Jimmy: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. This is Unpacking Peanuts. We are covering 1988, episode three, the end of the year. I'm, your host for the proceedings. My name is Jimmy Gownley. You might also know me as the cartoonist of Amelia Rules. Seven good reasons not to grow up. The Dumbest Idea ever. And you can subscribe to my new comic for free. It's called Tanner Ox, and you can get it at gvillecomics dot substack.com. hope you're doing well.
Joining me, as always, are my pals, co hosts, and fellow cartoonists. He's a playwright and a composer, both for the band complicated people, as well as for this very podcast. He's the original editor of Amelia Rules, the co creator of the original comic book Price Guide on the cartoonist behind such great strips as strange attractors, a, gathering of spells, and Tangled River, it's Michael Cohen,
Michael: say hey.
Jimmy: And he's the executive producer and writer of mystery science theater 3000, a former vice president of Archie comics, and the creator of the Instagram sensation sweetest beasts, Harold Buchholz.
Harold: Hello.
Jimmy: How are you guys doing?
Michael: Pretty good.
Harold: Well, thanks.
Jimmy: Glad to hear. So, do we have any preamble? Do we have anything we need to talk about before we get to these strips? We have a lot of strips to get to today.
Harold: Thing I wanted, this hit me. I was going through the anger and happiness list, for this year, and as I was going through the strips again, one jumped out at me that I really just didn't notice the first time around that I thought was kind of a cool little piece of trivia. It's the March 16 strip where Lucy's talking to Snoopy, and she's saying, you know what you should write? You should write your own life story. That's what you should do. Write your autobiography. All you need is a good title. And do you remember what Snoopy's title was?
Jimmy: Oh, no. What is it? I sort of remember, but now, me.
Harold: Me, three years later, Katherine Hepburn came out with her autobiography, called Me.
Jimmy: That's right. I love those celebrities that get to do that. I have to jump through hoops, putting all kind, like, titles together, and you're showing them to different editors, and they're showing them to, you know, people at the bookstores and stuff like that, and they're all weighing in on your dumb title. And then, like Keith Richards is like life. It's just life. It's like, okay, Keith, I can't get away with just life.
Harold: Oh, man. Yeah, well, you know, it's entirely possible, given three years out, that somebody saw that and either recommended it to Catherine. Absolutely. Or she saw it, who knows? Because it was. I mean, it struck me that struck everybody. I think, really, when that came out, it was such an audacious.
Jimmy: Yes, totally.
Harold: Biography. And then here's Snoopy beat her, too. By three years. I love that.
Jimmy: That's really funny. Very, very cool. all right, well, we got a lot of strips to get to, so should we just hit them?
Michael: Yep. Do it.
Harold: Sure.
Jimmy: So if you guys want to follow along with what we're doing here, there's a couple ways you can do it. The first thing you need to do, go over to our website, unpackingpanuts.com dot sign up for the Great Peanuts reread. And then you'll get our once a month email that'll tell you what strips we'll be covering then, because this is the 21st century and everything is free online. You can just go over to gocomics.com, type in Peanuts, and then those dates, and away you go. You can read the whole thing for free. If you're bougie, you got a little coin in your pocket and you want to support the arts, then why don't you go out and, you get those fan of graphics books which are fantastic, beautiful editions. Or, Andrews McMeal has a beautiful, little collection each decade. All the dailies, I don't believe you get the Sundays, but you can get them from the fifties all the way through the nineties. So that's how you can follow along with us. And, here we go.
September 4. Starting off with a Sunday, Charlie Brown's relaxing in the old bean bag. When Sally approaches them with her homework, it looks like and says, so which is it? Tess of the de Herbivilles or I baskervilles? Maybe I'll put down. Who cares? She says as she walks away, sending Charlie Brown sinking further into the bean bag with his feet up in the air. Classic. then the strip starts for real, and we see Sally is writing away, a little essay. And she writes Test of the d'Urbervilles by Laurel N. Hardy. Charlie Brown says, that's Thomas Hardy. Sally says, really? And, Charlie Brown picks the book up off the table and says, I can't believe you read this whole book. She says, I read the first word on Charlie Brown says, how can you write a book report if you've only read the first word. Sally says, no problem. And she continues, right from the first word, I knew this was going to be a good book. To which Charlie Brown says, I can see you're going to be a lover of Great literature. And Sally says, those, who can't do, fake it.
Michael: I noticed something in this strip, funny across the board. Yeah, it's funny across the board. But if you look at it, I wonder, the two panels on the top, which would be cut in some papers, actually makes a daily with punchline.
Harold: Yeah, it does.
Michael: But if you look at the other two, this actually works as three dailies.
Harold: Oh, wow.
Jimmy: It does.
Harold: Wow. That's cool.
Jimmy: Now that he's doing the three. Yeah.
Michael: So I wonder if he, if he was, like, couldn't come up with an Idea for a Sunday. And he said, I'll just put these three dailies down.
Harold: Yeah, I'm doing fewer panels now. I'll just make more gags.
Michael: I don't know. But generally the top two don't matter. In this case, it's actually a punchline with Charlie Brown, like, doing a little flip in, the bean bag chair.
Jimmy: Yep.
Harold: I remember my wife, Diane Cook. She was working on her PhD, and we discovered a review of a book back, that came out in 2009, and we saw the review of it in the newspaper, and it's called how to talk about books you haven't read. I immediately thought of Sally here, that book.
Jimmy: That's so funny.
Michael: I don't know if that ever made classics illustrated.
Harold: no, I don't think Tess. Tess was in the top 300.
Jimmy: These poor kids that have to suffer in these, these grades.
Harold: Oh, my gosh.
Jimmy: War and peace and Thomas Hardy.
Harold: She's like, Seven, six, Seven.
Jimmy: Man, they are tough. Yeah. I've never, I don't think I've ever read Thomas Hardy nor at all.
Michael: I read the first word.
Harold: I have read Laurel and Hard.
Jimmy: Now I have to unpacking tests. Untangling test. That's our next podcast.
September 5. Peppermint Patty's getting ready to, go back to school, and Marcy's helping her come up with a brand new look. So, Marcie in panel one has a little brush, and she says to pepper and Patty, we could try it this way, sir. Patty is looking at. Her hair has been swept up. You're gonna really have to look at these. Swept up into a sort of a new wave. I don't even know what you'd call it. Like a stack. It's spiky, straight up in the air. then panel two, it's just the same, but wild. Think of an Einstein look, as Marcie says to her, or even this way. But for the first day of school, we have to be very careful. And then the last one, we see her having an entire sweep over her head. Pepper and patty, that is, with her hair crimped and covering one eye. And Marcie says, you don't want to look too beautiful. To which Peppermint Patty says, sarcasm does not become you, Marcie.
Michael: We should have a poll, a reader poll, to decide which of these three is our favorite.
