WEBVTT - How did Charlie Brown win over America? 0:00:02.600 --> 0:00:06.279 I guess what, mango, what's that? Well, it is officially 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:10.119 Charlie Brown season. I know, I am so excited. You know, 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:13.520 right between Thanksgiving and Christmas is when my family buckles 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:17.599 down and we watch all those specials, and it is wild. 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:19.400 That's been over fifty years since some of the big 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.480 ones actually came out. But what is weirdest to me 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:25.599 is that my kids are so into Charlie Brown, like 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.440 it's almost quaint. Ruby had a Peppermint Patty birthday party 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.120 when she turned three because she assumed everyone was into 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:35.159 Peppermint Patty too, uh, And so we just hand out 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:37.880 headbands and did at the gym. I love this fact, 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:40.480 and the fact that probably more than half the kids 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.280 had no idea who Peppermint Patty was, at least going 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:45.839 into the party. I'm sure Ruby told him all about her. 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:48.680 But anyway, So, so, why are they so into the specials? 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:51.600 You know, I have no idea of something just clicked 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:54.680 with them. But like Henry actually based his Thanksgiving speech 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:57.520 a few years ago completely on the one that I 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:01.120 think Charlie Brown gives and Thanksgiving special and and we've 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:04.320 definitely watched It's a great pumpkin Charlie Brown and Charlie 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:07.360 Brown Christmas a whole bunch of times. But you know, 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:09.840 they're even into some of the oddball ones like Race 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:12.280 for Your Life Charlie Brown, which is about the gang 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:16.280 going to camp. That's very good. I mean, you did 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:17.720 hit on some of the big ones there, but I 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:20.200 do think you forgot one of the most important of 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:23.840 them all. Really. Oh yeah, of course, It's Arbor Day 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.759 Charlie Brown. I do not think we watched that one. 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:29.840 Is that a real thing? We're just making that up? Oh, 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:31.800 it's absolutely a real thing. It was just one of 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:35.479 the forty five Charlie Brown specials out there, forty five. 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:38.760 I had no idea that that many. Oh man, I'm surprised, 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.199 Like you don't watch It's the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:43.240 every single east. I don't know how could be Easter 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:46.880 without that special. And actually there's also It's Your First 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:49.640 Kiss Charlie Brown, which is another classic and also I 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.600 guess kind of weird. But we've got a lot of 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.240 catching up to do here, and with the holiday season 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:57.360 upon us, what we thought now would be the perfect 0:01:57.360 --> 0:01:59.880 time to look into the history of our favorite melon 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.680 colleague Grade schoolers. So we'll talk about the origin of 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:05.640 the comics trip, including the real life inspiration behind some 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:08.280 of the characters, the story of how the beloved Christmas 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:11.280 Special came to be, and how it was very nearly 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:14.400 canceled in production. Now, of course, we'll also talk a 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:17.280 little bit about the reason why creator Charles Schultz hated 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:21.120 the name Peanuts and why some fans can't stand Snoopy. 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:45.040 There's a lot to cover, so let's dive in. Hey there, 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:47.800 podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:49.840 and as always I'm joined by my good friend Man 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.280 gues Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.280 glass just shuffling a stack of buttered to It's kind 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.160 of like it's a deck of cars. It's our friends 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:00.880 and producer Tristan McNeil, and I do have to admit 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:03.600 when Tristan said he wanted to recreate the famous meal 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:07.600 from the Peanuts Thanksgiving Special, I really never dreamed it 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.600 would be this theatrical. But it's really quite a show. 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.640 Don't you think you didn't think Tristan would be theatrical? 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:16.920 I don't know, I don't know. It's just surprised me. Yeah. 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:18.640 I mean, I have no idea how he's doing this. 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.040 He's wearing those slices like he's a black jack dealer 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:24.040 or something. But I like that he's giving the Thanksgiving 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:26.640 Special a little love, and I feel like it's always 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.160 the one that gets overshadowed by both, like the Hallyween 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:32.359 Special and the Christmas Special. But you know, we've had 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:35.160 a saft spot for Charlie Brown Thanksgiving at my house, 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:38.440 especially where um Snoopy puts together that last minute feast 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:41.760 for Charlie Brown and he's got all that popcorn and pretzels. 