WEBVTT - Fan Favorite: How did Charlie Brown win over America? 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:06.240 Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:15.920 Guess what, Mango, what's that? Well, it is officially Charlie 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.159 Brown Season. I know, I am so excited. You know, 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:22.840 right between Thanksgiving Christmas is when my family buckles down 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.640 and we watch all those specials, and it is wild. 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:28.400 That's been over fifty years since some of the big 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.520 ones actually came out. But what is weirdest to me 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:34.640 is that my kids are so into Charlie Brown, like 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:38.440 it's almost quaint. Ruby had a Peppermint Patty birthday party 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:41.160 when she turned three because she assumed everyone was into 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.240 Peppermint Patty two. Uh, and so we just hand out 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.920 headbands and did at a gym. I love this fact, 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:49.520 and the fact that probably more than half the kids 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:52.320 had no idea who Peppermint Patty was, at least going 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:54.880 into the party. I'm sure Ruby told him all about her. 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.720 But anyway, So, so why are they so into the specials? 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:00.640 You know, I have no idea of something just clicked 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:03.720 with them. But like Henry actually based his Thanksgiving speech 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:06.000 a few years ago completely on the one that, uh, 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:09.120 I think Charlie Brown gives and Thanksgiving special and and 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.840 we've definitely watched It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:16.360 Charlie Brown Christmas a whole bunch of times. But you know, 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:18.840 they're even into some of the oddball ones like Race 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:21.319 for Your Life Charlie Brown, which is about the gang 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:25.320 going to camp. That's very good. I mean, you did 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:26.760 hit on some of the big ones there, but I 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:29.240 do think you forgot one of the most important of 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:32.880 them all. Really. Oh yeah, of course, It's Arbor Day 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:36.800 Charlie Brown. I do not think we watched that one. 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:38.840 Is that a real thing? We're just making that up? Oh, 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:40.800 it's absolutely a real thing. It was just one of 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:44.480 the forty five Charlie Brown specials out there, forty five. 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.800 I had no idea that that many. Oh man, I'm surprised, 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:50.240 Like you don't watch It's the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:52.280 every single east. I don't know how could be Easter 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.880 without that special. And actually there's also It's Your First 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:58.640 Kiss Charlie Brown, which is another classic and also I 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.640 guess kind of weird. But we've got a lot of 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:04.280 catching up to do here, and with the holiday season 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:06.640 upon us, we thought now would be the perfect time 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:10.200 to look into the history of our favorite melancholy grade schoolers. 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:12.480 So we'll talk about the origin of the comics trip, 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:15.520 including the real life inspiration behind some of the characters, 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:18.200 the story of how the beloved Christmas Special came to be, 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:22.480 and how it was very nearly canceled in production. Now, 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:24.200 of course, we'll also talk a little bit about the 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:27.720 reason why creator Charles Schultz hated the name Peanuts and 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:31.480 why some fans can't stand Snoopy. There's a lot to cover, 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:55.200 so let's dive in. Hey there, podcast listeners, welcome the 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:57.880 part time genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:00.160 joined by my good friend man guest Ticketer and on 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.560 the other side of the soundproof glass just shuffling a 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.040 stack of buttered toast, kind of like it's a deck 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.960 of cars. It's our friends and producer Tristan McNeil. And 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:11.040 I do have to admit when Tristan said he wanted 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.600 to recreate the famous meal from the Peanuts Thanksgiving Special, 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.200 I really never dreamed it would be this theatrical. But 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.239 it's really quite a show. Don't you think you didn't 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.040 think Tristan would be theatrical? I don't know. I don't know, 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:26.680 it's just surprised me. Yeah, I mean, I have no 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:28.880 idea how he's doing this. He's he's wearing those slices 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:31.920 like he's a blackjack dealer or something. But I like 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:34.320 that he's getting the Thanksgiving Special a little love. I 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.520 feel like it's always the one that gets overshadowed by both, 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.800 like the Hallyween Special and the Christmas Special. But you know, 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:43.880 we've had a saft spot for Charlie Brown Thanksgiving at 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:46.880 my house, especially where um Snoopy puts together that last 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:49.320 