Jimmy: All right, well, let's start with us right now.
Michael: I gotta go with. I gotta go with three. I like the hair covering one eye look.
Harold: I'll give her number three, I think. And Marcie seems very pleased with that. So how about you?
Liz: Well, I have photographs of myself with haircut like number one, so that's dear to my heart.
Jimmy: Okay, I gotta tell you, first off, gotta see the pics. Secondly, I love number one, too. All right? It's a split. It's a split decision. I think this is cool in a way, because he's. It's. This is old man Schulz complaining about the weird styles the kids are into. But because it's framed in a way that Peppermint Patty is legitimately trying to be hip and just failing. It doesn't really read that way. It reads as, a kid trying to make it and not being able to figure it out.
Michael: Well, but clearly her hair is weird, and normally it's weird. So it. This straight makes me as a little bit of desperation, like, try anything.
Harold: Well, there's another strip this year that is a little more what you're talking about, Jimmy. About the old man complaining. Kid with a boombox. I remember that strip seemed like.
Jimmy: Yeah, that's.
Harold: That's the old guy going. That's really inconsiderate. You're. You're invading my oral space with your boombox.
Jimmy: Oh, my gosh. That's so funny. Billy Joel gets a lot of crap, and one of the things I'm surprised no one ever gave him crap for, even though I personally really like Billy Joel, he's the first rock star to write, a song about the music being too darn loud, close to the borderline. I don't want to hear it. But they won't turn it down. It's, like, the least rock song ever.
Harold: Pesky kids,
September 8. Sally is sitting in a beanbag chair watching tv, and, whatever is on is going like this. Bang. Ugh. Pow. Screech. Ugh. And then in panel two, the tv says, coming soon to a theater near you. Sally clicks it off and says, I hope not too near.
Harold: Case in point.
Michael: Yeah, really too bad Sally's wasting all these, these great zingers talking to the tv.
Jimmy: this was the height of the eighties action movie trend, you know that. I mean, they were gigantic things like Die hard and road house and, you know, all the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies like commando and a. Ah, predator or whatever.
Harold: Yeah, and Diehouse and Roadhard. Exactly. Those were the Roger Corman versions, I think.
Jimmy: Yeah, right. Here's another case in point of him complaining. I remember my mom complaining about all the shooting in these movies, but she really loved road house with Patrick sways.
Harold: Well, there you go.
Jimmy: Inexplicable, inexplicable.
September 11, another Sunday. Snoopy staring at, a globe. A very fancy looking globe. and then in panel two, we see he has put on his expedition hat as the scout leader and is hopped off his doghouse, ready to go do something. The next panel, when the strip starts on tier two, Snoopy walks past Linus and Charlie Brown, and Linus says, where's he going? Charlie Brown answers, don't you know today is the day. Charlie Brown continues. Once every 500 years, all the beagles in the world return to the valley. To which Linus says, once every 500 years, Charlie Brown says, all the beagles in the world. That must be a sight to behold, says Linus, to which Charlie Brown says, I just hope he has a good time. And then in the last panel, we see all the beagles in the world. They all look like Snoopy, except Snoopy's wearing a hat. And he says, am I the only one wearing a hat?
Michael: Yeah, we, every now and then we go, there's a strip. So weird. We say, we've got to do a whole podcast on the weirdest Peanuts strips. This, clearly, this has to be in there. This makes absolutely no sense.
Jimmy: This would make my top two or three, weirdest strips. It would. This would have to be included because this is one…
Michael: Plus, the look on their faces, they're all, like, befuddled. Like, what am I doing here?
Harold: I mean, the weird thing was, back in 1488, everyone was wearing hats.
Jimmy: That's why Snoopy did it this time.
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: Jumping the shark, Charles Schulz.
Jimmy: Yeah, I love that. It's the valley. Just the one valley. This is so dream.
Michael: They're not even in a valley.
Harold: Yeah, yeah. No mountains to be seen. Interesting.
Michael: Man, this is bizarre.
Jimmy: Oh, man. I think it would be fun for him, after all these years to draw 1234-5678 and 910. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. Like, there's 19 visible Snoopies just in those first rows. And then there's even a couple more going back.
Michael: Modern technology. He could have done, like, thousands.
Liz: Yeah, but none of his family is there.
Jimmy: Well, they may be way right there.
Michael: Look, last row, third from the left.
Harold: Yeah, well, maybe this is a whole new book Idea. Where's Snoopy?
Jimmy:. There you go.
Harold: He's wearing various things that Snoopy would wear. It's world war one. Flying ace outfit. I'm in a sea of beagles.
Jimmy: Pitch of the week. Love it. Love it. I like if you zoom in really close and you start looking at those ones on the right, towards the back, where they look like. They look like bean world characters.
Michael: Yeah.
Jimmy: Larry's Bean world.
Harold: Yeah. Or Bone.
Jimmy: Yeah. Real cute.
September 24. Charlie Brown brings out Snoopy's, dinner, and he says to Snoopy, would you like a little coleslaw with your dinner tonight? Very proud of himself, Charlie Brown says, I chopped up some cabbage, a few carrots, a couple of onions, and mixed in some dressing, to which Snoopy just rolls back over on his back and says, forget it. I never eat anything that has to be explained.
Harold: Yeah. Makes me think of all those events in the fancy restaurants. It's always a ____ reduction.
Michael: I never eat anything that has ingredients.
Jimmy: I'm a big ingredient fan, but less so these days.
Harold: Yeah. And here's a classic one where you look at the different Snoopy poses and how things change. It's just so striking. You know, the ears, first ear, classic drop to ear. And then the second panel is the ears over the head with interest. But they're kind of jangly looking. And then the super thin ear, and he's lying on his back. Interesting. It's amazing.
Harold: And I just wonder, I mean, Schulz, does Schulz even think about it anymore? You know, he just hit. He just hit the look he liked, and he's all over the place. And we don't. We don't think about it either. Right. It's just. That's just what he looks like in that pose.
Jimmy: Robert Short, who, wrote the book the Gospel According to Peanuts, also wrote a second book called the Parables of Peanuts. And he has a whole section talking about how, Schulz will reuse the poses over and over again and how he really thinks that's like, a strength of the strip, because, you know, it's just instantly, and you've seen it so many times, it hits you. You know what it reads like? It's like reading a word. It's.
Harold: It is.
Jimmy: And so repeated that you know exactly what it means.
Harold: Yeah, it's weird. So part of our mutual lexicon across all languages are the Peanuts poses.
Jimmy: It's very crazy to think someone, I mean, I don't think he started out thinking, well, I mean, maybe he did. It may all be a function of the fact that it was from the small size of the strip, but, you know, he was, he clearly somehow arrived that I'm going to do the most iconic thing every time I can, even if that means I'll repeat the pose a thousand times. And it works perfectly well.
