Posted By Dan Greenfield on Oct 2, 2025 | 8 comments

Charles Schulz’s brilliant feature debuted Oct. 2, 1950…

Charles Schulz in 1956

By PETER BOSCH

It was all of 75 years ago, on October 2, 1950, that the Peanuts strip debuted in newspapers across America. As a matter of fact, it could be said that Peanuts has been America as told through the stories of the kids (plus one dog and one bird) who populated the strip. If not for 75 years, then for 50 + 25 (more about that later).

“Pig-Pen,” Schroeder, Franklin, Woodstock, Sally, Charlie Brown. Snoopy, Lucy, Peppermint Patty, and Marcie.

Peanuts was Charles Schulz’s second newspaper strip. His first, Li’l Folks, was a weekly single-panel feature, also with children as its star subjects, and it appeared just two times in the Minneapolis Tribune before moving over to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, where it ran from 1947 to 1950. Li’l Folks could be considered a training ground for Peanuts for, as you will see in a panel below from 1948, a child with the name of Charlie Brown talks to a dog who bears an uncanny resemblance to the early days of Snoopy.

Li’l Folks, May 30, 1948. (“Sparky,” by the way, was Schulz’s nickname, given to him by his uncle, from the horse Spark Plug in the comic strip Barney Google.)

After nearly three years of being published by the newspaper, Schulz asked for better remuneration than what he was getting per weekly panel ($10), and requested that the strip be moved out of the women’s section. They said no to both — and he quit, taking Li’l Folks with him. He began shopping the strip to syndicates, with several revisions to the characters and the formatting. Liking what they saw, United Features Syndicate took it on as a regular-size daily. However, because the title sounded too similar to Li’l Abner and a 1930s comic strip called Little Folks, they changed it to Peanuts, which Schulz disliked.

The first Peanuts strip debuted October 2, 1950 and in its first panel introduced good ol’ Charlie Brown. (A bit of trivia: Schulz borrowed the name of Charlie Brown from a former co-worker.) Right from the start, Charlie Brown was maligned by other kids in the neighborhood.

Peanuts, October 2, 1950. The first strip.

Next in importance in the strip’s first week was Snoopy, who premiered in the third daily strip.

Snoopy making his first appearance. October 4, 1950.

During the first decade, Snoopy basically looked and acted like a typical canine. However, at the start of the 1960s, he began standing regularly on two legs, dancing, walking, and exhibiting other traits you don’t usually expect from a dog. Of course, you don’t expect a dog to adopt other personas, such as a hockey player, an attorney, a writer, the Easter beagle, a helicopter pilot, an astronaut, Joe Cool… and his most famous of all, a World War I fighter pilot.

October 10, 1965. The first appearance of Snoopy vs. the Red Baron.

(More trivia: Snoopy was based on a dog named Spike that Schulz had when he was 13. That name was later used for Snoopy’s brother.)

And then came Lucy. Surprising to many, Lucy van Pelt didn’t appear until March 3, 1952, a year and a half after the feature started. At first, she was a sweet little girl, until Schulz instilled in her a fussbudget frame of mind that his adopted daughter, Meredith, displayed in her early years. Being bad-tempered made her a star.

Also surprising is that, despite being a great grouch, Lucy could actually dispense incredible wisdom for only a nickel.

September 22, 1963

Also, it may come as a shock, but Lucy wasn’t the first to set up the football that Charlie Brown never got to kick. That “honor” went to Violet Gray, one of the strip’s earliest members.

November 16, 1951. Violet Gray, not Lucy, was the first to make Charlie Brown miss the football.

It was Lucy, however, who coined the phrase “Happiness is a warm puppy.”

April 25, 1960

Next in importance in the hierarchy of the strip is Linus, Lucy’s younger brother. In addition to being Charlie Brown’s best friend (along with Snoopy, that is), Linus was…

…a philosopher…

July 23, 1962

…a great protector of his blanket…

September 14, 1991. (It was observing his children dragging their blankets about the house that gave him for Linus have one.)

…and, of course, a devout believer in the “Great Pumpkin”:

October 26, 1959. First mention of the “Great Pumpkin.”

However, Lucy, ever the feminist, eventually brought up something about the “Great Pumpkin” that shook Linus right to his core:

November 1, 1991

(And, yes, it’s time for another useless piece of trivial knowledge: Linus was named after Linus Maurer, a fellow cartoonist.)

Time for the child prodigy – or is that in 3/4 time? – Schroeder. No last name. Just “Schroeder.” As in, just “Liberace.” The young musical genius was introduced in May 30, 1951, and, while still not yet able to speak on September 14 (below) of that year, his destiny in life was clear.

September 14, 1951. (Schroeder’s toy piano was a duplicate of one that Schulz gave to Meredith when she was two years old.)

However, Lucy saw his destiny in life was to marry her.

December 9, 1956

Speaking of unrequited love, it didn’t take long before Charlie Brown’s baby sister, Sally, fell in love with Linus — or, as she called him, her “Sweet Babboo.”

August 25, 1960

During the formative years of her childhood, Sally kept looking for a ready-made philosophy that she could live by. (This particular trait of Sally’s helped Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth win a Tony Award years later. But you will just have to wait for me to get to that… and that’s my new philosophy!)

July 8, 1992

Another early member of the cast was “Pig-Pen,” who made his untidy first appearance (usually with quotes around that nickname) on July 13, 1954. (The Peanuts Movie, 2015, has his real name as James Evans.)

September 26, 1954

A little bird tells me it is time to mention Woodstock. Snoopy’s feathered friend was around for a few years, sometimes alone, sometimes in a flock, before he was officially named. And though he could only make bird noises, Woodstock and Snoopy somehow understood each other and it made for many laughable moments.