minute feast for Charlie Brown and he's got all that 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:53.200 popcorn and pretzels. But when the kids are gone, Snoopy 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:55.560 and Woodstock are just back of their doghouse and they've 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:59.120 got a lavish spread for themselves with like punkin pie, 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:03.040 roasted vegetable as even this giant cooked turkey, and they're 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:05.040 basically living it off while the kids were just eating 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:07.520 you know, snack food. I mean, it's kind of a 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:10.120 jerk move, but when you think about it, it's it's 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:13.800 that mix of whimsy and low key meanness that are 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:16.360 sort of par for the course for peanuts that actually, 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:18.640 for instance, they never strike you as just a little 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:22.160 bit weird that Woodstock would help Snoopy carve and eat 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:25.039 the turkey. I mean, Woodstock is a bird if you 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.400 haven't noticed. You know what's funny about it is that 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:30.680 I never actually gave it much thought. But it turns 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.159 out you're not alone in this. Lee Mendelssohn, who was 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:36.480 the executive producer on the Peanuts Specials, he actually objected 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:39.040 to that scene because he was so weird it out 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:41.520 by it, But because the idea had comes straight from 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:44.120 Charles Schultz, the Peanuts creator, he was just overruled and 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:46.440 the scene aired as planned. But uh, you know what 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.520 was funny is that Mendelssohn did eventually get his way. 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.240 So all these years later, CBS asked Mendelsson to cut 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.280 three minutes from the specials so they could fit in, 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:58.040 you know, more commercials, and Mendelssohn sees the chance and 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:00.480 he removed that scene of Woodstock eating her geese that 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.080 you can only see him eating pie instead. But then 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:04.800 a few years later, the rights of the special move 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.359 to ABC and the network decided to air it on cut, 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:12.680 meaning Woodstock is once again accountable. It feels a little 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:14.560 bit odd to be kicking off our Peanuts show with 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.640 a fact about bird cannibalism, but it also kind of 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.760 feels appropriate, you know, given how dark Charlie Brown and 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.400 his chums could often be. Actually, in fact, have you 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:27.200 ever seen the very first Peanuts trip? I have, and 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:29.559 I don't remember it. Yeah, so it shows a boy 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:32.400 and a girl just sitting on the sidewalk and this boy, 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:35.880 Schemy is his name. He says, well, here comes good 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:39.960 old Charlie Brown. Good old Charlie Brown. Yes, sir, good 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:42.600 old Charlie Brown. And then when Charlie Brown is out 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:48.039 of sight, Cheremi adds, how I hate him, you know, 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.239 and that's the punch line. So yeah, there's there's definitely 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:52.400 some darkness to the world of Peanuts, no matter how 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:56.320 cute or simplistic the characters might look. But there's also 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:00.000 incredible warmth and humor there as well, and it feels, 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:02.680 I guess that unique mix that really made Peanuts this 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:05.520 enduring part of pop culture, not only in the US 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:08.640 but all around the world. So we've definitely got a 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:10.480 lot to go through today. But where do you think 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:12.280 you want to start? Why don't we spend a few 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.800 minutes on the man behind the Peanuts himself Charles M. Schultz. 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.839 So this name sounds familiar enough because we've all seen 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:21.400 his name a million times. It's signed at the bottom 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:25.159 of each and every Peanuts strip, all seventeen thousand eight 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:29.640 of them. But despite the constant exposure, lots of people 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:33.200 still misname him as Shultz with the T. It's actually 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:36.320 s C h U l z. And according to Medium, 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:39.440 the misspelling is so common that's actually appeared wrong in 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:43.120 more than thirty thousand articles to date, as well as 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:46.240 the original opening to the Peanuts Christmas Special. I guess 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:48.680 someone caught it at the very last minute, but there 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:50.400 was an error that was going to be aired in 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:52.920 the premier Wow. You know, I guess I've actually never 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:55.000 thought about this, and I'm sure that I'm guilty of 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.360 making the same mistake. But what kind of name is Schultz? Like? 