Harold: Yeah, yeah. It's crazy to see, to see this. And it's inspiration as a cartoonist just to see what he built and what he was boldly doing. That seems to break rules, but it doesn't matter. In fact, it actually works in his favor.
Jimmy: Yep.
September 25. Snoopy's atop the doghouse, and he's thinking to himself, I think I'll try it again. why not? then in the next panel, we see him sneaking out, peering from behind a tree. And then on tier two, we see what he's been, attempting. And what he's doing is sneaking up on Linus one more time. He's going to try to take that blanket from him. And Linus senses that Snoopy's approaching and says, all right, you stupid beagle, you think you want this blanket? Here, take it. And Linus turns and throws the blanket at Snoopy, and it lands on his head, covering him completely like it's a ghost costume. He stands there for a minute covered in the blanket. Linus looks completely just. He's at the end of his rope. So then Snoopy, covered in the blanket, walks home saying, rats, and then ends up atop the doghouse thinking to himself, nothing is ever as much fun as you thought it was going to be. And he's still covered in the blanket.
Michael: What's the dog do when it catches the car?
Jimmy: Yeah, or the famous roadrunner cartoon, where Wile E. Coyote finally catches him. But he's, like, tiny, and he's like, okay, now that caught him, what do you want me to do? Or the Cerebus joke of first Cerebus comic I read, you can get what you want and still not be very happy.
Harold: I love the drawing. In panel, four of Snoopy. When he's got his mouth open as he's just about to chomp onto the blanket. And he's got this little thoughtful look on his face with his mouth open, still crouched down. That's a great drawing.
Jimmy: Yeah. I love the one of him sneaking out from behind the tree. I think that's really cute.
October 6. Charlie Brown and Lucy are at the thinking wall. And Lucy says, if I were in charge of the world, I'd change everything. Charlie Brown says, that wouldn't be easy. Where would you start? To which Lucy replies, I'd start with you.
Michael: It's poetry. I mean, just the minimum amount of words necessary to totally humiliate somebody.
Harold: What do you think of, the look on Charlie Brown's face? Because that's for Charles Schulz. That's a pretty loud response, you know what I mean? Half circles around his eyes. And usually Schulz doesn't go that big, but here he does. And I think based on what Lucy is saying, it kind of fits.
Jimmy: Yeah. It's like he walked into a pole or something. It's got his bell rung. He did not expect this coming from Lucy, even though at this point he probably should have. But I think it's. I think this one works. the three panel thing really works to his advantage because, again, it's an instant.
Harold: Yeah. You don't have time to wait to prepare for it.
Jimmy: Right, exactly. Yeah.
Harold: Between the eyes.
Jimmy: Yeah. And then neither does the reader, which is kind of cool, too, you know?
Harold: Why do you think that Charlie Brown is on the left of Lucy? This totally could have been flipped. Right? Because we see his response technically before we see her. If we're reading left to right, he could have flipped it. is there a reason, do you think it works better this way, that we kind of. In a way, we kind of swing into his look before we see Lucy?
Jimmy: You know, I. Do you know why I think it might be? It's probably, first off, it's completely subconscious. I'm sure while he's doing this, he's just laying it out. But I think if you had Charlie Brown in the middle panel turning and looking the other way.
Jimmy: That's. There is some sort of cognitive dissonance where he's looking at the back, looking at the past. You know, he's turned to the. He would be turned the other way. And from the reading experience, that, would be the only thing I could. I could think. But I'm sure this is happening. He just threw it down and didn't think twice about it.
Harold: He's pushing you right into the third panel with Charlie Brown looking at it.
Jimmy: Yes, exactly, exactly.
October 9, another Sunday. One of them, there are symbolic panels. Lucy standing, sitting, rather behind a sign that says all the answers and much, much more. Then, in panel two, Linus is sitting in his beanbag chair watching tv, and Lucy says, am I bothering you? To which Linus says, not so far. Lucy continues, how would you like to have someone like myself remind you of all your faults? Linus, still in the bean bag, says, I wouldn't like it. Lucy says, see, right there is one of your problems. You have no desire to improve. Linus freaks out. I don't need you to help me improve, Lucy says. And you're so impatient. You get upset so easily. Linus is just beyond frustrated. Sinking down into the beanbag, he gets up and leaves and says, I don't have to listen to this. Lucy calls out after him. And you think everything can be solved by storming out of the room. Lucy then takes a moment, looks at the tv, then hops in the beanbag herself and says, and you always forget to turn off the tv when you're through watching it.
Michael: Sisters.
Jimmy: Now, is this a familiar, older sister thing for you guys?
Michael: I think my sister gave up on me way before Lucy did.
Harold: My sister was always looking out for me. That was the feeling I got. If she was trying to help me improve, she was like, look, you're clueless. You don't see all of these social cues. Let me give you some pointers. And she did it in a way that didn't make me feel like, an idiot. It actually was like, oh, you know, here's a way to move forward in life, which I greatly appreciate.
Jimmy: That's awesome. Nice.
Liz: Well, I'm suspicious that Michael wasn't thinking about his sister in this when he picked this.
Michael: What do you mean? Lucy ha's totally different hair than you.
Liz: I'm just wondering, whether it's somebody else's suggestions of how you might improve.
Michael: I can't.
Liz: I certainly can't think of anyone.
Jimmy: Oh, not I. No one, here would say a word. You know what? We can all stand a little improvement now and again.
Harold: Sure. Boy, that drawing of Linus yelling, I don't need you to help me improve. He looks like he's about 80 years old.
Jimmy: He does. He looks so old. And the ink line looks. It just looks different.
Harold: It does.
Jimmy: That looks like, an ink line that Chris Ware would do or something. Yeah, right. Yeah, it's got that really thick fifties kind of line. Again, very strange. I got stop saying very strange. I say that so many times. So we'll move on.
October 13. It's the Beagle scouts. And Snoopy's out there. and there's a new beagle scout named Raymond. And Snoopy says, okay, raymond has brought the wieners. And Woodstock the buns. And then, Raymond and Snoopy, look up in the air and Snoopy says, And I see Conrad is sending in the. And then we see narrowly missing our heroes. A fork falls out of the sky and, sticks in the ground. And Snoopy says, wiener fork. Because that's what Conrad was sending in.
Michael: Okay. I didn't pick this for humor. I picked it cuz I I think using having a new bird with zipitone is kind of strange.
Jimmy: It's very strange.
Michael: Because I don't know.
Jimmy: I just said I gotta stop saying that.
Michael: Well, I said it first.
Jimmy: Okay.
Michael: It's weird. Let's say weird. Weird seems to be a popular word these days.
Jimmy: It is weird.
Michael: Yeah. Cause I don't know. Does Raymond show up again?
Jimmy: I don't remember Raymond, but I didn't remember Raymond seeing him this time. This is the part that I'm the least familiar with.
