Some interesting news on two fronts if you’re a fan of Peanuts and its creator, Charles Schulz (as I am). Next week is the publication of the biography Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis, which is only the second biography written about the cartoonist (the first was Rheta Grimsley Johnson’s Good Grief: The Story of Charles M. Schulz, which was written when Schulz was still alive and with his cooperation). This sounds like it could be interesting. I’m guessing that the book will create new debates about Schulz, his life, and his work- which could be both a good thing and a bad thing- based on the fact that the New York Times recently reported that Schulz’s family is disturbed at the portrayal of the man as constantly depressed and harsh towards others- very much unlike the way he appeared to come off in television programs and in interviews. The family is also dismayed at the fact that Michaelis chose to focus on more of the bad parts of Schulz’s life, such as his often shaky relationship with his first wife, Joyce Halverson, whom Michaelis claims was the inspiration for Lucy. Based on some of the things I’ve read about Schulz and his life, it isn’t surprising that he had depression in his life, as do we all- look at Charlie Brown. But whether or not he was really the opposite of the way he came off is something we’ll never know. Either way, it sounds like a very interesting book.
On a far more upbeat note, Warner Home Video recently announced that they have obtained the home video rights to the Peanuts TV specials. As part of an agreement with United Media, Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates, and Bill Melendez Productions, Warner will begin in 2008 to rerelease new DVDs of the classic holiday specials previously put out by Paramount- including the first and most famous Emmy- and Peabody-award winning 1965 classic A Charlie Brown Christmas- with new bonus features and restorations. But far more interesting in my opinion is the fact that they will also be releasing compilations of some of the lesser-known specials- released on VHS years ago by Paramount but never before available on DVD- packaged together in the style of their best-selling Looney Tunes Golden Collection series. If Warner can treat Charlie Brown and his friends as well as they do Bugs and Popeye, I’m sure a new generation of Peanuts fans will come to love both the perennials and the obscures as much as we all have.
Also look for a new PBS documentary on Schulz later this month.
I remember one Charlie Brown episode where they went to France and another were they went to summer camp. Other than Christmas and Halloween I don’t remember any others. Were there more?
According to this list, there were 39 Peanuts TV specials done during Schulz’s life, 5 posthumous specials, a 8-episode miniseries, an 18-episode Saturday-morning cartoon, and 4 feature films. MGibson is recalling It Was A Short Summer, Charlie Brown (1969) and either the feature film Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don’t Come Back) (1980) or its TV follow-up What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? (1983). Obligate Carnivore is recalling the feature film Snoopy Come Home (1972), featuring wonderful compositions by Walt Disney’s favorite composers, Richard and Robert Sherman.
Schultz himself stated that his daughter Meredith was the inspiration for Lucy. She acted like her when she was very young, and he even use to call her “fussbudget.”
Scultz has written autobiographical stuff in several of the Peanuts books. He admits to getting depressed occasionally (who doesn’t?). But he always came across as a nice “Charlie Brown” type of guy.
Others have given the links, of course. My parents taped “The NASA Space Station” episode when it aired. Not a very good show, in my opinion, and boy were they optimistic about what would eventually become the ISS. I remember the script claiming that it’d be up and running by 1995. They also taped “The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk.” Same opinion, more or less.
Quite frankly, maybe three Peanuts shows are worth watching in my opinion.
I’m currently working my way through the various Complete Peanuts volumes and have developed an extremely deep appreciation for a body of which which I had largely dismissed before. The only Peanuts I ever liked were the earlier strips, and while I still vastly prefer Shultz’s style in the earlier strips, I’ve only recently started to appreciate the strip on the whole.
The DVDs sound cool, too. The TV specials and the biography will make really nice companions to my growing Peanuts library.
Schulz occasionally took a punch line directly from life. One example I read about long ago was the strip originally published on May 28, 1961. As this page confirms my memory:
Wasn’t there a “Peanuts” special where Charlie Brown is paired off with the Little Red-Haired Girl at a school dance, and is supposed to kiss her? IIRC, he goes into a loopy dreamflight as soon as he kisses her, only to wake up the next morning with no memory of what happened. Linus tells him he was the hit of the dance, but Chuck has a complete blackout of the whole event. I swear I saw this, but no-one I ever mention it to remembers it.
That’s It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown from 1977. (I could have sworn it was much earlier; I’m obviously conflating it with You’re in Love, Charlie Brown.)
The one I’m eager to see again is Play It Again, Charlie Brown, which actually focuses on Schroeder’s Beethoven fixation, and Lucy’s frustration therewith.
One of Schulz’s biggest fans, Bill Watterson, has made of one his rare post-Calvin and Hobbes print appearances to reviewSchulz and Peanuts for The Wall Street Journal. Watterson is impressed by how Schulz was able to take the bad parts of his life and find humor in them- which is, I guess, what all humorists do.
She was blasphemously shown on screen, and her name was blasphemously revealed to be Heather. Thankfully, this video does not actually exist, except in the fevered imaginations of those who claim to have seen it.