January 6, 1980

Making her brash first appearance by both flirting with “Chuck” and taking over training his woe-begotten baseball team, Peppermint Patty became one of the most popular characters to appear in the strip. Though she realized that his team was hopeless and returned home, she stayed in close contact.

Her very best moments in the strip were those spent with Marcie, who called Patty “sir.” And both she and Marcie were attracted to “Chuck,” with Marcie not being shy about her feelings.

IMAGE 17 CAPTION: July 22, 1979.

However, anyone who ever read the strip knew there was only one love in Chuck’s – er, I mean Charlie Brown’s — life, and that was the little red-haired girl he worshipped from afar but was always scared to talk to. He even once pulled a bag over his head when it looked like she was coming over to him.

February 10, 1985

Franklin (later having a surname of “Armstrong,” after Robb Armstrong, an African-American cartoonist) made his debut in the strip in 1968, and it wasn’t long before letters of criticism began appearing at the United Features Syndicate office.

August 1, 1968

A year later, when he and Charlie Brown became classmates, the syndicate received a letter they passed on to Schulz. In it, a Southern newspaper editor stated the following: “Gentlemen: In today’s ‘Peanuts’ comic strip Negro and white children are portrayed together in school. School integration is a sensitive subject here, particularly at this time when our city and county schools are under court order for massive compulsory race mixing. We would appreciate it if future ‘Peanuts’ strips did not have this type of content. Thank you.”

Schulz told the syndicate that if they stopped running strips with Franklin, he would quit.

Getting back to the red-haired love of Charlie Brown’s. Though she seemed unforgettable, she was forgotten when he met another beautiful young miss. She also fell in love with him and presented him with his first kiss!

August 10, 1990

By the way, Schulz also softened on letting Charlie Brown win a baseball game. (Actually, he did win one before by getting a walk, but this time it was by hitting a home run in the ninth inning!)

March 30, 1993

Nevertheless, Charlie Brown never did get to kick the football in all the years of the strip when Lucy was holding it in place. (NOTE From Dan: I still believe that should have been the last strip…)

While the Peanuts’ strip (and animated specials) have celebrated holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas with great fun, there were serious days that Schulz saluted several times in the strips — Veterans Day and the anniversary of June 6, 1944, when the Allied troops set foot on the shores of Normandy in World War II. Schulz had been a staff sergeant in the Army during the war and fought in France and Germany, including liberating the Dachau concentration camp where some of the worst atrocities in mankind’s history were carried out.

May 31, 1998

Schulz was the Capital Campaign Chairman for the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, and contributed $1 million toward the building of it.

Turning away from the strip itself for the moment, let’s look at the commercialization of Peanuts. It has been called the most successful strip of all time, and that is easy to believe.

In 1952, just two years after the strip debuted, the first reprint book was published. Many more followed and continue to this day. There have also been comic books and tons of toys and other merchandise, including greeting cards, lunch boxes, stuffed animals, music boxes, ice skates, and so much more.

Partial view of Snoopy’s Gallery & Gift Shop in Santa Rosa, CA.

There have been five movies and more than 50 TV specials (which began in 1965 with A Charlie Brown Christmas). The song Snoopy vs. The Red Baron (sung by the Royal Guardsmen) became a hit in 1966 (though they failed to get permission to use Snoopy and lost a lawsuit brought by United Features Syndicate). (The Royal Guardsmen recorded other Snoopy songs, with Schulz’s permission, but they did not achieve the popularity of the first.)

Since 1968, the Snoopy balloon has been the most frequent in the history of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parades. In 1969, NASA gave their Apollo 10 lunar module the nickname of “Snoopy” and the command and service module was “Charlie Brown.” Snoopy was a part of the Ice Follies and Holiday on Ice. In addition, from 1985 to 2016, the Peanuts gang were the spokespeople in MetLife commercials. (In 2023, there was a new MetLife commercial, for pet insurance).

There have also been musicals based on the strip, including You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. Kristin Chenoweth – remember her from earlier in this article? – won a Tony Award in 1999 for playing Sally in a revival of the show on Broadway.

In 1996, Charles Schulz received a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood.

And, then, on February 12, 2000, the world was shocked and saddened to learn he’d died of colon cancer. As it happened, the last Sunday strip, in which announced his retirement, would be published the next day.

February 13, 2000

In agreement with the syndicate, he requested that no one take over the strip. To this day, 25 years later, the syndicate has been printing segments from the past.

In March 2000, the Sonoma County Airport in California was renamed the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport in his honor (he lived in Santa Rosa, which is part of Sonoma County). In addition, the Charles M. Schulz Museum opened its doors in 2002 in Santa Rosa. (Santa Rosa has also benefited by a skating arena called Snoopy’s Home Ice, built by Schulz in 1969).

Throughout its history, Peanuts contained all the elements of life: We fall in love, we feel frustrated, we get angry, and – when we remember to celebrate it – we dance!

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MORE

— GOOD GRIEF! What If DC COMICS’ Heroes and Villains Were PEANUTS Characters? Click here.

— PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite “World Famous Author” PEANUTS Strips. Click here.

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13th Dimension contributor-at-large PETER BOSCH’s first book, American TV Comic Books: 1940s-1980s – From the Small Screen to the Printed Page, was published by TwoMorrows. (You can buy it here.) A sequel, American Movie Comic Books: 1930s-1970s — From the Silver Screen to the Printed Page, is out now. (Buy it here.) Peter has written articles and conducted celebrity interviews for various magazines and newspapers. He lives in Hollywood.