunday strips in the package, however, come from the 1960s. Though it no longer maintains the "first billing" in as many newspapers as it enjoyed for much of its original run, the now Classic Peanuts remains one of the most popular and widely syndicated strips today.
Peanuts in the new millennium
Despite the end of the strip, Peanuts continues to be prevalent in multiple media, through widespread syndication, the publication of The Complete Peanuts, the release of several new television specials (all of which Schulz had worked on, but had not finished, before his death), and
Peanuts Motion ComicsPeanuts Motion Comics is a series of animated cartoon shorts based on 1964 strips of Charles Schulz' comic strip, Peanuts. The series premiered on iTunes in 2008 with the support of the Schulz estate. The first season consists of 20 cartoon shorts, paired into 10 episodes. The episodes employ...
.
Peanuts Worldwide, LLC
On June 3, 2010, United Media sold all its Peanuts-related assets, including its strips and branding, to a new company, Peanuts Worldwide, LLC, a joint venture of the
Iconix Brand GroupIconix Brand Group is a brand management company that licenses brands to retailers and manufacturers primarily in the apparel, footwear, and apparel accessory industries. Its brands are available in such stores as Kohl's, Kmart, Sears, Macy's, Target and JC Penney.The company began as Candie's,...
(which owns 80%) and Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates (20%). In addition, United Media sold its United Media Licensing arm, which represents licensing for its other properties, to Peanuts Worldwide. United Feature Syndicate continued to syndicate the strip, until February 27, 2011, when
Universal UclickUniversal Uclick is an American entertainment company owned by Andrews McMeel Universal. Universal Uclick is the world's largest independent press syndicate and provides syndication in print, online and on mobile devices for a number of lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and cartoons and...
took over syndication, ending United Media's 60-plus-years stewardship of Peanuts.
Cast of characters
The initial cast of Peanuts was small, featuring only
Charlie BrownCharles "Charlie" Brown is the protagonist in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Charlie Brown and his creator have a common connection in that they are both the sons of barbers, but whereas Schulz's work is described as the "most shining example of the American success story", Charlie...
,
ShermyShermy was a character in the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles Schulz. Schulz named him after a friend from high school. When Peanuts made its debut on October 2, 1950, Shermy had the first line of dialogue in the series. As Peanuts matured, however, Shermy became an extraneous character who was...
,
PattyPatty is a character in the comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz . Her closest friend is Violet...
(not to be confused with
Peppermint PattyPatricia "Peppermint Patty" Reichardt is a fictional character featured in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. A freckle-faced auburn/brunette, she is one of a small group in the strip who lives across town from Charlie Brown and his school friends...
), and a
beagleThe Beagle is a breed of small to medium-sized dog. A member of the Hound Group, it is similar in appearance to the Foxhound, but smaller, with shorter legs and longer, softer ears. Beagles are scent hounds, developed primarily for tracking hare, rabbit, and other game...
,
SnoopySnoopy is an fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. He is Charlie Brown's pet beagle. Snoopy began his life in the strip as a fairly conventional dog, but eventually evolved into perhaps the strip's most dynamic character—and among the most recognizable...
. The first addition,
VioletViolet Gray is a fictional character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Violet has shoulder-length dark hair, and she frequently wears green dresses...
, was made on February 7, 1951. Other character introductions that soon followed were
SchroederSchroeder is a fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. He is distinguished by his precocious skill at playing the toy piano, as well as by his love of classical music and the composer Ludwig van Beethoven in particular...
, on May 30, 1951, as a baby;
LucyLucille "Lucy" van Pelt is a fictional character in the syndicated comic strip :Peanuts, written and drawn by Charles Schulz. She is the main bully and the older sister of Linus and Rerun. Lucy is a crabby and cynical eight-year old girl, and often bullies the other characters in the strip,...
, on March 3, 1952; Lucy's baby brother
LinusLinus van Pelt is a character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. The best friend of Charlie Brown, Linus is also the younger brother of Lucy van Pelt and older brother of Rerun van Pelt. He first appeared on September 19, 1952; however, he was not mentioned by name until three days later....
, on September 19, 1952 (after his existence was first mentioned back on July 14); and
Pig-Pen"Pig-Pen" is a character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. He is a young boy who is, except on very rare occasions, very dirty.-History:"Pig-Pen" is a nickname, invariably written in quotation marks in the strip...
, on July 13, 1954.
Though the strip did not have a lead character at the onset, it soon began to focus on Charlie Brown, a character developed from some of the painful experiences of Schulz's formative years. In early strips Charlie Brown was depicted as distinctly younger than his cohorts Patty and Shermy. Charlie Brown's main characteristic is either self-defeating stubbornness or admirable determined persistence to try his best against all odds: he can never win a ballgame but continues playing
baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
; he can never fly a kite successfully but continues trying to do so. Though his
inferiority complexAn inferiority complex, in the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis, is a feeling that one is inferior to others in some way. Such feelings can arise from an imagined or actual inferiority in the afflicted person...
was evident from the start, in the earliest strips he also got in his own jabs when verbally sparring with Patty and Shermy. Some early strips also involved
romanticRomance is the pleasurable feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.In the context of romantic love relationships, romance usually implies an expression of one's love, or one's deep emotional desires to connect with another person....
attractions between Charlie Brown and Patty or
VioletViolet Gray is a fictional character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Violet has shoulder-length dark hair, and she frequently wears green dresses...
. On September 1, 1958 Charlie Brown's father was formally revealed to be a barber (after earlier instances in the strip that linked Charlie Brown to barbers by implication). In 1960, the now popular line of Charlie Brown greeting cards was introduced by
Hallmark CardsHallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts....
.
Charlie BrownCharles "Charlie" Brown is the protagonist in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Charlie Brown and his creator have a common connection in that they are both the sons of barbers, but whereas Schulz's work is described as the "most shining example of the American success story", Charlie...
and
SnoopySnoopy is an fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. He is Charlie Brown's pet beagle. Snoopy began his life in the strip as a fairly conventional dog, but eventually evolved into perhaps the strip's most dynamic character—and among the most recognizable...
reached new heights on May 18, 1969 as they became the names of the command module and lunar module, respectively, for
Apollo 10Apollo 10 was the fourth manned mission in the American Apollo space program. It was an F type mission—its purpose was to be a "dry run" for the Apollo 11 mission, testing all of the procedures and components of a Moon landing without actually landing on the Moon itself. The mission included the...
.
As the years went by, Shermy in particular, but Patty and Violet as well, appeared less often and were demoted to supporting roles (eventually disappearing from the strip in 1969, 1976, and 1984 respectively, although Patty and Violet were still seen as late as April 9, 1995), while new major characters were introduced.
SchroederSchroeder is a fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. He is distinguished by his precocious skill at playing the toy piano, as well as by his love of classical music and the composer Ludwig van Beethoven in particular...
,
Lucy van PeltLucille "Lucy" van Pelt is a fictional character in the syndicated comic strip :Peanuts, written and drawn by Charles Schulz. She is the main bully and the older sister of Linus and Rerun. Lucy is a crabby and cynical eight-year old girl, and often bullies the other characters in the strip,...
, and her brother
LinusLinus van Pelt is a character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. The best friend of Charlie Brown, Linus is also the younger brother of Lucy van Pelt and older brother of Rerun van Pelt. He first appeared on September 19, 1952; however, he was not mentioned by name until three days later....
debuted as very young children — with Schroeder and Linus both in diapers and pre-verbal. Snoopy, who began as a typical puppy, soon started to verbalize his thoughts via thought bubbles. Eventually he adopted other human characteristics, such as walking on his hind legs, reading books, using a typewriter, and participating in sports. He also grew from a puppy to a full-grown dog.
One recurring theme in the strip is Charlie Brown's neighborhood
baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
team. Charlie Brown is the player-manager of the team and, usually, its pitcher, and
Schroeder- People :* Andreas Schroeder, a German-born Canadian poet, novelist, and nonfiction writer* Barbet Schroeder, a Swiss movie director and producer* Bill Schroeder, an American football player* Bill Schroeder , an American baseball player...
is the
catcherCatcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes his turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. This is a catcher's primary duty, but he is also called upon to master many other skills in order to...
. The other characters of the strip comprise the rest of the team. Charlie Brown is a terrible
pitcherIn baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
, often giving up tremendous hits which either knock him off the mound or leave him with only his shorts on. The team itself is also poor, with only Snoopy, at
shortstopShortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball fielding position between second and third base. Shortstop is often regarded as the most dynamic defensive position in baseball, because there are more right-handed hitters in baseball than left-handed hitters, and most hitters have a tendency to pull the...
