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Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Guess what, Mango, what's that? Well, it is officially Charlie

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Speaker 1: Brown Season. I know, I am so excited. You know,

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Speaker 1: right between Thanksgiving Christmas is when my family buckles down

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Speaker 1: and we watch all those specials, and it is wild.

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Speaker 1: That's been over fifty years since some of the big

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Speaker 1: ones actually came out. But what is weirdest to me

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Speaker 1: is that my kids are so into Charlie Brown, like

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Speaker 1: it's almost quaint. Ruby had a Peppermint Patty birthday party

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Speaker 1: when she turned three because she assumed everyone was into

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Speaker 1: Peppermint Patty two. Uh, and so we just hand out

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Speaker 1: headbands and did at a gym. I love this fact,

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Speaker 1: and the fact that probably more than half the kids

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Speaker 1: had no idea who Peppermint Patty was, at least going

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Speaker 1: into the party. I'm sure Ruby told him all about her.

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Speaker 1: But anyway, So, so why are they so into the specials?

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Speaker 1: You know, I have no idea of something just clicked

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Speaker 1: with them. But like Henry actually based his Thanksgiving speech

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Speaker 1: a few years ago completely on the one that, uh,

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Speaker 1: I think Charlie Brown gives and Thanksgiving special and and

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Speaker 1: we've definitely watched It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and

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Speaker 1: Charlie Brown Christmas a whole bunch of times. But you know,

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Speaker 1: they're even into some of the oddball ones like Race

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Speaker 1: for Your Life Charlie Brown, which is about the gang

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Speaker 1: going to camp. That's very good. I mean, you did

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Speaker 1: hit on some of the big ones there, but I

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Speaker 1: do think you forgot one of the most important of

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Speaker 1: them all. Really. Oh yeah, of course, It's Arbor Day

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Speaker 1: Charlie Brown. I do not think we watched that one.

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Speaker 1: Is that a real thing? We're just making that up? Oh,

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Speaker 1: it's absolutely a real thing. It was just one of

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Speaker 1: the forty five Charlie Brown specials out there, forty five.

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Speaker 1: I had no idea that that many. Oh man, I'm surprised,

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Speaker 1: Like you don't watch It's the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown

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Speaker 1: every single east. I don't know how could be Easter

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Speaker 1: without that special. And actually there's also It's Your First

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Speaker 1: Kiss Charlie Brown, which is another classic and also I

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Speaker 1: guess kind of weird. But we've got a lot of

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Speaker 1: catching up to do here, and with the holiday season

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Speaker 1: upon us, we thought now would be the perfect time

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Speaker 1: to look into the history of our favorite melancholy grade schoolers.

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Speaker 1: So we'll talk about the origin of the comics trip,

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Speaker 1: including the real life inspiration behind some of the characters,

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Speaker 1: the story of how the beloved Christmas Special came to be,

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Speaker 1: and how it was very nearly canceled in production. Now,

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Speaker 1: of course, we'll also talk a little bit about the

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Speaker 1: reason why creator Charles Schultz hated the name Peanuts and

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Speaker 1: why some fans can't stand Snoopy. There's a lot to cover,

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Speaker 1: so let's dive in. Hey there, podcast listeners, welcome the

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Speaker 1: part time genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm

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Speaker 1: joined by my good friend man guest Ticketer and on

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Speaker 1: the other side of the soundproof glass just shuffling a

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Speaker 1: stack of buttered toast, kind of like it's a deck

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Speaker 1: of cars. It's our friends and producer Tristan McNeil. And

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Speaker 1: I do have to admit when Tristan said he wanted

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Speaker 1: to recreate the famous meal from the Peanuts Thanksgiving Special,

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Speaker 1: I really never dreamed it would be this theatrical. But

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Speaker 1: it's really quite a show. Don't you think you didn't

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Speaker 1: think Tristan would be theatrical? I don't know. I don't know,

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Speaker 1: it's just surprised me. Yeah, I mean, I have no

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Speaker 1: idea how he's doing this. He's he's wearing those slices

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Speaker 1: like he's a blackjack dealer or something. But I like

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Speaker 1: that he's getting the Thanksgiving Special a little love. I

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Speaker 1: feel like it's always the one that gets overshadowed by both,

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Speaker 1: like the Hallyween Special and the Christmas Special. But you know,

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Speaker 1: we've had a saft spot for Charlie Brown Thanksgiving at

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Speaker 1: my house, especially where um Snoopy puts together that last

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Speaker 1: minute feast for Charlie Brown and he's got all that

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Speaker 1: popcorn and pretzels. But when the kids are gone, Snoopy

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Speaker 1: and Woodstock are just back of their doghouse and they've

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Speaker 1: got a lavish spread for themselves with like punkin pie,

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Speaker 1: roasted vegetable as even this giant cooked turkey, and they're

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Speaker 1: basically living it off while the kids were just eating

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Speaker 1: you know, snack food. I mean, it's kind of a

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Speaker 1: jerk move, but when you think about it, it's it's

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Speaker 1: that mix of whimsy and low key meanness that are

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Speaker 1: sort of par for the course for peanuts that actually,

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Speaker 1: for instance, they never strike you as just a little

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Speaker 1: bit weird that Woodstock would help Snoopy carve and eat

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Speaker 1: the turkey. I mean, Woodstock is a bird if you

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Speaker 1: haven't noticed. You know what's funny about it is that

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Speaker 1: I never actually gave it much thought. But it turns

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Speaker 1: out you're not alone in this. Lee Mendelssohn, who was

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Speaker 1: the executive producer on the Peanuts Specials, he actually objected

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Speaker 1: to that scene because he was so weird it out

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Speaker 1: by it, But because the idea had comes straight from

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Speaker 1: Charles Schultz, the Peanuts creator, he was just overruled and

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Speaker 1: the scene aired as planned. But uh, you know what

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Speaker 1: was funny is that Mendelssohn did eventually get his way.