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:02.279 Is it German? Yeah? That Carl Schultz immigrated from Germany 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.159 to Minnesota, which is where he met charless mom Dina, 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.400 and Charles was this only child. He was born in 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.400 ninety two. He grew up in St. Paul. But what's 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:12.840 interesting is that St. Paul is one of the few 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.560 places in the country that has both super hot summers 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:19.400 and freezing cold winters, and it's the same for the 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:21.640 Peanuts kids, right, Like, there's so many strips that are 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:25.320 centered on these summer activities like playing baseball, flying kites, 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.800 selling lemonade on hot days. But then you have a 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:29.880 ton of strips where there's like a foot of snow 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:32.920 on the ground and everyone's playing ice hockey. So then 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:36.280 it is Peanuts actually set in St. Paul. I mean, 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.000 there's some debate about that. Some fans think the strip 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:41.920 is set near Santa Rosa, California, which is where Schultz 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:45.000 lived once the Peanuts became a hit. But you know, 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:46.840 that doesn't make much sense when you look at all 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:49.559 all the strips set in the winter. But what little 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:51.840 evidence there is in the strips does kind of point 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:56.360 to either St. Paul or Minneapolis as their hometown. For instance, 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.640 there's a strip in nineteen fifty seven that implied that 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:02.200 the character has lived in Hennepin County, which is in Minnesota, 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:05.080 And two years before that there was one where Schroeder 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:07.760 confesses he always thought his hero Beethoven was a native 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:11.040 in Minnesota, which you know is presumably just like him. 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:13.119 All right, Well, although that makes sense and you'd actually 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.080 expect the cartoonists to set the strip about childhood in 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:19.440 their hometown. That wouldn't be that surprising, and it'll be 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:21.800 pretty on theme for Schultz, because when you look at 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:24.680 the comics, so many elements of the Peanuts strip turn 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.560 out to be somewhat biographical. I mean, just listen to 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:31.320 this breakdown. Shuremy was a childhood friend. Schroeder was a 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.280 caddy at the golf course Schultz worked at as a teenager. 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.240 Lionus and Lucy van Pelt got their last name from 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:40.880 a man's Schultz served in the army with. Meanwhile, Lucy's 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:44.319 character was inspired by Schultz's first wife and his mother. 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:46.600 I guess there's a lot to unpack there, but that 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.600 does seem to be the case. Actually, I was reading 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:52.560 this tribute to Charles Schultz from Bill Waterson, who is 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:55.680 my hero and uh who did the comnt in Hobbs strips, 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:58.800 and he thought of pe Nuts as the gold standard 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.360 of comic strips, and this is his take on Lucy quote. 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:04.920 I was struck less by the fact that Schultz drew 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:07.560 on his troubled marriage for material than by the sympathy 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.280 that he shows for his tormentor and by his ability 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:13.280 to poke fun at himself, which is actually pretty interesting, 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:16.320 like like, you know, Lucy is annoying and mean spirited, 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:19.160 but you don't ever really hate her for it. Now, 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:22.680 that's true. And you know he was looking for inspiration everywhere. 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:25.720 Even line is his famous blue blanket came straight from 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:29.319 Schultz's life. When his daughter was younger, she was obsessed 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:32.560 with her own security blanket. Yeah. I mean, of course 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:34.440 you're gonna be stealing from life when you've got like 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:37.920 a daily deadline and working at that sort of volume. 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:40.400 But I think the one character I always think about 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:44.240 is the little red haired girl who goes unnamed, And uh, 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:46.160 you know, that's the one that Charlie Brown always had 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:49.240 that huge crush on. She was apparently based on Schultz's 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.400 girlfriend in the late forties, this redhead named Donna Mae Johnson, 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.120 and after the war, the two of them worked together 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:58.000 at this correspondent school in Minneapolis, and after a few 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:00.080 years of dating, Sills finally worked at the nerve of 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.079 to propose to her, but then Dona May turned him 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:05.040 down and married a different guy a few months later, 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.920 and it was obviously this huge blow to his Pride, 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:10.880 But in the end, the ordeal actually inspired one of 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:14.200 Schultz's most famous characters, and supposedly he and Donna May 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:17.000 remained friends for years later. I mean, there are some 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:20.120 