, being particularly competent. Because of this, the team consistently loses. However, while the team is often referred to as "win-less", it does win at least 10 games over the course of the strip's run, most of these when Charlie Brown is not playing, a fact that Charlie Brown finds highly dispiriting.
In the 1960s, the strip began to focus more on Snoopy. Many of the strips from this point revolve around Snoopy's active,
Walter MittyWalter Mitty is a fictional character in James Thurber's short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", first published in the New Yorker on March 18, 1939, and in book form in My World and Welcome to It in 1942...
-like fantasy life, in which he imagined himself to be a World War I flying ace or a
bestselling suspense novelist"It was a dark and stormy night" is an infamous phrase written by Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton at the beginning of his 1830 novel Paul Clifford. The annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest uses the phrase as a signifier of purple prose...
, to the bemusement and consternation of the other characters who sometimes wonder what he is doing but also at times participate. Snoopy eventually took on many more distinct personas over the course of the strip, notably college student "Joe Cool". Snoopy has "an astonishing interior world", and according to Russell T Davies, is "the happiest character, barely aware that anyone else exists, except his little bird friend Woodstock."
Schulz continued to introduce new characters into the strip, particularly including a tomboyish, freckle-faced, shorts-and-sandals-wearing girl named Patricia Reichardt, better known as "
Peppermint PattyPatricia "Peppermint Patty" Reichardt is a fictional character featured in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. A freckle-faced auburn/brunette, she is one of a small group in the strip who lives across town from Charlie Brown and his school friends...
". "Peppermint" Patty is an assertive, athletic but rather obtuse girl who shakes up Charlie Brown's world by calling him "Chuck", flirting with him, and giving him compliments he is not so sure he deserves. She also brings in a new group of friends (and heads a rival baseball team), including the strip's first black character,
FranklinFranklin is a character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. Introduced on July 31, 1968, Franklin was the first African-American character in the strip. He goes to school with Peppermint Patty and Marcie. In his first story arc, he met Charlie Brown when they were...
, a Mexican-Swedish kid named José Peterson, and Peppermint Patty's bookish sidekick
MarcieMarcie is a bespectacled fictional character featured in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. She serves as comedic foil and best friend to tomboy Peppermint Patty, plays a supporting role in some of Snoopy's heroic fantasies, and displays a romantic interest in Charlie Brown, who seems to love...
, who calls Peppermint Patty "Sir" and Charlie Brown "Charles". (Most other characters call him "Charlie Brown" at all times, except for Eudora, who also calls him "Charles"; Charlie Brown's sister
Sally BrownSally Brown is the younger sister of Charlie Brown in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz. She was first mentioned in early 1959 and throughout a long series of strips before her first appearance in August 1959.-Appearance:...
, who usually calls him "big brother"; and a minor character named
Peggy JeanPeggy Jean is a fictional character in the comic strip Peanuts. She was the girlfriend of Charlie Brown during the 1990s. Charlie Brown first met her at summer camp in 1990, and she appeared intermittently in the strip until mid-1999, a few months before the strip ended...
in the early 1990s who called him "Brownie Charles" after he could not remember his own name. Also, Snoopy calls his owner, Charlie Brown, "that round-headed kid." At one point, in
A Charlie Brown ChristmasA Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
, Lucy calls Charlie Brown "Charlie.")
Several additional family members of the characters were also introduced: Charlie Brown's younger sister Sally, who became fixated on Linus; Linus and Lucy van Pelt's younger brother
RerunRerun van Pelt is Linus and Lucy's younger brother in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts.-Introduction:Rerun started as a minor character in the Peanuts universe, only becoming a main character in the last decade of the comic strip...
, who almost always found himself on the back of his mother's bike for a time; and Spike, Snoopy's desert-dwelling brother from
Needles, CaliforniaNeedles is a city located in the Mojave Desert on the western banks of the Colorado River in San Bernardino County, California. It is located in the Mohave Valley, which straddles the California–Arizona border. The city is accessible via Interstate 40 and U.S. Route 95...
, who was apparently named for Schulz's own childhood dog. Snoopy also had
six other siblingsIn the comic strip, Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz, Snoopy was often stated to have seven siblings. Five appeared at various times in the strip: four brothers, Andy, Marbles, Olaf, and Spike; and one sister, Belle. The two others were never mentioned by name in the comic strip...
, and a total of five of his siblings made some appearances in the strip. Those who made appearances are brothers Andy, Olaf, and Marbles (in addition to Spike), and a sister Belle.
Other notable characters include Snoopy's friend
WoodstockWoodstock is a fictional character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. He is Snoopy's closest friend and, after Snoopy, the most recognized non-human in the strip.-History:...
, a bird whose chirping is represented in print as hash marks but is nevertheless clearly understood by Snoopy; three of Woodstock's buddies who usually appeared when on a scouting trip with Snoopy as their scout leader;
Pig-Pen"Pig-Pen" is a character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. He is a young boy who is, except on very rare occasions, very dirty.-History:"Pig-Pen" is a nickname, invariably written in quotation marks in the strip...
, the perpetually dirty boy who could raise a cloud of dust on a clean sidewalk, in a snowstorm, or inside a building; and
FriedaFrieda is a character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz. According to Schulz, Frieda's character was inspired by his longtime friend Frieda Rich, a local artist whom he met while taking classes at the Art Instruction Schools in Minneapolis, Minnesota...
, a girl proud of her "naturally curly hair", and who owned a cat named Faron, much to Snoopy's chagrin. (The way Faron hung over Frieda's arms prompted Snoopy to comment that they had "finally developed a boneless cat.") Frieda eventually disappeared from the strip.
Peanuts had several recurring characters that were actually absent from view. Some, such as the
Great PumpkinThe Great Pumpkin is an imaginary character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.The Great Pumpkin is a holiday figure that seems to exist only in the imagination of Linus van Pelt. Every year, Linus sits in a pumpkin patch on Halloween night waiting for the Great Pumpkin to appear...
or
Manfred von RichthofenManfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen , also widely known as the Red Baron, was a German fighter pilot with the Imperial German Army Air Service during World War I...
(the Red Baron), were merely figments of the cast's imaginations. Others were not imaginary, such as the
Little Red-Haired GirlThe Little Red-Haired Girl is an unseen character in the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, and is a symbol of unrequited love. While never seen in the strip, she appears onscreen in several television specials. Her name is sometimes cited in these as Heather. She serves as the object of...
(Charlie Brown's perennial dream girl who finally appeared in 1998, but only in silhouette), Joe Shlabotnik (Charlie Brown's baseball hero), World War II (the vicious cat who lives next door to Snoopy – not to be confused with Frieda's cat, Faron), and Charlie Brown's unnamed
pen palPen pals are people who regularly write to each other, particularly via postal mail.-Purposes:A penpal relationship is often used to practice reading and writing in a foreign language, to improve literacy, to learn more about other countries and life-styles, and to make friendships...
, referred to as his "pencil-pal" after Charlie Brown's failed mastery of the fountain pen. Adult figures only appeared in the strip during a four-week Sunday-comic sequence in 1954 in which Lucy plays in an amateur golf tournament, with Charlie Brown "coaching" her. At no time, however, were any adult faces seen. (It was also in this story that Lucy's family name "van Pelt" was first revealed.) There are adult voices in a few of the strips in its early years.
Schulz also added some fantastic elements, sometimes imbuing inanimate objects with sparks of life. Charlie Brown's nemesis, the
Kite-Eating TreeThe Kite-Eating Tree is a fictional tree featured in the comic strip Peanuts created by Charles M. Schulz.A Kite-Eating Tree is a deciduous tree of indeterminate type, once referred to as a "Kiteus Eatemupus". According to Charlie Brown, it is impossible to tell a kite-eating tree from...
, is one example. Sally Brown's school building, that expressed thoughts and feelings about the students (and the general business of being a brick building), is another. Linus' famous "security blanket" also displayed occasional signs of
anthropomorphismAnthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
. Another example is Charlie Brown's pitching mound, which at times would express thoughts and opinions ("Why don't you learn how to pitch, you stupid kid?").
Ages of the Peanuts characters
Over the course of their nearly fifty-year run, most of the characters' literal ages do not change more than four years. Charlie Brown was four when the strip began, and aged over the next two decades, until he settled in as an eight-year-old (after which he was consistently referred to as eight when any age was given).
Exceptions to this phenomenon include the characters who were newly introduced as infants, or who begin at birth, then catch up to the rest of the cast and stop.
SchroederSchroeder is a fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. He is distinguished by his precocious skill at playing the toy piano, as well as by his love of classical music and the composer Ludwig van Beethoven in particular...
was introduced as a non-speaking baby, who quickly learned to play the piano with concert ability, eventually becoming Charlie Brown's age over his first decade.