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Speaker 1: So all these years later, CBS asked Mendelsson to cut

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Speaker 1: three minutes from the specials so they could fit in,

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Speaker 1: you know, more commercials, and Mendelssohn sees the chance and

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Speaker 1: he removed that scene of Woodstock eating her geese that

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Speaker 1: you can only see him eating pie instead. But then

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Speaker 1: a few years later, the rights of the special move

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Speaker 1: to ABC and the network decided to air it on cut,

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Speaker 1: meaning Woodstock is once again accountable. It feels a little

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Speaker 1: bit odd to be kicking off our Peanuts show with

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Speaker 1: a fact about bird cannibalism, but it also kind of

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Speaker 1: feels appropriate, you know, given how dark Charlie Brown and

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Speaker 1: his chums could often be. Actually, in fact, have you

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Speaker 1: ever seen the very first Peanuts trip? I have, and

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Speaker 1: I don't remember it. Yeah, so it shows a boy

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Speaker 1: and a girl just sitting on the sidewalk and this boy,

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Speaker 1: Schemy is his name. He says, well, here comes good

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Speaker 1: old Charlie Brown. Good old Charlie Brown. Yes, sir, good

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Speaker 1: old Charlie Brown. And then when Charlie Brown is out

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Speaker 1: of sight, Cheremi adds, how I hate him, you know,

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Speaker 1: and that's the punch line. So yeah, there's there's definitely

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Speaker 1: some darkness to the world of Peanuts, no matter how

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Speaker 1: cute or simplistic the characters might look. But there's also

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Speaker 1: incredible warmth and humor there as well, and it feels,

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Speaker 1: I guess that unique mix that really made Peanuts this

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Speaker 1: enduring part of pop culture, not only in the US

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Speaker 1: but all around the world. So we've definitely got a

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Speaker 1: lot to go through today. But where do you think

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Speaker 1: you want to start? Why don't we spend a few

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Speaker 1: minutes on the man behind the Peanuts himself Charles M. Schultz.

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Speaker 1: So this name sounds familiar enough because we've all seen

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Speaker 1: his name a million times. It's signed at the bottom

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Speaker 1: of each and every Peanuts strip, all seventeen thousand eight

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Speaker 1: of them. But despite the constant exposure, lots of people

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Speaker 1: still misname him as Shultz with the T. It's actually

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Speaker 1: s C h U l z. And according to Medium,

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Speaker 1: the misspelling is so common that's actually appeared wrong in

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Speaker 1: more than thirty thousand articles to date, as well as

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Speaker 1: the original opening to the Peanuts Christmas Special. I guess

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Speaker 1: someone caught it at the very last minute, but there

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Speaker 1: was an error that was going to be aired in

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Speaker 1: the premier Wow. You know, I guess I've actually never

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Speaker 1: thought about this, and I'm sure that I'm guilty of

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Speaker 1: making the same mistake. But what kind of name is Schultz? Like?

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Speaker 1: Is it German? Yeah? That Carl Schultz immigrated from Germany

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Speaker 1: to Minnesota, which is where he met charless mom Dina,

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Speaker 1: and Charles was this only child. He was born in

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Speaker 1: ninety two. He grew up in St. Paul. But what's

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Speaker 1: interesting is that St. Paul is one of the few

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Speaker 1: places in the country that has both super hot summers

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Speaker 1: and freezing cold winters, and it's the same for the

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Speaker 1: Peanuts kids, right, Like, there's so many strips that are

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Speaker 1: centered on these summer activities like playing baseball, flying kites,

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Speaker 1: selling lemonade on hot days. But then you have a

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Speaker 1: ton of strips where there's like a foot of snow

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Speaker 1: on the ground and everyone's playing ice hockey. So then

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Speaker 1: it is Peanuts actually set in St. Paul. I mean,

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Speaker 1: there's some debate about that. Some fans think the strip

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Speaker 1: is set near Santa Rosa, California, which is where Schultz

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Speaker 1: lived once the Peanuts became a hit. But you know,

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Speaker 1: that doesn't make much sense when you look at all

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Speaker 1: all the strips set in the winter. But what little

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Speaker 1: evidence there is in the strips does kind of point

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Speaker 1: to either St. Paul or Minneapolis as their hometown. For instance,

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Speaker 1: there's a strip in nineteen fifty seven that implied that

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Speaker 1: the character has lived in Hennepin County, which is in Minnesota,

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Speaker 1: And two years before that there was one where Schroeder

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Speaker 1: confesses he always thought his hero Beethoven was a native

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Speaker 1: in Minnesota, which you know is presumably just like him.

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Speaker 1: All right, Well, although that makes sense and you'd actually

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Speaker 1: expect the cartoonists to set the strip about childhood in

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Speaker 1: their hometown. That wouldn't be that surprising, and it'll be

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Speaker 1: pretty on theme for Schultz, because when you look at

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Speaker 1: the comics, so many elements of the Peanuts strip turn

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Speaker 1: out to be somewhat biographical. I mean, just listen to

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Speaker 1: this breakdown. Shuremy was a childhood friend. Schroeder was a

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Speaker 1: caddy at the golf course Schultz worked at as a teenager.

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Speaker 1: Lionus and Lucy van Pelt got their last name from

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Speaker 1: a man's Schultz served in the army with. Meanwhile, Lucy's

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Speaker 1: character was inspired by Schultz's first wife and his mother.

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Speaker 1: I guess there's a lot to unpack there, but that

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Speaker 1: does seem to be the case. Actually, I was reading

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Speaker 1: this tribute to Charles Schultz from Bill Waterson, who is

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Speaker 1: my hero and uh who did the comnt in Hobbs strips,

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Speaker 1: and he thought of pe Nuts as the gold standard

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Speaker 1: of comic strips, and this is his take on Lucy quote.

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Speaker 1: I was struck less by the fact that Schultz drew

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Speaker 1: on his troubled marriage for material than by the sympathy

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Speaker 1: that he shows for his tormentor and by his ability

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Speaker 1: to poke fun at himself, which is actually pretty interesting,

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Speaker 1: like like, you know, Lucy is annoying and mean spirited,

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Speaker 1: but you don't ever really hate her for it. Now,

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Speaker 1: that's true. And you know he was looking for inspiration everywhere.

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Speaker 1: Even line is his famous blue blanket came straight from

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Speaker 1: Schultz's life. When his daughter was younger, she was obsessed

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Speaker 1: with her own security blanket. Yeah. I mean, of course

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Speaker 1: you're gonna be stealing from life when you've got like

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Speaker 1: a daily deadline and working at that sort of volume.

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Speaker 1: But I think the one character I always think about

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Speaker 1: is the little red haired girl who goes unnamed, And uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, that's the one that Charlie Brown always had

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Speaker 1: that huge crush on. She was apparently based on Schultz's

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Speaker 1: girlfriend in the late forties, this redhead named Donna Mae Johnson,

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Speaker 1: and after the war, the two of them worked together

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Speaker 1: at this correspondent school in Minneapolis, and after a few

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Speaker 1: years of dating, Sills finally worked at the nerve of

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Speaker 1: to propose to her, but then Dona May turned him

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Speaker 1: down and married a different guy a few months later,

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Speaker 1: and it was obviously this huge blow to his Pride,

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Speaker 1: But in the end, the ordeal actually inspired one of

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Speaker 1: Schultz's most famous characters, and supposedly he and Donna May

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Speaker 1: remained friends for years later. I mean, there are some

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Speaker 1: definite shades of Charlie Brown to that story, and you

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Speaker 1: can see that throughout his work. Yeah, definitely, And it

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Speaker 1: makes sense because both Charlie Brown and Snoopy they're often

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Speaker 1: considered stand ins for Schultz himself. In fact, Charles's son,

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Speaker 1: Craig Schultz once said about him, each of the characters