Michael: What's weird is he's made no attempt to differentiate the birds.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: The girl bird looked exactly like the boy birds. So this is the one time, he decided to do it. And it's weird.
Harold: At what point did the did the dailies start to be colored? Because it does happen. Oh.
Jimmy: long after this.
Harold: Really. Okay.
Jimmy: So, well, off the top of my head, I believe it's well into the nineties.
Harold: Okay. And then I'm guessing that was a new responsibility for Schulz. That we're going to see. If you like, say you go to gocomics.com. so if we. Do we ever see Raymond in a Sunday. And see what color he colors Raymond? I guess we will have to find out.
Jimmy: Yeah. I don't have any recollection of this at all. It's like a blind spot. I think somehow I must have.
Jimmy: Honestly, my memory of Peanuts in the eighties was Lucy gardens constantly. And that was like, not remotely true. She gardened once, I think.
Michael: But why would the dailies ever be colored? You talking about for the web?
Harold: Well, the newspapers. No, the newspapers started to have color daily sections. And like St. Louis Post dispatch did.
Michael: I don't think I've ever seen that.
Harold: And I don't know if they colored them themselves. And then after a while, it became a thing. Because color printing just was getting cheaper, and it was a way to get people to want to buy the newspaper and they could do it. So I don't know when that hits, but maybe it is later. And, you know, I don't know how rare or were popular was, but we got the St. Louis Post dispatch in, probably around this time, and I remember, I think it was in color.
Jimmy: You know, this is an interesting thing. We've talked about AI and all the horrors of AI, in the art world. I've been playing around with it a lot for things like scheduling and research. I did, I just. Just because I wanted to research something that had no import. I just want to see. Hey, can you figure out what exact week I first saw Star Wars when I was a kid? And because I knew it wasn't originally, it wasn't like when it came out, it was months and months after. so I put a bunch of clues in. I know I saw the circus in Pottsville. I know I had an action figure first, whatever, and it figured out I got Star wars issue eight as a promotional material, and I got that. And, like, you went to see Star wars in June of third week of June, 1978.
Harold: That's crazy.
Jimmy: Which is amazing. So I'm certain we could figure out when did these strips start becoming colorized from the syndicate? As opposed to just.
Harold: If you ask, what color is Raymond the bird in Peanuts, would you think you'd get.
Jimmy: Check it out. Should we try this right now?
Harold: What do you use? What do you use?
Michael: I'm gonna have to. Sorry, I can't be, party to this.
Jimmy: Well, this is the same as Google. Is Raymond the bird and Peanuts. Sorry, hang on.
Harold: Peanuts have 14 grams of protein.
Jimmy: All right, take this up. Take everything I said with a grain of salt, because it just said, Raymond the bird from Amelia Rules is a bright blue bird with a distinctive yellow beak. He often wears a little propeller hat according to his quirky and charming appearance. So that's your ad for chat GPT. Glad I can help you guys.
Harold: Chat GPT knows Amelia Rules. Is that because it's keeping track of your questions and who you are?
Jimmy: Yeah, it keeps track of. Yeah, well, if you sign in, but chat GPT knows Amelia Rules. If you just typed it in, it knows everything. It knows you and. No, you know, I mean, like, it'll get things wrong.
Harold: Why did it choose? Yeah, I'm just asking. Wonder why. if I were to type it in, it would. It would tell me something else, is what you're saying. It's obviously change the answers based on who you are. That sounds like the Internet.
Jimmy: Yeah, it's not right. You know, I mean, it's clear. It's clearly wrong. So, anyway, so maybe I didn't see Star wars in June of 1978. Maybe I saw it last week. Anyway, forget all of that.
Liz: I just have to say that I saw Star Wars the week it premiered in the Philadelphia region in May of 77.
Jimmy: Very cool.
Harold: Wow. Not logged in. Here's what I got. What color was Raymond the bird in Peanuts? Raymond the bird from Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, was a light blue color. Raymond was one of Snoopy's friends and appeared in a few strips, often bringing a bit of a whimsy to the stores.
Michael: He's a little whimsy.
Jimmy: Finally, we have some whimsy, right?
Harold: We've been waiting all these years until Raymond showed up.
Michael: .. call it whimsy part of the strip except, you know, every beagle in the world. Kind of whimsical thoughts.
Harold: I can see some whimsy.
Michael: Yeah.
October 19. Snoopy's atop the doghouse, and Charlie Brown comes out, bearing his supper dish. Charlie Brown's eyes are closed in some sort of. As if he's repeating something, he's heard before. And this is a formal announcement. Cause Charlie Brown says to Snoopy, this is a test of the emergency supper system. If this had been a real supper, your dish would have been full. Then Charlie Brown leaves carrying the empty dish, saying, this was only a test. To which Snoopy rolls his eyes and thinks, I can't stand it.
Jimmy: An obscurity, is it?
Michael: I mean, do they still do this kind of thing?
VO: Peanuts obscurities explained.
Harold: It's free for anyone 20 or maybe 30 or younger. It probably is an obscurity, right?
Jimmy: I would think so, yeah.
Harold: This was back when you had local tv and radio stations and they were required by law to.
Jimmy: You still have those things, by the way.
Harold: Yeah, but people don't listen to. Certain people of certain ages don't tend to listen to the radio. I haven't heard one in years and years of you guys.
Jimmy: Oh, I listen to the radio regularly. I'm. It's like. It's tragic.
Harold: So they're still doing it?
Jimmy: but, yeah, but no, but people under 50 are not listening to the radio. So, yeah, it would just explain what it actually is.
Harold: And I think the reason they tested it, it wasn't like they weren't telling you, hey, memorize this so that when you hear this, you know, perk your ears up. It was more like it was a feed, I think, that went into, like, a radio station, and they were testing to make sure the feed was working, I think.
Liz: Yeah, I worked for a radio station, and they had to test it to make sure that it would work for the emergency broadcast system.
Harold: Okay. So you just have to make sure it's going through was not stuff related. No, only in Peanuts. That whimsical strip.
Jimmy: So we're gonna take a break here. this is a test of the emergency I need a drink system. it is actually not a test. It's a real thing. So I'm gonna go make myself an iced tea. You characters get a snack or whatever. and then we'll come back and we'll finish this up.
BREAK
VO: Hi, everyone. We all love listening to Jimmy describe what's going on in a peanut strip. But did you know that comics are actually a visual medium? That's right. You can see them anytime you want@gocomics.com. or in your very own copy of the complete Peanuts available from fanographics. Plus, if you sign up for our monthly newsletter, you'll know in advance which strips we're talking about each week. Learn more about the great peanuts reread@unpackingpanuts.com.
Jimmy: And we're back. Hey, Liz, got, anything in the mailbox?
