1964 Part 2 - Thrillsville

Jimmy: Hey, everybody, welcome back to the show. It's Unpacking Peanuts, and we are discussing 1964, another fantastic year in the, lives of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and their pals and gals.

I'm Jimmy Gownley. I'm one of your hosts. You might know me from my comic book series Amelia Rules. Or my graphic novels The Dumbest Idea Ever and Seven Good Reasons Not to Grow Up. Joining me are my pals, cohosts and fellow cartoonists.

He's a playwright and a composer, both for the band Complicated People, as well as for this very podcast. He co-created the very first Comic Book Price Guide, was the original editor for Amelia Rules, and is the cartoonist behind Strange Attractors, Tangled River and A Gathering of Spells. Mr. Michael Cohen.

Michael: Hey there

Jimmy: And he's the executive producer and writer of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, a former vice president of Archie Comics, as well as the creator of the Instagram comic strip Sweetest Beasts, Harold Buchholz.

Harold: Hello.

Jimmy: So, guys, it is 1964. We have tons of great strips to go through anyway, so what do you guys say? Do you want to go right to the strips?

Michael and Harold: Yeah, let's do it.

Jimmy: And if you guys want to follow along with us out there, you can always go to Gocomics.com. Type in Peanuts, type in these dates in 1964. But if you’d rather treat yourself, get those Fantagraphics books that cover every year of the strip. They're beautiful and put out by a darn fine publisher to boot. And if you need to figure out how to use Gocomics and you need a little tutorial, go to Unpackingpeanuts.com, our fabulous producer, Liz has put together a tutorial video of how to find these strips.

Let's get to it.

April 5. Very odd and surreal first panel of a bar of soap with a Linus head growing out of it. We then cut to the next panel where it's just Charlie Brown and Linus, no longer made out of soap. Just walking along the road. And Linus says to Charlie Brown, have you ever done any soap carving? Charlie Brown says “soap carving?” Linus says “yes. It's great.” Linus continues, “I've been working on this model of an old sailing vessel.” They walk back towards Linus's house. Linus says, “I want you to see it. Charlie Brown. I carved it all by myself.” Inside now, Linus says, “I'm especially proud of the good job I did on the sails. It took me three days to do just the sails alone.” In the next panel, we see Lucy, who is walking in from off panel. Her hands are covered in soapy lather. Linus is shocked out of his mind as Lucy says, “if you're going to get your hands really clean, you've got to work up a good lather.” She's continuing to lather up her hands in the next panel as Linus covers his eyes, and she says, “Lots of soap and hot water.” That's what does it. We're now in the bathroom with Lucy, who is rinsing her hands off, and she tosses the tiny little remnant of soap over her shoulder to Linus, who then presents it to Charlie Brown, saying, “I had planned to show you an authentic replica of an American Clipper ship. Would you settle for a canoe?”

Michael: Now Is she doing this on purpose?

Harold: Absolutely,

Jimmy: yes.

Harold: You don't pick up a bar with a clipper ship and then throw the piece back to Linus when you're done.

Jimmy: Right?

Harold: Yeah. She's giving herself away in this strip. That is just cruel. But as a little kid, boy, the younger brother, I just totally ate this one up. I was like, oh, the injustices of being the little kid. Your art is just tossed aside.

Jimmy: I remember freshman year of college, I had a Cindy Crawford poster, and my roommate had an Etch A Sketch. And his friend had come up, and he was like a master Etch A Sketch artist. So he, with the Etch A Sketch, recreated this Cindy Crawford poster, and it was astounding. And my roommate had it up, and he's like, Isn't this amazing? And he showed it to my friend Mark. And Mark looked at it and said, yeah, that's gorgeous. Shake.

Harold: I think the most painful the most painful thing in the world is to be an Etch A Sketch artist. It's so ephemeral.

Jimmy: I love the little bathroom detail of the little tiles and stuff like that. The house I stayed in when I, was the artist in residence, which was the Schulz family guest house in Santa, Rosa. The tile the border of the tile around, like, the bathroom and everything. Each tile was a Peanuts panel. And you could read them as strips. They were just random ones. They were actually strips printed out on the tile as a decorative thing. It was really cool. And even if you looked in the sink, the little thing that blocks up the sink to keep all your garbage from going down, the little, handle to pull it out of the drain was shaped like Snoopy.

Harold: Well, I can just imagine everybody in the house waiting in line in their bathrobes for you to get out of the bathroom, reading the whole bathroom.

Jimmy: It was the arm wrestling champion, where Snoopy is a masked marvel going to Petaluma. I don't know why, but that's what it was really fun.

So Michael and I were talking during our break. Does anyone carve soap, or is this only in Schulz world thing?

Michael: I don't remember it.

Harold: I believed it because it was in the strip, I guess. I don't remember seeing it. I tried to go to county fairs and remember if there was anything like soap carving. Seems reasonable.

Jimmy: Well, I just googled it. What soap is best for soap carving, And you know what it is?

Harold: Ivory

Jimmy: It is.

Harold: I don't know. And yet I knew that.

Jimmy: 9% and 44% pure

Harold: Which is what we had in our house. So maybe that's why I related to it so much, because it looked very carve-able.

Jimmy: I had Safeguard, which was just the most all chemical

Michael: Now we don't want to get sued.

Harold: Yeah, it was 56, 100% or 40. 56, 100% pure. Right?

Jimmy: I didn't say it was a bad thing. I still use Safeguard.

Michael: Now we got a sponsor.

Harold: Yeah a sponsorship, Safeguard. It's chemically.

Jimmy: Now our big moral quandary will be if it comes up in Skippy peanut butter wants to sponsor us. then we have decisions to make, my friends.

April 7. This is a mostly visual strip. We see Sally who is-- it's a line of kids. Sally, who is tugging on Five’s, the back of his pants and pulling him. Five is hanging on to Schroeder. Schroeder is hanging on to Lucy. Lucy is grabbing hands with Shermy, who is holding hands with Patty, who is holding hands with Violet, who is holding hands with, Pigpen, who is holding hands with Three, and then Four, and then Frieda, who is holding hands with Charlie Brown, who is trying to pull Snoopy off of a tree. And Snoopy is thinking to himself, “I don't want another rabies shot.”

Michael: Timely.

Jimmy: And yes, sometimes you got to get more than one shot, Snoopy.

Michael pointed out something interesting again during the break about our good pal Shermy. We might have another Shermometer moment.

VO: Let's check the Shermometer Charlie Brown.

Michael: Okay. All these kids are pouring out beads of sweat because they're struggling to pull. Shermy, cool as a cucumber. Nothing.

Jimmy: Not a drop. Not a furrow in Shermy's brow. So we think that makes him a cool customer.

Michael: No. Maybe he's a slacker. He's not working hard.

Jimmy: No. You know why? Because you can see the motion lines he's pulling just as hard.

Michael: I don't know. He's actually got motion lines in his neck, they're not in his arm.

Jimmy: No. And his knee. No. He's pulling. I think he's a cool customer.

Michael: He's a slacker.

Jimmy: Well, by the way, being a slacker is also kind of cool. So do you want this to be cool or a slacker?

Michael: Both. He's a cool slacker.

Jimmy: Let's just stick with cool because that's what we agreed on. Before you decided to go off book.

Michael: I went off script, sorry.

Jimmy: We're going to go with Shermy as a cool, straggling, cynical, philosophical, history loving, empathetic, aggressive, compassionate, patient, pedantic, knowledgeable, emotional, good listening, vain, friendly, hypocrite. So please remember, when you think of Shermy, at the core, he is a hypocrite, as we all are from time to time.

We are now in the midst of another great sequence, which is anyone want to describe this sequence before I read this one particular strip?

Michael: You know, these grammar schools, elementary schools, always had a science fair, and people always brought in the same kind of things, cause what do you expect from a five year old? But Lucy decides she needs something really special and she submits her brother because him sucking his thumb and holding the blanket, the security blanket is just weird and it deserves a little exhibit with graphs and stuff.