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:44.880 But when the kids are gone, Snoopy and Woodstock are 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.280 just back of their doghouse and they've got a lavish 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:51.600 spread for themselves with like pumpkin pie, roast and vegetables, 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:54.800 even this giant cooked turkey, and they're basically living it 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.200 off while the kids are just eating you know, snack food. 0:03:57.520 --> 0:03:59.400 I mean, it's kind of a jerk move, but when 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.440 you think about that, it's it's that mix of whimsy 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.560 and low key meanness that are sort of par for 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:08.120 the course for peanuts that actually, for instance, did never 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:10.800 strike you as just a little bit weird that Woodstock 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:14.080 would help Snoopy carve and eat the turkey. I mean, 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:18.359 Woodstock is a bird if you haven't noticed. You know 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:20.320 what's funny about it is that I never actually gave 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:22.640 it much thought. But it turns out you're not alone 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:25.160 in this. Lee Mendelssohn, who was the executive producer on 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.560 the Peanuts specials, he actually objected to that scene because 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:31.479 he was so weird it out by it, But because 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:34.040 the idea had comes straight from Charles Schultz, the Peanuts creator, 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:36.760 he was just overruled and the scene aireds planned. But uh, 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:39.560 you know what was funny is that Mendelssohn did eventually 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.479 get his way. So all these years later, CBS asked 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:44.560 Mendelssohn to cut three minutes from the special so they 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:48.320 could fit in, you know, more commercials, and Mendelssohn sees 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.240 the chance and he removed that scene of Woodstock eating turkey, 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:53.880 so you can only see him eating pie instead. But 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:55.559 then a few years later, the rights of the special 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:57.880 move to ABC and the network decided to air it 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:03.200 on cut, meaning Woodstock is once again accountable. It feels 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.279 a little bit odd to be kicking off our Peanuts 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:08.320 show with a fact about bird cannibalism, but it also 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.200 kind of feels appropriate, you know, given how dark Charlie 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.160 Brown and his chums could often be. Actually, in fact, 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.960 have you ever seen the very first Peanuts trip? I have, 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.159 and I don't remember it. Yeah, So it shows a 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.839 boy and a girl just sitting on the sidewalk and 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.360 this boy, Scheremy is his name. He says, well, here 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:30.600 comes good old Charlie Brown. Good old Charlie Brown. Yes, sir, 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:33.360 good old Charlie Brown. And then when Charlie Brown is 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:39.039 out of sight, Cheremy adds, how I hate him, you know, 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:41.200 and that's the punch line. So yeah, there's there's definitely 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:43.360 some darkness to the world of Peanuts, no matter how 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:47.280 cute or simplistic the characters might look. But there's also 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:50.960 incredible warmth and humor there as well, and it feels 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.640 like it's that unique mix that really made Peanuts this 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.479 enduring part of pop culture, not only in the US 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.599 but all around the world. So we've definitely got a 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:01.440 lot to go through today. But where do you think 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:03.240 you want to start? Why don't we spend a few 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.760 minutes on the man behind the Peanuts himself, Charles M. Schultz. 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:09.840 So This name sounds familiar enough because we've all seen 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.360 his name a million times. It's signed at the bottom 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:16.120 of each and every Peanuts strip, all seventeen thousand eight 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.599 of them. But despite the constant exposure, lots of people 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:24.200 still misname him as Schultz with the T. It's actually 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:27.320 s C h U l z. And according to Medium, 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.400 the misspelling is so common that's actually appeared wrong in 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:34.080 more than thirty thousand articles to Day, as well as 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:37.239 the original opening to the Peanuts Christmas Special. I guess 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:39.640 someone caught it at the very last minute, but there 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:41.479 was an error that was gonna be aired in the 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.560 premier You know, I guess I've actually never thought about this, 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.120 and I'm sure that I'm guilty of making the same mistake. 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:49.760 But what kind of name is Schultz? Like it is? 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:52.800 Is it German? Yeah? His dad, Carl Schultz, immigrated from 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.159 Germany to Minnesota, which is where he met charles mom Dina, 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:00.280 and Charles was this only child. He was born in too. 