1995 Part 3 - The Outer Space Adventures of Woodstock and Spike

Jimmy: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. This is Unpacking Peanuts. Today we are looking at 1995, 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, 7 good reasons not to Grow up, the Dumbest idea ever. And you can, read my new comic serialized at gvillecomics.substack.com and they're all for free. 

And 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 of Spells, and Tangled River. It's Michael Cohen.

Michael: Say hey.

Jimmy: And he's executive producer and writer of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a former vice president for Archie Comics, and the creator of the Instagram sensation Sweetest Beasts. It's Harold Buchholz.

Harold: Hello.

Jimmy: And making sure that everything runs smoothly is producer and editor Liz Sumner.

Liz: Greetings.

Jimmy: Well, guys, we are here in 19 95. I don't think I have a lot to say up front, so I think we should get to these strips and save us some extra time at the end for our picks of the year and MVPs and all that good stuff. What do you say?

Harold: Sure, Sounds good.

Jimmy: All right, so if, you characters want to follow along with us, you go over to unpacking peanuts.com, you sign up for the great Peanuts reread, and that gets you one email a month where we tell you what we're going to be covering that month. So assuming you've done all of that, how about we just hit, the strips right now?

Harold: Yep.

Jimmy: Away we go. 

September 3rd. Sally is sitting next to Snoopy, in the living room, and she's upset about something. She yells to no one in particular again. Then we see her kicking a pillow across the room every year. and then she's in the TV room and she's ranting to Charlie Brown. They did it again. This sends Charlie Brown flying right out of the bean bag that he was trying to enjoy previously. Sally continues to rant, they're starting school again before I'm ready. I don't know how high Mount Everest is. Charlie Brown having clambered back into the beanbag, says, you don't have to know. That's why you go to school. And then as, Sally walks away, he says to her, when you get to school, they'll tell you how high Mount Everest is. Sally thinks about this for a moment, then yells back, why would I want to know that?

Michael: A good start of the episode, the strong Sally strip, strikes me as a very modern girl. I think she would really like Wikipedia on her phone. She wouldn't have to actually know anything.

Jimmy: That's exactly right. Yeah. She would really translate, to the modern era, probably, with the least problems. when I look at that middle panel on the second tier, it's just kind of a weird tangent that's created by the way, the soles of Charlie Brown's feet. the way he has that line that indicates the sole from the heel. It almost follows the curve of the beanbag chair. And it makes it look almost like his shoes are transparent. it wouldn't, I don't think in color, but I'm looking at it in black and white.

Michael: I thought the bag had glasses.

Jimmy: It does have that kind of vibe, too. I like the one tiny little hand. I mean, how small that little hand is of his sticking out. Very cute. 

September 12th. It's a panorama. And, we see Charlie Brown and Linus had gone out rollerblading because it's the 90s. And, they, at least Linus, I guess, has crashed through a fence, completely going through it. And he is lying on the ground dazed. And he says to Charlie Brown, as I rounded the corner, Sandi Patty hit a high note.

Michael: I put a big question mark after this.

VO: Peanuts Obscurities Explained.

Harold: Yeah, we haven't had an obscurity in a while, but I thought this was probably a good one to talk about. Jimmy, do you know what this is about?

Jimmy: weirdly, we previously had a discussion about Sandi Patty. Like, a few months ago, you and I. And about a week after that discussion, I realized I was talking about Sandy Farina. So, no, I don't. I don't know.

Harold: She was a contemporary Christian artist, who was. Who was popular around this time.

Jimmy: Is she Canadian?

Harold: Not that I know of.

Jimmy: All right, okay.

Harold: She might be. I don't know. but she. I think she sang at 4th, of July Celebration that had been televised. This would have probably been the mid-80s. And she just knocked it out of the park. And so she became kind of generally known out of that. She went on the Tonight Show. but really, was not that well known. So it was kind of unusual for Schulz, to call her out. And so I was looking up just to learn a little bit more of where she was in her life at this point. And I uncovered something that I had forgotten about. I'd read about this in, Stephen Lind's Charlie Brown religion book. She was divorced, in 1992, and she married her backup singer in 1995, right around this time. And just a couple weeks into her marriage, in front of her congregation at church, she confessed to infidelity with her previous husband with this man that she wound up marrying in front of everybody. Yeah, she just told them, hey, this is what happened. And it caused quite a bit of furor, as you might imagine. And Schulz wrote a letter to her, in support of her. And that happened all around the time this trip came out.

Jimmy: Oh, wow.

Harold: So it's very interesting, because, you know, Schulz was kind of in the same position that Sandi Patty was years earlier. And so he. Anyway, he was trying to support her, and, yeah, he wrote her a letter, and then he put her into the strip, and he misspelled her name. One is I and one is Y. But he did both of them I. Now, did he do that on purpose to not quite make it her? Does it make sense?