definite shades of Charlie Brown to that story, and you 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:23.040 can see that throughout his work. Yeah, definitely, And it 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:26.160 makes sense because both Charlie Brown and Snoopy they're often 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.880 considered stand ins for Schultz himself. In fact, Charles's son, 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:33.120 Craig Schultz once said about him, each of the characters 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.320 represents a piece of our dad. Charlie Brown was his 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:39.280 real self and Snoopy was what he wanted to be, 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:41.200 which is kind of funny to think about, but it 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:44.360 makes sense, and it said both characters also had real 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:47.640 world counterparts too. Charlie Brown was actually the name of 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:50.360 a friend that Charles worked with prior to creating Peanuts, 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.840 and Snoopy was based on charles His own childhood dog, 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.559 This English Pointer, not a beagle who was named Spike 0:10:57.800 --> 0:10:59.920 and whose name would later be used for one of 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:03.480 Snoopy's brothers. So if Schultz had a dog named Spike, 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.800 then where's the name Snoopy come from? Well, apparently Charles 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.679 had originally planned to call his dog Sniffy, but then 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:13.200 he found out that another comic featured a dog with 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:14.920 the same name, so he had to change it to 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:18.120 something else. But luckily he had this backup. You know, 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:20.280 when he was a kid, his mother suggested if they 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.280 ever got another dog, they should name him Snoopy, and 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:26.200 so that's where the name came from. Anyway, back back 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:29.080 to the real world Snoopy for a second. It's pretty 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:32.320 striking how devoted to his dog Charles was, just like 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:35.440 Charlie Brown would later be with Snoopy. So how how 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:38.360 do you mean? Well, the very first drawing that Charles 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:41.720 ever published was of his dog Spike. So Charles was 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:43.800 just fifteen years old at the time when he submitted 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.520 this drawing and actually a fact along with it to 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:50.080 Ripley's Believe it or Not, and it got published nationally. 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:53.000 I mean, that's pretty cool. But what was so unbolouivable 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:55.839 about Spike that got him published in Ripley's. Well, the 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.319 drawings caption said that Spike was quote a hunting dog 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.800 that eats pin tax and razor blades, so he didn't 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:06.640 exactly have Snoopy's refined palette, but it does sound like 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:09.680 Spike shared his taste for adventure. There was this article 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:12.400 and mental Flaws about this that was talking about, you know, 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:14.960 the dog would make a break for freedom anytime the 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:17.600 door was open and only come back because he loved 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:21.160 going on car ride. So whenever Spike got loose, Charles 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:23.840 would run to his dad's car and basically just honked 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:25.959 the horn as a way to lure the dog back. 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:28.480 I mean, we we actually had a dog like that 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:30.400 growing up. She'd run off for the only way to 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:33.520 get her back was to unwrap a slice of American exactly. 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.840 That's what always works. Yeah, I mean, it's so weird that, 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.560 like that plastic peel sound like when it was coming 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:41.600 off the craft slices. That's what would make her race 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:44.000 back to the house. But you know, having a dog 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:46.920 you keep losing sounds very Charlie Brown to me as well. 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:49.560 And and uh, speaking of which, some of my favorite 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:52.280 Peanuts facts are the ones that overlap between Charlie Brown's 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:56.280 childhood and Charles Schultze's. Like there's a surface level stuff, 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:58.680 but both of them had fathers who were barbers. But 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:01.559 but then they're also those like wonderfully tragic tidbits from 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:05.640 Schultza's life. That feels so Charlie Brown. Like his dad 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:08.080 used to give him haircuts, but when customers came in, 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:09.959 he'd have to hop out of the chair, so you 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.240 just have to grump around and wander about with half 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:14.560 a haircut until his dad that finished it up, which 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.760 does sound so very Charlie Brown. It's pretty great, yeah, 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:20.199 I know. And there was actually one time when Shultston 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:22.320 line at a movie theater because they were handing out 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.640 candy bars to the first kids to buy tickets that day, 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:28.800 and of course Schultz was the hundred first kid in line, 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.720 you know. And when when he was in high school, 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:33.880 Schultz's teacher convince