Jimmy: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. This is Unpacking Peanuts, where we are in unprecedented territory. This is part four of 1994, and I'll be your host for the proceedings. My name is Jimmy Gownley. I'm also a cartoonist. I did things like Amelia Rules, Seven Good Reasons Not to Grow up, and the Dumbest Idea Ever. And you can read all my new comics right now for free at gvillecomics.substack.com 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 co creator of the original comic book price guide, the original editor for Amelia Rules, and the creator of such great strips as Strange Attractors, A Gathering 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 Beast. It's Harold Buchholz.
Harold: Hello.
Jimmy: And making sure everything runs smoothly, it's our producer, Liz Sumner.
Liz: Greetings.
Jimmy: Well, guys, 1994, part four. They said it couldn't be done, but we did it anyway. Unless you guys have something you really want to get off your chest, I say we get right to these strips.
Michael: Let's do it.
Harold: Okay.
Jimmy: All right.
August 3rd. Ooh. It's a six panel daily. This, is the middle of a sequence where Charlie Brown is having his sister Sally deliver a love note, to the little red haired girl. Sally is standing on the little red haired girl’s stoop, and, she's calling out to her brother Charlie Brown, who's hiding behind a tree. And she says she's reading your love note. Sally calls out again, did you hear me? Are you still behind the tree? Wave your hand. And then in the next panel, Charlie Brown's little hand does poke out from behind the tree and he waves. He is still there. So Sally turns to the little red haired girl, who we don't see. She's just, inside the house. And Sally says, he's still there. Really? Oh, sure, I understand. Sally goes to Charlie Brown, who's still behind the tree, and says she said she couldn't read your smudgy writing. And when I told her you were in the same class at school, she said she didn't remember you. To which Charlie Brown replies, I can't stand it.
Michael: now what happened to his so called girlfriend that he was buying the gloves for?
Jimmy: Peggy Jean is just like forgotten really.
Michael: I mean, is she really forgotten? Does she show up again?
Jimmy: I don't know.
Michael: So he's like, he's a cad basically.
Jimmy: Well, I don't know that they were committed. You know, I don't know that they said they were exclusive. So.
Liz: So we see the little red haired girl.
Michael: No you don't.
Liz: Well, who's that in the, in the fifth panel?
Michael: That's Charlie Brown behind the tree. Oh, that fooled me too, because it doesn't really look like that.
Liz: I was so used to seeing Sally the door that I just assumed she was still there.
Harold: It is odd that we see Sally looking to the right into the side of the house as you always see when she's stepping on the stoop of the home. And then we cut directly to another shot of her looking to the right and the edge of the tree that Charlie Brown's hiding from is there and he's looking out from it as you often see people peeking out of their house. So that is a little bit jarring. I guess because she's hopped from one spot to another and pretty much in exactly the same pose. She was at the house, she's now at the tree.
Jimmy: You know, I have to tell Charlie Brown it is 1994. He could cure that smudgy handwriting. There have been so many advancements in you know, just pen technology between 1950 and 1994. I really think he could have.
Harold: Do you think he's using a radio 914 nib?
Jimmy: He must be. Yeah. Speaking of, if you wanted to wear your very own Radio 914 T-shirt with the Be of Good Cheer logo, you could hop over to unpackingpeanuts.com and pick that up on our merch store. And while you're there, why don't you sign up for the good old Great Peanuts Reread and that'll get you one email a month that'll let you know what strips we're going to be covering in the upcoming episode. Episodes. We'd sure appreciate it. Other thing about this, we could say six panel daily. That's a lot of panels on the daily strip.
Harold: That's a commitment.
Michael: Could have been a Sunday.
Jimmy: Yep, yep.
Michael: Probably had to think about. But it's part of the continuity. So I guess.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Harold: That's the trick, isn't it?
Jimmy: Yeah. Especially when they are being created at different times. that, that's just. I can't imagine getting your head around that.
August 23rd, it's from one extreme to the other. We got a two panel strip. And this is Rerun practicing basketball. This is Rerun’s sport, by the way. This seems to be the one that he gravitates to through the next few years. so Rerun throws the ball, towards the basket. Doesn't come anywhere close. Then the ball's on the ground and Rerun says to the ball, don't be discouraged. I'm new at this.
Jimmy: It's interesting. I think this is like the last sport that makes its, you know, real appearance in Peanuts. And it's shifted through the years from baseball, then to football and now there's more basketball. Because this is clearly. This was really the height of the end, for the first peak anyway, of the NBA. This was around just Michael Jordan probably left the year before the Dream Team was. Was it two years before. So basketball, which hadn't made an appearance at all, Rerun, decides is his sport going forward.
Liz: I'm surprised that hockey wasn't more prevalent.
Jimmy: Yeah, I mean, you got, you got a little bit, obviously with Snoopy on the, on the, birdhouse.
Michael: But yeah, we've had lots of tennis.
Jimmy: Yep.
Harold: Yeah, it's either sports he likes or sports he knows.
Michael: Used to be croquet people like in the U.S. yeah. So there's never been a basketball strip.
Jimmy: I mean, there probably has been one or two, but it's certainly, Rerun plays basketball, a fair amount with him by himself and with Snoopy.