Jimmy: He didn't do it on purpose. He made it.

Harold: But at this point, maybe his editors are quaking.

Jimmy: yes, that's what it is. It's a Home again Finnegan situation. Maybe.

Liz: Maybe he could get her to change her name.

Jimmy: That one might be easy. The Syndicate calls Hi, Ms. Patty. King Features syndicate. We're going to need you to change your name.

Harold: This would be. You'd be doing me a great favor, Ms. Patty. You think of the power that Schulz has in his field at this point. He's celebrating his 45th anniversary next month in the strips. Right. It'd be October 2nd, 1995. He's on the Forbes Top 40 Entertainers list of money makers. this year, he's number 23 among all of the movie stars and directors and TV show producers. I mean, he's unbelievable. So he's. He's got a lot of clout and, 

Liz: airplane money.

Jimmy: Yeah. Wow. 

September 13th. Peppermint Patty's in class. In fact, she's up at the front of the class talking to the teacher, and she says, yes, ma'am, I understand you want more than just the math answer. You want me to explain how I got the answer. And then Peppermint Patty concludes with, I copied it from the kid behind me.

Michael: Why are these kids getting away with all this blatant cheating?

Harold: I don't get it. It's so blasé.

Michael: She must be sleeping or something.

Jimmy: Well, don't you think I feel like cheating was rampant. I remember. And I was very irritated by this type of thing because, like, in the Gownley household, you had to do your own work, and it had to be perfect. So I did not want some shleppo sitting next to me copying. But I remember it being very, very, very common.

Michael: But copying from the person behind you is not subtle. Some kind of mirror thing going on.

Jimmy: That's funny.

Harold: But in the Peanuts world, it is kind of surprising how blasé it is about cheating. Has anybody ever objected? I know sometimes Marcie will give the wrong answer or do something weird. Just a mess with Peppermint Patty. But I never hear anybody. I don't remember anybody objecting if someone was like, hey, you know, or was copying, hey, stop copying off my sheet, Snoopy.

Jimmy: He was the only one.

Harold: He's the only one who did not like, Didn't. Did not like this. Yeah, it is very odd. Here's Peppermint Patty coming right out to her teacher and saying, look, yeah, this is what I did.

Jimmy: I wonder if it has. If there is a little bit of, protest from Schulz with that. Like, a little bit of him feeling that maybe a lot of the work that he got as a kid or that he watched his kids get was kind of busy work and not really that important. So who cares if he copied off the kid behind you? I mean, you know, and he's just sort of thinking that, I don't know, or if it's. He just finds it funny, you know?

Harold: yeah, it's. It's a surprising part of him. He seems like the kind of guy who would have been like the Gownley household, you know, you don't do this. You know, it's. It's. It's just. It's just wrong. You know, you're doing your own work. He took such pride in doing his own work with the strip and wanted everyone to know that nobody did the strip but he. But him, he didn't have assistance. And it just. And he's like, that's. That's cheating. It seems like, you know.

Jimmy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Harold: And here he is, depicting this in the classroom.

September 25th. Charlie Brown's atop the old, pitcher's mound, and Schroeder comes out to him. And Charlie Brown says, when the catcher comes out to the mound for a conference. It's usually a dramatic moment. And then Schroeder takes off his mask and says to Charlie Brown, beethoven had a blue coat with metal buttons that he liked very much. And then he walks back to the. Behind the plate, and Charlie Brown says, but not always. 

Jimmy: Feels like to me, he was consciously going back in these few months to things that we hadn't maybe seen in a while. it felt like he had mentioned, you, know, the Lucy Schroeder relationship previously. We, have true and false tests. We have the kids under the tree. It just feels like he was maybe not just ticking them off, but maybe kind of ticking them off. And we haven't seen a good Schroeder, the catcher and Beethoven thing in a very long while.

Michael: Do you think he had a list of things he’d go to? When he blanks out, he just goes down the list goes, oh, yeah, I haven't had this one in a while.

Harold: Yeah.

Jimmy: I mean, I don't know if he had a real physical list, but he certainly probably had one mentally, right? Cause, you got the doghouse, you got the psychiatry booth, you got the piano. Yeah. Well, like we did with our strip O matic generator from all those months ago. He had enough things that. That were able to generate ideas. he screws up the zipatone, though. 

Michael: The hat?

Jimmy: Yeah.

Michael: Who would notice that?

Jimmy: A crazy person. 