LucyLucille "Lucy" van Pelt is a fictional character in the syndicated comic strip :Peanuts, written and drawn by Charles Schulz. She is the main bully and the older sister of Linus and Rerun. Lucy is a crabby and cynical eight-year old girl, and often bullies the other characters in the strip,...
first appeared as what may be described as a toddler; she slept in a crib and would ask Charlie Brown to make her a sandwich or get her a glass of water, tasks she was unable to perform herself. She, too, would become the same age as Charlie Brown within a few years of the strip.
LinusLinus van Pelt is a character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. The best friend of Charlie Brown, Linus is also the younger brother of Lucy van Pelt and older brother of Rerun van Pelt. He first appeared on September 19, 1952; however, he was not mentioned by name until three days later....
first appeared as a baby on September 19, 1952, then aged to about a year or so younger than Charlie Brown over the course of the first decade, during which he learned to walk and talk with the help of Lucy and Charlie Brown, and be a friend to Charlie Brown as well. Sally became two years younger than her older brother Charlie Brown, although Charlie Brown was already of school age in the strips in which she was born and seen as a baby.
RerunRerun van Pelt is Linus and Lucy's younger brother in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts.-Introduction:Rerun started as a minor character in the Peanuts universe, only becoming a main character in the last decade of the comic strip...
is unique in that he stopped aging when he started kindergarten.
In one strip, when Lucy declares that by the time a child is five years old, his personality is already pretty well established, Charlie Brown protests, "But I'm already five! I'm more than five!"
The characters, however, were not strictly defined by their literal ages. "Were they children or adults? Or some kind of hybrid?" wrote David Michaelis of Time magazine. Schulz distinguished his creations by "fusing adult ideas with a world of small children." Michaelis continues:
In other words, the cast of Peanuts transcended age and were more broadly human.
Current events were sometimes a subject of the strip over the years. The banning of school prayer in the U.S. became the basis of a Sunday comic in 1963. The Apollo moon project prompted Snoopy to make his own lunar landing in March 1969 (four months before the landing was achieved in real life). The
WoodstockWoodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
music festival in 1969 inspired the name of Snoopy's bird friend the following year. The end of 1973 featured a story about the appearance of the
comet "Kohoutek"Comet Kohoutek, formally designated C/1973 E1, 1973 XII, and 1973f, was first sighted on 7 March 1973 by Czech astronomer Luboš Kohoutek. It attained perihelion on 28 December that same year....
. In a 1995 series, Sally mentions the Classic Comic Strip Characters series of stamps, which were released four years earlier. The passage of time, however, is negligible and incidental in Peanuts.
Location
Schulz was born in Minneapolis, and his family moved to St. Paul when he was four years old, first living at 1680 James Avenue and then moving to 473 Macalester Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota. There are hints in the early strips that the setting for Peanuts is Schulz's boyhood home, near North James Avenue, Minneapolis; the later strips tend to point to California, where Schulz lived the later part of his life, although regular snowfall can still be seen during the winter months. "5" was a character introduced in 1963, whose full name was "555 95472". 95472 was his family name, and his ZIP code. In reality, it is the ZIP code for
Sebastopol, CaliforniaSebastopol is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States, approximately north of San Francisco. The population was 7,379 at the 2010 census, but its businesses also serve surrounding rural portions of Sonoma County, totaling about 50,000 people...
, where Schulz was living at the time that the character was introduced. In one early strip, Schroeder mentions his address as "1770 James St.", and in another Lucy shows Charlie Brown a trophy she has just won, with the words "Outstanding Fussbudget of Hennepin County" on it (Hennepin County consists primarily of Minneapolis and its suburbs).
Critical acclaim
Peanuts is often regarded as one of the most influential and well-written comic strips of all time. Schulz received the National Cartoonist Society Humor Comic Strip Award for Peanuts in 1962, the Reuben Award in 1955 and 1964 (the first cartoonist to receive the honor twice), the Elzie Segar Award in 1980, and the
Milton CaniffMilton Arthur Paul Caniff was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.-Biography:...
Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.
A Charlie Brown ChristmasA Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
won a
Peabody AwardThe George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
and an Emmy; Peanuts cartoon specials have received a total of 2 Peabody Awards and 4 Emmys. For his work on the strip, Charles Schulz is credited with a star on the
Hollywood Walk of FameThe Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
and a place in the
William Randolph HearstWilliam Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
Cartoon Hall of Fame. Peanuts was featured on the cover of Time Magazine on April 9, 1965, with the accompanying article praising the strip as being "the leader of a refreshing new breed that takes an unprecedented interest in the basics of life."
Considered amongst the greatest comic strips of all time, Peanuts was declared second in a list of the greatest comics of the 20th century commissioned by
The Comics JournalThe Comics Journal, often abbreviated TCJ, is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels...
in 1999. Peanuts lost out to
George HerrimanGeorge Joseph Herriman was an American cartoonist, best known for his classic comic strip Krazy Kat.-Early life:...
's
Krazy KatKrazy Kat is an American comic strip created by cartoonist George Herriman, published daily in newspapers between 1913 and 1944. It first appeared in the New York Evening Journal, whose owner, William Randolph Hearst, was a major booster for the strip throughout its run...
, a strip Schulz admired (and in fact was among his biggest inspirations), and he accepted the positioning in good grace, to the point of agreeing with the result. In 2002
TV GuideTV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
declared Snoopy and Charlie Brown equal 8th in their list of "Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time", published to commemorate their 50th anniversary.
Cartoon tributes have appeared in other comic strips since Schulz's death in 2000, and are now displayed at the Charles Schulz Museum. In May 2000, many cartoonists included a reference to Peanuts in their own strips. Originally planned as a tribute to Schulz's retirement, after his death that February it became a tribute to his life and career. Similarly, on October 30, 2005, several comic strips again included references to Peanuts, and specifically the It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown television special.
The December 1997 issue of The Comics Journal featured an extensive collection of testimonials to Peanuts. Over forty cartoonists, from mainstream newspaper cartoonists to underground, independent comic artists, shared reflections on the power and influence of Schulz's art.
Gilbert HernandezGilberto Hernández, born February 1, 1957, in Oxnard, California, usually credited as Gilbert Hernandez and also known by the nickname Beto , is an American comics writer/artist...
wrote "Peanuts was and still is for me a revelation. It's mostly from Peanuts where I was inspired to create the village of Palomar in Love and Rockets. Schulz's characters, the humor, the insight... gush, gush, gush, bow, bow, bow, grovel, grovel, grovel..."
Tom BatiukTom Batiuk is an American comic strip creator. His best-known comic strip is Funky Winkerbean.Batiuk attended Kent State University, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in painting. He went on to teach art in junior high school...
wrote "The influence of Charles Schulz on the craft of cartooning is so pervasive it is almost taken for granted." Batiuk also described the depth of emotion in Peanuts: "Just beneath the cheerful surface were vulnerabilities and anxieties that we all experienced, but were reluctant to acknowledge. By sharing those feelings with us, Schulz showed us a vital aspect of our common humanity, which is, it seems to me, the ultimate goal of great art."
In 2001, the
Sonoma CountySonoma County, located on the northern coast of the U.S. state of California, is the largest and northernmost of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. Its population at the 2010 census was 483,878. Its largest city and county seat is Santa Rosa....
Board of Supervisors renamed the Sonoma County Airport, located a few miles northwest of
Santa Rosa, CaliforniaSanta Rosa is the county seat of Sonoma County, California, United States. The 2010 census reported a population of 167,815. Santa Rosa is the largest city in California's Wine Country and fifth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area, after San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont and 26th...
, the
Charles M. Schulz AirportCharles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport is a county-owned public-use airport located 6 nautical miles northwest of downtown Santa Rosa, a city in Sonoma County, California, United States. It serves the county and surrounding areas of Wine Country in California.The airport is named after Charles M...
in his honor. The airport's logo features Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace (goggles/scarf), taking to the skies on top of his red doghouse. A bronze statue of Charlie Brown and Snoopy stands in Depot Park in downtown Santa Rosa.
Schulz was included in the touring exhibition "Masters of American Comics" based on his achievements in the art form while producing the strip. His gag work is hailed as being "psychologically complex", and his style on the strip is noted as being "perfectly in keeping with the style of its times."
Despite the widespread acclaim generated by Peanuts as a whole, some critics have alleged a decline in the strip's quality in the later years of its run, as Schulz frequently digressed from the more cerebral socio-psychological themes that characterized his earlier work in favor of lighter, more whimsical fare. For example, in an essay published in the
New York PressNew York Press was a free alternative weekly in New York City, that was published from 1988 to 2011. During its lifetime, it was the main competitor to the Village Voice...
at the time of the final daily strip in January 2000, "Against Snoopy",
Christopher CaldwellChristopher Caldwell is an American journalist and senior editor at The Weekly Standard, as well as a regular contributor to the Financial Times and Slate. His writing also frequently appears in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, where he is a contributing editor to the paper's magazine,...
argued that the character of Snoopy, and the strip's increased focus on him in the 1970s, "went from being the strip's besetting artistic weakness to ruining it altogether".