him to draw some comics for his 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.520 senior year book. And so Schultz, of course, being super 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:40.320 timid and socially awkward, he's a little nervous, but he 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:43.199 desperately wants to be a cartoonist, so he overcomes a 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:46.600 shyness he submits artwork, and then when the yearbook comes out, 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:49.440 of course everyone had forgotten to include his work, Like 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:52.839 not a single one of his cartoons got used. That's 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:55.240 a tough break. So, you know, it is interesting to 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:58.000 see that that not every aspect of Peanuts is drawn 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:00.960 from Schultza's own experience. You know, if you take the 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.199 character Franklin, for instance, he was introduced as the comic 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:06.800 strips first black character. And now this was in July 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.720 of nineteen sixty eight, and this was just a few 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:14.040 months after the assassination of M. L. K Jr. Yeah, 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:17.480 it's amazing that that's fifty years ago this year. And 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:21.000 and uh and this was based on a reader's suggestion, right, yeah, 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.040 that's right. The reader was a mother of three named 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:25.520 Harriett Glickman, and she wrote to Schultz just a few 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.080 days after the death of Martin Luther King. And now, 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:30.800 in that note, the Glickman noted the power that mass 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:34.120 media has to shape what she called the unconscious attitudes 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.920 of our kids. So she has Schultz to add one 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:39.760 or more black characters to his strips. And this was 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.440 so that children could see that respect and friendship was 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:46.320 possible between people of all races. And Schultz was pretty 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:49.880 moved by the idea, but he didn't add the character immediately. 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:52.160 He was actually a little bit nervous that the move 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.800 might seem to be patronizing to black readers. But as 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.400 Glickman continued, to correspond with him. Over the course of 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:01.440 several months, you know, he decided to change his mind 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:03.600 on this, and on July one he wrote to say 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:06.120 that Glickman should watch for the new character to appear 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.800 by the end of the month, which of course he did. 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:12.040 And so does show suffer any blowback from from this 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:14.760 when when when the stroke comes out, Well, you know, 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.440 you had some black readers that did argue that Franklin 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:21.320 was a bland character and therefore somewhat patronizing, but in 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:25.880 general readers appreciated the added representation as well as you 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:28.960 know how kind and worry free Franklin was compared with 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:32.480 other Peanuts kids. But it still it was undoubtedly a 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.200 tense time for America for an artist to debut what 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:39.080 was essentially the first minority character in a mainstream comic strip. 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:42.440 But other than this brief exchange where Franklin mentions that 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:45.560 his father was a soldier in Vietnam, there's really nothing 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:49.920 overtly political about his inclusion. Like Charlie Brown loses his 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.520 beach ball, only to have it found and returned to 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:54.920 him by a boy named Franklin, and then the boys 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:57.760 decided to build a sandcastle together, which is, of course 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:00.800 very sweet. Yeah, but they're definitely only a bit of 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:04.320 backlash from this. You had several newspaper editors from Southern 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.360 states that wrote to Schultz demanding that he stopped using 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.080 the character, or at the very least that he always 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:13.600 showing Franklin in school with the other white characters, which 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.960 is just mind boggling to think about. But his response 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.320 was pretty straightforward. So here's what he told an interviewer 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.880 years later about the incident. I never paid any attention 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:26.120 to those things. And I remember telling United Features President 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.200 Larry Rutman at the time about Franklin. He wanted me 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:31.680 to change it, and we talked about it for a 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.400 long while on the phone, and I finally sighed and 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:37.480 I said, well, Larry, let's put it this way. Either 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:39.680 you print it just the way I draw it, or 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.360 I quit. How's that. So that's the way it ended. 