October 5th. This is a sequence where Woodstock decides he's going to go to the moon. I actually really like this weird, sequence for some reason, partly because I just think Woodstock looks cute in the space helmet. But, here he is, and he's gone to the moon, and he meets who else but Spike? So we see him ask a question to Spike, and Spike answers, is this the moon? And Spike says, sometimes I wonder. And then, Woodstock asks a question, and Spike says, how did I get here? And Spike answers with, well, I like to think I came up the hard way.

Michael: This sequence really bothers me.

Jimmy: Why?

Michael: Even though the world is totally nuts in Peanuts, there's still certain rules. And, to me, this just is not even in the strip. I mean, this can't be in the continuity if this was a dream.

Jimmy: Well, I don't think he's really on the moon.

Michael: but he is.

Jimmy: I think he's just imagining it.

Michael: Why are they agreeing that they're on the moon? I mean, is he with Spike?

Harold: Well, this is what. You know, when I saw this sequence, and it started me thinking again. We've talked so much about the characters, imaginative lives, as we've gone through the strips. And this was a really stark reminder that in the Peanuts strips, characters pull other characters into their imaginations, their reality. Which is, I think, unique to Peanuts in a certain way. I mean, you see it in how fluid it is, right?

Harold: Yeah, it's, it's very. So, so basically this starts out with Woodstock coming to Snoopy and basically wanting to, saying, want to go to the moon? I want to go to the moon. And Snoopy's thinking about it and kind of trying to help Woodstock figure out what that might be. And then Woodstock, who has the little, you know, the little round astronaut helmet is really all that represents Woodstock being on the moon, which works great.

Jimmy: Right.

Harold: And then Woodstock winds up meeting Spike and. Yeah, just like Michael said, Woodstock shows up and says, is this the moon? And Spike is kind of. He just accepts it. He thinks about it.

Jimmy: Yeah, maybe, sure, why not? But it's definitely not. I mean, we could see the cactuses and stuff in the background.

Michael: I mean, that could be a moon creature.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Michael: Now the problem is, I think Spike was a bad choice because Woodstock and Spike have no relationship. And so if this is Woodstock imagining it, why would he imagine it with somebody he might have met, I don't know, once? No, I think he lives far away. So it's clearly not Spike really there.

Jimmy: No, I think it is Spike really there. And Woodstock, like Harold was saying, is bringing him into his play. He's like.

Michael: But Spike doesn't know Woodstock 

Liz: or, Spike is hallucinating.

Harold: Well, Spike does have an imaginative bent to himself. Out in the, out in the.

Jimmy: Yeah, he's talking.

Harold: He, he, he's interesting because he pulls himself in and out of his, his dreams. Right. He's trying to have a more grandiose life out in the middle of nowhere. And so he invents characters he doesn't know.

Michael: Now that to me, this violates the rules, which I cannot stand.

Jimmy: I don't even understand, honestly, what you're talking about. Which is fine. Like, I'm not trying to convince you that about this being good. But, but like, yeah, I don't, I don't understand how this is different than anything else, at all.

Michael: Oh, it's totally different.

Harold: Okay, so you have to know someone in order to be pulled into their reality is part of the rules.

Michael: Ah, okay. The, the Marcie and, Snoopy, the, the Air Ace stuff bothers me a bit because she's in clearly in his, his World War I fantasies and seems to be joining him in the fantasies, but at least they're in proximity to each other. And people seem to be able to read his mind when he's thinking. I don't know if all of them can.

Harold: It comes and goes, doesn't it? I mean, this year, you got Snoopy saying characters thinking about something or saying something out loud. A human character. And then Snoopy is. Is replying, essentially in a way that makes it sound like, well, you. You can't know what I'm thinking. And I'm like, really?

Michael: Yeah.

Harold: In the Peanuts world, this turns on and off.

Michael: It's just that Spike's never been involved in any of those relationships. There's no point in picking him.

Jimmy: That's why, though, because he goes and he doesn't know who he is.

Harold: Well, what about Spike in the World War trench, where he's a fighter?

Michael: Didn't like that at all either.

Jimmy: Okay, hold on.

Harold: But if it's. If it's breaking the rules multiple times, then maybe it's a rule.

Michael: I would not do this if I was Schulz.

Harold: What?

Jimmy: I think the reason that he picked Spike is because he doesn't know Woodstock. And that's why he goes there and is able to ask him, is this the moon? He wouldn't ask Linus necessarily. Is this the moon? But Anyway, moving on. 

October 6th. they're standing in the desert, slash the moon, and Spike says, and there's Earth. Well, there's not Earth. That's the moon. I think that we're seeing Spike pretend.

Harold: I don't know. I see a zipatone Australia.

Michael: It's clearly a map of Earth. I mean, it's totally detailed.

And Spike says to Woodstock, yes, we're standing on the moon, and that's the Earth we're looking at. Before you go back, there's something over here you shouldn't miss. And Spike tries to sell Woodstock, some moon rocks.