Liz: We do. It's been a couple of weeks since we've recorded, so we got a lot of mail. and we got from some very smart listeners who have corrected us or pointed some things out that we missed. So both Debbie Perry and Jason Bullet, wanted us to know that the masthead for Peanuts changed in January of 1987. Harold pointed that out in our 1988 part one episode, but we received these…
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Oh, so they were pointing out the change to us.
Liz: Yes.
Harold: In advance.
Liz: Yes.
Harold: Gotcha. Well, thank you. Thank you. I'm glad we got people looking out for us here.
Liz: Yes.
Jimmy: Yeah. I completely missed that. I just did not notice it at all. Blew right past it.
Liz: And we talked about the strip with Peppermint Patty adding an amen to the pledge of allegiance. And both Debbie Perry and John Murello pointed out that the same gag was in, September 11, 1963, with Sally saying the exact same thing.
Harold: Wow.
Jimmy: That’s crazy.
Harold: Yeah. 17,000 strips. It's surprising how few times Schulz has done that. But that's a. That's a great catch.
Jimmy: That's funny, because we're actually going to be coming up on something that's not the same punchline, but it's a very similar punchline, later this episode. So that's an interesting little tie in there.
Liz: And we have the smartest listeners in the world.
Harold: Yeah, that's great.
Jimmy: Well, of course they, listen to us and in spite of that, they're still able to function.
Liz: Craig Higgins writes and says. You're mentioning Bloom County in the latest episode. Made me think of A Wish for Wings that Work animated special from back around 1990. I'd absolutely love to hear your thoughts about that particular half hour of television. Be of good cheer, Craig Higgins.
Harold: Hey, Craig, thanks for writing. I've never seen A Wish for Wings that Work. Have you guys?
Jimmy: I have to be honest, I don't love it, really. I mean, I was too old probably, for it. I don't know what to say about it. I saw it once when it came out because I was so hyped for it, because I loved Bloom County and I thought it was okay. And then, I mean, I never watched it again. And then I played it, about ten or twelve Christmases ago for my kids and, it just didn't stick. I don't know. I don't know. How about you, Michael? Have you ever seen it?
Michael: No.
Jimmy: Yeah, I should have known.
Harold: Interesting. I should check it out. I'll have to take a look.
Jimmy: I would love to go through Bloom County stuff, even if it's not for the podcast. Just talk to you guys about it, because it's so tied to the eighties. I mean, there is so much, it's all pop culture stuff. I wonder if it has legs, you know, if it would resonate with people who didn't remember all of that stuff.
Harold: What's interesting, I'm looking on our favorite reference place other than chat GPT, Wikipedia. Oh, it's interesting. He says he was disappointed. Breathed was disappointed with the overall results, and he was asked in 2003 in the Washington Post where a copy of the special could be found on vhs or dvd. He replied to hopefully in the rubbish pail. Wow. We can do better than that. And we will with an eventual Opus film. But I'm glad you enjoyed it. I presume your family was on speed when they watched it. I would imagine. Wow. And he also said the reason he disliked the special was simply unspectacular ratings, and that his humor wasn't meant for television, even if it was done right. And he blamed his own lack of writing experience. Now I really want to see it.
Jimmy: Given these varying reviews, eighties television animation is not good for the most part, I don't think, you know, and it has that feel of, like.
Harold: Yeah, it's just starting to make a comeback around that time. You know, it's.
Jimmy: Yes. It's in that awkward state. Like, I think when, like, Batman, the animated series came out. Like, people were blown away, maniacs, stuff like that. It's right before that stuff. Or at least in my mind, it was right before that stuff. It looks like it predates that stuff because it's just a little clunkier. And I. Opus. Opus is a really hard character, I think, to voice, and they go for a kind of a really silly voice, which, makes sense, but it's a little too much for me.
Liz: Michael liked your Opus voice.
Jimmy: I do appreciate that. That is my internal Opus voice.
Harold: Well, my one last piece of Wikipedia trivia on this is that, Berke Breathed said he had a. An ideal actor to play opus. Can anyone guess who that might have.
Jimmy: Been if I was going to pick any actor to play opus? Crispen Glover.
Harold: Well, I love this guy. And his voice. that would have been fascinating. It was Sterling Holloway.
Michael: the voice of Winnie the pooh, I believe.
Harold: Yeah, and lots and lots of 90%.
Jimmy: Of, like, disney characters, hosts.
Harold: You know, that voice is just so distinctive. I love that voice. I could totally see why brother's like, oh, yeah, can you get sterling?
Sterling Holloway: We keep looking for home, but we keep finding this pit. So I just thought that if we look for this pit, we might find home.
Harold: Yeah, that's a good pick, but thanks, Craig. You make me want to see this thing now, so I'm going to have to check it out.
Liz: We got one more. Paul Hebert, writes again, and he says, I'm really enjoying the more extended format and the deeper dive into the material.
Harold: Oh, Great.
Liz: As always, the pod is helping me learn not only about the language of comic strips more broadly, it's really taking me to new places in my own writing about a comic strip.
Harold: Oh, cool.
Liz: Speaking of which, I hate to be that guy, but I want to point out.
Jimmy: Don't do it. You don't have to be that guy.
Harold: No, it's too late. You've already been that guy.
Jimmy: We're just reading it. One of the funny things, whenever someone says not to be rude, but.
Liz: I want to point out a small oversight that Jimmy made when talking about Berke Breathed as getting the correct for editorial of the controversy that might have had something to do with Doonesbury & Gary Trudeau not getting the same nod. Doonesbury actually was the first comic strip to get the editorial cartoon Pulitzer in 1975. Trudeau even made the cover of Time for the accomplishment.
Harold: Wow.
Liz: That said, I did agree with Jimmy. That criticism of Bloom County being derivative of Trudeau's work is somewhat overblown.
Harold: Absolutely.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: well, thank you.
Jimmy: That's cool. I cannot believe I got that wrong. I googled it while you were saying that. That's like a Mandela effect for me. I'm shocked that, that was so. So. I was so wrong on that.
Harold: Very weird.
Jimmy: But thanks for correcting me, because that's. That's a big mistake.
Harold: Well, it's interesting it didn't come up in that article. I don't know if. If. Who was it that was griping about it? The cartoonist. The editorial cartoonist?
Jimmy: Oh, no.
Harold: Maybe it was Oliphant. And anyway, yeah, maybe he wouldn't have had a problem with Doonesbury, given the difference between, what Bloom county was at that time versus what Doonesbury was in 1975. I don't know. They just didn't go there.
Jimmy: Yeah. Oh, well, thank you so much for that correction. We got two things from the hotline, too. Hi, there.
Joshua: This is Joshua Stauffer. this is not exactly peanuts related, but I watched the Cathy animated special that Jimmy just discovered recently. The story was a little confusing, but I thought the animation was great, the music was awesome, and the voice acting is top notch. Did you know that the Cathy animated specials were animated by Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez, the same guys behind the original Peanuts specials. Also, the voice of Cathy was placed by Kathleen Wilhite, who later became the star of the Disney cartoon Pepper Ann. Be of good cheer.