Television and film productions
Video rights to all the films and TV specials were licensed by
Media Home EntertainmentMedia Home Entertainment Inc. was a home video company headquartered in Culver City, California, originally established in 1978 by filmmaker Charles Band....
and Kartes Video Communications in the 1980s, and by Paramount Home Entertainment from 1994 to 2007. The video rights to the TV specials are now with
Warner Home VideoWarner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
, while the theatrical films are still at Paramount, who produced the last two and acquired the first two through the merger of
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, who produced them via
Cinema Center FilmsCinema Center Films was the theatrical film production division of the CBS television network. Founded in 1967 , its films were distributed by National General Pictures. CBS closed the unit in 1972; its last film was the Peanuts animated musical Snoopy Come Home...
, and
ViacomViacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
; the first two films were originally released to video by
CBS/Fox VideoCBS/Fox Video was a home video company formed and established in 1982, as a merger between 20th Century Fox Video, formerly Magnetic Video Corporation, and CBS Video Enterprises....
.
In addition to the strip and numerous books, the Peanuts characters have appeared in animated form on television numerous times. This started when the
Ford Motor CompanyFord Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
licensed the characters in 1961 for a series of black and white television commercials for the Ford Falcon. The ads were animated by
Bill MeléndezJosé Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Meléndez was a Mexican-American character animator, film director, voice artist and producer, known for his cartoons for Warner Brothers, UPA and the Peanuts series...
for Playhouse Pictures, a cartoon studio that had Ford as a client. Schulz and Meléndez became friends, and when producer
Lee MendelsonLee Mendelson is an American television producer. He is best known as the executive producer of the many Peanuts animated specials....
decided to make a two-minute animated sequence for a TV documentary called A Boy Named Charlie Brown in 1963, he brought on Meléndez for the project. Before the documentary was completed, the three of them (with help from their sponsor, the
Coca-ColaCoca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
Company) produced their first half-hour animated
specialA television special is a television program which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz or The Ten Commandments, which is not part of a regular...
, the Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning
A Charlie Brown ChristmasA Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
, which was first aired on the
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
network on December 9, 1965.
The animated version of Peanuts differs in some aspects from the strip. In the strip, adult voices are heard, though conversations are usually only depicted from the children's end. To translate this aspect to the animated medium, the sound of a
tromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
with a plunger mute (created by
Vince GuaraldiVincent Anthony "Vince" Guaraldi was an Italian American jazz musician and pianist noted for his innovative compositions and arrangements and for composing music for animated adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip...
) was used to simulate adult "voices". A more significant deviation from the strip was the treatment of Snoopy. In the strip, the dog's thoughts are verbalized in thought balloons; in animation, he is typically mute, his thoughts communicated through growls or laughs (voiced by Bill Meléndez), and
pantomimeThe word mime is used to refer to a mime artist who uses a theatrical medium or performance art involving the acting out of a story through body motions without use of speech.Mime may also refer to:* Mime, an alternative word for lip sync...
, or by having human characters verbalizing his thoughts for him. These treatments have both been abandoned temporarily in the past. For example, they experimented with teacher dialogue in She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown. The elimination of Snoopy's "voice" is probably the most controversial aspect of the adaptations, but Schulz apparently approved of the treatment. (Snoopy's thoughts were conveyed in voice over for the first time in the animated adaptations of the Broadway musicals
You're a Good Man, Charlie BrownYou're a Good Man, Charlie Brown is the 29th prime-time animated TV special based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz...
and
Snoopy!!! The MusicalSnoopy: The Musical is a musical comedy by Larry Grossman and Hal Hackady, with a book by Warren Lockhart, Arthur Whitelaw, and Michael Grace. The characters are from the Charles M. Schulz comic strip Peanuts. This sequel to the musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown focuses more on the life of...
, and later on occasion in the animated series
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy ShowThe Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show is an animated television series featuring characters and storylines from the Charles M. Schulz comic strip Peanuts. It aired Saturday mornings on the CBS network from 1983 to 1985. It re-aired on The Disney Channel and Nickelodeon in the 1990s...
.)
The success of A Charlie Brown Christmas was the impetus for CBS to air many more prime-time Peanuts specials over the years, beginning with
Charlie Brown's All-StarsCharlie Brown's All-Stars is the second prime-time animated TV special based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was the second such TV special to be produced by Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez , and originally aired on the CBS network on June 8, 1966...
and
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie BrownIt's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a 1966 American prime time animated television special based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz....
in 1966. In total, more than thirty animated specials were produced. Until his death in 1976, jazz pianist
Vince GuaraldiVincent Anthony "Vince" Guaraldi was an Italian American jazz musician and pianist noted for his innovative compositions and arrangements and for composing music for animated adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip...
composed musical scores for the specials; in particular, the piece "
Linus and Lucy"Linus and Lucy" is a popular jazz piano tune written by Vince Guaraldi appearing in many of the Peanuts animated television specials. Named for the fictional siblings Linus and Lucy van Pelt, it was released in 1964 on the Vince Guaraldi Trio's album Jazz Impressions of a Boy Named Charlie Brown...
" which has become popularly known as the signature theme song of the Peanuts franchise.
In addition to Coca-Cola, other companies that sponsored Peanuts specials over the years included
Dolly MadisonHostess Brands, Inc. is the largest wholesale baker and distributor of fresh bakery products in the United States, and is the owner of the Hostess, Wonder Bread, Nature's Pride, Dolly Madison, Butternut Breads, and Drake's brands. For many years it was based at 12 East Armour Boulevard, Kansas...
cakes,
Kellogg'sKellogg Company , is a producer of cereal and convenience foods, including cookies, crackers, toaster pastries, cereal bars, fruit-flavored snacks, frozen waffles, and vegetarian foods...
,
McDonald'sMcDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
,
Peter PaulThe Hershey Company, known until April 2005 as the Hershey Foods Corporation and commonly called Hershey's, is the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America. Its headquarters are in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is also home to Hershey's Chocolate World. It was founded by Milton S...
-
CadburyCadbury is a confectionery company owned by Kraft Foods and is the industry's second-largest globally after Mars, Incorporated. Headquartered in Uxbridge, London, United Kingdom, the company operates in more than 50 countries worldwide....
candy bars,
General MillsGeneral Mills, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 corporation, primarily concerned with food products, which is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company markets many well-known brands, such as Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Colombo, Totinos, Jeno's, Pillsbury, Green...
, and
NabiscoNabisco is an American brand of cookies and snacks. Headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey, the company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Kraft Foods. Nabisco's plant in Chicago, a production facility at 7300 S...
.
Schulz, Mendelson, and Meléndez also collaborated on four theatrical
feature filmsA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
starring the characters, the first of which was A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969). Most of these made use of material from Schulz's strips, which were then adapted, although in other cases plots were developed around areas where there were minimal strips to reference. Such was also the case with
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy ShowThe Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show is an animated television series featuring characters and storylines from the Charles M. Schulz comic strip Peanuts. It aired Saturday mornings on the CBS network from 1983 to 1985. It re-aired on The Disney Channel and Nickelodeon in the 1990s...
, a Saturday-morning TV series which debuted on CBS in 1983 and aired for three seasons.
By the late-1980s, the specials' popularity had begun to wane, and CBS had sometimes rejected a few specials. An eight-episode TV
miniseriesA miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
called
This is America, Charlie BrownThis is America, Charlie Brown was an eight-part animated TV mini-series, depicting events in American history with characters from the Charles M. Schulz comic strip Peanuts. It aired from 1988 to 1989 on CBS. These eight episodes, originally released singly on videocassette, were released in a...
, for instance, was released during a writer's strike. Eventually, the last Peanuts specials were released direct-to-video, and no new ones were created until after the year 2000 when ABC obtained the rights to the three fall holiday specials. The
NickelodeonNickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
cable network re-aired the bulk of the specials, as well as The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, for a time in 1997 under the umbrella title "You're on Nickelodeon, Charlie Brown". Eight Peanuts-based specials have been made posthumously. Of these, three are tributes to Peanuts or other Peanuts specials, and five are completely new specials based on dialogue from the strips and ideas given to ABC by Schulz before his death. The most recent,
He's a Bully, Charlie BrownHe's a Bully, Charlie Brown is the 44th prime-time animated TV special based on the popular comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. It was originally aired on the ABC network on November 20, 2006. It is the second most recent Peanuts television special and is primarily based on a story from the...