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Speaker 1: represents a piece of our dad. Charlie Brown was his

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Speaker 1: real self and Snoopy was what he wanted to be,

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Speaker 1: which is kind of funny to think about, but it

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Speaker 1: makes sense, and it said both characters also had real

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Speaker 1: world counterparts too. Charlie Brown was actually the name of

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Speaker 1: a friend that Charles worked with prior to creating Peanuts,

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Speaker 1: and Snoopy was based on charles His own childhood dog,

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Speaker 1: This English Pointer, not a beagle who was named Spike

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Speaker 1: and whose name would later be used for one of

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Speaker 1: Snoopy's brothers. So if Schultz had a dog named Spike,

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Speaker 1: then where's the name Snoopy come from? Well, apparently Charles

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Speaker 1: had originally planned to call his dog Sniffy, but then

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Speaker 1: he found out that another comic featured a dog with

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Speaker 1: the same name, so he had to change it to

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Speaker 1: something else. But luckily he had this backup. You know,

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Speaker 1: when he was a kid, his mother suggested if they

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Speaker 1: ever got another dog, they should name him Snoopy, and

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Speaker 1: so that's where the name came from. Anyway, back back

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Speaker 1: to the real world Snoopy for a second. It's pretty

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Speaker 1: striking how devoted to his dog Charles was, just like

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Speaker 1: Charlie Brown would later be with Snoopy. So how how

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Speaker 1: do you mean? Well, the very first drawing that Charles

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Speaker 1: ever published was of his dog Spike. So Charles was

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Speaker 1: just fifteen years old at the time when he submitted

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Speaker 1: this drawing and actually a fact along with it to

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Speaker 1: Ripley's Believe it or Not, and it got published nationally.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's pretty cool. But what was so unbolouivable

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Speaker 1: about Spike that got him published in Ripley's. Well, the

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Speaker 1: drawings caption said that Spike was quote a hunting dog

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Speaker 1: that eats pin tax and razor blades, so he didn't

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Speaker 1: exactly have Snoopy's refined palette, but it does sound like

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Speaker 1: Spike shared his taste for adventure. There was this article

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Speaker 1: and mental Flaws about this that was talking about, you know,

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Speaker 1: the dog would make a break for freedom anytime the

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Speaker 1: door was open and only come back because he loved

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Speaker 1: going on car ride. So whenever Spike got loose, Charles

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Speaker 1: would run to his dad's car and basically just honked

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Speaker 1: the horn as a way to lure the dog back.

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Speaker 1: I mean, we we actually had a dog like that

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Speaker 1: growing up. She'd run off for the only way to

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Speaker 1: get her back was to unwrap a slice of American exactly.

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Speaker 1: That's what always works. Yeah, I mean, it's so weird that,

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Speaker 1: like that plastic peel sound like when it was coming

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Speaker 1: off the craft slices. That's what would make her race

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Speaker 1: back to the house. But you know, having a dog

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Speaker 1: you keep losing sounds very Charlie Brown to me as well.

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Speaker 1: And and uh, speaking of which, some of my favorite

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Speaker 1: Peanuts facts are the ones that overlap between Charlie Brown's

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Speaker 1: childhood and Charles Schultze's. Like there's a surface level stuff,

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Speaker 1: but both of them had fathers who were barbers. But

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Speaker 1: but then they're also those like wonderfully tragic tidbits from

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Speaker 1: Schultza's life. That feels so Charlie Brown. Like his dad

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Speaker 1: used to give him haircuts, but when customers came in,

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Speaker 1: he'd have to hop out of the chair, so you

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Speaker 1: just have to grump around and wander about with half

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Speaker 1: a haircut until his dad that finished it up, which

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Speaker 1: does sound so very Charlie Brown. It's pretty great, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I know. And there was actually one time when Shultston

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Speaker 1: line at a movie theater because they were handing out

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Speaker 1: candy bars to the first kids to buy tickets that day,

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Speaker 1: and of course Schultz was the hundred first kid in line,

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Speaker 1: you know. And when when he was in high school,

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Speaker 1: Schultz's teacher convince him to draw some comics for his

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Speaker 1: senior year book. And so Schultz, of course, being super

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Speaker 1: timid and socially awkward, he's a little nervous, but he

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Speaker 1: desperately wants to be a cartoonist, so he overcomes a

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Speaker 1: shyness he submits artwork, and then when the yearbook comes out,

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Speaker 1: of course everyone had forgotten to include his work, Like

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Speaker 1: not a single one of his cartoons got used. That's

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Speaker 1: a tough break. So, you know, it is interesting to

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Speaker 1: see that that not every aspect of Peanuts is drawn

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Speaker 1: from Schultza's own experience. You know, if you take the

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Speaker 1: character Franklin, for instance, he was introduced as the comic

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Speaker 1: strips first black character. And now this was in July

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Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty eight, and this was just a few

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Speaker 1: months after the assassination of M. L. K Jr. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's amazing that that's fifty years ago this year. And

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Speaker 1: and uh and this was based on a reader's suggestion, right, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's right. The reader was a mother of three named

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Speaker 1: Harriett Glickman, and she wrote to Schultz just a few

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Speaker 1: days after the death of Martin Luther King. And now,

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Speaker 1: in that note, the Glickman noted the power that mass

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Speaker 1: media has to shape what she called the unconscious attitudes

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Speaker 1: of our kids. So she has Schultz to add one

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Speaker 1: or more black characters to his strips. And this was

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Speaker 1: so that children could see that respect and friendship was

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Speaker 1: possible between people of all races. And Schultz was pretty

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Speaker 1: moved by the idea, but he didn't add the character immediately.

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Speaker 1: He was actually a little bit nervous that the move

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Speaker 1: might seem to be patronizing to black readers. But as

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Speaker 1: Glickman continued, to correspond with him. Over the course of

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Speaker 1: several months, you know, he decided to change his mind

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Speaker 1: on this, and on July one he wrote to say

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Speaker 1: that Glickman should watch for the new character to appear

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Speaker 1: by the end of the month, which of course he did.

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Speaker 1: And so does show suffer any blowback from from this

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Speaker 1: when when when the stroke comes out, Well, you know,

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Speaker 1: you had some black readers that did argue that Franklin

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Speaker 1: was a bland character and therefore somewhat patronizing, but in

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Speaker 1: general readers appreciated the added representation as well as you

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Speaker 1: know how kind and worry free Franklin was compared with

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Speaker 1: other Peanuts kids. But it still it was undoubtedly a

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Speaker 1: tense time for America for an artist to debut what

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Speaker 1: was essentially the first minority character in a mainstream comic strip.