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:02.839 He grew up in St. Paul. But what's interesting is 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:04.160 that St. Paul is one of the few places in 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.480 the country that has both super hot summers and freezing 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:11.360 cold winters, and It's the same for the Peanuts Kids, right, Like, 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:13.480 there's so many strips that are centered on these summer 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:17.960 activities like playing baseball, flying kites, selling lemonade on hot days. 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:20.080 But then you have a ton of strips where there's 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:21.880 like a foot of snow on the ground and everyone's 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.360 playing ice hockey. So then it is Peanuts actually set 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:28.720 in St. Paul. I mean, there's some debate about that. 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:31.920 Some fans think the strip is set near Santa Rosa, California, 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.880 which is where Schultz lived once the Peanuts became a hit. 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:37.320 But you know, that doesn't make much sense when you 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:39.119 look at all all the strips set in the winter. 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:42.080 But what little evidence there is in the strips does 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.200 kind of point to either St. Paul or Minneapolis as 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:49.000 their hometown. For instance, there's a strip in nine seven 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:51.960 that implied that the character has lived in Hennepin County, 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.880 which is in Minnesota, and two years before that there 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:57.520 was one where Schroeder confesses he always thought his hero 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.640 Beethoven was a native in Minnesota, which you know is 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:03.440 presumably just like him. All right, Well, although that makes sense, 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:05.960 and you'd actually expect the cartoonists to set the strip 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.320 about childhood in their hometown. That wouldn't be that surprising, 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:12.080 and it would be pretty on theme for Schultz, because 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:14.360 when you look at the comics, so many elements of 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:17.800 the Peanuts strip turn out to be somewhat biographical. I mean, 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:21.240 just listen to this breakdown. Shuremy was a childhood friend. 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:24.200 Schroeder was a caddy at the golf course Schultz worked 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.240 at as a teenager. Linus and Lucy van Pelt got 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:29.880 their last name from a man's Schultz served in the 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:33.880 army with. Meanwhile, Lucy's character was inspired by Schultz's first 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:36.439 wife and his mother. I guess there's a lot to 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.840 unpack there, but that does seem to be the case. Actually, 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:43.120 I was reading this tribute to Charles Schultz from Bill Waterson, 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:46.000 who is my hero and uh who did the Colvinant 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.240 Hobbs strips, and he thought of Peanuts as the gold 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:51.880 standard of comic strips, and this is his take on 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.200 Lucy quote. I was struck less by the fact that 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:57.959 Schultz drew on his troubled marriage for material than by 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:00.679 the sympathy that he shows for his torment, and by 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.600 his ability to poke fun at himself, which is actually 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.560 pretty interesting, like, like, you know, Lucy is annoying and 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:10.120 mean spirited, but you don't ever really hate her for it. Now, 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.640 that's true. And you know he was looking for inspiration everywhere. 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:16.680 Even line is his famous blue blanket came straight from 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:20.280 Schultz's life when his daughter was younger, she was obsessed 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:23.560 with her own security blanket. Yeah. I mean, of course 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:25.400 you're gonna be stealing from life when you've got like 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:28.920 a daily deadline and and working at that sort of volume. 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:31.400 But I think the one character I always think about 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:35.240 is the little red haired girl who goes unnamed, And uh, 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:37.160 you know, that's the one that Charlie Brown always had 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.240 that huge crush on. She was apparently based on Schultz's 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.360 girlfriend in the late forties, this redhead named Donna May Johnson, 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:46.079 and after the war, the two of them worked together 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:49.000 at this correspondent school in Minneapolis, and after a few 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:51.160 years of dating, Shells finally worked at the Nerve to 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:54.240 propose to her, But then Donna May turned him down 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:56.199 and married a different guy a few months later, and 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:59.360 it was obviously this huge blow to his pride, but 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:02.560 in end, the ordeal actually inspired one of Schultz's most 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:06.040 famous characters, and supposedly he and Donna May remained friends 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.960 for years later. I mean, there are some definite shades 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:11.480 of Charlie Brown to that story, and you can see 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:14.439 that throughout his work. Yeah, definitely, And it makes sense 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:18.080 because both Charlie Brown and Snoopy they're often considered stand 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:21.800 ins for Schultz himself. In fact, Charles's son, Craig Schultz 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:24.880 once said about him, each of the characters represents a 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:28.040 piece of our dad. Charlie Brown was his real self 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:30.800 and Snoopy was what he wanted to be, which is 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:32.680 kind of funny to think about, but it makes sense 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:36.640 and it's both characters also had real world counterparts too. 