Harold: I think probably the best known from just general fans of Peanuts is in the Thanksgiving special. There's a long sequence. So Snoopy discovers a basketball and starts playing with it. With Woodstock.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Harold: I don't know that there was any equivalent to it since that was all done. That special was written uniquely for tv. there's. I don't think there's anything in there that's from the strips. So that was kind of a departure for him. But for people who know the strip. Yeah, basketball's kind of been nowhere.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Liz: So Rerun must have figured out the answer to Why basketball.
Jimmy: I guess so. Just because it's, it's fun.
Harold: Someone told him the basketball will enjoy it.
September 18th. Here's a strip. A Sunday with a billion panels. Whoa. All right. And we start out this epic with, Spike out in the desert, sitting on a rock in the sun and thinking to himself, memories. Then he goes for a little walk and sighs. Then this strip really begins. Tier 2 Spike again, sitting in the desert. And he thinks to himself, why do I live all alone out here in the desert? And then, he says to his friend the cactus, I'm going to tell you something I've never told anyone. Years ago, when I was young, I was out walking with some people. Suddenly a rabbit ran across in front of us. Spike continues, get him shouted the people. Even though I didn't want to, I darted after the rabbit. He's acting this out and he says to the cactus, I wouldn't have known what to do even if I had caught him. Then it happened. The rabbit ran into the road and was hit by a car. Spike is covering his eyes with this. He's disappointed, in himself and just upset in general. And he says, I was stunned. Why did I do it? Oh, how I hated myself and how I hated those people who shouted, get him. So I came out here to the desert where I couldn't hurt anything again. I've never told this to anyone before. And he looks at the cactus who's just standing there, and Spike says, I guess I still haven’t.
Michael: This is an interesting strip. the first death in, Peanuts.
Jimmy: No, the suicide of the school.
Michael: Yeah, right, okay. second death in Peanuts. And it was an origin story which we've never seen before.
Jimmy: That's really true. Yeah.
Harold: He left to go to the desert because of that terrible experience. That's a, it's a big deal.
Jimmy: It feels like, you know, this goes back to the PTSD we were discussing in the, the World War II strips. I can't see them as, as separate. You know, this is on his mind. He was just doing those weeks of strip, or not weeks, but days of strips with, Snoopy and D Day. And now he's talking about this horrible thing that Spike witnessed and was, you know, in part partly responsible for.
Jimmy: And just the thought.
Harold: We don't, we don't exactly know what Schulz had to do in World War II.
Jimmy: Well, there's, there is some stuff in the Michaelis book that goes into World War II stuff, and there's a lot there. It's harrowing and there's a lot of, there but for the grace of God go I moments, you know, So I think that's the kind of thing one would roll around in their mind a lot. And just the fact that Spike has never told this to anyone, I think about that like, you know, I didn't know my dad had, witnessed the atomic bomb for, you know, the first 20 years of my life until someone else told me, because they just don't. Just didn't talk about that type of stuff.
Harold: Right.
Jimmy: You know, and here's Spike talking about something metaphorically, or maybe Schulz talking about something metaphorically and ending it with, well, I still haven't told anybody. I don't know.
Harold: Isn't there that famous story that Schulz did tell about how he was going to drop. Pull a grenade and throw it in and a little dog walked right out and he would have killed the dog? And who knows what stories, like, he's saying here he never told anybody.
Jimmy: And this is the kind of thing that just makes it. You're not going to see this in Garfield. Like, it's just impossible to imagine Odie out, you, know, in the backyard thinking about Nam or, you know, that time Odie, you know, mangled a squirrel. You know, just.
Harold: Right.
Jimmy: Would not happen.
Harold: It seems like Schulz gave so many artists in particularly in this field, the right to go to places that they would not have gone otherwise. Yeah, I think that it can't be, overstated, the places he went, particularly with the style of comic he did that, the tone that he could go multiple places and it was still the same strip, and people would. Would follow you. You know, I think a lot of artists, you see all the comics that came before it, and it seems like part of the brand of almost all of them. Not. Not all of them, but almost all of them is if you have a certain tone, you never break from it. That is, what you're doing is giving people the same thing over and over again, every but different, if hopefully.
Jimmy: Right, right.
Harold: And that is. That's something that Schulz kind of blew wide open. You know, the canvas he's working on is immense.
Jimmy: Yeah. I think it's interesting, Michael, that you pointed out this is an origin story. I wonder why he felt the need to do this just for Spike. And it gives it such a poignancy. Like, it changes the whole Spike in the desert thing for me.
Michael: Yeah, he's searching for peace.
Jimmy: Peace, yeah.
Michael: Well, who else has an origin? Everybody else was just born into their situation.
Jimmy: Yeah, that's true, that's true.
Harold: We have little Daisy Hill Puppy farm stuff with Snoopy, but, you know, given how huge Snoopy is, there's nothing, nothing quite like this that says, here's why I am the way I am. why you see me in this place all the time. And then that will color everything you ever read about Spike again?
Jimmy: Right, absolutely. Yeah.
Harold: You know, and now he was dealing with Spike quite a bit. In the 90s, wasn't there a. A special where he was heavily featured?
Jimmy: Oh, the girl in the red pickup truck.
Harold: Well, that was the 80s, right?
Jimmy: Oh, yeah, yeah.
Harold: Was that the early 90s? Anyways, he was. Schulz considered him a major character, obviously. And even though who knows what kind of response he got in letters from people, maybe a lot of people were saying, hey, we really like Spike. Please do keep doing Spike. But you don't see it. As we said before, there's not a whole lot of Spike merch.
Jimmy: Right. And he's ahead of his time, though, because now those mustaches are back in. So Spike would be right in the zeitgeist.