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:45.320 I mean, that is so awesome and it's nice to 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:47.800 hear that. Like, despite whatever reservations he might have had 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.640 at the beginning, Schultz ultimately went to bat for Franklin 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:52.880 in this really big way. Yeah, And you know, I 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:55.720 know we wanted to talk about an earlier occasion when 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:58.920 Schultz butted heads with upper management, and this time about 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:01.280 what the strip should be. All But before we get 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:19.520 into that, let's take a quick break. You're listening to 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:22.240 Part Time Genius and we're talking about cartoonists Charles Schultz 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:25.560 and his beloved Peanuts comic strips. So, you know, to 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:27.720 be clear, there was one thing that she definitely did 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.639 not love about his own strip, and that was the title. 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.760 So back in when he first pitched the strip to 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:36.800 be carried by the United Feature Syndicate, Schultz insisted the 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:42.160 title should be Little Folks, which maybe wasn't the most 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:45.159 creative title, but it does seem, i don't know, somewhat 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:46.879 fitting if you think about how so many of his 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:50.120 characters they read like these little kids with grown up 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.159 type worries, and like they're plagued by this level of 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:57.800 anxiety and almost neurosis that's typically reserved, you know, for adults. Yeah, 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.280 but whether it's fitting or not, the executives had this 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:02.800 different problem with it. So there was already a strip 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:06.159 called Little Folks, except with the word little all spelled 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:10.400 out instead of little like, and then there was also 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:13.359 a little abner the comic strip. So they're worried that 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.040 readers might confuse the titles, or worse, that the creators 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:18.679 of the rival strips might sue them for copyright infringement. 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:22.199 So instead, the production manager at the syndicate decided to 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.280 call the strip Peanuts. And I guess this was a 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:28.119 reference to the Howdy Duty show that was pretty popular 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.359 at the time. When kids came to tapings, they sat 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:33.479 in the Peanut Gallery. So the production manager thought, you know, 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:35.480 like he'd riff off that idea and just called the 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.439 small Kids Peanuts. I do like that their solution to 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.480 not being sued was to rip off a TV show instead, 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:45.000 but either, I know, I mean, the other theory is 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:47.200 that they just thought Little Folks was a weak title, 0:18:47.280 --> 0:18:50.359 but they didn't want to upset shuts Um, not that 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:53.920 he wasn't upset anyway. In the interview, he was still 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:56.840 angry about the Peanuts title, and he said, quote, it's 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:00.440 totally ridiculous, has no meaning, is simply confusing, and has 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:04.399 no dignity. And I think my humor has dignity, which 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:07.240 is sad you never got to change the name. But 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:10.000 you know, of course, once the strip took off, he 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.000 was kind of stuck with the title. And uh, what's 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.639 funny to me is that Schultz actually avoided using the 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:18.280 title himself, Like he claimed that whenever someone asked him 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:20.280 what he did for a living, you just tell them 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:22.879 I draw that comic strip with Snoopy in it, Charlie 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:27.040 Brown and his daughter. Well, whatever you call it, there's 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:29.720 no question that Schultz's comic was a runaway hit once 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:32.280 the strip gained a little bit of steam, So it 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:35.280 was published in just seven US newspapers when it debuted 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:38.280 back in October of nineteen fifty. Well, by the end 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:40.600 of its fifty year run and two thousand, the comic 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:44.280 was being translated in over twenty different languages, published in 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.800 seventy five different countries, and had grown its global readership 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:52.000 to a staggering three hundred and fifty five million people. 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:56.439 So in total, over fifteen thousand daily strips and Sunday 0:19:56.440 --> 0:20:00.439 strips were produced, all written, inked, and lettered by Charles 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:03.879 Schultz himself. I mean, it was this unprecedented run, and 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:07.720 actually so unprecedented that the media scholar Robert Thompson once 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:09.919 called the fifty year story of Charlie Brown and his 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:14.000 Pals arguably the longest told story by a single artist 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:18.119 in human history. I mean, that's really incredible to think about. 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:20.560 So what do you think made it click with people 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.240 for such a long time. Well, I think a big 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:25.119 part of it goes back to something that we mentioned 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:26.680 at the top of the show, which is the way 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:30.040 this trip really found this middle ground in terms of tone. 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:33.160