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.000 Charlie Brown was actually the name of a friend that 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:42.440 Charles worked with prior to creating Peanuts, and Snoopy was 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:46.240 based on charles His own childhood dog, this English Pointer, 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.440 not a Beagle who was named Spike and whose name 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:52.480 would later be used for one of Snoopy's brothers. So 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:55.199 if Schultz had a dog named Spike, then where's the 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:59.040 name Snoopy come from? Well, apparently Charles had originally planned 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:02.160 to call his dog Sniffy, but then he found out 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:04.839 that another comic featured a dog with the same name, 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:07.040 so he had to change it to something else. But 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:09.439 luckily he had this backup. You know, when he was 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:12.679 a kid, his mother suggested if they ever got another dog, 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.120 they should name him Snoopy, and so that's where the 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.160 name came from. Anyway, back back to the real world 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:21.600 Snoopy for a second. It's pretty striking how devoted to 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.520 his dog. Charles was, just like Charlie Brown would later 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:27.520 be with Snoopy. So how how do you mean? Well, 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:30.720 the very first drawing that Charles ever published was of 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:33.680 his dog Spike. So Charles was just fifteen years old 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.200 at the time when he submitted this drawing and actually 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:39.080 a fact along with it to Ripley's Believe it or Not, 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:42.400 and it got published nationally. I mean, that's pretty cool. 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:45.000 But what was so unbolouivable about Spike that got him 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:48.640 published in Ripley's. Well, the drawings caption said that Spike 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:51.760 was quote a hunting dog that eats pins, tax and 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:56.079 razor blades, so he didn't exactly have Snoopy's refined palette. 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:59.720 But it does sound like Spike shared his taste for adventure. 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.120 That was this article and mental flaws about this that 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:04.400 was talking about. You know, the dog would make a 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:07.199 break for freedom anytime the door was open and only 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:10.000 come back because he loved going on car rides. So 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.120 whenever Spike got loose, Charles would run to his dad's 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:15.680 car and basically just honked the horn as a way 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:18.600 to lure the dog back. I mean, we we actually 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:20.760 had a dog like that growing up. She'd run off 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:22.200 for the only way to get her back was to 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.760 unwrap a slice of American exactly. That's what always works. Yeah, 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:29.439 I mean it's so weird that, like that plastic peel 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:31.560 sound like when it was coming off the craft slices, 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:33.280 that's what would make her race back to the house. 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:36.160 But you know, having a dog you keep losing sounds 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:38.719 very Charlie Brown to me as well. And and uh 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:41.520 speaking which, some of my favorite Peanuts facts are the 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:44.680 ones that overlap between Charlie Brown's childhood and Charles Schultz. 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:47.760 Is like, there's a surface level stuff, but both of 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:50.200 them had fathers who were barbers. But but then they're 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:53.360 also those like wonderfully tragic tidbits from Schultz's life that 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:57.000 feels so Charlie Brown, Like his dad used to give 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:59.560 him haircuts but when customers came in, he'd have to 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:01.440 hop out of the chair. So you just have to 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:03.920 grump around and wander about with half a haircut until 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.920 that finished it up. I which does sound so very 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:09.360 Charlie Brown. It's pretty great, yeah, I know. And there 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.000 was actually one time when Shultston line at a movie 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:14.120 theater because they were handing out candy bars to the 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.480 first kids to buy tickets that day, and of course 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.400 Schultz was the hundred first kid in line. You know. 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:23.720 When when he was in high school, Schultz's teacher convince 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:25.640 him to draw some comics for a senior year book. 