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Speaker 1: But other than this brief exchange where Franklin mentions that

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Speaker 1: his father was a soldier in Vietnam, there's really nothing

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Speaker 1: overtly political about his inclusion. Like Charlie Brown loses his

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Speaker 1: beach ball, only to have it found and returned to

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Speaker 1: him by a boy named Franklin, and then the boys

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Speaker 1: decided to build a sandcastle together, which is, of course

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Speaker 1: very sweet. Yeah, but they're definitely only a bit of

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Speaker 1: backlash from this. You had several newspaper editors from Southern

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Speaker 1: states that wrote to Schultz demanding that he stopped using

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Speaker 1: the character, or at the very least that he always

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Speaker 1: showing Franklin in school with the other white characters, which

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Speaker 1: is just mind boggling to think about. But his response

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Speaker 1: was pretty straightforward. So here's what he told an interviewer

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Speaker 1: years later about the incident. I never paid any attention

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Speaker 1: to those things. And I remember telling United Features President

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Speaker 1: Larry Rutman at the time about Franklin. He wanted me

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Speaker 1: to change it, and we talked about it for a

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Speaker 1: long while on the phone, and I finally sighed and

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Speaker 1: I said, well, Larry, let's put it this way. Either

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Speaker 1: you print it just the way I draw it, or

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Speaker 1: I quit. How's that. So that's the way it ended.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that is so awesome and it's nice to

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Speaker 1: hear that. Like, despite whatever reservations he might have had

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Speaker 1: at the beginning, Schultz ultimately went to bat for Franklin

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Speaker 1: in this really big way. Yeah, And you know, I

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Speaker 1: know we wanted to talk about an earlier occasion when

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Speaker 1: Schultz butted heads with upper management, and this time about

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Speaker 1: what the strip should be. All But before we get

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Speaker 1: into that, let's take a quick break. You're listening to

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Speaker 1: Part Time Genius and we're talking about cartoonists Charles Schultz

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Speaker 1: and his beloved Peanuts comic strips. So, you know, to

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Speaker 1: be clear, there was one thing that she definitely did

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Speaker 1: not love about his own strip, and that was the title.

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Speaker 1: So back in when he first pitched the strip to

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Speaker 1: be carried by the United Feature Syndicate, Schultz insisted the

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Speaker 1: title should be Little Folks, which maybe wasn't the most

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Speaker 1: creative title, but it does seem, i don't know, somewhat

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Speaker 1: fitting if you think about how so many of his

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Speaker 1: characters they read like these little kids with grown up

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Speaker 1: type worries, and like they're plagued by this level of

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Speaker 1: anxiety and almost neurosis that's typically reserved, you know, for adults. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but whether it's fitting or not, the executives had this

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Speaker 1: different problem with it. So there was already a strip

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Speaker 1: called Little Folks, except with the word little all spelled

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Speaker 1: out instead of little like, and then there was also

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Speaker 1: a little abner the comic strip. So they're worried that

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Speaker 1: readers might confuse the titles, or worse, that the creators

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Speaker 1: of the rival strips might sue them for copyright infringement.

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Speaker 1: So instead, the production manager at the syndicate decided to

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Speaker 1: call the strip Peanuts. And I guess this was a

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Speaker 1: reference to the Howdy Duty show that was pretty popular

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Speaker 1: at the time. When kids came to tapings, they sat

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Speaker 1: in the Peanut Gallery. So the production manager thought, you know,

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Speaker 1: like he'd riff off that idea and just called the

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Speaker 1: small Kids Peanuts. I do like that their solution to

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Speaker 1: not being sued was to rip off a TV show instead,

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Speaker 1: but either, I know, I mean, the other theory is

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Speaker 1: that they just thought Little Folks was a weak title,

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Speaker 1: but they didn't want to upset shuts Um, not that

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Speaker 1: he wasn't upset anyway. In the interview, he was still

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Speaker 1: angry about the Peanuts title, and he said, quote, it's

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Speaker 1: totally ridiculous, has no meaning, is simply confusing, and has

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Speaker 1: no dignity. And I think my humor has dignity, which

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Speaker 1: is sad you never got to change the name. But

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Speaker 1: you know, of course, once the strip took off, he

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Speaker 1: was kind of stuck with the title. And uh, what's

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Speaker 1: funny to me is that Schultz actually avoided using the

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Speaker 1: title himself, Like he claimed that whenever someone asked him

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Speaker 1: what he did for a living, you just tell them

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Speaker 1: I draw that comic strip with Snoopy in it, Charlie

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Speaker 1: Brown and his daughter. Well, whatever you call it, there's

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Speaker 1: no question that Schultz's comic was a runaway hit once

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Speaker 1: the strip gained a little bit of steam, So it

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Speaker 1: was published in just seven US newspapers when it debuted

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Speaker 1: back in October of nineteen fifty. Well, by the end

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Speaker 1: of its fifty year run and two thousand, the comic

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Speaker 1: was being translated in over twenty different languages, published in

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Speaker 1: seventy five different countries, and had grown its global readership

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Speaker 1: to a staggering three hundred and fifty five million people.

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Speaker 1: So in total, over fifteen thousand daily strips and Sunday

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Speaker 1: strips were produced, all written, inked, and lettered by Charles

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Speaker 1: Schultz himself. I mean, it was this unprecedented run, and

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Speaker 1: actually so unprecedented that the media scholar Robert Thompson once

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Speaker 1: called the fifty year story of Charlie Brown and his

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Speaker 1: Pals arguably the longest told story by a single artist

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Speaker 1: in human history. I mean, that's really incredible to think about.

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Speaker 1: So what do you think made it click with people

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Speaker 1: for such a long time. Well, I think a big

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Speaker 1: part of it goes back to something that we mentioned

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Speaker 1: at the top of the show, which is the way

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Speaker 1: this trip really found this middle ground in terms of tone.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it was funny and sometimes sweet, but there

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Speaker 1: was always kind of this prickly, world weary feeling underlying

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Speaker 1: the humor there. And you know, as it turns out,

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Speaker 1: this was all by design. So Schultz believed that happiness

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Speaker 1: and humor didn't really mix, which is of course why

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Speaker 1: Charlie Brown never does get to kick that football and

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Speaker 1: he shouts. Also dealt with bounts of depression in his

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Speaker 1: own life, and one way he found relief was by

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Speaker 1: channeling his anxieties directly into his art, which makes a

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Speaker 1: lot of sense, And the result is a strip with

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Speaker 1: a somewhat despairing world view and and one where as

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Speaker 1: Schultz once explained, here's what he said about He said,

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Speaker 1: all the loves are unrequited, all the baseball games are lost,

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Speaker 1: all the test scores are d minuses, the Great Pumpkin

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Speaker 1: never comes, and the football is always pulled away, like

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Speaker 1: when he described like that, hopefully it really does. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's funny that Shills like completely stuck to that formula

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Speaker 1: for the strip's entire run. So I guess things did

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Speaker 1: get a little cheerier in the mid to late sixties

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Speaker 1: once the TV specials started, like and and uh, all

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Speaker 1: that merchandizing really kicked into high gear. I've actually heard

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Speaker 1: that most fans used the rise of Snoopy and pop

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Speaker 1: culture is kind of a turning point in the strips run.