Harold: And that's probably because of Spike, actually.
Jimmy: I would think so. Absolutely.
Harold: It's that collective memory. He says, we have to bring.
Jimmy: We got to bring the Spike-stache back.
Harold: Spike stache.
September 27th, Charlie Brown's at the mailbox, and he's so excited, a letter. Then he runs back to the house saying, I got a letter from my pen pal in Scotland,
Jimmy: and I would just like to apologize for what I'm about to do to all our Scottish listeners. So this is my attempt to read, Charles Schulz's phonetic rendering of the Scottish accent.
Charlie Brown reads the letter to his sister. Dear Charlie, just been to the shops. Mama's in bed with the sore hide and Madagas making mints and tatties for the dinner. Love, Morag. And then Snoopy says, she does prattle on, doesn't she?
Michael: That's a great Irish accent.
Jimmy: I know. I'm not even close to Scottish, am I?
Michael: You gotta roll those R's, man.
Jimmy: Dear Charlie, I've been to the shops. Mama's in bed with a sore head, and ma dad's making mince meat and totties for the dinner. Love, Morag.
Liz: That's very good.
Harold: That is. Yeah. That's the best Ringo Star during Scottish I've ever heard.
Michael: is that prattling?
Jimmy: No, prattling.
Harold: You can't call someone prattling for being your pen pal.
Michael: It's only, like, one sentence.
Jimmy: Well, that's. Yeah, I think Snoopy's being ironic, and so, wow, she does prattle on. So it's one sentence. I think that's the joke. Why Charles Schulz decided to do a Scottish accent 44 years into the-- dialect, rather into the strip, is bizarre. But now we at least know that, his pen pal's name is Morag.
Harold: I'm assuming he's gone through a lot of them, right?
Jimmy: No, just Morag.
Harold: That's it. He's only had Morag all ever since the 50s.
October 8th. Linus is out in the classic thumb and blanket position, and Snoopy is sneaking up on him. And Linus says, move one inch closer, you stupid beagle, and you'll regret it for the rest of your life. And then in the next panel, Snoopy just lies on Linus lap, belly up, smiling at him and says, isn't it odd how we all say things now and then we don't really mean?
Harold: Big cheesy smile. I love this one. Yeah, that's, it's Snoopy. Mixes it up pretty well after all these years.
Jimmy: Absolutely.
Harold: That one surprised me. Made me laugh.
Liz: Linus is looking pretty confused. Curious.
Harold: Yep. So finally, after all these years, they're learning how to get Linus's goat. Snoopy could team up with Lydia and they could do some damage there.
Jimmy: Yeah, really poor Linus.
Liz: I have to say that I believe that this is the day that Michael and I arrived in Massachusetts after driving the truck across the country when we moved from Washington State.
Harold: Oh, wow.
Michael: can you remember these things?
Harold: That's impressive.
October 10th. Peppermint Patty and Marcie are out. They're gonna play some football in the rain. And Marcie says, why are we playing football in the rain, sir? Peppermint Patty says, this is a down in the mud game, Marcie. It's slam, bang, Rock em, Sock em. And then Pepper Patty kicks off and she says, besides that, it's fun. And then we see the other team that she's kicking off too is Snoopy, Linus and Charlie Brown. And Linus says to Charlie Brown, why are we playing football in the rain, Charlie Brown? Charlie Brown says, because we're out of our minds.
Jimmy: This reminds me of, playing, we had a pretty fun and magical childhood. And the park right, down the street from, I mean, I could see it from my house had all sorts of things. A baseball field, a tennis court, a basketball court, all this stuff. Didn't have a football field, though. And we would play football in the Little League baseball field. And it got really disgusting if it, if it was raining.
Harold: Oh, man.
Jimmy: And we're back to Peppermint Patty just loving, her down in the dirt. Rock em Sock em football. Peppermint Patty has definitely met her moment in the 90s.
October 16th. It's a Sunday, and Lucy has the football out and she rings the doorbell at the Brown house. Ring. And then Lucy says to Sally, hi. And then Sally says, hi, what's up? And Lucy says to Sally, tell your brother to come out. Tell him I'll hold the ball and he can come running up and kick it. Then Sally goes inside to Charlie Brown, who's in the beanbag chair. And she says to him, she's here again. Why does she think you're dumb enough to be fooled again? And then as they go out, Charlie Brown dutifully following Lucy out, out to the field, Sally calls after them. You don't really believe my brother is that naive, do you? She's still yelling. I mean, after all, how often do you think you can fool someone with the same trick? And we see Sally just watching, and from off panel, we hear Charlie Brown yell, augh. And then wump. In the next panel, Sally is shocked by the whole thing. And then Charlie Brown just walks back, defeated, but not particularly perturbed by the whole thing. And Sally calls back out to Lucy saying, pretty often,
Michael: This is my favorite football strip. I mean, because I can never believe that anyone's that stupid to fall for this, but we don't have to see it. So he's. You get the laughs, but you also don't have the ridiculous situation that he believes are. Even though it happens, it's off panel.
Jimmy: Well, and it feels just sort of like this. there's something about the way Charlie Brown does this. It's like he is going off to meet his doom.
Michael: I think he's. I think he's hypnotized.
Liz: Yeah, that's what it looks like to me, too.
Michael: He has no willpower.
Harold: No.
Jimmy: Right. He's like, this must occur. This always occurs.
Michael: It's my fate.
