Peanuts - A cartoon favorite for all ages
Nearly everyone is familiar with the Peanuts gang—Charlie Brown, Linus, Snoopy, Lucy and all our favorites. They have been around for all of my life, and now my kids enjoy watching Peanuts holiday specials, and reading the comic strips and books.
The Peanuts began as a comic strip, created, written and drawn by Charles M. Schulz. Peanuts premiered in 1950, appearing in seven newspapers nationwide, but would soon reach its peak popularity between 1965 and 1980, where numerous animated specials and books debuted.
The original cast of characters was small featuring Charlie Brown, Shermy, Patty (not Peppermint Patty), and Charlie Brown’s dog, Snoopy. Soon, the focus was on Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown is the lovable boy who has a major inferiority complex who tries many things, but often fails. As years went by Shermy and Patty appeared less often, while new characters Schroeder, Lucy, and her brother Linus debuted. Snoopy began as a typical dog, but soon began to do humanistic things like walking on two legs, playing sports, and typing. In the 1960s, the Peanuts began to focus more on Snoopy, who would later take on many other personas, specifically a World War I flying ace.
Charles Schulz continued to introduce new characters into the strip, including the tomboy girl named Patricia Reichardt, better known as Peppermint Patty. Peppermint Patty is an assertive and athletic girl who shakes up Charlie Brown’s world by calling him “Chuck”, flirting with him, and giving him compliments he’s not so sure he deserves. She also brings in a new group of friends, including the strip’s first black character, Franklin, and Peppermint Patty’s studious sidekick Marcie, who always calls Peppermint Patty “Sir” and Charlie Brown “Charles”. Other characters include Charlie Brown’s younger sister Sally, who was fixated on Linus, Snoopy’s friend Woodstock the bird, and Pig Pen, the always dirty boy who could generate a cloud of dust anywhere, even in a snowstorm.
The Peanuts soon came to television, most notably in the perennial favorite (and my personal favorite), A Charlie Brown Christmas. A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired on CBS in 1965 and has been a Christmas staple and family favorite ever since. Other specials soon followed including, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown.
Peanuts are perhaps one of the most well known animated and comic strip characters ever. New strips ran until Charles Schulz’s death in 2000; however, older strips are now rerun in place of new ones.
For more information about Peanuts and Charles Schulz, do some searching online or visit your local library.