, was telecast on ABC on November 20, 2006, following a repeat broadcast of
A Charlie Brown ThanksgivingA Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is the tenth prime-time animated TV special based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was originally aired on the CBS network on November 20, 1973, and won an Emmy Award the following year...
. Airing 43 years after the first special, the premiere of He's a Bully, Charlie Brown was watched by nearly 10 million viewers, winning its time slot and beating a
MadonnaMadonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
concert special. It was announced at this year's
Macy's Thanksgiving Day ParadeThe Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, often shortened to Macy's Day Parade, is an annual parade presented by Macy's. The tradition started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States along with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit, and four years younger than...
that a
new Peanuts animated specialHappiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown is a Peanuts television special animated by Wild Brain that was released in 2011. The special is the 45th in the series and the first without the late Bill Melendez on the production team...
is scheduled to debut in 2011.
Many of the specials and feature films have also been released on various
home videoHome video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
formats over the years. To date, 20 of the specials, the two films A Boy Named Charlie Brown and Snoopy, Come Home, and the miniseries This Is America, Charlie Brown have all been released to DVD.
In October 2007,
Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
acquired the Peanuts catalog from
ParamountParamount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
for an undisclosed amount of money. They now hold the worldwide distribution rights for all Peanuts properties including over 50 television specials. Warner has made plans to develop new specials for television as well as the direct to video market, as well as short subjects for digital distribution. Paramount retains the rights to the theatrical releases, as the first two movies (A Boy Named Charlie Brown and Snoopy, Come Home) are owned by
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
and distributed through Paramount, and the other two (
Race for Your Life, Charlie BrownRace For Your Life, Charlie Brown is a 1977 animated film produced by United Feature Syndicate for Paramount Pictures, directed by Bill Meléndez, and the third in a series of movies based on the Peanuts comic strip...
and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back!!)) were released by Paramount directly.
Peanuts in popular culture
- There was a desktop theme of Peanuts that comes with Microsoft's Plus! 98 pack for Windows 98. The wallpaper features the characters such as Charlie Brown, Sally, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, and many others. It was suitable for children, too.
- The Peanuts characters were re-used in Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
but have different body styles and different voice actors.
Theatrical productions
Peanuts characters even found their way to the live stage, appearing in the musicals
You're a Good Man, Charlie BrownYou're a Good Man, Charlie Brown is a 1967 musical comedy with music and lyrics by Clark Gesner, based on the characters created by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz in his comic strip Peanuts...
and Snoopy!!! — The Musical, and in "Snoopy on Ice", a live
Ice CapadesThe Ice Capades was a traveling entertainment show featuring theatrical performances involving ice skating. Shows often featured former Olympicand National Champion figure skaters who had retired from amateur competition....
-style show aimed primarily at young children, all of which have had several touring productions over the years.
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown was originally a successful
Off-BroadwayOff-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
musical that ran for four years (1967–1971) in New York City and on tour, with
Gary Burghoff as the original Charlie Brown. An updated revival opened on
BroadwayBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in 1999, and by 2002 it had become the most frequently produced musical in American theatre history. It was also adapted for television twice, as a live-action
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
special and an animated CBS special.
Snoopy!!! The Musical was a musical comedy based on the Peanuts comic strip, originally performed at Lamb's Theatre Off-Broadway in 1982. In its 1983 run in London's
West EndWest End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
, it won an Olivier Award. In 1988, it was adapted into an animated TV special. The New Players Theatre in London staged a revival in 2004 to honor its 21st anniversary, but some reviewers noted that its "feel good" sentiments had not aged well.
The Off-Broadway drama
Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage BlockheadDog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead is a play written by Bert V. Royal.An "unauthorized parody," the play imagines characters from the popular comic strip Peanuts as teenagers...
centers on the Peanuts characters becoming teenagers, though it is an unauthorized parody.
Record albums
In 1962,
Columbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
issued an album titled Peanuts, with
Kaye BallardKaye Ballard is an American musical theatre and television actress, comedienne, and singer.-Life and career:Ballard was born as Catherine Gloria Balotta in Cleveland, Ohio, to an Italian American family, the daughter of Lena and Vincent James Balotta.Ballard established herself as a musical...
and
Arthur SiegelArthur Siegel was an American songwriter.Born on December 31, 1923 in Lakewood Township, New Jersey, he grew up in Asbury Park, New Jersey...
performing (as Lucy and Charlie Brown, respectively) to music composed by
Fred KarlinFred Karlin was an American composer of more than one hundred scores for feature films and television movies. He also was an accomplished trumpeter adept at playing jazz, blues, classical, rock, and medieval music....
.
Fantasy RecordsFantasy Records is a United States-based record label that was founded by Max and Sol Weiss in 1949 in San Francisco, California. They had previously operated a record-pressing plant called Circle Record Company before forming the Fantasy label...
issued several albums featuring Vince Guaraldi's jazz scores from the animated specials, including Jazz Impressions of a Boy Named Charlie Brown (1964),
A Charlie Brown ChristmasA Charlie Brown Christmas is an album by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, released in 1965 as the soundtrack to the CBS Christmas television special of the same name. It is among the most popular Christmas music albums of all time...
(1965), Oh, Good Grief! (1968), and Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits (1998). All were later reissued on CD.
Other jazz artists have recorded Peanuts-themed albums, often featuring cover versions of Guaraldi's compositions. These include
Ellis Marsalis, Jr.Ellis Marsalis is an American musician. He can usually be seen performing on Fridays at Snug Harbor jazz bistro in New Orleans.- Life and career :...
and
Wynton MarsalisWynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
(Joe Cool's Blues, 1995);
George WinstonGeorge Winston is an American pianist who was born in Michigan, and grew up mainly in Miles City, Montana as well as Mississippi and Florida. He attended Stetson University in Deland, Florida and lives in Santa Cruz, California.-Background:...
(Linus & Lucy, 1996); David Benoit (Here's to You, Charlie Brown!, 2000); and
Cyrus ChestnutCyrus Chestnut is an American jazz pianist, songwriter, and producer. In 2006, Josh Tyrangiel, music critic for Time Magazine, wrote: "What makes Chestnut the best jazz pianist of his generation is a willingness to abandon notes and play space." Chestnut enjoys mixing styles and resists being...
(A Charlie Brown Christmas, 2000).
The 1960s American rock band
The Royal GuardsmenThe Royal Guardsmen are an American rock band, best known for their 1966 hit single "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron".-Snoopy vs. the Red Baron:...
recorded several songs about Snoopy's fantasies of flying against the Red Baron in World War I, including the hit singles "
Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron"Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron" is a novelty song written by Phil Gernhard and Dick Holler and recorded in 1966 by the Florida based rock band, The Royal Guardsmen. The song was recorded at the Charles Fuller Productions studio in Tampa, Florida, and was released as a single on Laurie Records...
" and "
Snoopy's Christmas"Snoopy's Christmas" is a song performed by The Royal Guardsmen in 1967. It continues to be played as a holiday favorite on most "oldie" radio stations, however is also often played on radio stations playing a Hit Music format as well as Adult Contemporary format stations...
". The first song was released without Schulz's consent, and he and UFS sued successfully for royalties, but allowed the group to make future songs and even contributed album artwork for such releases as
Snoopy And His FriendsSnoopy and His Friends is the 3rd album by the Ocala, Florida group The Royal Guardsmen.The group is best known for their hit recording of "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron", which was first released in 1966 as a 45rpm record single...
.
Cast recordings (in both original and revival productions) of the stage musicals You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Snoopy!!! The Musical have been released over the years.
Numerous animated Peanuts specials were adapted into
book-and-record setBook-and-Record sets are a form of edutainment for children, consisting of a picture storybook and an accompanying recording to be played while following along with the book...
s, issued on the "Charlie Brown Records" label by Disney Read-Along in the 1970s and '80s. Also issued on Charlie Brown Records, via
Disneyland RecordsDisneyland Records is the original name of the Walt Disney Company's record company.After long associations with primarily RCA Victor Records, with a few select titles on Capitol, Disneyland Records was established by the Disney studio in 1956 with its first release entitled A Child's Garden of...
was the soundtrack to Flashbeagle in 1984, which featured
Desiree GoyetteDesirée Goyette is a singer, composer, lyricist and voice-over artist. She has been nominated for two Grammy Awards and has voiced such characters as Betty Boop, Barbie, Nermal, Petunia Pig, Honey Bunny and numerous others for radio, television and toys...
and
Joey ScarburyJoey Scarbury is an adult contemporary singer best known for his hit song, "Theme from The Greatest American Hero ", in 1981.-Childhood and early music career:...