Harold: Yeah, when you're out in the desert, it always ultimately comes down to souvenirs.

Jimmy: Yeah, you got. All right, well, since we don't need to discuss that further, since we don't want to hurt Michael's head anymore.

Michael: No, I'm just pretending it never happened.

Jimmy: All right, 

October 12th. Okay, so Peppermint Patty has called Marcie, about a homework assignment and says, hey, Marcie, do you have a rough or even vague idea what our homework is for tomorrow? And then Marcie says, sir, I know exactly what our homework is for tomorrow. Which Peppermint Patty replies, Marcie, do you have a rough or even vague idea how annoying you are?

Jimmy: Do you have a rough or even vague idea is such specific language that you're not going to hear. And it sounds like. I think he has a really good ear for hearing things people say and then incorporating it into just the right character. It sounds like really good Peppermint Patty language for me.

Harold: Yeah, that is Good. Good dialogue.

October 15th. Rerun is sitting there, in the living room and holding his mouth. And he looks shocked about something. And then in the next panel, we see there's something in his hand. And he says, wow. And then he teleports outside, and he is with Lucy and Snoopy in the sandbox. And Lucy says, what's this? And Rerun says, a tooth. I lost another tooth. And then Lucy, says to him, that's great. You can put it under your pillow tonight, and the tooth fairy will bring you a whole bunch of money. And then Rerun says, why would she do that? To which Lucy replies, they need teeth. They use them to make piano keys. To which Rerun replies, piano keys? 

Jimmy: I always heard it was billiard balls, by the way. 

And then, Rerun's having a drink out of the public water fountain, and he says, I'm five years old. I've been around for five years, and I've never believed anything anyone has ever told me. And he's looking at his tooth, and Snoopy thinks to himself, if I could talk, kid, I'd tell you about the tooth beagle.

Harold: If I could talk. Here we are. All of a sudden, Snoopy cannot communicate with the other kids. It's like Schulz is. Is messing around with the, this fluid reality and imaginative alterations on what would, you know, a normal situation would be? And I really do think he did something that I don't remember seeing in other strips or other worlds. It seems like if you were to shift into this other dreamlike reality. Well, for one thing, everybody's gotten to know Peanuts over the years. And he has that huge advantage, right? Because people know the characters. But whenever I think about somebody shifting into this alternate reality, they have to make a big deal of it. You know, I'm thinking of, like, the Secret Life of Walter Mitty or some sort of a daydream, sequence. But it's like Schulz is daydreaming with his characters.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: And there's some power in being able to do that with us because of the familiarity. He doesn't really get there immediately in the strip, but he does start to get there 15 years in, when people know it, and it's like he's flexing a muscle nobody can flex because he's earned this familiarity, and he set his world up. And I think that's maybe where Michael's objecting is. You know, he will change the rules or he will go to a place that nobody would go to normally.

Jimmy: Right, sure.

Michael: Schulz had no idea that, 25 years in the future, people would be talking on some kind of device, that intercontinental communication, discussing one strip, this one strip that we found on a website.

Harold: Oh, yeah. Well, and then that reality is also shifted.

Michael: So maybe he didn't care if people went this is--

Jimmy: Yeah, well, look, I think that's 100% right. Because if. If it didn't work at the time you threw it out, like, I mean, it went in the newspaper, and then no one ever had to see it again or think about it again, ever.

Harold: And he could see if people objected. You know, you put something out there, and if people like, what are you doing? You've broken all the rules. You know, he would know, or he would say. People would just glom onto it and go, yeah, that's part of the world now. He's just expanded his world. And that's what you can do in a creative space. Right. You can expand your world if your audience will go with you.

Jimmy: Yeah. One of my big regrets, when we interviewed Lynn Johnston, is I didn't ask her a question about that type of thing. Just the fact that you wrote a body of work and it was, put out one way, and it was received one way for decades, and now for the rest of eternity, it can never be read the same way it originally was intended, you know, because it's now an impermanent thing. It's in these books. You read them in a row. It's all totally different. And that does really change it. I mean, I'm sure, Michael's right about that. It's like, you know, 365 of these a year. You're not thinking about everyone being in a hardcover book someday. And yet they are.

Harold: Yeah. Yeah. That reality has shifted on him. So what can he do? But I really like the strips artwork. this is, mid-90s, you know, rough, rough line. But it's got a lot of detail. It's really well laid out. It switches locations from inside the Van Pelt house to the sandbox to a lovely park bench by some rose. Rose bushes.

Jimmy: Yeah. I love those rose bushes.

Harold: Yeah, it's. It looks really nice. And I bet in color, it would look really nice, too, since we're looking at these all in black and white.