Jimmy: Well, that's very cool to know. Thank you, Joshua, for that update. I'm glad you found that special. Yeah, I thought the animation was. I liked it because it just looked so low fi. It was interesting because it probably wasn't as in quotes, good as the animation for wish that wings that work, but it works better in that same Peanuts ii way. The low drawing count works for it, you know?
Harold: Right. Yeah, I hear you.
Jimmy: And then we got this one.
VO: Hey, everybody, this is Marcia calling from Pennsylvania. Long time listener. Any chance we could get Harold's Nana's oatmeal raisin cookie recipe? Be of good cheer.
Jimmy: Thanks. Yeah, that's my nana's, oatmeal cookie recipe. And I will send it to you, directly, since you've asked. But then we will post it on, I guess, on the obscurity site. anyone? My nana would love that. People would be making her oatmeal. Oatmeal cookies. It was actually published, the recipe in my old comic book series, Shades of Gray in the nineties. So once I find it, I will.
Harold: reproduce that page, and we're good.
Jimmy: I'm gonna do, yes, I will send it to Liz, and we'll get it up on the online. And that's it. That's all we got from no text messages. That's all we got from the hotline. And we would love to hear from you. So if you want to correct something I said that's wrong, that'll be a full time job for you, my friends. or if you just want to chat, talk about peanuts, have a question. Whatever it is, you can write to us. We're at unpackingpanutsmail.com. you can find us on social media. I'll give you that rundown at the end of the show. And, of course, you can always call us. And that number is 717-219-4162 and remember, when I don't hear from you, I worry. All right, let's get back to the strips.
November 4. Linus and Lucy are, hanging out in the old living room of the van pelt house. And Linus, looking annoyed, walks away from Lucy. And Lucy calls out after him, sure, that's right. Just walk out of the room. You know what your trouble is? And then she yells, because Linus is long gone. You can't take destructive criticism.
Michael: Now, have we seen this punchline before? Possibly. Feels like, did one of our guests maybe pick this?
Liz: No, I think destructive criticism is definitely something that we've seen before.
Harold: Oh, it is. That's interesting.
Liz: let me see if I can find it.
Harold: So, yeah, I was working on an animated cartoon myself, when I was in junior high. And, my best friend, back in the day, was, Wayne Mayfield. And I can't remember we actually put it in there or not. But, we were going to say. I was going to put him in the credits as the technical insultant.
Jimmy: There's a pun I have. It's written on top of a page of art for tanner rocks that I have no place to. I don't know how to use it, but it's pepto abysmal, something so bad at making nauseous.
Harold: Let's see. Can we find this? And again, if we don't figure it out, maybe our listeners will with help us get there.
Michael: Will the Google search find more than one?
Liz: I'm looking for.
Harold: I'm looking.
Liz: I'm looking in the transcripts.
Harold: Oh. May 11, 1959. Lucy talking to Charlie Brown says, you're wishy washy Charlie Brown. And besides that, you're spineless and cowardly. Then Violet shows up and says, what's going on here? Lucy says, oh, nothing much. I'm just trying to give Charlie Brown a little destructive criticism. And Charlie Brown has a big smile on his face, when she says that, which is very interesting. He's appreciative, unlike Linus. He's not going for it.
Jimmy: Well, Linus is a little sharper than Charlie Brown, I think.
Harold: So this is like a greatest hits a year.
Michael: Well, maybe. Maybe Schulz just googled. Googled it. So he figured he hadn't used it before.
Jimmy: Oh, man, that's like the death of. Do you guys google something to see if anybody did it before you did it?
Michael: titles
Jimmy: I don't even do that.
Harold: Yeah. When I haveomething that I might want to trademark. Yes.
Jimmy: Oh.
Harold: Or a website. You want to get a website. And everything's been taken by every company ever that has more than 18 letters.
Michael: In the first musical I worked on, me and a friend were a couple of months into it when I actually did a little research and found out they'd already done a musical based on this person.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah, I remember.
Michael: And then I just stopped it. That was it. Okay. That's it.
Harold: Really? Did you. Did you look at the musical and see if it was good enough?
Michael: No, it bombed on Broadway. It ran for, like, three days on Broadway, and I figured, well,
Jimmy: who was it about?
Michael: Victoria Woodhull. The first woman to run for president.
Liz: In what year?
Michael: It was like, 1870s or something.
Harold: Wow.
Michael: She was in a real character. Yeah. So, don't ever google anything, because you'll clearly find any song title ever has been used.
Harold: Right?
Jimmy: Yeah. Right, exactly. Yeah.
November 8, Sally sitting in the, beanbag chair, watching television, Charlie Brown behind her says, well, what do you think? To which Sally says, Abraham Lincoln would have won easy.
Jimmy: I know what this is, obviously.
Michael: Yeah, we know. This is Has he done this clear a reference to a particular political event?
Harold: I don't think so. Yeah.
Jimmy: This was election. Presidential election day. And I think this is a comment.
Michael: I don't think this is not impressed with either of these guys.
Jimmy: No, he was not impressed. Correct. Everyone thinks that.
Harold: Well, yeah. Although, Abraham Lincoln's a pretty high bar.
Jimmy: Well, that's true. Yes. but actually, this is a far more important date for another reason, because it was also the release date of r e m's, green album.
VO: Obligatory reference
Jimmy: with hits. Stand, orange crush. Is that, pop song 89? Yes. the whole ad campaign was based on two things to do. November 8 vote. And then that was the picture of the album.
Harold: All right, so tell it. Tell us who was, who was the Republican and democratic.
Jimmy: It was an unbelievably exciting contest between George HW Bush and Michael Dukakis. anyway, worked out fine. We survived
November 14. it's Lydia and Linus in school, and Linus says to Lydia, do pretty girls know that they're pretty pretty? To which Lydia replies, only if somebody tells them. And then Linus turns away from Lydia, and Lydia says, well?
Liz: way to go, Linus.
Harold: Yeah. Point one for Linus.
Michael: Well, I don't know why he posed this question to her. That's kind of forward, don't you?
Jimmy: I think just so, Well, it's an interesting question, don't you think?
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Liz, do beautiful women know they're beautiful? You should know.
Liz: Only if someone tells them.
Jimmy: Michael, that was a give me. That was right there. Michael.
Liz: I love this. I really do. as a woman who has never had the game that Lydia has, I think score for Linus.
Jimmy: It took him a while, but he figured it out.
Michael: I score it for her.
Michael: She won this.
Liz: No, no.
Michael: Yeah, she put. She. She put him on the spot.
Liz: No, she asked the question.
Jimmy: I think Michael might be projecting. Show of hands, who thinks Linus won this one?
