Facts About The “Peanuts” Comic Strip

by interestingfacts.com

   Charlie Brown and his gang of lovable young’uns are bonafide stars when it comes to classic American comic strip characters. 

   Peanuts, the brainchild of cartoonist Charles Schulz, is so well-known that many of its quotes and common catchphrases are now a part of our cultural lexicon. (Think: “Good grief,” “AAUGH,” and “Happiness is a warm puppy.”)

   It has spawned numerous animated TV specials — 45, to be exact, including the 1965 holiday classic A Charlie Brown Christmas — and every Thanksgiving, a 50-foot-tall Snoopy balloon makes its way down Fifth Avenue as part of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

   The world that Schulz created half a century ago still resonates deeply with ardent fans of the comic and casual pop culture aficionados alike.

   Here are some facts you might not know about Peanuts:

1-Schultz didn’t pick the name “Peanuts”

   When Schulz first came up with the idea for a comic strip that revolved around a group of young neighborhood kids in 1947, he called the weekly panel cartoon Li’l Folks. At the time, he was illustrating the comic strip for his hometown newspaper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press. But when he brought the idea to the United Feature Syndicate in 1950, he was asked to change the name, given possible copyright issues with a different strip called Little Folks. 

   Schulz suggested Charlie Brown or Good Ol’ Charlie Brown, but the syndicate decided on a different name entirely — Peanuts — after the children-only audience section of The Howdy Doody Show, which was referred to as the “Peanut Gallery.” (While Schulz may not have been aware, the phrase had racist origins in the 19th century.)

   Schulz wasn’t exactly a fan of the new name. He thought it made the strip sound insignificant. He once said in an interview that he sometimes rebelled and submitted the comic without a title. Ultimately, though, Schulz and the syndicate reached a compromise: They would use the name Peanuts and run the subtitle Charlie Brown and His Gang on Sundays.\

2-Snoopy has five siblings 

   Snoopy, Charlie Brown’s beloved beagle (modeled after Schulz’s own pup, Spike), is one-of-a-kind. Over the years, he’s proved to be Charlie Brown’s best friend and confidante, an active dreamer, and an art aficionado, whose doghouse is supposedly adorned with works by Vincent Van Gogh and Andrew Wyeth.

   But Snoopy didn’t start out as an only pup.

   Before Charlie Brown bought him from the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, Snoopy had five siblings, who have all made appearances through the years: Spike, who wears a hat, has a mustache, and lives in the desert outside Needles, California; Belle, Snoopy’s only sister who has an unnamed teenage son; Marbles, who is often referred to as the smart one in the family; Olaf, the misfit of the family; and Andy, who is always drawn with fuzzy fur and only appears in strips alongside Olaf.

3-Charlie Brown’s dad is a barber

   Although adults barely feature in the Peanuts world that Schulz created, Charlie Brown’s parents are two who are given the tiniest semblance of personalities in the comic strip. And by personalities, we mean job descriptions. Charlie Brown’s mother is a housewife (and one of the only characters who calls Charlie “Charlie”), while his father is a barber, just like Schulz’s dad in real life. Charlie Brown’s dad doesn’t actually appear in the strip, but he’s referenced often.

4-The Little Red-Harried Girl is never seen

   Speaking of characters who never show their faces — Charlie Brown’s eternal crush, the Little Red-Haired Girl, is mentioned frequently but never actually appears in any of Schulz’s original comic strips (though she did make appearances in some later TV specials). The closest readers have ever come to seeing the Little Red-Haired Girl in print was in silhouette, in one of Schulz’s daily strips in 1998. She was never given a name.

   According to a 2015 feature in The Week, there was a good reason for that: She was based on a real woman. Schulz dated the red-headed Donna Mae Johnson prior to Peanuts’ success; he even proposed, but she turned him down and married someone else shortly after.

   Schulz admittedly pined for her for years after, and in 1961 he created the mysterious Little Red-Haired Girl for Charlie Brown, possibly as a symbol of young, unrequited love.

5- Linus did not speak for the first two years

   Many of Schulz’s characters represent a part of his personality, and Linus is no different. The oft-nervous younger brother of bossy (er, executive-potential) Lucy, Linus actually didn’t say his first word until 1954, two years after he was introduced into the comic strip. Schulz has referred to Linus as a manifestation of his “serious side … the house intellectual, bright, well-informed,” which may be why, he said, Linus has such “feelings of insecurity.”

    And while Linus’ trademark blue blanket didn’t exactly spark the term “security blanket,” it’s hard not to link the two in our cultural understanding of what a security blanket is these days.

   Tomorrow: more fun with the Peanuts gang.