Jimmy: Well, I think it's time for us to shift realities and do a break and then come back, answer the mail and wrap up this year, do the Anger Happiness Index. Find out our favorite strips, all that good stuff. Sound good?

Harold: Yes, sure.

Jimmy: All right, I'm going to go get an iced tea. We'll see you characters on the other side.

BREAK

VO: Hi, everyone. You've heard us rave about The Esterbrook Radio 914, and, what episode would be complete without mention of the Fab Four? Now you can wear our obsessions proudly with Unpacking Peanuts T shirts. We have a be of good cheer pen nib design, along with the four of us crossing Abbey Road, and of course, Michael, Jimmy and Harold at the thinking wall. Collect them all, trade them with your friends. Order your T shirts today@unpackingpeanuts.com store.

Jimmy: And we're back. Hey, Liz, I'm hanging out in the mailbox. Is there anything here?

Liz: Yes, we got, a couple of emails. First, one is from Benjamin Clark, curator of the Schulz Museum.

Jimmy: Oh, right. He's famous.

Liz: And he writes, dear Unpacking Gang, what a fabulous interview with Rita Grimsley Johnson. So much buried treasure. And he points out that we did misspell Larry Rutman's name, and I have corrected it on the transcript, he adds, I can also confirm the Bill Anderson attribution on the title Peanuts. He has an article that's going to be published at some point where he confirms that.

Harold: Oh, good. That's great. And that's referring to how, Peanuts got named. Working with the United Future Syndicate’s, top people. Schulz lost that one.

Liz: Thanks for clarifying that. Then we heard from Anne from Pennsylvania, who writes, I just finished the episode with Judy Sladky. It should have come with a tissue warning. what a beautiful bunch of stories. And what a special person. Her care for the legacy she was entrusted with is so heartwarming. Backflips with her eyes closed. The vet and his two hugs telling Snoopy that Sparky had passed. My eyes are wet again just writing this. Thank you for finding this special person and helping us know more about how our hero was worthy of our esteem.

Harold: Aw.

Jimmy: well, thank you for writing. I'll tell you what, like, when you're doing the interview and, you know, you're talking to the person, you're obviously, you're in the moment and you're listening. but I don't think I, at least I can't, like, emotionally get involved in what's being said because I'm trying to think of, like, how to keep the conversation going and what's a good place to break it off. But then when I listen to that afterwards, oh, boy, it is a good episode, if I do say so myself. All because of her, not because of us. All because.

Harold: Yeah, and thanks to Jean Schulz for recommending her. Yeah, that was a really, really good recommendation. I'm so grateful to be able to meet Judy.

Liz: And then, finally we heard from Dr. Cynthia Ainsworth, who writes hi, Liz and the guys. I see the last five years coming fast, so let me express my thanks and appreciation for your podcast. Now, I found you on my phone when you were still recording the 50s strips, but I really like the way you've gone back and recorded each of those years in three segments. You sound fresher and more interested in the strips with more time.

Jimmy: Oh, good.

Liz: I also have appreciated the extras, the vaults of special furniture and interior drawings from the early 50s, and of course, the obscurities. Harold's deep dive into those pop topics Schulz would toss in with a giggle has been very helpful to stay informed on the back chat in Peanuts. If you had been broadcasting in 2014, when I was doing my own reread alone, I would not have added several books to my library on the Beaker People. Very, very dry subject. All the best, Cynthia.

Jimmy: Who are the Beaker People?

Harold: Thank you, Cynthia.

Jimmy: That's wonderful. Thank you so much for writing. I'm glad that you stuck with us from all the way from back in the 50s. Hard to imagine. Hard to imagine. I was recording in a closet those couple episodes. Oh, boy. All right, well, thank you for writing in. We, love to hear from you. 

You can write to us anytime you want, unpacking peanuts gmail.com. or you could call us or leave a text message on the hotline, which is 717-219-4162. And remember, I, love to hear from you, because when I don't hear, I worry all. Ah, right. Let's get back to those good old comic strips. 

October 21, Snoopy and the Beagle Scouts are out marching. They've been on, an expedition and they're hiking home. And Snoopy says to them, keep going, troops. We're almost home. And then one of the scouts complains, and Snoopy says, I know your feet hurt. Mine do, too. And then the scout complains again, and Snoopy says, yes, I know Mickey Mouse has shoes.

Harold: Okay, so here is a strip where you could say that in Schulz's imagination, the characters maybe kind of know that they're cartoon characters because they're comparing themselves. Well, Mickey Mouse has shoes.

Jimmy: Mickey Mouse, Yeah.

Michael: is this in obscurity?