Harold: Well, I will say that the drawing of Linus, he seems possibly, a little bit, maybe surprised that her response is like, he wasn't waiting for it. He doesn't have, like, a, like, hey, I got her look on his face. So, yeah, he may have inadvertently gotten a point.
Jimmy: It might be inadvertent. Yeah, he may. He may have it may have. The puck may have bounced off his head and went in the goal, but he still got the goal.
Harold: Yes.
Liz: I think he's, like, struggling to keep his mouth shut.
Jimmy: Okay.
Harold: That's entirely possible in the Schulz world.
Jimmy: And every version of that is great. Every version of it is funny. you, know what I mean? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it. This is a really good comic strip.
Harold: Yeah. Yeah. I give you that. It's nice to see Lydia show back up in our selections. I, really do like her. She's fun. I don't know much longer. We have Lydia before Schulz moves on, but, I'm really enjoying Lydia, and Linus is great.
Jimmy: I think it's such a neat little relationship, and I can't think of something similar to it.
Harold: My feeling is if she had been introduced in the sixties, she would be all over the place.
Jimmy: Yes.
Harold: You know, you know, in the pop culture, just because of where he was at that time and who she is. and that might be a slight indicator of where he now is, that he can't make that impact quite the way he did. But, that's saying not a whole lot, because who could, you know?
Jimmy: Right. It's easy up against Abraham Lincoln, and Abraham Lincoln is himself.
Harold: Yeah, right, right.
November 20, it's a Sunday. we got a symbolic panel there. This one is Marcie and Peppermint patty, and their heads are used as bookends, to prop up a few books between them. And then we're back in class with them. Peppermint Patty says to Marcie, how do you spell Lancelot, Marcie? Marcie answers by saying, didn't get your homework done again, Huh Sir? Peppermint Patty is struggling to with her binder as she says to Marcie, what's it to you, Marcie? And stop calling me sir. To which Marcie says, sir, sir, sir, sir, sir, sir, sir. Pepper and Patty has had enough of it, so she bonks Marcie on the head with her trapper keeper. And then Marcie pulls Pepper and Patty's hair. Pepper and Patty screams, And then they're outside the principal's office, a huge smile on Marcy's face. And Marcie says, that was kind of fun, wasn't it, sir? Ever since I got up this morning, I've been on sort of a high. And then Peppermint Patty says, you're weird, Marcie.
Harold: I really like this one. it's funny that Marcie will resort to violence quite easily when in the right situation, although Peppermint Patty is the one to make the first move. But, yeah, Marcie's not going take that. She will not take, certain things, and then that she enjoys it so much, you know, she taunts her to get that response, but, boy, Marcie had a lovely little moment there.
Jimmy: My God. You know, Marcie is such a great character. Such a great character because she, again, she embodies these extremes. She seems very shy. She seems withdrawn, but she's also the opposite of those things. She seems subservient to pepper and Patty, but she certainly, certainly not. She's a great character.
Harold: Yeah. And that she. Yeah, she loves a little scrap with her friend, and she'd only do it with her friend in this way. And she's. She's enjoying her friendship with Peppermint Patty.
Jimmy: Now, do you think, she was on a high because she got up that way, or do you think it was, what's the name of that cereal? Snickersnacks? Do you think she had a little too many snickersnaks? So, Harold, how about we do the anger and happiness? Now, does that make sense to you?
Harold: Well, sure. This strip is the epitome of anger and happiness, with. With a very happy Marcie taunting, a very upset and angry Peppermint patty. And I guess Marcie herself might be a little angry after being bonked on the head with the trapper keeper. So, yeah, so I will. I'm going to preface me asking you this by saying there was a major change this year over last year, and I'm going to just ask you guys. So, again, for those who might be new to the thing, we're doing all 365 or 366 strips. I'm going through them and trying to find how many of those strips in this year had somebody, a character showing anger or happiness in the strip. And we've been following along. You can go to the obscurity section, and Liz has made a beautiful chart of it, so you can see how it moves across the years. And there is a, shift. Things have been pretty even keel for a number of years, but something shifts. Can you guys guess what that might be? 1987, we had 73 anger strips with characters with anger versus 126 with happiness. What do you think shifted?
Michael: I would think, because there were parts of this year which I really liked, so I'd have to guess that anger is up.
Harold: Okay.
Jimmy: I actually think anger is up a lot, too, because I see, but you see Linus being frustrated by, by Lucy, see him being frustrated by Lydia. He's being frustrated by Snoopy. There's a lot of Linus frustration. I, think it's going to. I think anger is up, too.
Harold: Yeah, well, actually, anger is slightly down. There were 69.
Michael: Well, I think we disproved the anger anger happiness index. We debunked, it finally.
Harold: So we went down from 73 to 69 this year, but we had 126 happy strips. In 87, we have only 76, the all time low for happiness. That is interesting.
Jimmy: That's interesting because that still could vibe with what we were thinking, Michael.
Harold: Yeah, we were right in a different. Yeah. Just in a different way. So, I mean, yeah, 1972 was the next lowest, and I think that was kind, of a low point in Schulz's life. I'm guessing the same thing might be happening here. Just Schulz is so much. He's so much in his own strip. I can't help a drop of 50 can't somehow represent something that might be happening in his life. And I don't know if that means the aches and pains of just being older.
Michael: How could anyone be Charles M. Schulz and not be happy?
Liz: Harold, say more about how you looked at the happiness strips this year.
Harold: Well, I mean, when I'm going through here, I'm literally just making my own subjective take of, how many characters are exhibiting a smile or seem to be happy. I mean, it's. I do think that there will be variance if all four of us did it. I think we come up with slightly different numbers, but not that different, you know? And since I'm the bellwether of doing it every year, I'm guessing I'm pretty consistent, at least from year to year, even though the numbers might not jive with everybody. So. So, yeah, I think this is a legitimate thing that's, that's happening in the strip for whatever reason.
Jimmy: What do you think it is? Because there could also be something as simple as, you know, Michael talked about streakiness. It could be a, situation where he realizes, oh, this sort of mood is just generating a lot of jokes for me, too, because I didn't feel like this was a sad year. I felt it. But. But I do feel like it's moving towards and may move this way for a while, moving, towards just like us, a more placid stoicism. Yeah, not even stoicism. I mean, stoicism. Yeah. But, yeah, placid. I would say less reactive, less, big things happening. not counting this fantastic, Sunday with the wrestling match in the classroom, but, you know.
Harold: Yeah, yeah. Well, it's something to keep an eye on. Maybe our listeners have, some takes on this. If they felt it, if they are reading along with us or if it was a surprise to hear that.
Jimmy: Yeah, we should really take a look at that Good Grief book, at some point more in depth, too, because that would really let, us know what's going on in his life around this time. Yeah.
Harold: Yeah, that'd be interesting.
