Peanuts/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Creator Breakdown: Charles Schultz wanted to continue the strip into at least 2002, but his failing health convinced him to retire when he did.
  • Cross-Dressing Voices: Peppermint Patty was voiced by a young boy in several of the cartoons.
    • For the "This is America, Charlie Brown" mini-series (if you want to call it that) from the 1988-89 season, Erin Chase became the only female voice for Charlie Brown.
    • Marcie, "Pig-Pen" and Franklin have also been subject to this trope.
  • Dawson Casting: Averted with the animated productions. Charlie Brown was the only character that would always have a working child actor doing his voice.
  • Executive Meddling: Schulz was never particularly fond of the title "Peanuts", an invention of the syndicate. He was originally going to call it "Lil' Folks", the title of his proto-Peanuts strip, but had to change it because it sounded too much like names of two other strips from the time, Al Capp's Lil' Abner and Little Folks
    • He specifically worried that the title was confusing; people would just ask "Who's Peanuts?", or refer to it as "Charlie Brown" or "Snoopy". And of course, he was completely right.
      • Not that it's justified, but the strip started in the 1950s, when the most popular kids' show was The Howdy Doody Show. And where did kids sit on The Howdy Doody Show? The peanut gallery. The person who chose the title fails logic forever.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!:
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: Some specials have still not received a DVD release, notably the live-action/animation blend, "It's The Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown". Though critically panned, some believe it's So Bad It's Good.
  • Screwed by the Network: Although Charles Schulz became a very rich man from the strip, he was never able to buy the copyright back from the syndicate- the price was always just a bit more than he could afford (since 1950 the standard contract has changed; now the copyright for Newspaper Comics automatically reverts to the creator after 20 years).
    • Syndicates owning rights to the comics they distributed was largely standard practice until the 1980s and Bill Watterson's famous fight to prevent Calvin and Hobbes merchandise. After that happened, Creators' Syndicate was founded and comic strip creators owning their work become more common.
    • Most infamously, during a contract dispute, the syndicate hired another cartoonist to draw some Peanuts strips as a threat to Schulz, but thankfully he (and we) never saw them.
  • Tribute to Fido: Snoopy was based on Charles Schulz's childhood dog, Spike. In the 1970s, we meet Snoopy's brother, who is named Spike.
  • The Wiki Rule: Here.