Jimmy: Yeah, right.
Harold: Yeah. He really is Charlie Schulz, then.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: I must do this every year.
Jimmy: Every year. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Yeah.
Harold: Ah, I wonder how he felt about that. He's like, oh, no, I got to do it again.
Michael: Well, this is a great solution.
Harold: Yeah, well, yeah, well, mixing it up. It seems like Schulz is continuing to mix things up.
Liz: And saying things that people probably said to him. I mean, how often can you fool someone with the same trick, the same.
Michael: Joke over and over again?
Jimmy: Yeah, you're right.
Harold: Yeah. It's very autobiographical.
Jimmy: Yeah, it's very meta. It is about what it is. I have to do this every year. How many times can you. Can you twist it? How many variations on it? Yeah. Oh, and by the way, I just wanted to mention earlier, the pen pal not saying Charlie Brown. One of the super rare appearances of someone just calling him Charlie. I meant to mention Charlie.
Michael: Charlie Bonny Prince Charlie.
Harold: All of a sudden, our Scottish audience plummets.
Jimmy: Plummets.
October 28, it's the spinoff strip of Andy and Olaf just sitting at the, holding up the barn wall. And Andy says to Olaf, you know Olaf, I think we should do more than just eat and sleep. Andy continues, they say life is short. To which Olaf says, it is?
Michael: Who knew?
Jimmy: Oh, poor Olaf.
Harold: he's just not in the loop.
Jimmy: No, he's absolutely not in the loop. I'm obsessed with the idea of this being a spinoff strip with just the two of them never moving. I think that's a great idea.
Liz: What's the title?
Harold: I think it's called Andy and Olaf hold up a barn.
Michael: Are all these characters automatically copy, trademarked and copywritten.
Liz: for the next hundred years.
Jimmy: I believe so, yes.
Michael: I mean, there's just in the contract that just says everything I create, I, own.
Jimmy: I think that's the constitution of the good old United States of America.
Harold: Yeah, it's a TM, not an R with the circle.
Jimmy: Exactly.
November 2nd. A three panel strip. Snoopy is just lying there as if he's on his doghouse, but he's in a field under a tree with his head on a rock. And slowly over the first two panels, a leaf gently falls from the tree, landing on Snoopy's nose. And Snoopy says, ouch.
Michael: You haven't seen a leaf strip in a while.
Jimmy: Yeah, it's been a real long time.
Michael: And good to see them again. They're very poetic.
Jimmy: They are beautiful. I wonder why he decided to do three instead of four panels.
Michael: You know, I think, delaying the Ouch. It seems delayed to me, like he might have to think about it a little bit before he thought out. So, yeah, he could have put in just a non thought balloon panel like panel three, before he says ouch.
Jimmy: Well, you know what else he could have done? He could have, he could have photocopied this panel three times. I'm looking really close, but obviously he didn't. You could tell in the grass and stuff.
Michael: Too bad this podcast wasn't around when he was working. He’d be like ripping us off right and left.
Jimmy: It'd be like Sparky you could be out on the golf course an hour earlier.
Harold: So I can do a two minute tree.
Jimmy: Yeah, don't worry. Yeah, it's a nice still two minute tree and a little two minute Snoopy. Really nice to see the leaves.
All right. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to take a little break here now. go out and play and see if any leaves fall on her nose and then come back and check the mail and then do some more strips and finish the episode up. Sound good?
Michael: Sure. Yep.
Jimmy: Alrighty.
BREAK
VO: Hi, everyone. Have you seen the latest anger and happiness index? Have you admired the photo of Jimmy as Luke Skywalker? Or read the details of how Michael co created the first comic book price guide? Just about every little known subject we mention is referenced on the Unpacking Peanuts website. Peanuts obscurities are explained further and other stories are expanded more than you ever wanted to know. From Albert Payson Terhune to Zipatone, Annette Funicello to Zorba the Greek. Check it all out @unpackingpeanuts.com/obscurities.
Jimmy: And we're back. Liz, I'm hanging out in the mailbox. We got anything?
Liz: We do. We got an email from a new listener, Allie Blackwell, who writes. I've really been enjoying your podcast the last few months. It's so impressive to hear your chronological analysis of the comic and Schulz's evolution. It's gotten me thinking about these characters as individuals. I have curiosities. Since they're eternally in elementary school, but their characters seem to change over time. What do you think they'd be like in high school? Looking forward to hearing from the experts.
Jimmy: On high school or?
Harold: Yeah, I don't think I’m an expert on high school based on my experience.
Michael: Well, Mad magazine, when they were doing parodies in the 50s, that's the kind of thing they would do.
Harold: Right.
Michael: You know what if the Peanuts kids were in high school and they'd be smoking cigarettes and stuff. You don't see that kind of parodies. Maybe because the lawsuits would come raining down.
Harold: You're saying that there wasn't something like that?
Michael: I seem to recall something with them as grownups.
Jimmy: Well, there's tons of things where people have done Charlie Brown. I mean, there's lots of things on YouTube people do, you know, the sequel to the Christmas special and Charlie Brown's like a middle aged guy.
Michael: Yeah. But I have seen strips where, yeah, they're definitely like juvenile delinquents.
Jimmy: Well, I think Peppermint Patty will suddenly be a straight A student because she'll realize she was going to an insane elementary school and she has actually already read the complete English canon, understand hands, you know, physics.
Michael: I think she'd be going for that football scholarship.