Jimmy: And that is exactly what we see on--

April 17, panel one, we just have a big sign that says, welcome to our science fair. Then in panel two, we see a little plant life, how plants grow diorama. By the way, these are exactly the same to this day. Kids do the exact same thing. It's a classic trifold piece of cardboard that stands up that you put your little stats and methods on it. And the plant life one was apparently created by Martha Arguello. We have an electricity one made by Jimmy Hennessy Mouse in a Maze, a Study of the Learning Powers of Mice by Wesley Reid. And then in the last panel, right in the little trifold cardboard, standee, we see Linus. It's clearly labeled above him, The Security Blanket. He's in classic thumb and blanket position. Linus is sighing. We see this was put together by Lucy Van Pelt and it has in fact, won a first prize ribbon.

Harold: You like the charts next to him, like the bar graph, like she's measuring something over time. This is also a good, this is a classic strip. I love the black background on it. I remember this also one as a kid. This is just yeah, this is the big sister moving the little brother around for her purposes with lack of compassion or just classic Lucy just doing her thing.

Jimmy: And I do love the little displays. I think they're just really, nice and evocative. The electricity one reminds me, we actually never did a science fair in my school. We did like, science experiments, but the whole class would do the same thing. But I remember my cousin Jimmy, his name is also Jimmy Gownley, the poor guy. He did one on electricity. And I was like, staying over that weekend and was so excited because I always wanted to do a science fair thing. And I thought we would be in like, white coats and it would be a whole week long thing. He did something with batteries. It took him about twelve minutes. And he did win first place. And they grew up to become an electrician. It was like of no consequence to him. But I was so disappointed because I was ready for a week of deep science.

Harold: Wow. Well, the three names that you just mentioned here, two of them we've mentioned before, in this show. So I don't know. Hennessy, Wesley Reid is Bus Reid, the trumpeter, who was the husband of Schulz’s mom’s sister, who was living with them at the time. And, Martha, how do you pronounce that Michael?

Michael: Arguello or Argwaylo

Harold: she's a cartoonist. Marty, yeah, who did the comic strip Bobby Socks.

Jimmy: That's so cool.

April 22. Linus is struggling with his homework, and he says to Lucy, “this new math is too much for me.” Lucy says as she walks away, “you'll get on to it. It just takes time.” Linus is very frustrated. Looks down his papers and says,” not me. I'll never get on to it.” Then he yells off in the distance to Lucy and says, “how can you do new math problems with an old math mind?”

Michael: I remember when new math came in. It was very disturbing because they threw out the one plus one equals two, and everything is set. This is a set of numbers, and this is the conjunction of two sets. It was insane. I, think it lasted like, one year.

Harold: Boy, I'm glad I missed out on that new math thing. It was in every comic ever. It seemed like in this era, the new math every cartoonist had to do.

Jimmy: Yeah. I've never been 100% clear on what it was.

April 26. We're looking inside a baseball locker room. A mit, a hat, and a, bat are all just laying on the bench. And we see some lockers with names saying Willie Mays, Alvin Dark, Snoopy, and Orlando Sapahda.

Michael: Cepeda! What, are you crazy?

Jimmy: You say Cepeda, I say Sapadah

Michael: no no no no no

Jimmy: Let’s call the whole thing off.

Michael: This is my team. Anything with the Giants I love. That's why I picked it.

Jimmy: All right.

Michael: Alvin Dark was the manager. Cepeda was first base. Mays was center field.

Jimmy: There you go.

And Snoopy is in between them all. And in the second panel, he's lying on top of his doghouse. It's night. The next panel, sun is up, and Snoopy stretches, yawns and heads off to the old ball field. He is out there playing his position shortstop. Then we see him batting. Then we see him sliding into second, probably. Then we see him hanging out on the bench. See him chasing down a fly. We see him taking a mighty swing at the ball. We see him scoring in the next last panel. He just very coolly walks away holding his glove, and then in the last panel is lying back on top of the doghouse at night. And he says to himself, “it's a living.”

Michael: Yeah. He probably doesn't get paid very much.

Harold: Yeah. All I can think of is the Flintstones. That line, it was used over and over again. It's a living, with all the different animals who are being used for various conveniences in the stone age house.

Jimmy: like dishwasher is a little elephant or something.

Harold: Yeah. The bird who's using his beak for the photograph. It’s a living.

Jimmy: So now you know who Alvin Dark is people. So don't say we never did anything for you.

Michael: They called him the Swamp Fox.

Jimmy: Oh, really? Do you know why?

Michael: Yeah. Because, there was a very important series between the Dodgers and Giants. And the Dodgers were super fast. They had Maury Wills, super fast. And Alvin Dark. They're playing in Candlestick Park, San Francisco. The manager had them water down the field, so the infield was all muddy. Just to slow down the Dodgers.

Harold: Oh, wow.

Jimmy: Brilliant.

Harold: Was that legal? Is that like a spitball?

Michael: Well, there's no rule against it.

Harold: There is now.

May 4. Charlie Brown is on the phone. Snoopy is listening in. Charlie Brown says “Hello. Oh, hello, Doctor. No, my mother isn't home. Oh, yes, my arm feels much better. Does this mean I'm over my little leaguer's elbow? Good. What's that?” Charlie Brown continues on the phone with Snoopy listening. “The other X-ray. The other X ray that you took shows I've got--” And then in the last panel, Charlie Brown looks horrified, and he yells, “I've got what???” sending Snoopy flying.

Jimmy: This is, of course, another very long sequence of strips where Charlie Brown can't pitch for a while because he develops what is called little leaguer's elbow, which you might know is tennis elbow or tendonitis, I guess.

Michael: But he's got something else apparently.

Jimmy: He does? Well, tell us what that is.

Harold: What is it?

Michael: I can’t remember.

Harold: I had to look it up.

Jimmy: It’s erasers in his stomach.

Michael: Oh yeah yeah, he nibbles on. Yeah, sure. No, I picked this because this is really untypical to have that, what do you call them things when you're going over a cliff? Cliffhanger. Have a cliffhanger. Last panel. They did it once before with Snoopy and the Icicle. But this clearly, you got to read the next day to find out if he has cancer or not.

Jimmy: Spoiler alert he does not have cancer. He does, however, eat erasers. And there are eraser nubbins in his stomach, proving that when you have to fill a comic strip every single day, you will go anywhere to find ideas.

Harold: Yeah, it was like the childhood hazard of the 60s where erasers and Play-doh.

Michael: Oh, I used to pick at park benches, the paint, the lead paint. Oh, I don't think I ate it, but I'm sure it got in my fingernails, which I bit, so that accounts for me.

Jimmy: Everything was yeah. It is a miracle that anybody survived the 20th century.

May 15. Lucy, with a smile on her face, is walking around outside, and she says to no one in particular, “I’m on a new campaign to be nice to people.” She comes up to Snoopy and says, “while I'm at it, I suppose I might as well include dogs.” Then she gives Snoopy a pat on his head, saying, “here's a nice pat on the head.” Snoopy rolls his eyes and thinks to himself, “Thrillsville.”

Michael: This strip is so hip.

Harold: We can probably thank Meredith for that, right?

Jimmy: He liked this so much that ten years later he says, Thrillsville 74.

Michael: It probably comes from Dobie Gillis, is my guess.

Jimmy: oh Maynard G.Krebs

Liz: Work!

Harold: Oh really?

Michael: Yeah, ‘cause was definitely a little beatnik thing going on in a couple of regular TV shows. There's 77 Sunset Strip with Kookie,

Harold: We got some reruns going

Michael: beatnik slang was spreading at this point.

Jimmy: If you want to check anything out about Dobie Gillis, here's why you want to watch Dobie Gillis. One, you'll be like, hey, isn't that Gilligan? And then you'll say, oh, my God, who's that? That's Tuesday Weld.

Harold:I knew that was going,

Jimmy: and that's why I watched Dobie Gillis.

Michael: One of my favorite shows. And it was a very popular comic book.