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Speaker 1: And uh, you know, there's this first decade or so

425
00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:47,439
Speaker 1: where Snoopy is more or less this normal dog in

426
00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:49,879
Speaker 1: the strip. He he walks on four legs, He he

427
00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:53,040
Speaker 1: doesn't communicate through thought balloons, and he doesn't even have

428
00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:55,560
Speaker 1: a clear owner in the strips like much less this

429
00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:58,840
Speaker 1: tricked out doghouse. And weirdly, this is also the period

430
00:21:58,840 --> 00:22:01,119
Speaker 1: where the human characters were or what the creator of

431
00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:04,200
Speaker 1: Little Abner called good, mean little bastards eager to hurt

432
00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:08,439
Speaker 1: one another. But as the sixties donned, Schultz began to

433
00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:11,640
Speaker 1: capitalize on his creation with licensing deals and product hie ins,

434
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:15,560
Speaker 1: which caused that public perception of Peanuts to shift and

435
00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:18,719
Speaker 1: suddenly the characters were seen as much sweeter and kinder

436
00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:21,560
Speaker 1: than the strips had ever really been. And while the

437
00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:24,320
Speaker 1: newer strips never really lost their edge completely and Charlie

438
00:22:24,359 --> 00:22:27,920
Speaker 1: Brown remained the world's you know, punching bag, Snoopy did

439
00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:30,120
Speaker 1: begin to take on more and more of the limelight,

440
00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:33,960
Speaker 1: and as this happened, the character became less and less

441
00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:37,040
Speaker 1: like a real dog. By the late sixties, Snoopy was

442
00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:39,840
Speaker 1: walking on two legs, he was composing love letters with

443
00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:42,159
Speaker 1: a typewriter in his doghouse. He was also spending a

444
00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:44,960
Speaker 1: lot less time around the human characters, and instead he

445
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:47,919
Speaker 1: was either hanging out with his new animal friends like Woodstock,

446
00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:50,439
Speaker 1: or he was off by himself, sort of waging these

447
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:54,199
Speaker 1: imaginary wars against the villainous Red Baron. But you know,

448
00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:57,520
Speaker 1: in other words, things took a much zanier turn, and

449
00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:00,160
Speaker 1: lots of Peanuts fans kind of think of that as

450
00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:02,600
Speaker 1: when the strip kind of jumped the shark. I don't know.

451
00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:05,000
Speaker 1: Some people must have liked these changes, though, right because

452
00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:08,040
Speaker 1: Snoopy never became a normal dog again, So it feels

453
00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:10,720
Speaker 1: like something must have been working. Yeah, I mean so,

454
00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:12,600
Speaker 1: some readers thought the new Snoopy was a breath of

455
00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:15,320
Speaker 1: fresh air, especially in contrast to how bleak the kids

456
00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:17,760
Speaker 1: could be sometimes. And and that really does make sense

457
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:19,720
Speaker 1: when you think about how the other character has never

458
00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:23,640
Speaker 1: really react to Snoopy's changes. Um, you know, he suddenly

459
00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:26,440
Speaker 1: has this whole inner world that's generally much more positive

460
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,080
Speaker 1: and upbeat than that of the kids, But they still

461
00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:31,160
Speaker 1: kind of just treat him like a regular dog. Which

462
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:33,760
Speaker 1: is interesting because I wonder what such a sharp turn

463
00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:36,840
Speaker 1: and characterization says about what was going on, you know,

464
00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:39,000
Speaker 1: for Schultz at the time, like in his own life.

465
00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:42,000
Speaker 1: And you know, I've got this new freewheeling Snoopy who

466
00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:45,760
Speaker 1: was supposedly the person or the character. I guess that

467
00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:48,480
Speaker 1: Schultz always wanted to be, you know, somebody who was

468
00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:51,840
Speaker 1: adventurous and care free instead of being bogged down by

469
00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:54,960
Speaker 1: doubt and worry all the time. And so, you know,

470
00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:57,960
Speaker 1: you think about this time in his life and maybe

471
00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:00,560
Speaker 1: by the sixties and seventies, you know, all his fame

472
00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:04,159
Speaker 1: and fortune that Schultz finally made made him feel like

473
00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:06,720
Speaker 1: that kind of person. I guess if he was happier

474
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:09,080
Speaker 1: in his personal life, it would make sense that he

475
00:24:09,160 --> 00:24:11,600
Speaker 1: might want to revel in that feeling and focus more

476
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:14,720
Speaker 1: on Snoopy. Yeah, I think there's probably some truth to that.

477
00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:18,400
Speaker 1: But from many fans perspectives, the new Snoopy and by extension,

478
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:21,320
Speaker 1: the new Schultz were nothing to celebrate. They saw the slicker,

479
00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:25,240
Speaker 1: flashy air Snoopy as kind of like hard proof that Schultz,

480
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:28,320
Speaker 1: who is now this millionaire cartoonist, had kind of lost

481
00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:30,960
Speaker 1: touch with those insecurities that it made Charlie Brown so

482
00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:33,960
Speaker 1: relatable in the first place. So The Atlantic actually did

483
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:35,800
Speaker 1: an article on this, and they subbed up the feeling

484
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:40,080
Speaker 1: this way quote. There was something fundamentally rotten about the

485
00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:42,840
Speaker 1: new Snoopy, whose charm was based on his total lack

486
00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:46,080
Speaker 1: of concern about what others thought of him. His confidence,

487
00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:48,639
Speaker 1: his breezy sense that the world may be falling apart,

488
00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:51,720
Speaker 1: but one can still dance on was worse than irritating.

489
00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:55,679
Speaker 1: It was morally bankrupt. Two legged Snoopy with his airs

490
00:24:55,680 --> 00:25:00,760
Speaker 1: and fantasies, peerless Snoopy, rich Snoopy, popular Snoopy, world famous, Snoopy,

491
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:05,919
Speaker 1: contented Snoopy that spoiled everything good Lord, I mean, like

492
00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:09,359
Speaker 1: so overthought on the one hand, but I mean, I

493
00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:11,480
Speaker 1: guess I get what they're saying, but it still feels

494
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,960
Speaker 1: pretty harsh to pin all of that on Snoopy. And

495
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:17,720
Speaker 1: when you think about the strips where Snoopy's imagining all

496
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:21,000
Speaker 1: of these wild and kind of high flying adventures, they

497
00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:24,080
Speaker 1: usually end with a reality bursting his bubble in some way,

498
00:25:24,119 --> 00:25:26,560
Speaker 1: and like all of a sudden, Snoopy feels cold, so

499
00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:28,680
Speaker 1: we're back on top of his doghouse and sharing the

500
00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:31,560
Speaker 1: desert or wherever. But I don't know, things like that

501
00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:34,160
Speaker 1: always made me feel like Snoopy's flights of fancy were

502
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:36,680
Speaker 1: there were really just another coping mechanism for how tough

503
00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:39,560
Speaker 1: life can be. Where that was like Linus's blanket or

504
00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:42,480
Speaker 1: Lucy's hot temper. But I don't know, that just seems

505
00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:45,000
Speaker 1: like such a harsh reaction. And you think about this,

506
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:47,119
Speaker 1: Snoopy would talk a good game, but at the end

507
00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:50,720
Speaker 1: of the day, he's just a pop So I don't know,

508
00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:55,040
Speaker 1: to me, there's something endearing about that. Yeah, I mean,

509
00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:57,960
Speaker 1: I agree with that, and I think Schultz would as well.