Liz: That makes sense.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: I think Peppermint Patty will be more of a success in high school than she was in elementary school, probably for a lot of those reasons. What do you think's going to happen to Sally in high school?
Michael: Oh, she would have dropped out.
Jimmy: She would have dropped out.
Michael: She'd probably get married at 14 or something.
Liz: No.
Michael: Become a figure skater.
Liz: I think she's class president.
Michael: No, no, she'd get out of any kind.
Jimmy: Well, I think this is a way of us saying we really have no idea.
Harold: We have no idea.
Jimmy: None, whatsoever.
Harold: We have. None whatsoever. I think Snoopy does okay in high school.
Liz: I think, Frieda would be a mean girl.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah, well, yeah, yeah. I think Linus would suddenly struggle. I can see that.
Michael: Oh, he'd get into Dungeons and Dragons.
Harold: I thought I would think that Linus would, would, along and be doing. Doing just fine. Interesting. Yeah. So that tells you how complex these characters are because we can take this just about anywhere. Sounds like. Now, when you said Frieda, did you mean Lydia? I'm just wondering, Liz.
Liz: No, I think Frieda would.
Harold: The curly haired girl.
Liz: Lydia probably would be too.
Harold: Maybe they gang up on Linus. Yeah, Frieda within because she's so into her naturally curly hair that she's just a little too into herself. And. Yeah, it's got a cat. It's going to cause people trouble. Different cat. I've been guessing, but maybe not. Farron could still be around.
Jimmy: Well, Snoopy's still around. The cat'll still be around.
Harold: Well, we don't know what the rules are come high school.
Michael: Woodstock will be what, Honor student?
Jimmy: I was walking down to the corner store the other day. I looked up and I'm pretty sure I saw Mr. Peepers. He said, don't worry about it. Everything's fine.
Harold: Really?
Jimmy: Yeah. Yeah, he said. Yeah.
Michael: How'd he get to Pennsylvania from LA?
Jimmy: It's been a long, long time. He's, been riding the rails, so it's fine.
Michael: Okay.
Harold: Hanging out with Spike.
Liz: That's good news.
Michael: I feel better now. That's my origin story.
Liz: Thanks, Allie.
Harold: Thanks, Allie. And sorry.
Michael: Yeah, I wish we could talk about that for hours, but we're at a time limit here. I always wondered why these podcasts go like, well, we gotta go almost that time.
Harold: That's my time. Good night.
Liz: People have other lives.
Jimmy: We, also, got a text from Captain Billy, who sent us a picture. this was actually printed in. Good Grief. and it's a picture of good old Sparky. With his dog, Andy.
Harold: Ah.
Jimmy: And it's a very, very cute picture. And, it has a caption. His name is Andy, and I can't remember ever having a dog I was so fond of. I'm afraid, however, that he only likes me because I give him cookies. And there you go, the cookies. with Snoopy, too. Has made such an appearance or strong appearance over the last couple years.
Harold: I wonder if he ever tested the theory. Probably couldn't stand it. He had to give him a cookie. He couldn't withhold anything. So adorable.
Liz: Captain Billy didn't say anything about me?
Jimmy: He didn't say anything about you. No, he's moved on to Lydia.
Liz: That's okay.
Jimmy: but if you want to say something to Liz or any of us, you can write us. We're unpackingpeanuts@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you. Because when I don't hear, I worry. And if you want, you could also call, or leave a text message. That number is 717-219-4162.
November 16th. Linus is hanging out with Rerun. Linus is in classic thumb and blanket position, and Rerun says to him, I'm your younger brother, and I don't suck my thumb or cling to a blanket for security. Linus says, hooray for you. And Rerun says, as the years go by, you'll probably develop a real resentment toward me. To which Linus just drops his blanket over Rerun's head, and Rerun says, and find different ways to get even.
Michael: Well, first time we've seen that sibling rivalry between these two.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah. Seeing Linus as, an older brother.
Harold: Yeah, he's not doing much of a job there.
Michael: He's learned a lot from Lucy. How to be, bossy. Hooray for you. Now, that is sarcasm.
Harold: Yeah. And I love how Rerun has to open this with, I'm your younger brother.
Jimmy: All right.
Michael: As you know, I'm your younger brother.
Harold: Just in case you have forgotten, that.
Jimmy: Is the best point in any action movie. As you all know.
Harold: Yes. What do we all know?
Jimmy: Of course.
Harold: Yeah. Well, poor Rerun. He's not getting much support from Linus as he makes his observations. He's correct, though. He's very astute. Rerun is kind of getting the vibe here of his brother, but I'm disappointed in you, Linus.
Jimmy: And Linus does not care at all, which I like that. Just drop the thing over the little kid and come and shut up. Very cute. what do you think about him choosing to use the zipatone on the blanket.
Michael: Mmm. It's not your, linen blanket anymore.
Jimmy: I knew Michael would lose his mind with that. Be up at night. It's a different blanket.
Harold: Oh, I thought it was flannel.
Jimmy: It is one yard of outing flannel.
Harold: Outing flannel.
Jimmy: Exactly.
Michael: But now it looks colored.
Jimmy: Yep.
Michael: Well, did they ever color it in the Sundays?
Harold: It's blue, right? Light blue.
Jimmy: Well, yes, of course they have. It's blue. Yeah.
Harold: It's a lovely light blue. Yeah. Okay, so my sister had a. Had a little, blanket, too. So this is.