Jimmy: Yes, it was.

Harold: I was just, on Sunday no, it was last night. I was, looking through a box of old comics I pulled from storage, and there I had the very last issue of Dobie Gillis comics.

Liz: And Warren Beatty.

Harold: Right. That was quite a cast.

Michael: That's the one where he dies in a motorcycle accident, right?

Harold: Yeah.

Jimmy: I think that's the leader of the pack.

Harold: yeah. And Frank Faylen, who was, in, Meet John Doe, Frank Capra's movie. A lot of people in that.

Jimmy: Don’t sleep on Dobie Gillis, people. There you go. That’s your pick hit to click for 2022.

Harold: Think Disney's gonna put out an animated version

Jimmy: Spoiler alert it won't be as good.

Michael: How about a musical? Who owns the rights?

Harold: It's coming.

Jimmy: The many tunes of Dobie Gillis

Harold: Michael make it happen.

Michael: It’s from a book.

Jimmy: So you might come to these podcasts and think, hey, I'm just here for the content about polkas. But you also get to hear great things like what was the best early 60s black and white sitcom? Was it the Dick Van Dyke Show? Was it Dobie Gillis?

Michael: Oh, Dick Van Dyke.

Jimmy: Dick Van Dyke, obviously.

May 23. Charlie Brown is writing to his pencil pal. He writes, “Dear pencil pal, well, I made a fool out of myself again.” And he sighs. The letter continues. “I struck out with the bases loaded and lost the ballgame.” Charlie Brown looks very upset in the third panel, and he says, “a little red haired girl whom I admire very much was watching me. Could you tell me how to get to where you live? I'm thinking of leaving the country.”

Jimmy: Lots of little red haired girl stuff this year. This is like, the biggest. did she debut just last year? Fairly recently. And now he's gone to her a lot this year.

Michael: Yep. One of the great characters, who never actually was seen.

Harold: Do you think Charles Schulz experimented with using a pencil originally for him writing to his pencil pal and maybe thought it wouldn't read well in newspaper?

Jimmy: Well, it seems like every so many years, for decades, people tried to reproduce pencil in one form or another. So I wouldn't be surprised. It never really quite worked until much recently. I think the first time I ever saw it that I thought it really is noticeable or not noticeable. It is really rather not noticeable. When, they did it in Sandman with Michael Zulli's pencils. I thought, well, you could tell they were pencils, of course, but it actually did sort of convey what a pencil feels like. But it also still read as a comic, but for years, it never really works.

Michael: Well, I don't think the printing was reliable

Jimmy: Exactly.

Harold: the thing about Charlie Brown is he tried to use a pen, and of course, he would spray ink all over the paper, which I'm assuming Schulz was having a blast taking his actual pen and spraying the ink, with the point, which is very he had a very, very sharp point, on his drawing pen. But the thing is, with Charlie Brown, even pencil was fraught with issues, because, he'd swallowed all his erasers. He couldn't fix his mistakes.

Michael: There's a Facebook group called Charlie Brown, and in their main image, there's Charlie Brown and the little Red Haired girl, with red hair.

Jimmy: Well, they've shown the Little Red Haired Girl in the animated shows, and in the Charlie Brown or in the Peanuts movie from 2017. Schulz himself regretted even showing her in the special.

I never thought of the Peanuts animation as being equal.

Harold: It’s not canon.

Jimmy: I hate to even use that, because that's just a fan word. But they're their own thing, right? You love them, hate them, think they're okay, whatever, they're to the side of the strips.

But ultimately, I wish they could have found a way to never show her, even in those. Yeah, he does this a lot, and he has great success with it, because we have the Little Red Haired Girl, the Red Baron, Joe Schlobotnik, Miss Othmar, Charlie Brown's dad in the barber shop. I'm sure I'm forgetting tons of them. The cat next door with whom you never see, but they're a really rich-- Violet’s dad even. You sort of know what type of person they are. You kind of have a feel for them, even though you never see them. It's really a magnificent stroke,

Michael: and it saves drawing time.

Jimmy: You got to save that ink.

May 25. Charlie Brown and Linus are sitting on the bench in the schoolyard having lunch. Charlie Brown says to Linus, “you know why that little red haired girl never notices me? Because I'm nothing. When she looks over here, there's nothing to see. How can she see someone who's nothing?” Then the third panel is a silent panel, as Linus looks at Charlie Brown in dismay. Charlie Brown is in dismay. And Linus says to Charlie Brown, “you're depressed, aren't you?”

Michael: I can't help laughing at this one.

Jimmy: And what makes this one work is the beat panel, the third panel of nothing, of just time, as Linus contemplates Charlie Brown.

Michael: Well, I think Linus, who would not know what depression was, cause he's kind of an optimist, is thinking about it. He's heard about it, but he's never actually seen it before, so he's putting it together. Will this be what depression is?

Jimmy: Some of us it takes a lot longer than that to discover it, even in themselves.

The other thing I think that's interesting about this is partly Charlie Brown is obsessing with the little red haired girl at lunch, but partly he's upset that he's eating alone. Right. Well, here he's not eating alone. Here, his clear friend Linus sits down, but it's still not enough. Right. He's still upset.

Harold: Yeah.

Jimmy: I don't know what that have anything beyond that, other than that. I guess just part of his character, and maybe not even necessarily part of depression, but eventually, once you get into a pattern of behaving a certain way, even external changes don't make you break the pattern right away.

Michael: Well, you always focus on the most negative thing around, right?

Jimmy: There's another part later this year, I think, where Charlie Brown, says, I should start my homework. I should really start my homework. it's because he fails going to the zoo, and all he had to do was write a simple little essay or paragraph, and he doesn't do it. That's actually a huge red flag of depression that I'm not sure Schulz was, aware of, or it seems like that should be an obvious thing around. All you need to do is this bare minimum thing on this gimme assignment at your school. But he can't do it. And you might think, oh, it's because he's putting it off, because he's lazy, because he'd rather watch TV. I don't think that's 100% true. One thing that I found kicking in is when you do have this laundry list of things you have to do, each one becomes just an unsurmountable mountain to climb. And I think that's where he is in strips like that.

Michael: Also the one where they were in line for the movie, where he's, like, agonizing about what he should be doing rather than just going to the movie.

Jimmy: Right. And if he goes to the movie, he's going to sit there and not enjoy the movie. So it's the worst case scenario. Right. Listen, man, if you're going to go to the movie, go to the movie and try to have it nourish you. Try to feel better, so when you go back to your work, you'll be refreshed. But he's not going to do that. He's going to sit there and think about the thing he's not doing. See, I could put his slide together for him. I'll help him out.

May 31. Snoopy is hiding on the side of what looks like a haystack with a little door in it. And the door is labeled Linus Pig, which will throw you off the first time you read it. And the second strip, or second panel, rather, Linus is reading to Snoopy, and Linus is reading and says, “then the wolf became very angry, and he huffed and he puffed, and he blew the house in.” Linus looks up from reading and says, “that's ridiculous. No animal could huff and puff that hard.” Sure enough, in the next panel, Snoopy poof huffs and puffs and breathes the book completely out of Linus's hand. Then he huffs and puffs and sends Linus spinning backwards. He continues to do this till he huffs and puffs Linus right up to the edge of a little wading pool that Patty is sitting in and playing. And then he puffs Linus directly into the wading pool with Patty. Linus then comes up from the water, soaking wet and says to Patty, “have you ever read The Three Little Pigs? It's quite a story. There's this wolf see and--”

Michael; I object to this.

Jimmy: OK.

Michael: It reminds me of when the early days of Fantastic Four and Stan Lee--

Jimmy: Oh sure, everybody-- say no more

Michael: and Stan Lee used to do this a lot because he didn't really quite have a handle on his characters. Yet he was inventing them all-- well, Kirby and him were inventing them all so fast. And so they would exhibit powers that they'd use once, like Submariner suddenly could take the form of any fish. Like he was like a puff fish. So he can blow himself up into this big fat thing. Or Thor would suddenly be able to call lightning down or something. Anyway, it's not thought out because Snoopy has this superpower and then never uses it again. Or maybe once.