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:29.520 And so Schultz, of course, being super timid and socially awkward, 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.480 he's a little nervous, but he desperately wants to be 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:36.080 a cartoonist, so he overcomes a shyness he submits artwork, 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:38.800 and then when the yearbook comes out, of course everyone 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.160 had forgotten to include his work, Like, not a single 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.560 one of his cartoons got used. That's a tough break, 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:46.720 but you know, it is interesting to see that that 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:50.920 not every aspect of Peanuts is drawn from Schultza's own experience. 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:53.600 You know, if you take the character Franklin, for instance, 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:56.520 he was introduced as the comic strips first black character. 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:59.280 And now this was in July of nineteen sixty eight, 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.439 and this was just a few months after the assassination 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.600 of M. L. K Jr. Yeah, it's amazing that that's 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:09.679 fifty years ago this year. And and uh and this 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:12.280 was based on a reader's suggestion, right, yeah, that's right. 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:14.880 The reader was a mother of three named Harriett Glickman, 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:17.040 and she wrote to Schultz just a few days after 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.880 the death of Martin Luther King. And now in that note, 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.560 the Glickman noted the power that mass media has to 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:25.840 shape what she called the unconscious attitudes of our kids. 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:28.600 So she has Schultz to add one or more black 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:31.400 characters to his trips. And this was so that children 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:34.720 could see that respect and friendship was possible between people 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:38.240 of all races. And Schultz was pretty moved by the idea, 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.720 but he didn't add the character immediately. He was actually 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:43.960 a little bit nervous that the move might seem to 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:47.840 be patronizing to black readers. But as Glickman continued to 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:50.760 correspond with him over the course of several months, you know, 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:52.960 he decided to change his mind on this and on 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:55.760 July one, he wrote to say that Glickman should watch 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:57.920 for the new character to appear by the end of 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:00.960 the month, which of course he did. And so does 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:03.840 show suffer any blowback from from this when when when 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.360 the strip comes out, Well, you know, you had some 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.160 black readers that did argue that Franklin was a bland 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:14.040 character and therefore somewhat patronizing, but in general readers appreciated 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.640 the added representation as well as you know how kind 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:21.240 and worry free Franklin was compared with other Peanuts kids. 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:24.360 But it still it was undoubtedly a tense time for 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:27.080 America for an artist to debut what was essentially the 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:31.080 first minority character in a mainstream comic strip. But other 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.880 than this brief exchange where Franklin mentions that his father 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.920 was a soldier in Vietnam, there's really nothing overtly political 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:41.480 about his inclusion. Like Charlie Brown loses his beach ball, 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:43.880 only to have it found and returned to him by 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:46.400 a boy named Franklin, and then the boys decided to 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:50.320 build a sandcastle together, which is of course very sweet. Yeah, 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.160 but they're definitely a bit of backlash from this. You 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:56.200 had several newspaper editors from southern states that wrote to 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.840 Schultz demanding that he stopped using the character, or at 0:15:59.880 --> 0:16:02.600 the very least that he Alwaids showing Franklin in school 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:06.080 with the other white characters, which is just mind boggling 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:08.960 to think about. But his response was pretty straightforward. So 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.040 here's what he told an interviewer years later about the incident. 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:14.880 I never paid any attention to those things. And I 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:18.880 remember telling United Features President Larry Rutman at the time 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:21.680 about Franklin. He wanted me to change it, and we 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:23.720 talked about it for a long while on the phone, 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.160 and I finally sighed, and I said, well, Larry, let's 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:29.440 put it this way. Either you print it just the 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:32.280 way I draw it, or I quit. How's that? So 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:35.080 that's the way it ended. I mean, that is so awesome, 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:38.200 and it's nice to hear that, like, despite whatever reservations 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:40.640 he might have had at the beginning, she ultimately went 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.280 to bat for Franklin in this really big way. Yeah, 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:45.400 and you know, I know we wanted to talk about 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.720 an earlier occasion when Schultz butted heads with upper management, 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:51.280 and this time about what the strip should be called. 