Harold: Mickey Mouse. Now that Steamboat Billy is in the public domain, it's so far back. 95 years. Wow. Hard to believe, but, yeah. This one again, struck me that, you know, we're living. We're living in Schulz's imagination here, and he is, He's kind of bounces us around with surprises in terms of a character making a reference to a cartoon character and saying, well, you're like a cartoon character, so why don't you do this? Interesting.

Jimmy: Yeah, it is interesting. this is a little sequence where Snoopy. The punchline is, yes, I know this, or yes, I know that. That's, the little motif he has running on these, these strips, which. That was a cute little sequence. 

Jimmy: Here's something for all you aspiring authors out there. 

October 27, Snoopy's at the mailbox, and he is thrilled. His ears are shooting straight up in the air because he got a letter, and it says, dear Author, congratulations. We have decided to publish your novel. The next panel, first printing will be one copy, and then the letter concludes with, if we sell it, we'll print another.

Harold: The gift of prophecy. This is it again. Here's Schulz predicting, the future.

Jimmy: Yeah, I mean, that is the gift of prophecy. Holy cow.

Harold: That is the thing. Yeah. You got to be careful if you make a contract with a publisher who has the rights to publish your book forever, that they don't have any responsibility to, do anything with it. In the past, it was like. Well, I know they at least have to run, like, a thousand copies to get it. This is going to cost them some money here. But in this world, if you get a publisher to sign you up and they say, okay, we're now going to be the exclusive people who can do anything with what you've written and put it out there and make it available to others, and you've given us the right to do so, they don't have to. They don't have to do a thing with it, really, other than just, run it through a little program and now it's available, and that's it. They don't have to promote you, and what do they have to lose? And this has been an issue. I have. I have a friend who. Who kind of got into this. This kind of trouble. He made a deal with a very excited company. They wanted to do all these different things with his books and they had all sorts of wonderful properties he developed over time. And then what do they do? They just sit on them because you know, if the contract doesn't say they've got to do this, this and this, they technically can just sit on it as IP and say, well, we own all this stuff. And then maybe they want to use it for other purposes. Say somebody wants to come along and buy their company. And they said, well, we've got, look at all these, these great properties that we have that we could do things with. You could turn this into a TV show. But in the meantime, if they don't do anything with it, you've just signed away your rights to somebody who could lock it up in a vault and not touch it.

Jimmy: Yep.

Harold: We don't always stay up to speed with how the rules change based on how technology changes the rules. And this is a real warning to anybody out there who does have something that they're trying to do creatively. If you get a partner and they're supposed to be the business people, make sure that they've got to hit some benchmarks for them to keep your work.

Jimmy: Yeah, no, that's really smart. 

October 29th. Oh, it's football time. Lucy has the football and she calls out Charlie Brown. Which Charlie Brown rolls his eyes and says again. And Lucy says, I'll hold the ball, see? And you come running up and kick it. And Charlie Brown says, sure. And what happens if you pull the ball away? I fly through the air and land on my back and kill myself. That's what happens. And then Lucy says, you could always sue. And then Charlie Brown says, she's right. If she pulls the ball away, I'll sue. And then in the last panel we see Charlie Brown headed for his inevitable defeat. But he is followed by Snoopy as the world famous lawyer.

Michael: This might be my favorite football strip.

Jimmy: you know what, it's pretty good. It's pretty good.

Michael: Yeah. Because really the joke, it's just not believable that someone would do that. But this is a variant on it that doesn't show the actual kick or non kick.

Harold: Well, I love the sweet little face Lucy has holding the football as she pitches Charlie Brown for the umpteenth time. That is such a sweet little Lucy face. It's like she's looking forward to this every year.

Jimmy: There are moments if you just look at that second tier, like that middle Charlie Brown, that head that's Perfect. Right. I mean, he doesn't have even the vaguest, tremor or even the last one there is, though, in the one just before. Looks a little wonkier.

Harold: I mean, the fact that he can do an entire swath between tremors, that's, ah, what he's doing. Right. It has to be. He's not putting it on a template or tracing anything.

Jimmy: No. and if that was the instances where he's like, trying to hold it with his other hand, you couldn't go a big smooth thing like that.

Harold: No way. That. That. Yeah. I don't. Holding your hand with your other hand to try to draw smoothly.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: Sounds like a. An oxymoron. Yeah.

Jimmy: Well, I think he probably did a lot of it. It was probably for the lettering.

Harold: For the lettering, you think?

Jimmy: Yeah, I think so.