Jimmy: you know what I think the problem is? I think you read too many Marvel Comics.

Michael: Well, that's certainly true.

Jimmy: I don't know if you could call this manifesting a new superpower that might be a bridge too far, but all right.

Harold: I just love that Snoopy. He looks incensed at the idea that Linus would not believe that an animal could do this. And so he's going to prove that it actually can happen. And the odd thing is Linus is reading a book about these imaginary animals. And we're reading a book about Linus is reading a book about imaginary animals. And so for some reason, that works for me. I don't have any trouble with that whatsoever.

June 20, Linus walks up to Snoopy, who is just sitting contentedly on the sidewalk. He pats Snoopy in the head, then gives him a big hug, exactly like his big sister Lucy did just a few years ago. Then he looks at Snoopy and says, “what's so happy about a warm puppy?”

Michael: This is the strangest thing. I mean, he's kind of like deflating his biggest commercial success. Which I assume had come out already.

Harold: Yes, came out, two years prior.

Jimmy: You should listen to this podcast sometime. We talked all about it.

Michael: And it's Linus who you wouldn't expect to be kind of cynical about it.

Harold: Yeah, it is interesting. And yet at the same time, it is advertising the book, all in one go. And then in later strips, we're going to see Sundays that like at least four or five in a row he uses a little happiness is inset that then he illustrates in the strip, which, when you think of Schulz, you don't think, oh, yeah, he's doing some product placement for his own stuff. But it really does feel like that's what he's doing. Although you could argue that he's just trying to stay with the theme. And the theme is-- but it is absolutely tying into other products.

Jimmy: When we get to those little inset panels, happiness is, they remind me of the Crime Stoppers textbook.

Harold: Dick Tracy. Yeah, absolutely.

Jimmy: But for, like, hugs and stuff.

Harold: Yes. Cut them out, collect them all, trade them with your friends.

Jimmy: Right.

June 21. It's a Sunday. It's Father's Day. Violet says to Charlie Brown, “my dad has more credit cards than your dad.” Charlie Brown says “you're probably right,” as he hits a rock with a stick. Then, very proudly, Violet says, “my dad can hit a golf ball farther than your dad.” Charlie Brown says, “I know. My dad still cuts across his tee shots,” he says, using the stick to mimic a golf club. Violet continues, “my dad can bowl better than your dad.” Charlie Brown says, “I know. My dad still hasn't learned to give that ball any real lift.” Violet says “my dad can--” Charlie Brown says, “Wait a minute, don't say any more. Just come with me. I want to show you something.” They walk down to Charlie Brown's dad's barber shop, and Charlie Brown says, “see this? This is my dad's barber shop. He works in there all day long. He has to deal with all sorts of people. Some of them get kind of crabby. But you know what?” Charlie Brown continues in the next panel, as, Violet is actually listening to him. He says, “I can go in there any time. And, no matter how busy he is, he'll always stop and give me a big smile. And you know why? Because he likes me, that's why.” Violet, visibly moved by Charlie Brown's speech, walks away saying, “Happy Father's Day, Charlie Brown.” Charlie Brown says to Violet, “Thank you. Please greet your dad for me.”

Jimmy: I always loved this one. I remember this one from a kid. I love, again, we're getting to see the barber shop and the barber pole. These little observed things. Just the little kind of angled ledge just below the plate glass window. The little sign that's probably hours of operation or something. It's great.

Harold: Yeah. the juxtaposition of the Violet and Charlie Brown, she's trying to use it to lord it over Charlie Brown. And Charlie Brown is responding with a different intent, is what you get out of it. And it's a really special strip.

Jimmy: First panel, is that supposed to represent a Peanuts Hallmark card Charlie Brown has? If so, it's terrible inside. You would just open it up and it just says June 21. Then there's a picture of Charlie Brown, and it just says, your son.

Michael: He can draw well,

Jimmy: Maybe he made it himself.

Michael: Oh he did.

Jimmy: Yeah. He didn't have enough money to go down and get a Peanuts card for himself.

Michael: Well, he was a cartoonist.

Jimmy: That's right.

Harold: Yeah, he's not very good. He looks a lot like,

Jimmy: it's the real deal.

July 12, Linus is out in the backyard. He's looking at his baseball bat, which is all dinged up with little nicks taken out of it. In the next panel, he screams to the sky “Aaugh.” Snoopy looks on, confused at what's happening. Linus picks up the bat and says, “Teeth marks.” Then he confronts Snoopy, showing him the bat, saying, “have you been chewing on my new bat?” Linus is ranting at Snoopy. He looks very upset. “What sort of stupid dog are you? “says Linus. “Don't you have any more sense than to chew on a baseball bat?” Linus is still ranting. As Lucy walks up, he says, “if you have to chew on something, can't you find a stick or a bone or a fence or something? Do you have to ruin a good baseball bat? Why can't you--?” Lucy, as she walks past Linus says, “he didn't chew on your bat. I used it to hit rocks.” In the next two panels, Linus looks very upset and embarrassed. Snoopy, on the other hand, looks, very annoyed with Linus. The next panel, Linus trying to be gracious, presents Snoopy with his bat and says, “do you want a bite? Snoopy's ears shoot straight up in shock. And then he chases after Linus. If he's going to bite anything, it will be Linus.

Michael: More biting.

Harold: This is like a perfect strip. This is so funny. Oh, my gosh, I love this strip. And they're Snoopy's terrible biting teeth again, just like we saw when he was guarding his second base dog dish. Oh, gosh, this one is so funny.

Jimmy: The ears shot up, straight out of the head twice. He liked it so much, he drew it twice.

Harold: And again, this requires so much of the characters. Linus's personality is what makes this work. Lucy's personality is what makes this work, and Snoopy's personality would make this work. What we know about them really makes this one extra funny.

Jimmy: Absolutely.

Harold: It's like, Lucy, she's the one who is doing something careless and stupid and thoughtless, which was what we know Lucy to be. Right. And Linus can be so upset over something small, but he also generally has this good heart, and he's already going out on a limb with his anger on Snoopy. And so when he realizes, oh, my gosh, I have just accused Snoopy. If something Snoopy didn't do, it hits you three times as hard of what you have to shift gears and then offer as a peace offering, his bat which he has just been-- and then Snoopy is like his ears are straight up, like the ultimate insult now that it's been destroyed. Now you can see it after you've accused me of something.

Jimmy: Well, I really relate to Snoopy in panel five, where Linus is yelling at him. And Snoopy is legitimately upset, even though he didn't do it. Through my whole life, especially in childhood, if I was accused of something or whatever, even if I had nothing to do with it, you're right. I am the worst. I can't believe it, and be like, Wait, actually, no, hold on a second. And I also like, that Linus, because you do you see all the nuances of the personality, because Linus, like you say, is going out on a limb, saying, look, man, I'm expressing this anger directly. What he should do then well, not should do, but what he could do is then realize, oh, my anger was misdirected. I'm going to briefly apologize to Snoopy, but then directed at Lucy. But that is not an option. He's just, want a bite?

Harold: And the last six panels, you're, going through one, emotion after another with Linus, it's just so perfect.

Jimmy: Again, use of silent panels, that's a great technique that cartoonists don't use as much these days, I don't think. At least the comics I'm seeing, like, kids comics and these YA comics that are so popular these days, everything's just forward, and you need those moments, I think.

Harold: Totally. And boy is the third to last panel of Linus's hair all out of joint, and his eyes rolling up to cross, and the terrible wishy washy, regret mouth on him. It's just so perfect. And the fourth and Snoopy, the last five panels are hilarious. Well, actually, last six is kind of like he's thoughtful, and then he's just slightly miffed. Then he's angry, then he's really angry, then he's insulted. Yeah, it's so bad.