Jimmy: This ring rings true if anybody was, wondering. About two and a half years ago on this podcast, I said someone bought me the officially licensed security blanket, but I had lost it. Yeah, well, rest easy. Along with Mr. Peepers, my blanket was also found.
Harold: Really?
Jimmy: Yes.
Michael: Well, you can auction that off to our listeners.
Harold: What makes it a licensed blanket? Does it have any like. Like a, registered trademark?
Jimmy: Yeah, it has a little embroidered Linus with his blanket in the corner.
Harold: Okay. And does it form just in the shape it does, as in the comic, by just automatically?
Jimmy: Automatically, yeah. And you could turn it into an airplane, paper airplane. Yeah, all sorts of things.
Harold: That's fantastic. It's come with instructions.
Jimmy: You can't believe where it was after all the. It was in, the little, chest. I have that, where you save.
Liz: All of your Peanuts memorabilia.
Harold: Your hope chest.
Jimmy: No, where I put blankets. It was in my chest of blankets.
Harold: I'm sorry. It was in my laundry basket for 17 years.
Jimmy: Seventeen years. That could have been. But no.
November 19, another rerun. Rerun comes up to the door, of the house, and Snoopy answers it, and he says, hi, my name is Rerun. Do you want to come out and play? And then he continues to Snoopy, we'll have fun. I'll throw the ball and you can chase it. But then Snoopy just closes the door and goes back inside, leaving Rerun out front to yell. It would have been fun.
Harold: I think that's the cutest Rerun drawing on that first panel I've seen yet.
Jimmy: Ah, yeah, it's a good one. I love, that he finally has his look down, except for the bird's nest hair. He's got the little, overalls on the shorter alls. And that's a good look. How tiny is Snoopy in that first panel, though? Reruns that small, you know?
Harold: Yeah, he's. He's almost. It's almost like he's on his all fours.
Jimmy: He would have to be, to be that high. Yeah.
Harold: Then he gets up a little to lean in and look at the ball and consider it in the second panel, which I think is great.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: It's like it might have happened.
Jimmy: He thought about it. He didn't dismiss it out of hand. Yeah. So we're gonna see more of Rerun and Snoopy together. And it's looking forward to that. You get that little, glimpse. Yep.
December 11th. It's a Sunday. We start out with one of them. They're symbolic panels. This is an igloo in a vast, wintry landscape with Sally poking it her head out of the entrance, which, then hard cuts to Sally looking out the window of her house, with some flurries coming down. She then walks outside, looks at the flurries, walks back inside, and, Charlie Brown is now there. And he's dressed and ready to go outside and play, I guess, in the snow, or go to school, rather, I guess. And, Sally says to him, no school today. It's snowing. It's a regular blizzard. Everything is closed. Buses aren't running. She's still in the chair, just eyes closed, listing this stuff off. Power lines are down all over the city. It's the worst blizzard since 1806. Charlie Brown goes outside and sees the few flakes falling down. And then he goes back inside, with two sack lunches, and says to Sally, here's your lunch. Let's go. Then they're both walking to school, and Charlie Brown says, mom said you could have stayed home in 1806. And to which Sally replies, I can't see where I'm going, but there's only, like, six flakes falling.
Harold: It's interesting. Well, looks like Charlie Brown's not naive about everything. No, he's not falling for this one.
Jimmy: Now, Michael, tell us all the stories of your snow days off as a kid in Los Angeles.
Michael: We had smog days.
Jimmy: Did you really?
Harold: Wasn't it really?
Michael: Yeah. Oh, wow. Smog alerts. It's too dangerous to go outside.
Jimmy: Holy cow. I did not realize that.
Michael: Yeah.
Harold: That's crazy. Well, you know, you just swap out two letters and you're good to go. Smog day.
Jimmy: Yeah. I feel bad for kids because nowadays they're like, yeah, school's closed, so hop on Zoom. You know, so they don't even get the day off. They just have to stop. Hop on Zoom. Which is. I mean, who's kidding who? You know, just give them the day off.
Harold: So they. They are actually just having the computer days. Everyone's set up for it. So.
Jimmy: Yeah, I guess once in a while, like, if they, if they do like a delay or whatever, you know, then they just have the two hour delay and you go in. but yeah, they've had especially. It was during COVID I remember. They, you know, well, what's the point? You know, we're gonna. You're not coming in anyway, so.
Harold: Wow.
Jimmy: Yeah, it was bleak.
Harold: I like the drawing of Sally peeking out of the igloo in the first panel.
Jimmy: Yeah, I do too. You don't see a lot of igloos in pop culture these days. No, pop culture used to be lousy with igloos.
Harold: It's true. She almost looks, like she's in the basement.
Jimmy: Yes.
Harold: She's like in the little shelter. Tornado shelter there. But, yeah, it's. This is when we know how much Sally really knows about how things work. She knows about power lines and buses that can't run through snow. And of course, in Sebastopol, this might be the worst blizzard since 1806.
Jimmy: Yeah, it's funny, I watch, a YouTuber who's just a hiker, a hiking enthusiast. And, she's from the deep south. And, like last week they got a half an inch of snow and everything was closed down. It was very exciting. She's like, this is so thrilling. It's like. Is it really thrilling, though?
Harold: It's a blanket of white. Half inch.
Jimmy: Blanket of half inch. Blanket.
Harold: Outing flannel.