510
00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:01,720
Speaker 1: Was being interviewed on the Tonight Show just as he

511
00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:05,840
Speaker 1: was announcing his retirement, and he observed that quote, Snoopy

512
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:08,280
Speaker 1: likes to think that he's this independent dog who does

513
00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:10,560
Speaker 1: all these things and leads his own life, but he

514
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:12,800
Speaker 1: always makes sure that he never gets too far from

515
00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:16,600
Speaker 1: the suffer dish. All right, Well, now that we've talked

516
00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:19,199
Speaker 1: a little more about the unique tone and mood of

517
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:21,240
Speaker 1: the Peanut strips, what do you say we take a

518
00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:24,800
Speaker 1: look at how that translated into all those TV specials

519
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:42,960
Speaker 1: and definitely, but first let's take a quick break. Okay, Mango,

520
00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:46,240
Speaker 1: So we established earlier that you didn't exactly do your

521
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:50,520
Speaker 1: homework by watching ninety six. Is It's Arbor Day Charlie Brown?

522
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:52,639
Speaker 1: So I guess we'll have to talk about that in

523
00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:55,720
Speaker 1: a later episode, maybe a dedicated episode just to that.

524
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:59,320
Speaker 1: But it's actually not the only unusual title. I mean,

525
00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:02,360
Speaker 1: there's some other chestnuts in the mix, like someday you'll

526
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:05,159
Speaker 1: find her Charlie Brown, which sounds a little bleak, and

527
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:10,560
Speaker 1: my personal favorite, why Charlie Brown? Why? Why? Indeed? That's

528
00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:14,800
Speaker 1: that's a crazy title. Well, I think because money, Mango.

529
00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:17,679
Speaker 1: I mean, the first Peanuts special was such a giant

530
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:21,919
Speaker 1: ratings hit for CBS that the network immediately commissioned four

531
00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 1: more specials and obviously many more to follow that, which

532
00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:28,440
Speaker 1: is fair enough, but I think for everyone's sake, whould

533
00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:32,040
Speaker 1: probably just stick to a special that people have actually seen. So,

534
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:33,720
Speaker 1: but why don't we talk a little bit about the

535
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,400
Speaker 1: one that people will be watching for the million time

536
00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:39,840
Speaker 1: in the next few weeks, which is Charlie Brown Christmas.

537
00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:41,480
Speaker 1: That makes sense. So what do you want to say

538
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:44,040
Speaker 1: first about it? Well, how about the fact that nobody

539
00:27:44,040 --> 00:27:46,480
Speaker 1: involved in the special thought it was actually going to work.

540
00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:50,480
Speaker 1: And it's actually hard to imagine this now, but you know, um,

541
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:52,360
Speaker 1: there were a lot of factors working against it while

542
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:54,760
Speaker 1: it was in production, and a lot of those actually

543
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:59,199
Speaker 1: stemmed from controversial choices that Schultz himself insisted on, like

544
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:02,760
Speaker 1: what so for starters, Schultz insisted that the Peanuts kids

545
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 1: be voiced by real children, and this meant the crew

546
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:08,280
Speaker 1: would be working with mostly non professionals, many of whom

547
00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 1: were too young to memorize their lines or even to

548
00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:13,560
Speaker 1: read in some cases, so most of the child actors

549
00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:15,280
Speaker 1: had to have their lines fed to them a few

550
00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 1: words at a time. It was all done by that

551
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:21,640
Speaker 1: long suffering director and the voice of Snoopy, Bill Melendez.

552
00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:24,600
Speaker 1: I mean, just hearing that it does make me realize

553
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:28,320
Speaker 1: that in the specials the voices do sound a little choppy.

554
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:32,480
Speaker 1: Like the way kids talk isn't exactly seamless. Yeah, I mean,

555
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:34,399
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of rhythm to the senses, and

556
00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 1: if you listen close enough, you can actually hear the

557
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 1: scenes between the words where like different parts of the

558
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:42,680
Speaker 1: line we're stitched together and post But these untrained actors

559
00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:44,800
Speaker 1: were just the first of many notes that ended up

560
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:47,880
Speaker 1: jeopardizing the project, and these were all coming from Schultz.

561
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:50,560
Speaker 1: So another shake up came when Schultz refused to let

562
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:53,720
Speaker 1: the network use the laugh track to I guess kind

563
00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:56,479
Speaker 1: of cue the viewers on the jokes, which is so

564
00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 1: strange because it is hard to imagine it now with

565
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:02,440
Speaker 1: a laugh track. Yeah, but I guess laugh tracks were

566
00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 1: common practice at the time, even in cartoons like uh,

567
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:08,080
Speaker 1: you know, The Flintstones obviously relied on rue and I

568
00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:11,560
Speaker 1: think the Jetsons too. But but when Lee Mendelssohn mentioned

569
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:13,959
Speaker 1: the idea to Schultz, the the artist simply got up

570
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:16,560
Speaker 1: and left the room, And then a few minutes later

571
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:18,880
Speaker 1: Shultz came back and carried on the conversation as if

572
00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:23,000
Speaker 1: nothing had happened, which does sound a little bit like

573
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 1: a George Costanza tactic. You know, it's pretty funny, Yeah, totally,

574
00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:29,200
Speaker 1: and I guess Mendelssohn read between the lines on that

575
00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:32,120
Speaker 1: and never brought up the laugh track again. Wow, what

576
00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:34,200
Speaker 1: about some of the heavier stuff in the special, like

577
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:38,120
Speaker 1: the commercialization of Christmas and that seeing where Linus reads

578
00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:40,920
Speaker 1: from the Bible like with Shultz behind those kinds of

579
00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:44,480
Speaker 1: decisions too, Yeah, definitely, it was really important to him

580
00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:46,840
Speaker 1: that the special explorer what he called the true meaning

581
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:49,240
Speaker 1: of Christmas, which is why Linus reads the story of

582
00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:52,480
Speaker 1: Jesus's birth straight from the Gospel of Luke. And this

583
00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 1: was a super risky move at the time because, according