Jimmy: The other thing I like and this is super subtle, but the fourth, the last panel, Linus just sitting there after he realizes or after Lucy says she's the one that damages, that somehow his hair looks extra limp. Right. Like he's defeated, and then it's not sticking straight up, but it's more lively in the panel after that, because now he's also realizing, oh, no, I have to make up to Snoopy somehow.

Harold: Yeah. When your hair is showing your emotion, that is genius cartooning.

Jimmy: It really, really is. By the way, the character design on these we have to talk about this. Let's look at, the first panel on the second tier of Linus, the teeth marks panel. What is up with Linus's head? If Linus got a crew cut, it looks like he was dropped on his head. Right? That's a really weird shaped head.

Michael: It looks like a peanut.

Jimmy: It is. Isn't it always? Like, I always thought, why is Linus's head dented?

Michael: Yeah, someone dropped-- Lucy must have dropped him on his head at some point when he was a baby.

Jimmy: Yes. My first ride down a, sliding board when I was two years old with my dad. Apparently, he, had to come home, and I was wearing his hat, and my mom's like, what's going on? He may have fallen off the top of the sliding board on his head. I have no memory that I wonder why, but it had no effect on me. Did I ever tell you guys about the time I fell off a sliding board when I was just two years old?

Harold: Yes.

Jimmy: It had no effect on me.

August 8. Lucy and Frieda are, playing in the outfield, and they're chasing down, a fly ball, which has just landed for a hit. As they approach the ball, though, they both are brought up short, yelling, “AAUGH a spider.” Lucy yells into the infield as Frieda looks at the ball in complete dismay. Lucy says, “there's a spider on the ball. We can't pick up the ball. Charlie Brown. There's a spider on it.”Charlie Brown back at the pitchers mound says “it'll be interesting to see if the official scorer gives the hitter credit for a home run.”

Michael: It might have been a piece of fuzz.

Jimmy: It might have been and, I think you would give them an inside the park home run if they don't make a throwing error or they don't drop it when they're trying to catch it, right?

Michael: Oh, yeah. It's definitely inside the park.

Jimmy: There you go. Only home run I ever hit in a legitimate, like, organized game was an inside the park home run.

Harold: Wow.

Jimmy: That is the sum total of my baseball highlight reel.

Michael: I made an unassisted triple play.

Jimmy: You did?

Michael: We'll stop it at that. It was slightly assisted.

Jimmy: All right, well, just tell us the adjusted version. I, don't care either way. That's amazing. What happened?

Michael: No, it wasn't a real game. It was just some base, I mean, we're playing during lunch hour or something. It wasn't like, real teams.

Okay, so I am shortstop. So there's runners on first and second. Nobody out. batter hits a hard drive. Then, the runners go, of course, because it's a line drive over my head. I jump up, catch it, step on second base to put out the runner going to third and throw to first base. So the first baseman catches the ball. So that's three outs

Jimmy: oh, my God.

Michael: With a slight assist. That's the highlight of my life actually

Jimmy: Actually, that's mind-blowing. I'm really glad we got to put that out there. I've never even seen a triple play other--.

Michael: Yeah, but it wouldn't be that hard to happen, though.

Jimmy: But yet it doesn’t

Michael: I mean, it seems if the runners are going, then because I tagged out the guy going from first to second because he was not paying attention.

Jimmy: All right.

Liz: How old were you?

Michael: I was in grammar school, so I don't know, like, eight or nine.

Jimmy: Nice.

Michael: Good field. No hit.

Jimmy: My story as well. Although apparently I'm not that good a fielder, though. That was pretty good.

Harold: Yeah. I’m no field, no hit.

Jimmy: You know what? I think you'd be a hell of a statistician, though.

Harold: Yeah. I'd have to figure out whether that was a home run.

Jimmy: Right. Exactly.

September 14. Charlie Brown and Linus are hanging out at the thinking wall. Linus says, “When I get big, I'd like to be a prophet.” Now they're walking, talking, and Charlie Brown says, “that's a fine ambition. The world can always use a few good prophets.” Charlie Brown turns to Linus, though, and says, “the only trouble is that most of them turn out to be false prophets.” They continue walking as Linus says, “maybe I could be a sincere false prophet.”

Michael: Sincerity is number one always. For Linus.

Jimmy: That is true. Sincerity is the whole ballgame for Linus.

Harold: Yeah, sincerity trumps truth.

Jimmy: When you look at it that way, it's not so great.

September 23. Snoopy is hanging out on top of his dog house and voices are coming from inside. “The story of civilization painted on the ceiling of a doghouse. Linus, you're fantastic.” “Thank you.” Charlie Brown still continuing from inside the doghouse as Snoopy sits on top. “Right now I'm working on the struggles of the Maccabees, which began around 167 BC. I had a little trouble with Antiochus Epiphanies because I didn't know what he looked like.” Snoopy lies back down on his dog house and thinks to himself “a lack of knowledge forgivable in a mural painter who is only six years old.”

Michael: So wait, Linus is six? That makes Lucy seven and Charlie Brown maybe eight already. I still think of them as five.

Jimmy: and only been around for 14 years.

Michael: Wow, that's shocking.

Harold: Yeah. Well, here's, I guess, a good time for an obscurity explained. what is Linus painting in Snoopy's doghouse?

VO: Peanuts Obscurities Explained

Harold: Well, it turns out, I guess there was around 170 BC. There was this Greek, was it Helenist King? And, was, in Jerusalem, ruling over Jerusalem and attempting to get the Jewish people to worship Zeus in the temple. And that didn't go over so well. basically it was a very brutal reign, apparently. And so, they said that's a bridge too far, and they revolted against this king. So during Hanukkah that those, events are celebrated.

Jimmy: From the Book of Maccabees. Antioch is the fourth, apparently. So, you know, once you get to the fourth, it's not going to be any damn good, you know, there's going to be problems.

Harold: Yeah. Apparently, epiphanies means God manifests. So, he was claiming he was Zeus in a way.

Jimmy: Nice work if you can get it.

Harold: It's a living.

September 28. Charlie Brown and Linus back at the thinking wall. And Linus says, “when I get big, I want to be a great doctor, I want to be a doctor among doctors, a physician among physicians.” He's now ranting as he walks away from Charlie Brown saying, “I want to be the Willie Mays of medicine.” Charlie Brown says to us, “how ambitious can you get?”

Michael: Of course, I picked that one.

Jimmy: Another Giants reference from Michael.

Michael: Yes.

Jimmy: Willie Mays goes on to be referenced throughout Peanuts really.

Harold: Yeah. It's like he and Miss Francis get a lot of love. And Sam Snead.

Jimmy: Yeah, those are the big three. I think in any household at this time, it would be Miss. Francis, Sam Snead and Willie Mays. I mean, come on.

Harold: And then later Billie Jean King.

Jimmy: Yup, yup.

October 5. We're in the middle of another long sequence. This is Linus running for school president. Linus says to Lucy, “School president. Me?” Lucy says, “why not? I'll be your campaign manager.” Linus says, “But I could never be school president. Think of the work. Think of the responsibility.” Lucy, raising her fist, says, “Think of the power.” And the third panel, a wicked grin crosses Linus's face as he clenches his fist. Then he has a change of heart and yells, ”I'll do it!!”

Michael: This is disturbing. This is evil Linus. He's gone to the dark side.

Harold: yeah, power has gotten to him. Now, I will say that I definitely remember this from reading it as a kid. And I will say I did have an older sister who often just kind of helped push me along into things. I was a really shy kid, and this is a part of Lucy I kind of like that she's not running. She's always volunteering Linus for everything. But in this case, it's a prestigious position. And without Lucy, Linus would not be stretched this way. And I'm kind of grateful to Lucy for that.

Jimmy: He's being volun-told. But of course, this is not going to go without incident because just a few days later, on--

October 9, we have Charlie Brown, Linus, and Lucy having a conversation. Linus says to Lucy, “I decided I want Charlie Brown for my vice president.” Lucy says, “oh, good grief.” Linus continues, “but what's wrong with him? I think he'd make a good vice president.” Big grin on Charlie Brown from this. Then Lucy says, “maybe you're right. He might even help us win the election.” Charlie Brown is beyond pleased. Then Lucy walks away saying “he'll probably bring in the wishy washy vote.”