Harold: Because I thought each of those. If he can do a whole swath of the back of Charlie Brown's head, that the lettering is. He's literally ticking those letters out in between a tremor. You can tell. I don't know, but that's. Yeah, the lettering is amazing. given what he's struggling with. And to have just a few things consistently clean makes all the difference at this point in the strip. Everything else is rough, but he's learned how to make really, really quick individual lines. And just. He knows there's certain things that he absolutely can't. Not tremor, certainly. Like the bottom of those, Those, word balloons.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: And. And even then he's loosening up. Right. Instead of trying to fight his way through the clean line, which then looks.

Jimmy: Really jagged, especially the long.

Harold: He's got these kind of loopy rolling word balloons now where he's a little more freewheeling with it. Well, it doesn't matter, you know, why make it look so tortured?

Jimmy: Yeah. 

November 8th, Linus, Snoopy and Charlie Brown are all tucked in, having a sleepover, because Linus has been hearing some noises outside his house. And, Linus is telling them, sometimes I'll be lying in bed like this, sort of half asleep. Then suddenly I hear coyotes howling. They sound sad and lonely. Then I get depressed and Snoopy responds with, I thought I heard coyotes howling once, but it was a donut calling me. 

Jimmy: I picked this just because it's the coziest looking comic strip. I just think that is. That looks super cozy. The only thing they need is maybe a cup of tea and some cookies and, There you go watching some Citizen Kane on the TV late at night.

Harold: Yeah. Linus, Snoopy and Charlie Brown, all with their little pillows with a beautiful quilted blanket. Yeah, there's something classic about this strip.

November 26th. it's a Sunday, and Peppermint Patty's taking a, true false test. We have a symbolic panel at the beginning where she has ticked all of the boxes on the answers. Sort of maybe, could be who knows and why. And then, the second tier, she really gets going on this true and false test with true or false. If the truth be known, it's false. He who would distinguish the true from the false must have an adequate idea of what is true and false. Ring out the old, ring in the new, ring out the false ring in the true. All was false. Unhallow true as the stars above live pure. Speak true. Be so true to thyself as thou be not false to others. At this point, she's actually up on her knees on the top of her desk and says that he is mad. Tis true. Then she's standing up on the desk saying, there you are, ma'am. Finished with a flourish. And, to which Marcie responds, this was a multiple choice quiz, sir. And, Peppermint Patty ends with failed with a flourish.

Michael: Don't you think it's kind of weird that here's the worst student in the world who knows, like, thousands of quotes by heart? Famous quotes?

Jimmy: I think that might be part of the source of the humor.

Michael: You think this is a. This is what, that humor thing I've been hearing about?

Jimmy: I think so, yeah.

Harold: Yeah. You got Paradise Lost and Hamlet. She's going to town here. And Schulz has that quotation book. I want to see that quotation book. They could have references with little post it notes out of every one.

Jimmy: So funny.

Harold: Look, look at Patty in the second to last panel. It's like her head is just blown up. Yeah, she's being told it's a multiple choice.

December 13, Linus, Charlie Brown and Snoopy are all sitting under a tree, and Linus says, if you work real hard and you get everything you've always wanted, is it worth it? And then, Snoopy answers with, not if your dog doesn't like you. 

Jimmy: I think that's a very personal strip for Schulz.

Harold: Yeah, right. He is, he's worked really hard, and he's pretty much gotten everything he wanted. But his dog likes him, too, so.

Jimmy: And his dog does like him.

Harold: Come on, Sparky. Things are going pretty well, right?

Jimmy: Yeah. Take it easy on you.

Harold: Well, speaking of that, given that we're talking about whether it's worth it in satisfaction, you want to do the anger and Happiness index for this year?

Jimmy: Absolutely.

Harold: All right, well, I'm going to preface it again for those of you who just might happen to be listening. For the first time every year, I'm counting through the strips and finding the number of strips that show a character either displaying anger or happiness. And if at least one character does in each strip, I count it as one of the strips that are in either anger or happiness pile. I preface also for you guys that this year, there is a record. So, this time, my question to you is, what do you think the record is for 1995?

Jimmy: Are we talking about. When you say record, is it a record high or a record low?

Harold: It could be either one, I want you to know.

Jimmy: Oh, well, come on. Okay.

Michael: I think it’s record low anger.

Jimmy: That's what I think, too.

Liz: Me, too.

Harold: Okay, well, the reality just. And just for reference, so this is 1995, and in 1994, we had 72 strips with showing anger. And 99, I believe it was, for happiness. And this is actually a record low for happiness. Oh, really? We're at, 71 strips. So from 99 to 71, that's quite a drop. And we went from 72 up to 83 for anger.

Jimmy: Oh, well, we were wrong.

Michael: We were wrong.

Harold: I think I would have guessed the same thing. but when I was counting through, there were enough sequences of Rerun getting upset. And there's lots of, Lucy strips. She's. She's consistently showing up and having a gripe about somebody.