584
00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:58,640
Speaker 1: to The Atlantic, less than nine percent of Christmas episodes

585
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:02,080
Speaker 1: and specials from the era contain any religious references of

586
00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 1: any kind, much less direct quotes from scripture. So surprisingly,

587
00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:09,680
Speaker 1: CBS didn't object to this inclusion, and neither did Coca Cola,

588
00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:13,000
Speaker 1: who was the special sponsor. Um The producer, though, was

589
00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 1: super nervous, and he told shots that no anime character

590
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:18,680
Speaker 1: had ever read from the Bible before, which was all

591
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:21,800
Speaker 1: the more reason to Schultz, and he told Mendelssohn, well,

592
00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:24,480
Speaker 1: if we don't do it, who will, I mean, I

593
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:26,720
Speaker 1: guess that's true, but that was still a pretty big

594
00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:28,960
Speaker 1: gamble at the time. I mean, CBS and Coke must

595
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:30,800
Speaker 1: have really liked what they saw if they let the

596
00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:34,560
Speaker 1: reference pass without you know, much more scrutiny. Yeah, I

597
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,640
Speaker 1: mean you'd think so. But this executive from Coke's ad

598
00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:40,760
Speaker 1: agency actually visited the crew halfway through production and he

599
00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:43,440
Speaker 1: said the special was shaping up to be a total disaster.

600
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:46,360
Speaker 1: And and CBS thought the same thing when they screened

601
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:48,160
Speaker 1: like this early cut of it just a few weeks

602
00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:50,880
Speaker 1: before the premiere. They said there was two little action

603
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:54,400
Speaker 1: that the whole thing moved way too slowly, and not

604
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:57,720
Speaker 1: to mention the low energy voice acting and the jazzy soundtrack,

605
00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:01,040
Speaker 1: which they just found grading for some reason. But Bill

606
00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 1: Melendez later said that the network would have scrapped the

607
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:06,200
Speaker 1: entire special except that they had made this commitment to

608
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:08,200
Speaker 1: Coke and it was kind of too late to back out.

609
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 1: So the show went on as scheduled, and to everyone's shock,

610
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:16,680
Speaker 1: viewers just tuned in and droves. Like I want to say, um,

611
00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:19,600
Speaker 1: half of all American households with the TV tuned in

612
00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:22,840
Speaker 1: to watch the specials that night, which was apparently fifteen

613
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:25,600
Speaker 1: million people at the time. And a few months later,

614
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:27,960
Speaker 1: Charles Schultz and Lee Medelssohn were on stage at the

615
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:32,320
Speaker 1: Emmy's actually accepting the award for Outstanding Children's Program. It

616
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:34,800
Speaker 1: was the surprise hit that no one had seen coming,

617
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:38,680
Speaker 1: and that included Charles Schultz himself. He later told TV

618
00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:42,800
Speaker 1: Guide in the continued success of the special has surprised

619
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:45,240
Speaker 1: me as much as anyone. A lot of the drawings

620
00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:50,200
Speaker 1: are terrible, and of course those terrible drawings are based

621
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,840
Speaker 1: on his own designs. Yeah, I guess we shouldn't be

622
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:56,440
Speaker 1: too surprised that Schultz would, you know, take this class

623
00:31:56,480 --> 00:31:59,760
Speaker 1: half empty approach when judging work. But uh, you know,

624
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:03,720
Speaker 1: for all the fanciful touches in his stories like kite

625
00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:08,240
Speaker 1: eating trees and Canaan fighter pilots, you know, Peanuts is

626
00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:11,720
Speaker 1: really a strip about simple truths. It's characters are vulnerable,

627
00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:13,680
Speaker 1: just like the creator and all of us, really, and

628
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:17,920
Speaker 1: and there's no grand finale or cathartic resolution to the stories,

629
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:20,400
Speaker 1: and that's probably what makes the strips, you know, ring

630
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:23,000
Speaker 1: so true to us. Yeah, you know, I've actually been

631
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:25,400
Speaker 1: thinking a lot this week about a quote that Schultz

632
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:28,000
Speaker 1: gave in an interview, and it was actually with Penthouse,

633
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:30,680
Speaker 1: of all places. But he was talking about how much

634
00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:33,040
Speaker 1: of his own life is wrapped up in the strip

635
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:35,520
Speaker 1: and what he hoped to accomplish with it, and and

636
00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:37,800
Speaker 1: here's what he had to say about it. Of course,

637
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:40,640
Speaker 1: I could grind out daily gags, but I'm not interested

638
00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 1: in simply doing gags. I'm interested in doing a strip

639
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:46,840
Speaker 1: that says something and make some comment on the important

640
00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:50,200
Speaker 1: things of life. And I really think that Mantra bleeds

641
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:53,680
Speaker 1: through in every single one of his strips, and they

642
00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:55,680
Speaker 1: show us that life has made up of both small,

643
00:32:55,880 --> 00:33:00,200
Speaker 1: hard won triumphs and these bitterly felt disappointments, and not

644
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:03,200
Speaker 1: always an equal measure either. But you know, the important

645
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:05,880
Speaker 1: thing is to pick yourself up and never stop trying.

646
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:09,320
Speaker 1: And you know Charles Schultz understood that. And I feel like,

647
00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:11,959
Speaker 1: thanks to his work, lots of other people, including us,

648
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:15,680
Speaker 1: due to definitely. But you know, before we dive into

649
00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:18,640
Speaker 1: this delicious feast of buttered toast and jelly beans that

650
00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:21,000
Speaker 1: Tristan has prepared for us, but what do you say

651
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:22,840
Speaker 1: we sneak in a quick fact off. I don't know

652
00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 1: if I can hold off, but let's try. So. Did

653
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:35,680
Speaker 1: you know that NASA gives out an award every year

654
00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:39,719
Speaker 1: called the Silver Snoopy. It's actually a silver pin, and

655
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:43,400
Speaker 1: instead of going to astronauts, it actually is the astronauts

656
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:46,200
Speaker 1: who give the awards to the staff and the researchers

657
00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:49,880
Speaker 1: that helped support them. So this program started in the sixties,

658
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:53,640
Speaker 1: and you're probably wondering why Snoopy. Well, at the time,

659
00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:56,880
Speaker 1: NASA had just suffered the disaster with the Apollo one

660
00:33:56,960 --> 00:33:59,960
Speaker 1: mission and they were looking for something uplifting that people

661
00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:03,400
Speaker 1: could really get behind, and there was nothing bigger than

662
00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:06,440
Speaker 1: Snoopy at the time. So today the pins go for

663
00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:09,919
Speaker 1: about a thousand dollars on eBay, and NASA claims every

664
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:13,480
Speaker 1: pen goes to space and comes back before it's handed out. Oh,

665
00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:16,800
Speaker 1: I really like that. So you know, when when Charles

666
00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:20,440
Speaker 1: Schultz moved away from Minnesota as an adult, he he