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:56.000 But before we get into that, let's take a quick break. 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:11.840 You're listening to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:15.639 cartoonists Charles Schultz and his beloved Peanuts comic strips. So, 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:17.760 you know, to be clear, there was one thing that 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.640 she definitely did not love about his own strip, and 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:23.679 that was the title. So back in n when he 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:25.720 first pitched the strip to be carried by the United 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:29.520 Feature Syndicate, Schultz insisted the title should be Little Folks, 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:35.399 which maybe wasn't the most creative title, but it does seem, 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:37.200 i don't know, somewhat fitting if you think about how 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:39.840 so many of his characters they read like these little 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:43.320 kids with grown up type worries, and like they're plagued 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:47.160 by this level of anxiety and almost neurosis that's typically reserved, 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:50.239 you know, for adults. Yeah, but whether it's fitting or not, 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.760 the executives had this different problem with it. So there 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:55.920 was already a strip called Little Folks, except with the 0:17:55.960 --> 0:18:00.040 word little all spelled out instead of little like it, 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:03.359 and then there was also a little abner the comic strip. 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.199 So they're worried that readers might confuse the titles, or 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:08.240 worse that the creators of the rival strips might sue 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:12.240 them for copyright infringement. So instead, the production manager at 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:15.400 the syndicate decided to call the strip Peanuts. And I 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:17.840 guess this was a reference to the Howdy Duty show 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:20.119 that was pretty popular at the time. When kids came 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:22.879 to tapings, they sat in the Peanut Gallery. So the 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:25.600 production manager thought, you know, like he'd rip off that 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:28.320 idea and just called the small Kids Peanuts. I do 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:30.760 like that their solution to not being sued was to 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:34.719 rip off a TV show instead, but either, I know, 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:36.640 I mean, the other theory is that they just thought 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:38.920 Little Folks was a weak title, but they didn't want 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:42.479 to upset Shultz. Um not that he wasn't upset anyway. 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:46.240 In the interview, he was still angry about the Peanuts title, 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.760 and he said, quote, it's totally ridiculous, has no meaning, 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:53.160 is simply confusing, and has no dignity. And I think 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:57.160 my humor has dignity, which is sad that you never 0:18:57.200 --> 0:18:59.480 got to change the name. But you know, of course, 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:01.840 once this strip took off, he was kind of stuck 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:04.600 with the title. And uh, what's funny to me is 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.480 that schill Is actually avoided using the title himself, like 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:09.680 he claimed that whenever someone asked him what he did 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:11.960 for a living, you just tell them I draw that 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:16.680 comic strip with Snoopy in it, Charlie Brown and his Daughter. Well, 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.480 whatever you call it, there's no question that Schultz's comic 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:21.880 was a runaway hit once the strip gained a little 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:24.320 bit of steam. So it was published in just seven 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:27.680 US newspapers when it debuted back in October of nineteen. 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:30.359 Well by the end of its fifty year run and 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:33.399 two thousand, the comic was being translated in over twenty 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:37.440 different languages, published in seventy five different countries, and had 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:40.600 grown its global readership to his staggering three hundred and 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:45.240 fifty five million people. So in total, over fifteen thousand 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:50.200 daily strips and Sunday strips were produced, all written, inked, 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:53.159 and lettered by Charles Schultz himself. I mean, it was 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:57.160 this unprecedented run, and actually so unprecedented that the media 0:19:57.200 --> 0:19:59.960 scholar Robert Thompson once called the fifty year story of 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.760 Charlie Brown and his Pals arguably the longest told story 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:07.400 by a single artist in human history. I mean, that's 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:10.280 really incredible to think about. So what do you think 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.520 made it click with people? For such a long time. Well, 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:15.199 I think a big part of it goes back to 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:17.040 something that we mentioned at the top of the show, 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:19.359 which is the way the strip really found this middle 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:22.320 ground in terms of tone. I mean, it was funny 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:25.640 and sometimes sweet, but there was always kind of this prickly, 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:29.960 world weary feeling underlying the humor there. And you know, 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:32.760