(of "Theme from the Greatest American Hero" fame) on the title track, and all songs were written by
Ed BogasEd Bogas, born Edgar Noel Bogas, and sometimes credited as Edward Bogas, is an American rock musician and composer and whose work has been featured in films, animations, and video games.-Career:...
and Goyette.
RCA Victor has released an album of classical piano music ostensibly performed by Schroeder himself. Titled Schroeder's Greatest Hits, the album contains solo piano works by Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, and others, performed by
John Miller-Politics:* John Miller , Governor of North Dakota, 1889–1891* John Miller , Governor of Missouri, 1826–1832; U.S. Representative from Missouri, 1837–1843...
, Ronnie Zito,
Ken BichelKen Bichel is an American actor, composer, pianist, and synthesizer musician. Bichel attended the Juilliard School where he graduated with a Bachelors degree in piano performance in the late 1960s...
, and Nelly Kokinos.
Other licensed appearances and merchandise
Over the years, the Peanuts characters have appeared in ads for
Dolly MadisonDolly Madison is a U.S. bakery brand owned by Hostess Brands, marketing pre-packaged baked snack foods. Bakeries are located throughout the U.S.- Marketing :...
snack cakes,
Chex MixChex Mix is a type of snack mix that includes Chex breakfast cereal as a major component. There are several commercially produced varieties of Chex Mix, as well as non-commercial, homemade versions of the snack. Though contents vary, the mixes generally include an assortment of Chex cereals,...
, Bounty,
CheeriosCheerios is a brand of breakfast cereal by General Mills introduced on May 1, 1941 as the first oat-based, ready-to-eat cold cereal. Originally named CheeriOats, the name was changed to Cheerios in 1945 because of a trade name dispute with Quaker Oats. The name fit the "O" shape of the cereal pieces...
,
A&W Root BeerA&W Root Beer is a brand of root beer, primarily available in the United States and Canada, that was started in 1919 by Roy Allen. In 1922, Allen partnered with Frank Wright. They combined their initials to create the brand "A&W" and inspired a restaurant chain which was founded 1922. The first A&W...
,
Kraft FoodsKraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...
, and
FordFord Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
automobiles. Pig-Pen appeared in a memorable spot for Regina vacuum cleaners.
They are currently spokespeople in print and television
advertisementsAdvertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
for the
MetLifeMetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, or MetLife, for short, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, with 90 million customers in over 60 countries...
insurance company. MetLife usually uses Snoopy in its
advertisementsAdvertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
as opposed to other characters: for instance, the MetLife blimps are named "Snoopy One" and "Snoopy Two" and feature him in his World War I flying ace persona.
The characters have been featured on
Hallmark CardsHallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts....
since 1960, and can be found adorning clothing, figurines, plush dolls, flags, balloons, posters, Christmas ornaments, and countless other bits of licensed merchandise.
The
Apollo 10Apollo 10 was the fourth manned mission in the American Apollo space program. It was an F type mission—its purpose was to be a "dry run" for the Apollo 11 mission, testing all of the procedures and components of a Moon landing without actually landing on the Moon itself. The mission included the...
lunar moduleThe Apollo Lunar Module was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft built for the US Apollo program by Grumman to carry a crew of two from lunar orbit to the surface and back...
was nicknamed "Snoopy" and the
command moduleThe Command/Service Module was one of two spacecraft, along with the Lunar Module, used for the United States Apollo program which landed astronauts on the Moon. It was built for NASA by North American Aviation...
"Charlie Brown". While not included in the official mission logo, Charlie Brown and Snoopy became semi-official mascots for the mission. Charles Schulz drew an original picture of Charlie Brown in a spacesuit that was hidden aboard the craft to be found by the astronauts once they were in orbit. This drawing is now on display at the
Kennedy Space CenterThe John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...
. Snoopy is the personal safety mascot for NASA astronauts, and NASA issues a
Silver Snoopy awardThe Silver Snoopy award is a special honor awarded to NASA employees and contractors for outstanding achievements related to human flight safety or mission success...
to employees that promote flight safety. The black "caps" that the Apollo astronauts wore on their heads were referred to as "Snoopy hats."
In East Asia, RM Licensing has licensed the Peanuts characters for fashion stores, children's apparel, and restaurants including Charlie Brown Cafe, a Hong Kong-based fast causal restaurant chain.
The 1960s pop band
The Royal GuardsmenThe Royal Guardsmen are an American rock band, best known for their 1966 hit single "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron".-Snoopy vs. the Red Baron:...
drew inspiration from Peanuts, and their single "
Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron"Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron" is a novelty song written by Phil Gernhard and Dick Holler and recorded in 1966 by the Florida based rock band, The Royal Guardsmen. The song was recorded at the Charles Fuller Productions studio in Tampa, Florida, and was released as a single on Laurie Records...
" reached number two on the charts.
In the Sixties,
Robert L. ShortRobert L. Short was a Presbyterian minister, known as the author of the bestselling 1965 book The Gospel According to Peanuts, and the 1977 book Something to Believe in: Is Kurt Vonnegut the Exorcist of Jesus Christ Superstar?. He is also the author of The Parables of Dr...
interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of
Christian theology- Divisions of Christian theology :There are many methods of categorizing different approaches to Christian theology. For a historical analysis, see the main article on the History of Christian theology.- Sub-disciplines :...
, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, and as source material for several books, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book,
The Gospel According to PeanutsThe Gospel According to Peanuts is a best-selling 1965 book written by Presbyterian minister Robert L. Short about Charles M. Schulz's popular comic strip, Peanuts...
.
A 1968 episode of the television series
Get SmartGet Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...
was titled "Snoopy Smart vs. the Red Baron," and featured lead character Maxwell Smart reading a "Peanuts" book. Later in the episode Max must battle recurring villain Konrad Siegfried in a biplane dogfight ala Snoopy and the Red Baron.
In 1980, Charles Schulz was introduced to artist
Tom Everhart-Education:Tom Everhart was born on May 21st in Washington, D.C. He began his under graduate studies at the Yale University of Art and Architecture in 1970. In 1972 he participated in an independent study program under Earl Hoffman at St. Mary’s College. He returned to the Yale School of Art and...
during a collaborative art project. Everhart became fascinated with Schulz's art style and worked Peanuts themed art into his own work. Schulz encouraged Everhart to continue with his work. Everhart continues to be the only artist authorized to paint Peanuts characters.
Giant
heliumHelium is the chemical element with atomic number 2 and an atomic weight of 4.002602, which is represented by the symbol He. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas that heads the noble gas group in the periodic table...
balloons of Charlie Brown and Snoopy have long been a feature in the annual
Macy's Thanksgiving Day ParadeThe Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, often shortened to Macy's Day Parade, is an annual parade presented by Macy's. The tradition started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States along with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit, and four years younger than...
in New York City. This was noted in a
Super Bowl XLIISuper Bowl XLII was an American football game on February 3, 2008 that featured the National Football Conference champion New York Giants and the American Football Conference champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League champion for the 2007 season...
commercial, in which the Charlie Brown balloon (in a move uncharacteristic of his bad luck) comes out from behind a balloon to snag a
Coca-ColaCoca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
bottle from two battling balloons (Underdog and
Stewie GriffinStewie Griffin is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy. Once obsessed with world domination and matricide, Stewie is the youngest child of Peter and Lois Griffin, and the brother of Chris and Meg....
, the latter of which has never had a parade balloon). The ad was sponsored by Coca-Cola.
In 1983,
Knott's Berry FarmKnott's Berry Farm is a theme park in Buena Park, California, now owned by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, and a line of jams, jellies, preserves, and other specialty food, now part of The J. M. Smucker Company based in Placentia, California....
, in Southern California, was the first theme park to license the Peanuts characters, creating the first Camp Snoopy area and making Snoopy the park's mascot. Knott's expanded its operation in 1992 by building an indoor amusement park in the
Mall of AmericaThe Mall of America, also called MOA and the Megamall, is a shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities, in the United States. It is located southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north of the Minnesota River and is across the...
, called Knott's Camp Snoopy. The Knott's theme parks were acquired by the national amusement park chain Cedar Fair in 1997, which continued to operate the Mall of America Camp Snoopy park until the mall took over its operation as of March 2005, renaming it
The Park at MOANickelodeon Universe is the seven-acre indoor amusement park located in the center of the Mall of America , in Bloomington, Minnesota, USA....
(now Nickelodeon Universe), and discontinued using the Peanuts characters as its theme. The Knott's Berry Farm Camp Snoopy area was unaffected by this change and is still in operation.
Snoopy is the official mascot of
Dorney Park & Wildwater KingdomDorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom is an American amusement and water park located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The park features nine roller coasters, other adult and children's rides, and a waterpark, Wildwater Kingdom....