December 19th. Sally's writing to Santa Claus and Charlie Brown's watching. She writes dear Monsieur Claus, to which Charlie Brown says, monsieur Claus. And Sally, with heavy lidded, eyes, sarcastically says, I suppose it never occurred to you that he might be French.
Harold: Well, it's an international Peanuts this year.
Jimmy: Yeah, I don't think Santa Claus is French though.
Michael: He was Italian.
Jimmy: St. Nicholas Italian?
Michael: Yeah.
Jimmy: Turkish? No.
Michael: Yeah, from Brindisi. San Nicolo.
Liz: I thought he was like some from Nordic country.
Michael: Nope, the original was Italian.
Jimmy: Well, he might be Italian, but didn't he spend his life in Turkey?
Michael: I thought he spent his life at the North Pole.
Jimmy: That's a post life. Have you never read the Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by good old, what's his face?
Michael: Walt Disney?
Harold: Charlie Brown?
Jimmy: The guy that wrote wizard of Oz? No, good old watch.
Harold: L. Frank Baum. Yeah.
Jimmy: L. Frank Baum. Thank you.
Harold: Or Frank. L Baum. L. Frank. Right.
Jimmy: Why do fantasy writers always use initials?
Harold: That's a good question.
Jimmy: J.K. rowling. J.R.R. tolkien. L. Frank Baum. C.S. Lewis
Michael: But I love that George R.R. Martin
Jimmy: just added those.
Michael: Just added the RRs.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: He's just laughing at us.
Jimmy: He really did. He really did. Somehow, YouTube really thinks I'm very interested in whether or not the. The Song of Ice and Fire will be completed. I've never read one of those books or seen one of the episodes of the show, but YouTube is like, really convinced this is what I'm interested in.
Michael: Well, they think you're a human being, so of course you're interested.
Liz: They think you're Michael.
Harold: I'm wondering why Schulz is cheaping out on the Zipatone in this, this strip. it looks like he's using scraps because it's like the three different pieces that make up every single one of the panels.
Jimmy: Yeah. And it does.
Harold: Right.
Jimmy: Very not work. You cannot patch zipatone together. Impossible.
Harold: Yeah, I've certainly cheaped out on zipatone. Oh, I have. Yeah. It is, it is not pretty. But this is odd. You know, I don't know. At first I thought, well, he's looking for a shadow effect to the right of Charlie Brown. But then he doesn't follow through on it. But then he's not leaning in, so maybe he's not blocking the light. And I'm like, no, maybe he's just cheaping out on zipatone.
Jimmy: Yeah, he's just cheaping out and pasting them together for some reason.
Harold: You know, that's really interesting and it's.
Jimmy: Really not even necessary. He didn't even have to have zipatone in it at all. But he's just all in on the zipatone at this point.
Harold: Yeah. It would seem strange if there were no zipatone at this point in the strip.
Jimmy: And this continues
December 21st, Sally says to Charlie Brown, I thought it might be nice to drop a little note to Santa Claus's wife. Dear Signora Claus. And Charlie Brown says, Sinora? Sally says, I have a theory that he married a nice Italian girl.
Michael: There you go.
Harold: So finally vindicated in the old Italian. Well, it. Mystery Science Theater, we did, we did a movie called the Christmas That Almost Wasn't. And Santa Claus is played by Rossano Brazzi.
Michael: Really?
Harold: Yeah. And his wife, played Mrs. Claus. So I thought of this when I saw this, this strip. This is, it says tribute to the Christmas that Almost Wasn't, which is one of the strangest Christmas movies ever, where, Santa comes, goes to a lawyer to help him, as he's about to be evicted from the North Pole because he rents.
Jimmy: He rents. That's amazing.
Harold: Great family tales with lawyers in them, you know?
Jimmy: And that brings us to good old
December 29th. Linus and Lucy are sitting on a chair watching TV. And, Linus says, I think there's something you should know. And Lucy says, what's that? And Linus says, the world does not revolve around you. Then there's a silent panel as Lucy contemplates this. Then she turns to Linus and says, you're kidding.
Jimmy: I think that is a classic way to end the year as a classic Lucy line that could be right out of 1959. I really like it. Really, really good. And I just like that you can tell they're watching TV by that tiny little indication of a rectangle in just one of the panels.
Harold: Yeah, they. They pulled up a chair really tight in on, It's like a love seat.
Liz: They wouldn't have let you do that back in the 50s.
Harold: They would save your eyes. But what was the whole theory? Was that true back in the day?
Jimmy: Yeah.
Liz: Or are you going to go blindf you sat too close to the television.
Harold: was it the tubes somehow were radioactive? What was the theory there?
Liz: Don't know.
Jimmy: I don't think it was too much science in that theory.
Harold: No. You think it was more just…
Liz: Parents not wanting you to do it? I don't know.
Harold: Probably.
Jimmy: Well, that brings us to the end of another great year. just our usual yearly things that wrap things up and let us put on bow on it. so how about we start with Harold? Why don't you tell us, what's going on with the old anger and happiness index this year?
Harold: I didn't do it. I did not have access to the--
Jimmy: You didn't do it?
Harold: I didn't have access to the strips and the book while I was traveling.
Jimmy: All right, so Harold is on assignment from the head beagle, so he was unable to do the anger and happiness index this year. So this is a great opportunity for all you out there. How many strips showed anger? How many strips showed happiness? Let us know. And, if you're the person who guesses right, you win our esteem.
Michael: Well, how do we know if they guess right?