Michael: He is the perfect vice presidential candidate.

Jimmy: Yes, he absolutely is. Everything from his blank, round face to his total wishywashyness is is a perfect match for him.

October 11. Four panels of Sally just having a blast skipping rope. Then in the fifth panel, she stops and she looks slightly upset. In the 6th panel, she cries out to the heavens. “Waah.” Linus, hearing her cry, comes over to see what's wrong. He says, “what's the matter, Sally? What happened? Why are you crying?” Sally says, “I don't know. I was jumping rope. Everything was all right. When I don't know. Suddenly it all seems so futile.”

Michael: We've all experienced this.

Jimmy: this is in my Peanuts hall of Fame, too. I've always liked this strip.

Michael: Boy. Yeah. I can't see any other strip doing something like that. It's such a simple setup, too.

Jimmy: Yeah, and just beautiful drawings of her skipping rope. He does a great little kids skipping rope, for sure. And he does point out this sort of the unfun-ness of many things that are considered fun. Like he was talking about balloons a couple episodes ago. Like, what's the big deal with balloons?

Michael: Yeah. Hey, why are we doing a podcast? I mean really, what’s the point?

Jimmy: 500 years from now who will know the difference?

Harold: It's a living

Jimmy: Siga.

October 14. We're back in the thick of the political action as Linus is up at a podium. He's making a speech saying, “if I am elected school president, I will purge the kingdom. My administration will release us from our spiritual Babylon.” He's now ranting, “my administration will bring down the false idols in high places. My administration will--” cut to the audience. Charlie Brown and Lucy both look a little concerned as Sally and Five are just listening. And Charlie Brown says, “I wonder why the principal looks so pale.”

Jimmy: Linus's fanatic side coming out here.

Harold: Oh, man, that's priceless.

Michael: Pretty sincere.

Harold: Spiritual Babylon. Yeah.

Jimmy: This is obviously adapted in that special we were just talking about. And the kid who does the voice acting for Linus in the scene is really good if you get a chance to watch one of those scenes, definitely, give it a play because it's a hoot.

October 21. Linus is still speaking. He says, “Mr. Chairman, teachers and fellow students, this will be my last speech before our election.” We cut to the audience. Lucy and Charlie Brown are sitting there. Lucy looks calm and relaxed. Charlie Brown looks nervously happy. Lucy says, “We've got it cold. Charlie Brown. If he doesn't say anything stupid, we can't lose.” Charlie Brown says, “Just think, I'll be vice president.” Linus steps out from behind the podium in the next last panel and says, “I want to talk to you this morning about the Great Pumpkin.” In the last panel, Lucy and Charles Brown screamed to the heavens, “AAAUGHH!!”

Jimmy: He knew you should never talk about religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin. And he does anyway.

Michael: True.

Harold: Yeah, he's covering it all right here in these two strips. And boy, yeah, I think that last strip, the spiritual Babylon, that's one strip where I can totally imagine Charles Schulz laughing out loud to himself, having written that.

Jimmy: He's really embodying Linus, too, because Linus speaking like he could never imagine Charles Schulz ranting like this. But there's some part of him that digs it.

Harold: Well, it's kind of like that. Think of the power and that look on Linus’s face-- I'll do it. It’s like, Sparky!

Jimmy: This whole thing of if, he doesn't say anything stupid, we can't lose that's. Like in Seinfeld, if you ever say, barring any unforeseen circumstances oh, well, and we wrap it up here on--

November 2, Linus is writing to someone, and it's the Great Pumpkin. He says, “Dear Great Pumpkin, well, I waited and you didn't show up. It's a good thing I'm young and can stand all these disappointments, because, frankly, I've had it. The ones I feel sorry for are the older people who waited all night in their pumpkin patches for you to come. If I sound bitter, it's because I am. Sincerely Linus Van Pelt. PS. See you next year.”

Jimmy: So Linus lacks the ability to learn. That's the part of Linus I relate to. I, too, lack the ability to learn.

Michael: Yeah, he's the optimist.

Jimmy: Yeah. Needless to say, in our panels or strips that we missed, Charlie Brown and Linus do not win the election.

Michael: It was stolen.

Jimmy: The recount is still ongoing.

November 8. Snoopy is reading a book in a nice, relaxing, comfy looking lounge chair.

Jimmy: And I can't read what it says. I'm sorry.

Harold: The Strange Malady by Linus Van Pelt.

Jimmy: The Strange Malady by Linus Van Pelt.

And we see in the next panel Linus is writing it's an assignment for English One. Then in our next panel, we're back outside. Linus is reading this assignment to Snoopy. He says, “Snoopy, I'd like to read you a story I've written and illustrated for school.” He begins, “once there was a little girl who had a headache.” We now see him continuing, and now we have his illustrations drawn right next to him. “Her mom gave her some pills.” Linus continues, but they didn't help. Her mom then took her to the doctor.” Linus continues, “the doctor was unable to find anything wrong.” We see Linus's illustrations of the doctor and the little girl as the story continues. “This is a mysterious case,” he said, meaning the doctor. “The little girl's mother took her home and put her to bed. Her head throbbed. Her little brother came in and said, maybe your ears are too tight.” Linus continues, “so he loosened each ear one turn back. Her headache suddenly stopped, and she never had another headache again.” Linus's illustration shows the little girl and her brother. The little girl looks delighted and happy as, she sits up in bed. And the next last panel, Snoopy, with eyes closed, dutifully shakes Linus's hand. The last panel, Linus is alone, and he says to us, “I guess he didn't like it. That was his good luck, you're going to need a handshake.”

Harold: I'm used to that with a lot of the stuff.

Michael: This is disconcerting to see Schulz drawing in a different style.

Harold: It looks so much like Jackie's Diary. Have you ever seen--

Jimmy: So much like Jackie's diary, yes. You can see that that's collected, I think either Art Out of Time or Art In Time. I can't remember which one. But where they collect some oddball comics.

Harold: There's a whole hard cover of Jackie’s diary. They reprinted. It’s nicely done. I forget who. Unfortunately can't remember who did it.

Jimmy: Pretty creative and interesting strip that was drawn. The conceit was as if it was drawn, by a child. Really cool.

Harold: Yeah, some of them are very, very fun.

Look at Snoopy's paws in the first panel when he's reading. That kind of vignette thing of Snoopy reading. He's sitting on the chair, straight up on an armchair, and all paws are the tiny Snoopy paws, including his rear.

Jimmy: Yes, the feet/rear paws are very small for Snoopy, and I think that's partly a function of him wanting to get the title of the book in.

Harold: I think so. And it's darn cute.

November 27. Charlie Brown walks up to Snoopy outside and says, “what's wrong with you? Other dogs jump up and down when their masters come home from school.” Panel three. Snoopy is basically pogoing up and down. He's above Charlie Brown's head, but he doesn't look enthused or excited about it. Charlie Brown says, “that's the most sarcastic jumping up and down I've ever seen.”

Michael: It is the most sarcastic jumping up and down I've ever seen.

Jimmy: That's a hard thing to draw.

Michael: Yeah, it's great.

Jimmy: Again, all right, it's a dog, but he's on his hind legs, and he's jumping up and down.

But it's sarcastic jumping up and down. Go. You have to draw it. That would be a hard thing to come up with.