, and pictures of him and other peanuts characters can be seen throughout the parks.
Cedar Fair had already licensed the Peanuts characters for use in 1992 as atmosphere, so its acquisition of Knott's Berry Farm did not alter the use of those characters. The images of the Peanuts characters are currently used frequently by Cedar Fair, most visibly in several versions of the logo for flagship park,
Cedar PointCedar Point is a 364 acre amusement park located in Sandusky, Ohio, United States on a narrow peninsula jutting into Lake Erie. Cedar Point is the only amusement park with four roller coasters that are taller than...
.
Worlds of FunWorlds of Fun is an amusement park in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. The park opened in 1973 and was originally built by Lamar Hunt and Jack Steadman . In 1995 Hunt-Midwest sold Worlds of Fun to Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., which currently owns the park...
in
Kansas City, MissouriKansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
also operates a Camp Snoopy area, featuring various Peanuts-themed attractions.
Peanuts on Parade has been St. Paul, Minnesota's tribute to Peanuts. It began in 2000, with the placing of 101 5 feet (1.5 m) statues of Snoopy throughout the city of Saint Paul. The statues were later auctioned at the
Mall of AmericaThe Mall of America, also called MOA and the Megamall, is a shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities, in the United States. It is located southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north of the Minnesota River and is across the...
in
Bloomington, MinnesotaBloomington is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota in Hennepin County. Located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, Bloomington lies at the heart of the southern...
. In 2001, there was "Charlie Brown Around Town", 2002 brought "Looking for Lucy", and finally, in 2003, "Linus Blankets Saint Paul." The statues were auctioned off at the end of each summer, so some remain around the city but others have been relocated. Permanent, bronze statues of the Peanuts characters are also found in Landmark Plaza in downtown
Saint PaulSaint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
.
The Peanuts characters have been licensed to
Universal Studios Japan, located in Osaka, is one of four Universal Studios theme parks, owned and operated by USJ Co., Ltd. . The park is similar to Universal Orlando Resort, since it contains many of the same rides. Most visitors are Japanese tourists or tourists from other Asian countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong,...
(while Peanuts merchandise in Japan has been licensed by
Sanriois a Japanese company that designs, licenses and produces products focusing on the kawaii segment of Japanese popular culture. Their products include stationery, school supplies, gifts and accessories that are sold worldwide and at specialty brand retail stores in Japan...
, best known for
Hello Kittyis a fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, first designed by Yuko Shimizu. She is portrayed as a female white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow. The character's first appearance on an item, a vinyl coin purse, was introduced in Japan in 1974 and brought to the United States...
).
In
New Town PlazaNew Town Plaza is a shopping mall in the town centre of Sha Tin in Hong Kong. Developed by Sun Hung Kai Properties, it was the biggest shopping mall in the New Territories of Hong Kong when it was completed in the early 1980s...
,
Sha TinSha Tin, also spelled Shatin, is an area around the Shing Mun River in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Administratively, it is part of the Sha Tin District.-Geography:...
, Hong Kong, there is a mini theme park dedicated to Snoopy.
The Peanuts gang have also appeared in various video games, such as
SnoopySnoopy is a 1984 computer game for the Commodore 64, programmed by C. Kramer and published by Radarsoft. It stars the comics character Snoopy from the popular comic strip Peanuts....
in a 1984 by Radarsoft, Snoopy vs. The Red Baron for the
Atari 2600The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
,
Snoopy's Silly Sports SpectacularSnoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular!, known in Japan as , is a children-oriented sports game that was released by Kemco for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988 .-Summary:...
(1989,
Nintendo Entertainment SystemThe Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
),
Snoopy's Magic Show, also known as Snoopy: Magic Show, is an Action puzzle video game based on the Snoopy cartoon characters licensed from Peanuts. It was developed and published by Kemco, which was released for the Game Boy in 1990....
(1990,
Game BoyThe , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
),
Snoopy TennisSnoopy Tennis is a tennis video game developed by Mermaid Studios and published by Infogrames and Atari for the Game Boy Color handheld video game console. It was first released in North America, and was later released in Japan and PAL regions....
(2001,
Game Boy ColorThe is Nintendo's successor to the 8-bit Game Boy handheld game console, and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 19, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in the United Kingdom. It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than...
),
Snoopy Concertis a Japan-exclusive action video game based on the Snoopy cartoon characters licensed from Peanuts and United Feature Syndicate , which was released for the Super Famicom in 1995.-General information:...
which was released in 1995 and sold to the Japanese market for the Super Nintendo, and in October 2006, a second game titled
Snoopy vs. The Red BaronSnoopy vs. the Red Baron is a flight combat game released on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and PC in 2006. As the name implies, the protagonist is Snoopy, the dog in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip, Peanuts...
by
Namco Bandai, also known as the Bandai Namco Group, is a Japanese holding company formed from the merger of Namco and Bandai. It has interests in toys, video games and arcades, anime, and amusement parks. The new entity was founded on September 29, 2005...
for the PlayStation 2. Many Peanuts characters have cameos in the latter game, including Woodstock, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Marcie and Sally. In July 2007, the Peanuts gang also made it onto cell phones in the Snoopy the Flying Ace mobile game by Namco Networks.
Sonoma State UniversitySonoma State University is a public, coeducational business and liberal arts college affiliated with the California State University system. The main campus is located in Rohnert Park, California, United States and lies approximately south of Santa Rosa and north of San Francisco...
has a cafe called the Charlie Brown Cafe with Charlie Brown as the logo, also the library it resides in is named after Charles Schulz, since his wife donated money to the school to build it. When SSU was changing its team name from the Cossacks, it considered the team name of the Beagles and to have Snoopy as the mascot. Unfortunately they felt the name was not fierce enough and decided to name the team the Seawolves and have an overweight blue wolf as their mascot.
Peanuts has also been involved with
NASCARThe National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
. In 2000,
Jeff GordonJeffery Michael "Jeff" Gordon is a professional NASCAR driver. He is the driver of the #24 Drive to End Hunger/DuPont/Pepsi Chevrolet Impala. He is a four-time Sprint Cup Series champion and a three-time Daytona 500 winner. He is third on the all-time wins list, with 85 career wins, and has the...
drove his #24
ChevroletChevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...
with a Snoopy-themed motif at
Indianapolis Motor SpeedwayThe Indianapolis Motor Speedway, located in Speedway, Indiana in the United States, is the home of the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race and the Brickyard 400....
. Two years later,
Tony StewartAnthony Wayne "Tony" Stewart is an American auto racing driver and owner. Throughout his racing career, Stewart has won titles in Indy cars and stock cars as well as midget, sprint and USAC Silver Crown cars, giving him the recognition of "one of the finest racers of his generation."Stewart...
drove a #20 Great Pumpkin motif scheme for two races. The first, at
Bristol Motor SpeedwayBristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961...
, featured a black car with
LinusLinus van Pelt is a character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. The best friend of Charlie Brown, Linus is also the younger brother of Lucy van Pelt and older brother of Rerun van Pelt. He first appeared on September 19, 1952; however, he was not mentioned by name until three days later....
sitting in a pumpkin field. Later, at
Atlanta Motor SpeedwayAtlanta Motor Speedway is a track just outside Hampton, Georgia, twenty miles south of Atlanta. It is a quad-oval track with a seating capacity of over 125,000. It opened in 1960 as a standard oval. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track...
, Tony drove an orange car featuring the Peanuts characters trick-or-treating. Most recently,
Bill ElliottWilliam Clyde "Bill" Elliott , also known as Awesome Bill from Dawsonville or Million Dollar Bill, is a part-time driver and former champion of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Elliott was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America on August 15, 2007. He won the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup...
drove a #6 Dodge with an
A Charlie Brown ChristmasA Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
scheme. That car ran at the 2005
NASCAR BUSCH SeriesThe NASCAR Nationwide Series is a stock car racing series owned and operated by the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. It is promoted as NASCAR's "minor league" circuit, and is a proving ground for drivers who wish to step up to the organization's "big leagues"; the Sprint Cup circuit...
race at
Memphis Motorsports ParkMemphis International Raceway is an auto racing park located across the Loosahatchie River from Memphis, Tennessee, approximately ten miles south of Millington, Tennessee. The facility opened in 1987 with a drag strip and 1.8-mile road course...
.
In 1980 (with a new edition published in 1990), the Funk and Wagnalls publishing house also produced a children's encyclopedia called the Charlie Brown's 'Cyclopedia. The 15-volume set features many of the Peanuts characters.
In April 2002 "The Peanuts Collectors Edition" Monopoly board was released by USAopoly. The game was created by Justin Gage, a prolific collector and friend of Charles and Jeannie Schulz. The game was dedicated to Schulz in memory of his passing.