Michael: I think the strip is much cooler than it was.

Harold: Yeah, I agree.

Michael: Emotionally.  

Harold: Absolutely.

Michael: I think we all thought the same thing. That meant less anger, right?

Harold: Yeah, it'd be the first thing you think. But, yeah, he's getting more and more and more subtle with these characters and subdued, and hopefully he's doing okay. 1995. Hope he's not experiencing some new things that are kind of taking away his happiness that would be reflected in the strip.

Jimmy: Yeah, No, I don't think so. 

December 27th, Snoopy and Woodstock are atop the doghouse, and then they're both looking up in the sky, and Snoopy says, what I don't understand is how you can fly around up there without bumping into another bird. Woodstock answers somehow and looks, a little annoyed while doing it. And then Snoopy responds with, no, I realize you're not stupid.

Michael: The word stupid is just funny.

Jimmy: Oh, that's really funny. That's a great ending for the year. And the episode, I think it just made me laugh. 

All right, guys, that brings us to the end of yet another year. 1995 is now in the history books. So we're going to be coming back next week, with more comics. And if you want to keep, this conversation going between now and then, the first thing you got to do is you want to go over there to the unpacking Peanuts website and you want to sign up for the good old great Peanuts reread. And that will get you one email a month where, you hear what we're going to be covering. If you want to reach out to us, you can email us at unpackingpeanutsmail.com or call or text the hotline at 717-219-4162. And of course, you can follow us on social media. We're npackpeanuts on Instagram and threads and npackingpeanuts on Facebook, Blue sky and YouTube. 

So with all that said, the only thing I need now is, to hear from you guys about your pick for Strip of the Year and Most Valuable Peanut.

Harold: All right. Strip of the Year. I when I went back through, there were not a whole lot that really jumped out as, like, full on Peanuts classics. But there was an event this year that I thought was major that needed to be remembered in a strip. And that's April 11, where Charlie Brown, cool thumb Brown, comes into town and saves Rerun and gets his marbles back from the, the sharpshooting marble player who, who was drifting into their neighborhood. This to me, I could be wrong, but this to me seems to be the first and maybe the only time that Charlie Brown has a full on unquestioned win. Yeah, that doesn't get, doesn't get, somehow diminished by something. He goes in, he is the hero, he saves his little friend Rerun, and nothing can be taken away from him in this. And I kind of love that that Schulz has gotten Charlie Brown to a place after 45 years that he can do. This is special to me.

Jimmy: Absolutely. That's a great pick. And who is your, mvp?

Harold: As I was thinking about it, this is a really well balanced year. We're seeing pretty much all of the major characters floating in and out, doing their thing. There's a lot of good stuff. Lucy's having a good year, but I think I have to give it again to Rerun because Rerun is the one who's changing the flavor and tone of the strip more than anything else. You know, if there were no Rerun, Charlie Brown couldn't have had this, this victory. So I'm going to give it to Rerun again.

Jimmy: Excellent pick. Michael, how about you?

Michael: Well, this is a little tricky because I didn't find too many that stand out as strip of the year. I did mark one, though, so I just went and looked it up because I didn't remember what it was. It's funny, it's simple, and I don't know if anybody else liked it, but I did. February 24th, it's Woodstock bouncing up and down on the trampoline while Snoopy watches. And there's really no joke. It's just Woodstock bouncing up and down on the trampoline.

Harold: I did pick that strip as well, Michael, for this year, so I'm with you. I think that's a fun visual.

Michael: Yeah, it's just a good visual. And there hasn't been a whole lot of Woodstock alone with Snoopy. yeah, I don't know who to pick for most valuable peanut. Lydia appears once, and it was actually one of the few Lydias that I didn't love. So I can't pick her. I mean, I. I guess it's. I do have to pick. I'll go with Sally again.

Jimmy: All right, well, Sally does have some good, good, bits this year, for sure. I'm gonna pick, for my strip of the year. You're, emotionally bankrupt. Scott Fitzgerald was emotionally bankrupt. That is June 26th. And I'm going to pick for my--

Harold: That is a 1995 strip. You know, took him 45 years to get there, too. So I think that's a good pick.

Jimmy: Yeah, yeah. And it's a panorama. It looks good. You know, I'm going to be. For my strip of the or for my mvp, I'm actually going to go with Charlie Brown because I like the marble sequence. I like the way he helps Linus out. when Linus hears the coyotes. I like his relationship with Snoopy. Yeah. So I'm going to go with Charlie Brown. That's it. 

All right, guys, so that is it. Another year in the books. come back next week where we start in 1996. Till then, from. I know. Until then for Michael, Harold and Liz. This is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer. Yes.

Harold: 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. 

Liz: Back Flips with her eyes closed.