December 17. Charlie Brown and Snoopy are in some sort of official, office. Charlie Brown says, yes, ma'am. We got the new dog license. We also got a driver's license and a fishing license. And Charlie Brown says to Snoopy, no, she says, you don't need a license for that. And Snoopy is carrying, an M16 machine gun. I'm sure it's not an M16. But he's carrying some sort of machine gun.
Harold: Talk about a strange, weird strips.
Michael: I wouldn't say this is weird, but this is definitely, like, in the political cartoon genre. I mean, he's definitely making a point about a political issue.
Jimmy: Oh, absolutely.
Harold: Yeah, yeah, he could be. But you. I would. I would count this as weird that if Snoopy's gotten. Whatever, I guess our listeners, again may help us with whether it's an AK 47, right. But it is a big old piece of machinery that Snoopy is carrying on his non shoulder there.
Jimmy: I was thinking about earlier when I said there was a callback to an earlier punchline. Snoopy also has a machine gun on top of his doghouse for when he's a guard dog. I mean, that's got to be going back 25 years now. So Snoopy has some issues. I think this is really funny.
Harold: And Snoopy had to, you know, walk across town with that thing in the Peanuts world.
Liz: How did Charlie Brown get a driver's license?
Jimmy: Well, I'm assuming he's there with his parents, right? Okay.
Harold: well, no, wasn't this that they kept giving Snoopy the wrong license. He had to keep coming back. Snoopy got the driver's license, was the contact. And everything just keeps getting wrong. And I don't know if this is this Schulz had this punchline and he was just building there, or this is how. Where he got. As he followed along with his strange logic.
Jimmy: Really funny. And the thing I think about -- I mean, the reason I think that he's making a point here and why this is so important and cool is that. Can you imagine this joke with Garfield? I mean, maybe I agree Garfield that closely, but I can't. I. You know, and I can't imagine a lot of people who are, like, at the top of pop culture who have created Snoopy that would be willing to draw Snoopy with a machine gun because it's a really funny comic strip and, makes a really smart. Like, that's. That's an artist. That's gutsy, and it's cool.
Harold: I don't think this made it to the Charlie Brown and Snoopy show.
Jimmy: No. Probably nothing. It's an AK 47. Charlie Brown!
Michael: Happiness is an armed puppy
Liz: Warm gun!
Michael: Happiness is a warm gun. There you go.
December 21. Peppermint Patty is, at her kitchen table, and she's writing an essay, how I spent my Christmas vacation. And then she writes, worrying about this stupid assignment. And then in the last panel, she rolls it up and tosses it over her shoulder.
Harold: Wise move.
Jimmy: What a great answer.
Michael: Sally, would have stuck with it.
Harold: Yeah. And gotten a better grade, right?
Jimmy: Yeah. C minus instead of D minus. oh, man, that's a good one.
Harold: Sheer audacity. Sally gets an extra grade point up.
Jimmy: Exactly. Alright, so that brings us to the end of another year, 1988. Can't wait to come back next week and talk about 1989 with you characters. If you want to keep the conversation going between now and then, you could shoot us an email. We're unpackingpeanutsmail.com. you can also go over to our website, unpackingpeanuts.com and sign up for the Great Peanuts reread. Or you can follow us on social media, on Blue Sky, Facebook and YouTube, we're unpacking Peanuts. And on Threads and Instagram, we're unpackpeanuts. So we'd love to hear from you, between now and then.
Harold: And if you guys could do us a favor, if you haven't already, if you could put a review on whatever platform you listen to unpacking peanuts, that is greatly appreciated. It helps people discover our podcast that way. And that's always helpful. So thank you.
Jimmy: So that's the end of the year. All I need to close up this episode is for you guys to give me your mvp's and your picks for strip of the air. Michael, why don't you go first?
Michael: I will go first. okay. I'm gonna combine them and actually like going back to the beginning of this episode. The first 1 September 4, Sally and Tess of the basketballs, Baskervilles. And this mostly ties in with I think Sally is my most valuable peanut this year. I think she's really coming to her own on actually being the funniest of the Peanuts gang. It's just like her whole attitude towards life is like, can I get away with doing absolutely no work whatsoever? And, I really appreciate it because that was sort of how I dealt with being a kid. So I love Sally. I think this is a good Sally. And there's, I also, there's others I liked, but I'll go ahead and pick this one.
Jimmy: Fantastic pick. All right. And how about you, Harold?
Harold: This is a tough one. This is another well rounded year for Schulz, I think. But the character who seems to be settling into a slightly different version than what we've seen, which is making him interesting again, is Linus. He seems to be a little more, crotchety, in his, and response to life. And it's interesting that Schulz is pushing that into Linus's character more than, I think, than anyone else. So I think of the characters who've changed the most year over year. Maybe it's Linus.
Michael: Well, interesting, too, because he's got back on the blanket, probably because his frustrations were--
Harold: Right, Yeah. And, boy, he's given Snoopy a really hard time, and I inadvertently giving Lydia hard time and certainly pushing back against Lucy, like, I don't think we've seen. So it's a. It's interesting. I'm enjoying those strips. However, my strip of the year does not feature Linus. November 20 features Marcie and Peppermint Patty going to the principal's office. I just think that's a really dynamic strip. And, a bit of a surprise to see Marcie actually enjoying. It's more important to her to have gone through the experience of this fight with Peppermint Patty in the classroom, than not getting in trouble. And that's a really interesting side of Marcie. we've seen her get angry at a character and not hold back many times, but to actually instigate something like this is a little bit new. And to do it in a space where she's going to get in trouble is a. Yeah, an interesting insight.
Jimmy: All right. Great picks as well. Great reasoning behind the picks. And I'm gonna have to, agree in saying that Marcie is, is crushing it this year. So she's gonna be my mvp. I was torn between two strips featuring her. It was going to either be. Let me see the dates here.
Jimmy: Well, I don't know what date it is now, but it was going to be her and Charlie Brown at the beach. Oh, August 2. But that ends up being my number two because the punchline is better with May 13. Carrot cake is not a vegetable. In honor of my new diet, it's good for you to remember that carrot cake is not a vegetable.
Another great year. Love hanging out with my friends, talking about the thing I love the most. And I love that you guys listen. All right, so that's it for us. We'll, be back next week. Until then, from Michael, Harold, and Liz, this is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.
Harold Michael and Liz: Yes, Be of good cheer.
VO: Unpacking Peanuts is copyright Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen, and Harold Buchholz. Produced and edited by Liz Sumner. Music by Michael Cohen additional voiceover by Aziza Shukrala Clark. For more from the show, follow unpackPeanuts on Instagram and Threads. Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, blue sky, and YouTube. For more about Jimmy, Michael, and Harold visit unpackingpeanuts.com. have a wonderful day and thanks for listening.
Jimmy: Inexplicable.
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