667
00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:23,839
Speaker 1: never actually gave up his love of ice hockey. So

668
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:26,400
Speaker 1: when one ice skating rink that was close to his

669
00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:29,359
Speaker 1: home in California closed in the sixties, he actually had

670
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:32,319
Speaker 1: one built, and according to mental Flass, he loved the

671
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:35,720
Speaker 1: Swiss alpine themed arena so much that he ate both

672
00:34:35,760 --> 00:34:38,960
Speaker 1: breakfast and lunch there every day at its warm puppy

673
00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:42,239
Speaker 1: snack bar, and he also used to play pickup games

674
00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:45,759
Speaker 1: every week with his son's I guess on Tuesday nights,

675
00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:48,360
Speaker 1: which is kind of fun. Well, apparently the Charlie Brown

676
00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:52,640
Speaker 1: Halloween Special had a huge impact on kids, and particularly

677
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,480
Speaker 1: the scene where Charlie Brown opens his Halloween bag and

678
00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:58,320
Speaker 1: finds that he's just got a bunch of rocks instead

679
00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:01,759
Speaker 1: of candy. So kids, this was so unfair that for

680
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:04,399
Speaker 1: years they would try to share their treats with him,

681
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:07,160
Speaker 1: and so they would send bags of candy to Charles

682
00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:11,160
Speaker 1: Schultz's office care of Charlie Brown. So here's the super

683
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:14,239
Speaker 1: weird one about musician Vince Guilty, who did all that

684
00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:17,319
Speaker 1: jazzy music for the specials. Apparently, one night, while he

685
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:19,719
Speaker 1: was composing music for the Halloween Special, he decided to

686
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:22,520
Speaker 1: take a shower, but when he heard a noise outside,

687
00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:25,640
Speaker 1: he ran down to see what it was, and somehow

688
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:28,360
Speaker 1: he locked himself out of his house in the process,

689
00:35:28,440 --> 00:35:31,120
Speaker 1: completely naked. I don't know why he didn't have a

690
00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:33,319
Speaker 1: towel with him, but the only way to get back

691
00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:36,080
Speaker 1: into his house was to climb and break into his

692
00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:39,440
Speaker 1: own house, and of course the neighbors called the cops

693
00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:42,000
Speaker 1: on him. So apparently when the police came up to

694
00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:44,560
Speaker 1: this naked man breaking into his own house and asked

695
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:47,080
Speaker 1: him to identify himself. He did keep his sense of

696
00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:50,120
Speaker 1: humor and he said, don't shoot, I'm the Great Pumpkin

697
00:35:50,719 --> 00:35:54,360
Speaker 1: of course. All right, well, here's a super quick fact

698
00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:57,879
Speaker 1: about the trouble with working with kid actors. So during

699
00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:00,640
Speaker 1: the taping of the Christmas Special, there was a child

700
00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:04,000
Speaker 1: actress who portrayed both Violet and Freedom, and she would

701
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:07,600
Speaker 1: get so nervous before reading each time that after she

702
00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:10,960
Speaker 1: was done recording, every single time, she would throw up. Now,

703
00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:16,759
Speaker 1: luckily she didn't have that big of a role kidd actors. Yeah, well,

704
00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:19,640
Speaker 1: here's the one that's kind of heartwarming. Uh So, so

705
00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:21,440
Speaker 1: we all know that Lucy loves to pull that football

706
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:23,719
Speaker 1: away from Charlie Brown just as he's about to kick it,

707
00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:26,840
Speaker 1: and often she says mean things right before or after,

708
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:30,280
Speaker 1: like uh friendly, she'll ask him don't you trust anyone

709
00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:34,160
Speaker 1: anymore for putting the football out? Or she'll let him

710
00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:36,600
Speaker 1: know after she's pulled it away that don't you know

711
00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:40,239
Speaker 1: a woman's handshake isn't binding, which is a strange bit

712
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:42,960
Speaker 1: of legally's there. But you know that there was one

713
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:45,480
Speaker 1: moment where she let him kick the ball, and this

714
00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:48,880
Speaker 1: was in nineteen seventy. As Slate reports, um there was

715
00:36:48,880 --> 00:36:51,719
Speaker 1: actually a sequence where Charlie Brown gets very ill and

716
00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:54,120
Speaker 1: when Lucy Here's that he's sick and might not come

717
00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:56,800
Speaker 1: back from the hospital, she says how much he means

718
00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:58,799
Speaker 1: to her and and then promises to let him kick

719
00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:01,239
Speaker 1: the football if he gets better. And then when he

720
00:37:01,280 --> 00:37:03,600
Speaker 1: does recover, she lives up to her promise and holds

721
00:37:03,640 --> 00:37:06,160
Speaker 1: that ball out for him, but of course he slips

722
00:37:06,239 --> 00:37:10,719
Speaker 1: and misses it. Anyway, well, it is nice to know

723
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:12,920
Speaker 1: that for once she gave him a chance and I

724
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:15,000
Speaker 1: like that fact. So I think you get to take

725
00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:17,839
Speaker 1: home today's trophy. Thank you, Will, and thanks for all

726
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:20,040
Speaker 1: of you out there for tuning into another part time genius.

727
00:37:20,080 --> 00:37:22,680
Speaker 1: You know, I'm sure you have wonderful Snoopy and Charlie

728
00:37:22,719 --> 00:37:25,480
Speaker 1: Brown memories. So if you've got facts of stories, we

729
00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:27,920
Speaker 1: definitely want to hear them. Or if you've got topics

730
00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:30,279
Speaker 1: you want us to cover, we're actually looking for those two.

731
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:32,799
Speaker 1: So it just emails as part time genius at how

732
00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:35,280
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com or hit us up on the socials.

733
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:38,040
Speaker 1: But from gave Tristan Will and me, thank you so

734
00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:55,400
Speaker 1: much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius

735
00:37:55,400 --> 00:37:57,320
Speaker 1: is a production of how stuff works and wouldn't be

736
00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:00,279
Speaker 1: possible without several brilliant people who do the important things

737
00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:03,239
Speaker 1: we couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the

738
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:05,640
Speaker 1: editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song and does

739
00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:08,800
Speaker 1: the mixy mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the exact

740
00:38:08,840 --> 00:38:11,920
Speaker 1: producer thing. Gabe Louesier is our lead researcher, with support

741
00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:14,759
Speaker 1: from the research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and

742
00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:17,000
Speaker 1: Lucas Adams and Eves Jeff Cook gets the show to

743
00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:19,440
Speaker 1: your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like what you heard,

744
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:21,520
Speaker 1: we hope you'll subscribe, And if you really really like

745
00:38:21,600 --> 00:38:23,480
Speaker 1: what you've heard, maybe you could leave a good review

746
00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:26,080
Speaker 1: for us. Did you? Did you forget Jason? Jason who