November 29. Lucy is leaning forward, sticking your tongue out and saying, Bleah. Linus comes up to Lucy and says,”I suppose that's all you have to say.”Lucy, looking very self satisfied, says, “what else should I say?” We then randomly cut to another one of these insert panels, telling you what happiness is, and it says, Happiness is winning an argument with your sister. Then we're back to the main strip, where Linus is leaning into it, yelling at Lucy, who is actually smiling, as Linus yells, “you are mean, you know that? But I'm going to fix you.” In the next panel, he puts on his winter hat and coat, and he says, “I'm going to fix you real good,” which confuses Lucy. Lucy runs over to the window because Linus has gone outside between panels, and she looks surprised that she sees what he's doing. In the next panel, we see Lucy running out to Linus, who is making a snowman, only the head looks exactly like his sister Lucy. Lucy yells, “Ha! I see what you're up to. That's supposed to be me, isn't it? And I'll bet you're going to kick it, aren't you?” Lucy continues yelling at Linus, “you're going to get great satisfaction out of building a snowman that looks like me just so you can stand here and kick it.” Linus closes his eyes very self satisfied and says, “on the contrary, that would be crude.” Then, with a smile on his face, he says, “I'm just going to stand here and watch it slowly melt away.”

Michael: I object to the bleah. Maybe that's Minnesota for nyah.

Jimmy: So you think. So you do not think. nyah and bleah are interchangeable?

Michael: Oh, God, no. Bleah is a response to bad food,

Harold: or if you're Dracula,

Michael: Nyah is the ultimate international way to get on somebody's nerves.

Jimmy: As in nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah. You would never say bleah bleah, bleah, bleah bleah.

Michael: No no no no no no. Clearly

Jimmy: Okay. One of my favorite parts of this, podcast is after 26 years, still finding out these little nuances and the rules, the many rules Michael has for each and every aspect.

Michael: I'll send you a copy of the book.

Jimmy: Bleah is reserved for food items only, good sir.

What do you think about Linus? That's a dark take Mr. Linus has there.

Michael: Yeah, he wants her to melt like the wizard of Oz.

Jimmy: I love the picture of Lucy first, panel second tier of Lucy leaning back as Linus leans into yelling at her and smiling because she's not smiling that Linus is upset, she's smiling that she upset Linus. And the fact that he's fighting back is actually just part of the fun.

December 6, Snoopy and Frieda are out in the snowy fields. Frieda is pointing at Snoopy and she says, “perhaps we should split up and plan to meet back here in about an hour. Okay?” Snoopy darts off away from Frieda. We then have the obligatory inset panel saying, happiness is loving your enemies. This time, which is Snoopy just hugging two bunnies. And in the next panel, back at the main strip, Snoopy is dancing with a whole cadre of bunnies. A whole group of them, and they're having a good old time. Then in the next panel, the other bunnies just sit down and watch Snoopy, as he blisses out in classic happy dance fashion. Then he bids them good morrow and heads back to Frieda. When he finds Frieda, he just puts his hands out as if to say, didn't find anything. And Frieda says, “didn't see any, huh? Neither did I.” Then they both walk up to Charlie Brown and Frieda says, “Snoopy and I have been out hunting rabbits, but we didn't see any.” But as they pass by, Snoopy looks back at Charlie Brown and gives them a knowing wink. Charlie Brown looks out to us and says, “now what was that all about?”

Michael: Cutest bunnies ever.

Harold: Oh my gosh, these are so adorable. Snoopy dancing in a ring with these little happy bunnies all looking up at him. It's just great. And Snoopy giving his farewell salutation with his open paw and somehow he gets a thumb for this one so he can give the full goodbye. And somehow the little bunnies also are able to have little bunny thumbs as they…

Jimmy: You have to really know how to draw to be able to draw something as minimal as these bunnies and not have it just look like a crude, childish drawing. They're smiley faces, you know, but they're great. Just perfect cartooning.

The panel of Snoopy dancing with the bunnies was adapted into the Easter Beagle animation. there's a whole sequence set to Cast Your Fate To the Wind by Vince Guaraldi, which is beautiful, of Snoopy dancing with the bunnies, as inside an Easter egg, like a mechanical Easter egg that you look in and see a little scene and they do a really nice job with it.

And I love the way he's drawing, he draws winter. I love the way he captures all the seasons in these minimal pen lines. The trees are winter trees, just by the way he hatches them, by the way the branches look extra scraggly, quite apart from just not having leaves on them. Does a really amazing job of that, considering there's so little to it.

Harold: Yeah. Here's Snoopy's private life of bliss out in the barren, the barren fields.

Jimmy: By the way, how effective of a hunter is Frieda? What's she gonna do? Like, hunt them down? Like strangle them with her bare hands? Like, what is she doing? I can see. At least take a camera out or something, Frieda.

Harold: Yes. Even if she kneeled down, she’d freeze her knees in that little dress.

Liz: Jimmy, how did you know that was a wink?

Jimmy: How did I know that was a wink? This is an unanswerable question, right? Because those Vs, I mean, to answer it, seriously, those Vs don't in anywhere else in cartooning equal wink. But it is kind of implying some sort of movement. And honestly, I think in a better printing, like in the Fantagraphics books, I'm sure you can see that it's a line instead of a dot, because the eye that's open is a dot. The eye that's winking is actually two infinitesimally small horizontal lines.

Harold: It's almost like two arrows saying, hey, look at this tiny little

Jimmy: yeah, right to the point that I didn't--

Harold: And it works. It works so brilliantly and iconically. It's amazing.

Michael: You can say wink as a sound effect.

Jimmy: I love that kind of thing. I like literal sound effects. Wink, is a really good I think that's up there in the comedy toolbox, along with, excessive quotation marks.

Michael: Yeah, well, he had boot and Snoopy.

Jimmy: Exactly. That's a great one.

Harold: Boot's. Great. What if he put like, Snoopy, the height of his happy dance in front of the bunnies and just wrote Bliss?

Jimmy: Absolutely do that. I think they do that quite a bit in manga. But there was a guy named Ben Dunn who did a series called Ninja High School. And one of his big things was like, it would literal sound effects. Someone would be screaming at someone and the word accuse would be there, and the person would be pushing back and saying defend. I particularly like accuse.

December 14, Charlie Brown and Linus are outside. Linus holds up a piece of paper and shows Charlie Brown. He says, “look at that. I was the only kid in class who got an A in the geography test.” Charlie Brown says to Linus, “how come?” Linus says, “I was the only one who knew where Ipanema was.”

Harold: Here's a Peanuts obscurity for our younger listeners. So The Girl from Ipanema, which you guys may have heard of, was a hit this year, in 1964. In fact, he went to number five on the Hot 100 and, was, put out by Stan Getz and sung by Astrud Gilberto. And it is the second most recorded song of all time after

Jimmy: Convoy.

Jimmy: Yesterday by the Beatles.

Harold: The Beatles.

Jimmy: I don't think Convoy has ever been covered.

Harold: I sang it once.

Jimmy: Oh, would that were true, actually.

Harold: I wrote a parody of Convoy as, like, a ten year old. Yeah. There was a night of June there was a full moon as the stars began to rise.

Jimmy: I swear I did not know this. That's so random.

Harold: That is pretty yeah. I think both of those songs are probably, covered so often because the singing range is maybe about an octave. Right. For each song, there's easy songs to sing, and people love them.

Jimmy: Can't go wrong.

December 16. Schroeder is greeting us at the door to his house. He says, “Hi, come on in. Happy Beethoven's birthday.” He leads us into his house. We're just following him from behind as he continues to talk. “We haven't cut the cake yet. We were just getting ready to sing the finale of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.” Suddenly Schroeder stops. He is surprised. He turns to us and says, “you mean you don't know the finale of Beethoven's 9th Symphony?”

Michael: This strip has three important Firsts for Schulz.

Jimmy: Are any of them related to Convoy?

Michael: no, but it's music. It is a musical theme strip. Yeah. This is breaking the fourth wall.

Jimmy: For sure. The first time, he directly, directly addresses a reader by calling them you.

Michael: Yeah. This is the first time he features the back of a character's head.

Jimmy: For half the strip alone.

Harold: Yeah.

Michael: And the biggie is this is Schroeder's first solo appearance.

Harold: Wow.

Jimmy: Exceedingly, exceedingly rare in the world of Peanuts. Maybe later on I think it might happen more often, but at this point right. You're saying strips have to have the big four, usually.