In 2006, the
VH1VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
show
I Love ToysI Love Toys was the eighth in VH1's series of I Love… nostalgia shows. It premiered Monday, March 6, 2006, at 10:00 p.m. EST. It is a countdown of the 100 greatest toys, chosen partially through public voting on vh1.com and also consideration of "sales, historical significance and longevity,"...
named the Snoopy Snow Cone Machine the thirteenth greatest toy of all time.
In 2008,
Cedar PointCedar Point is a 364 acre amusement park located in Sandusky, Ohio, United States on a narrow peninsula jutting into Lake Erie. Cedar Point is the only amusement park with four roller coasters that are taller than...
Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio introduced Planet Snoopy, a kiddie area was constructed where Peanuts Playground used to be. This area consists of family and children rides that were relocated from Cedar Point's sister park Geauga Lake after its closing. The rides are themed around the Peanuts characters with names like the Kite Eating Tree and Woodstock's Whirlybirds. The area also consists of a "Kids Only" restaurant called Joe Cool Cafe (there is a small menu for adults).
In 2010,
Kings IslandKings Island is a amusement park located northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio. Opened in 1972 by Taft Broadcasting Company and now owned by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, Kings Island is the most visited seasonal amusement park in the U.S...
Amusement Park in Kings Mills, Ohio re-themed their award winning Nickelodeon Universe children's area to Peanuts and named it
Planet SnoopyPlanet Snoopy is a Peanuts themed area for children in Cedar Fair parks.* Kings Island in Mason, Ohio.* Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina* Canada's Wonderland in Canada.* California's Great America* Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia....
. The area still holds the award for "Best Kids' Area" in
Amusement TodayAmusement Today is a monthly periodical featuring articles, news, pictures, and reviews about all things relating to the amusement park industry, including parks, rides, and ride manufacturers. The magazine, which is based in Arlington, Texas, USA, was founded in 1997 by Gary Slade and Virgil...
's annual Golden Ticket Awards. Other Cedar Fair parks also received new
Planet SnoopyPlanet Snoopy is a Peanuts themed area for children in Cedar Fair parks.* Kings Island in Mason, Ohio.* Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina* Canada's Wonderland in Canada.* California's Great America* Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia....
children areas. They include: Carowinds, Canada's Wonderland, California's Great America and Kings Dominion.
In 2010, the children's game site
PoptropicaPoptropica is an online game, role-playing game made by Jeff Kinney targeted at children ages 6 to 15, where players can travel, play games, compete in head-to-head competition, and communicate safely with each other...
licensed the characters for its game quest Great Pumpkin Island, which will appear on the site beginning in October 2010. It is the site's 15th adventure (island).
In 2011, Cedar Fair announced it will be adding more of their
Planet SnoopyPlanet Snoopy is a Peanuts themed area for children in Cedar Fair parks.* Kings Island in Mason, Ohio.* Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina* Canada's Wonderland in Canada.* California's Great America* Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia....
children's areas to Valleyfair,
Dorney Park & Wildwater KingdomDorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom is an American amusement and water park located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The park features nine roller coasters, other adult and children's rides, and a waterpark, Wildwater Kingdom....
, and
Worlds of FunWorlds of Fun is an amusement park in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. The park opened in 1973 and was originally built by Lamar Hunt and Jack Steadman . In 1995 Hunt-Midwest sold Worlds of Fun to Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., which currently owns the park...
.
Books
The Peanuts characters have been featured in many books over the years. Some represented chronological reprints of the newspaper strip, while others were thematic collections such as Snoopy's Tennis Book, or collections of inspirational adages such as Happiness Is a Warm Puppy. Some single-story books were produced, such as Snoopy and the Red Baron. In addition, many of the animated television specials and feature films were adapted into book form.
Charles Schulz always resisted publication of early Peanuts strips, as they did not reflect the characters as he eventually developed them. However, in 1997 he began talks with
Fantagraphics BooksFantagraphics Books is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, magazines, graphic novels, and the adult-oriented Eros Comix imprint...
to have the entire run of the strip, almost 18,000 cartoons, published chronologically in book form. The first volume in the collection,
The Complete Peanuts: 1950 to 1952The Complete Peanuts is a series of books containing the entire run of Charles M. Schulz's long-running newspaper comic strip Peanuts. A new book in the series is released every six months, and each contains two years of strips . Slipcased sets of two volumes are also available...
, was published in April 2004. Archive quality masters of most strips are still owned by the syndicate. All strips, including Sundays, are in black and white. The following books publish much of this previously unreproduced material.
- Chip Kidd
Chip Kidd is an American author, editor, and graphic designer, best known for his book covers.- Early life :Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Kidd grew up in the Reading suburb of Shillington, strongly influenced by American popular culture...
, ed. (2001) Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz. New York: Pantheon BooksPantheon Books is an American imprint with editorial independence that is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.The current editor-in-chief at Pantheon Books is Dan Frank.-Overview:...
. ISBN 0-375-42097-5 (hardcover), ISBN 0-375-71463-4 (paperback).
- Derrick Bang with Victor Lee. (2002 reprinting) 50 Years of Happiness: A Tribute to Charles M. Schulz. Santa Rosa, California
Santa Rosa is the county seat of Sonoma County, California, United States. The 2010 census reported a population of 167,815. Santa Rosa is the largest city in California's Wine Country and fifth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area, after San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont and 26th...
: Charles M. Schulz Museum. ISBN 0-9685574-0-6
- Derrick Bang, ed. (2003) Lil' Beginnings. Santa Rosa, California: Charles M. Schulz Museum. The complete run of Li'l Folks
Li'l Folks, the first comic strip by Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, was a weekly panel that appeared mainly in Schulz's hometown paper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, from June 22, 1947 to January 22, 1950...
(1947–1950) ISBN 0-9745709-1-5
- Charles M. Schulz (1975) Peanuts Jubilee: My Life and Art with Charlie Brown and Others. New York: Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
. ISBN 0-345-25132-6 (paperback).
- Charles M. Schulz (2004) Who's on First, Charlie Brown?. New York: Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
. ISBN 0-345-46412-5.
- Robert L. Short (1965) The Gospel According to Peanuts. Westminster John Knox Press: ISBN 0-664-22222-6.
- Simona Bassano di Tufillo (2010) "Piccola storia dei Peanuts" (Donzelli editore, Roma). ISBN 9788860364777
The Complete Peanuts
The entire run of Peanuts, covering nearly 50 years of comic strips, is being reprinted in
FantagraphicsFantagraphics Books is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, magazines, graphic novels, and the adult-oriented Eros Comix imprint...
' The Complete Peanuts, a 25-volume set to be released over a 12-year period, two volumes per year, published every May and October. The final volume is expected to be published in May 2016. In addition, almost all Peanuts strips are now also legally available online at
GoComics.com (there are some strips missing from the digital archive). Peanuts strips were previously featured on Comics.com.
Celebrating Peanuts: 60 Years
Celebrating Peanuts: 60 Years, published by Andrews McMeel Publishing, is a special tribute to mark Peanuts 60th anniversary. This giant coffee table book is arranged by decade, to spotlight the highlights and development of this world favorite classic. The book features quotations from Charles Schulz that shed light on how his mind worked, how his life shaped the strip, and in turn, how Peanuts shaped his life; the introduction of specific characters and how they, and the strip, often reflected the social milieu of the times. The book has over 500 pages of Peanuts comic strips including full color Sunday strips (with a few in black and white) not available in
The Complete PeanutsThe Complete Peanuts is a series of books containing the entire run of Charles M. Schulz's long-running newspaper comic strip Peanuts. A new book in the series is released every six months, and each contains two years of strips . Slipcased sets of two volumes are also available...
series (which has black and white Sundays).
Other Anniversary Books
In addition to the Celebrating Peanuts: 60 Years book, several other books have been released to commemorate key anniversaries of Peanuts:
20th (1970) - Charlie Brown & Charlie Schulz — a tie-in with the TV documentary
Charlie Brown and Charles SchulzCharlie Brown and Charles Schulz is a documentary about the creator of the Peanuts series, Charles Schulz. The special first aired on the CBS television network on May 22, 1969. It features many different segments, including footage from the first Peanuts feature length film, A Boy Named Charlie...
that had aired May 22, 1969
25th (1975) - Peanuts Jubilee
30th (1980) - Happy Birthday, Charlie Brown
35th (1985) - You Don't Look 35, Charlie Brown
40th (1990) - Charles Schulz: 40 Years of Life & Art
45th (1995) - Around the World in 45 Years
50th (2000) - Peanuts: A Golden Celebration
50th (2000) - 50 Years of Happiness: A Tribute to Charles Schulz
External links