Harold: I will go and get the correct answer. However, I mean, those who are really into it, of course, they can go through all 365 strips and they can make their count, and then you'll see.
Liz: No, no, we have. We have listeners who would be happy to do that, I'm sure.
Harold: Right. So, yeah, let's see how. How that turns out. And I'd be interested to know how off I am from others if they do do that. But I'm not trying to. Oh, you're off anybody.
Jimmy: You're way off.
Harold: I'm not trying to push anybody into, counting smiles and frowns for 365 strips. But if you just want to guess randomly, that's fun, too. It's like the number of M&Ms in the jar. You really can't guess. You really can't go in and count them and. Well, I suppose you could do the math. But anyway, let us know. We will reveal.
Jimmy: Can we talk about it a little bit more? I think.
Harold: I think we should.
Jimmy: So let's. Let's just to sum up there, tell.
Harold: Us to pad this episode out a bit. So what's going to happen?
Jimmy: Okay, let's see if I can get a handle on this. So you.
Harold: Yeah, just run it by me.
Jimmy: All right. So you didn't do it, but we're asking them to do it. And there's a variety of ways they can do it, but we are not telling them what way to do it.
Harold: But then I'll do it.
Jimmy: But then you'll do it, and then we'll know. Compare it to how they did it.
Harold: Right.
Jimmy: Clear as a bell. Well, and if you want to share that with us, you can, obviously you can write to us unpackingpeanuts@gmail.com. you can also follow us on the good old social media. We're unpackpeanuts on Instagram and Threads and unpacking peanuts on Facebook, bluesky and YouTube. And we would love to hear from you. So with all of that out of the way, the only thing I need from my pals, is their strip of the year and their pick for mvp. Harold, why don't you go first?
Harold: I didn't do it. No. so start it with the strip, of the year. I thought I would. You know, there was no strip that really, really stood out for me. There was some very distinctive strips, but in terms of, like, my favorite, I had a hard time. I liked the little strip with Woodstock doing the little show, on the dog dish, and his show closes after one night. that was really charming. But I picked another very charming strip from October 8th, where Snoopy, is sneaking up on Linus and, being threatened by Linus, for stealing the blanket. And he winds up on back looking up at Linus with that gigantic smile, saying, isn't it odd how we all see things and now and then we don't really mean. I just thought that was a nice mix. On a classic theme, 44 years in.
Jimmy: That's a good one. And for your MVP?
Harold: I'm going to give it to Rerun because he's just starting to show who he's going to be and we've gotten a taste of it, but I find it really intriguing. So, he may get it a lot in the future, but I wanted to give it to him now.
Jimmy: Good picks. Michael, how about you?
Michael: Well, this is episode four, and I put a little asterisk by two of them way back in January or early on, and I have no idea what they are. If someone wants to look it up, can you. Do you have the books handy?
Jimmy: I can look it up on Go Comics.
Michael: Okay, well, there's two of them. January 22nd.
Liz: Okay, one moment, please.
Michael: It was so funny. I can't remember what it was.
Jimmy: Well, if you knew it by just the date, that was.
Liz: It was, Who cares? how should I know? Do you think I'm out of.
Michael: Oh, yeah.
Jimmy: Okay.
Michael: I'm a big fan of that.
Liz: What's the other one?
Michael: the other one is two, four. February 4th.
Liz: Lydia with her ribbon around her love letters.
Michael: Yeah. So many Lydia strips I love. Anyway, let's go with Sally's philosophy.
Jimmy: All right, Sally's philosophy and your, mvp.
Michael: Well, I picked Sally last bunch of years, but I don't want to be the outlier here. I want to be part of the in crowd. So I will pick Rerun just because I know from Jimmy that he's going to be a really major character. So I don't want to be. I want to be Ian on it.
Liz: F O M O.
Jimmy: Very good. well, I'm going to make it a sweep, then I will pick Rerun as well. Yeah, it was nice to see him finally arrive fully formed 20 some years later. And for my strip of the year, I'm going to go back to April 2nd, which is the, I can't hear you when it's windy. The word balloon with the chirps--
Liz: Oh, that was going to be my pick. No, no, I was going to say can I have a pick this year?
Jimmy: You could have a pick every year.
Liz: But as long as you take care of that, that's great. That was a great one.
Jimmy: It is a good one. All right.
And if you characters out there want to find out what the strip of the year is next year, well, you're going to have to come back a long time from now because next week we have our wrap up of this season and then we have three special episodes with three very special guests. Judy Sladky, who plays Snoopy on ice. Rheta Grimsley Johnson, who wrote the authorized Schulz biography, Good Grief. And the great Lynn Johnston, creator of For Better or for Worse. Couldn't be more excited about all this stuff coming up. And then back for the last season of regular strips.
Michael: Whoa. I wasn't thinking in terms of seasons.
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: Ah, but wait, wait. The last strip, it was 2000.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: But it was in February. Right. So that doesn't count as a year.
Jimmy: No, no.
Harold: And it ended for the, dailies even earlier than that.
Jimmy: Yeah. With all that said, we can't wait for you to come back next week and join us again. It's always my favorite day of the week. So for Michael, Harold and Liz, this is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.
MH&L: Yes. Be of good cheer
VO: Unpacking Peanuts is copyright Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen, Harold Buchholz and Liz Sumner. Produced and edited by Liz Sumner. Music by Michael Cohen. Additional voiceover by Aziza Shukralla Clark. For more from the show, follow Unpack Peanuts 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: Morag.