Michael: Well, there have been five characters who've had solo strips, so this would be the six.

Harold: I think you were saying that maybe there was a solo Schroeder before. I remember one where he takes a running start onto the piano to hit the first note. I can't remember there's another character in that one, but this is super rare.

Michael: Yeah, I wasn't paying attention to that back in the day when we were doing the real early ones. So it's possible there was one, but he doesn't do this very much.

Jimmy: Extremely. Who is the fifth? Is it Sally that had the other?

Michael: So yeah, Sally had one solo.

December, 29th. This is the strip I was referring to earlier. Charlie Brown is standing in his living room. He's looking at a little book that's sitting on the coffee table, and he says, “Christmas vacation is almost over.” He picks up the book, looking at its cover and says,”I still haven't written my book report on Gulliver's Travels. I haven't even started to read it yet.” Then Charlie Brown put his hands in his pockets and walks away from the book, saying, “why don't I get started? Why do I put things off?” Then he sits in front of the TV, looking completely forlorn and says, “what's wrong with me?”

Jimmy: This is what I was talking about. You could answer this with Linus's question from a few months ago. You're depressed, aren't you? One of the struggles I always had was that even the simple tasks that you would think you, could handle, just do them one at a time, get them out of the way. When you're in this mode, it sometimes becomes an insurmountable task. And that's really what because he's not watching television and enjoying it, it's not being lazy. It's just he's unable to do it for whatever reason.

Michael: Yeah. I have the ultimate example of this, which ruined my life. I was really shy. This would have been probably in 9th grade, and I'd never given a report, an oral report before. So I was in some class, and everyone had to give a report on an invention, and I can't remember if it was assigned or I just picked the bathosphere, the first bathosphere. And so what she did was she had one person a day get up in front of the class, volunteer to get up, give their report, which would be like, ten minutes, and most of them just read it. And so every day, somebody volunteered. I waited until I the last. I was having nightmares. I couldn't sleep. I was terrified. And I waited the entire semester, and I was the last one. And I was, like, shaking and basically read my report. And I could have gotten it over with, like, day one. But no, I suffered for two months.

Jimmy: Yeah. I mean, I wish I could say I, was immune to doing that, but I definitely do that from time to time. Ah, trying not to.

Harold: Yeah.

Michael: And nobody cared because essentially, just reading it, it wasn't anything but just, like, read this thing for ten minutes.

Harold: Maybe you were hoping that time would run out and you wouldn't have to.

Michael: Well, I thought, well, maybe I'll die.

Jimmy: That's one of my funniest jokes ever is on 30 Rock, and they're saying something like, oh, my gosh, we have to do this and this and this and all by Thursday. And the one character goes, hey, maybe we'll be dead by then. And the other guy goes, that'd be great.

But I don't feel that way. Especially because we have so many more Peanuts strips to cover.

But, that does bring us to the end of 1964. So before I get the final word from these guys and hear what their strips of the year are, I just want to remind you of a couple of things. First, please, if you're enjoying the podcast, rate and review us, especially if you're on Apple podcasts, that would really, really help us out. But anywhere you can do that, that would be great. Share us around on social media. I'm really happy to say that every single week it seems like the audience for this, little podcast we're doing is growing and growing. And I know we have, Mr. Schulz to thank for that, but we also have you guys to thank for that. So if we can keep it going, that would be even better. You can also check us out on our website, unpackingpenuts.com on social media, Instagram, and Twitter, we’re unpackpeanuts. You can call us now, leave a message or a comment or question at 717-219-4162. We'll have to come up with a name for that phone line. Other than that, we just want you to come back next week. But before that, guys, give me your final thoughts and your strips of the year. Michael, you go first.

Michael: Well, out of the ones we picked, this is a great year. But remember I mentioned that I didn't think it was up to par, but I can't remember why.

Jimmy: That's basically summing up 95% of the opinions I hold dear. I used to think that, but I don't know why.

Michael: Yeah, exactly. But I'm going to pick as my fave the strip that isn't the best, isn't the funniest, isn't the most classic, but for some reason, it just makes me laugh. And that's from May 15. Thrillsville. There's something about that, because I really like thinking about what animals are thinking when people are, interacting with them, because we imagine that they love it when you go up to a dog and start petting them, but we don't know. Maybe they hate it.

Jimmy: My dog will actually give you physical hugs. She's hoping that there will be a little piece of cheese or something after the hug, I'm sure. And, who is your MVP most valuable Peanut? Michael.

Michael: Oh, it's the same old story. Linus again, just for talking about the Great Pumpkin at his speech.

Jimmy: Yeah. You know, one of the things that's hard with the strip of the year thing is a lot of my favorite parts of this year were actually long stories, that you can't necessarily sum up with one strip. But yeah, I think that's a great pick, because Linus in that whole sequence is really good.

Harold, how about you?

Harold: Well, great year. Loved this era of Peanuts. Grew up with it. I did want to end asking you guys what your thoughts were on where we were on the anger index.

Jimmy: That's a great thing, because we forgot about that. But I think we are way up. I think we're up 10%.

Harold: On both of them?

Jimmy: on the anger index.

Harold: On the anger. It feels up to you?

Michael: You're judging on the ones we picked or the whole year?

Jimmy: Well, I mean, the ones we picked are, of course, fresh in my mind, but I'm still staying with the whole.

Michael: I think it's down. I think anger is down. Happiness is up a, little bit.

Jimmy: Yeah. I'm going to go with even for happiness. Up for anger.

Harold: Well, Jimmy, you've always said you're no good at this.

Jimmy: Did I continue?

Harold: You nailed it.

Jimmy: Did I?

Harold: This year, there were 96 happy strips. In 1964, there were 96 happy strips. Exactly.

Jimmy: Amazing.

Harold: And the anger strips went from 85 to 106. So you are right on both sides.

Jimmy: All right. If I stick with something long enough, I could get lucky once.

Harold: But for my strip of the year, I have to give this to Linus as well for the best, the MVP. Although I think Snoopy I would give us a second there. Charlie Brown's so strong in this, too. This is just a great year all around. It's a good all around year for Schulz, but I have to give my favorite strip of the year to July 12. Linus with his bat, supposedly chewed up by Snoopy. That is just one of the funniest Peanuts strips of all time. And one of the funniest strips ever by anybody.

Jimmy: Great pick. 100% agree with that. And Michael's pick was great, as well. I'm going to go with October 11. Suddenly it all seems so futile. Sally skipping rope. That's an iconic, hall of Fame Peanuts strip for me. Love it. Love the drawing, love the punchline. Love that Linus comes up to the little girl that has a crush on him and treats her with kindness and respect and, love everything about it.

And my MVP is going to go to Snoopy, because I just think he was the funniest, most consistently funny throughout the year, who wasn't Linus, which I will never pick Linus, because you guys always pick Linus. But of course, Linus is also great.

I love this year. This is like Harold said, when, it becomes the Peanuts that I loved as much as humanly possible to love something as a little kid.

And, what I love now is getting to talk about it with my pals and having you guys to listen to it and having Liz produce it for us, because we would not be here without her.

And you know what? We also need to give a little shout out to Aziza Shukralla Clark, who does the little voices for us and the intro, and she does such a great job, and it's one of my absolute, favorite parts of it, of the whole enterprise.

So, next week will be the finale for season three. Guys, can you believe we made it all the way to season three? Through season three. It's shocking to me. If you knew my track record on Great Ideas v. completion, you too would be shocked. So thanks for listening. Come back next week where we'll be wrapping things up for season three. Until then, for Michael and Harold, I'm, Jimmy. Be of good cheer.

Harold and Michael: Yes. Be of good cheer.

VO: Unpacking Peanuts is copyright Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen, and Harold Buchholz. Produced by Liz Sumner. Music by Michael Cohen. Additional voice over by Aziza Shukralla Clark. For more from the show, follow @UnpackPeanuts on Instagram and Twitter. For more about Jimmy, Michael and Harold, visit unpackingpeanuts.com. Have a wonderful day and thanks for listening.