1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:15,265 --> 00:00:16,767 We have to write an essay? 4 00:00:18,810 --> 00:00:21,438 Five hundred words about who we are? 5 00:00:21,522 --> 00:00:26,068 I have no idea who I am. How am I gonna come up with 500 words? 6 00:00:26,652 --> 00:00:28,278 That will take forever. 7 00:00:30,155 --> 00:00:33,116 Due in one week? Good grief. 8 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:36,787 I couldn't be stuck with a worse subject: me. 9 00:00:37,871 --> 00:00:40,624 You worry too much, Charlie Brown. 10 00:00:42,709 --> 00:00:44,795 Good ol' Charlie Brown, 11 00:00:44,878 --> 00:00:48,507 the lovable loser who never seems to catch a break. 12 00:00:49,216 --> 00:00:53,220 You've probably heard of him. You've definitely seen him. 13 00:00:54,137 --> 00:00:55,639 He's been everywhere. 14 00:00:56,640 --> 00:01:01,103 In newspapers and books, movies and TV. 15 00:01:01,186 --> 00:01:04,565 He's been all over the world and up in the air. 16 00:01:05,147 --> 00:01:08,485 -He's even been to the moon. -Good grief, Charlie Brown. 17 00:01:08,569 --> 00:01:11,864 It sort of feels like Charlie Brown, his dog, Snoopy, 18 00:01:11,947 --> 00:01:15,868 and the rest of the Peanuts Gang have pretty much always been around. 19 00:01:16,869 --> 00:01:19,121 Linus, I always had a special feeling for. 20 00:01:19,204 --> 00:01:22,499 -My favorite character is Linus. -I'm a Woodstock fan. 21 00:01:22,583 --> 00:01:24,960 It was amazing how much Franklin meant to me. 22 00:01:25,043 --> 00:01:27,880 My favorite Peanuts character is Peppermint Patty. 23 00:01:28,463 --> 00:01:31,383 -Yeah, and Snoopy. -Of course, I like Snoopy the best. 24 00:01:31,466 --> 00:01:35,512 For 70 years, Peanuts has been part of our lives. 25 00:01:35,596 --> 00:01:38,515 Like, Peanuts is just its own planet. 26 00:01:38,599 --> 00:01:40,392 The audience is the world. 27 00:01:40,475 --> 00:01:43,854 It appeals to everyone, and that's why it became this huge phenomenon. 28 00:01:43,937 --> 00:01:47,024 Peanuts may be a global icon, 29 00:01:47,107 --> 00:01:51,236 but at the center of it all is still good ol' Charlie Brown. 30 00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:54,031 I love Peanuts, and I love Charlie Brown. 31 00:01:54,114 --> 00:01:55,991 I love Charlie Brown. 32 00:01:56,074 --> 00:01:58,535 I related to Charlie Brown so much. 33 00:01:59,244 --> 00:02:01,663 But who is Charlie Brown really? 34 00:02:01,747 --> 00:02:03,373 And where did he come from? 35 00:02:03,457 --> 00:02:07,628 Why would anybody care about who I am? I'm nobody special. 36 00:02:15,177 --> 00:02:17,763 "Who Are You, Charlie Brown?" 37 00:02:23,435 --> 00:02:26,772 Long before there was a boy named Charlie Brown, 38 00:02:26,855 --> 00:02:32,110 there was a man named Charles Schulz who had dreamed of being a cartoonist. 39 00:02:32,194 --> 00:02:34,655 I always dreamed I'd have a comic strip. 40 00:02:34,738 --> 00:02:38,492 I think I've been dreaming about this thing since I was about six years old. 41 00:02:38,575 --> 00:02:40,786 Almost from the moment he was born, 42 00:02:40,869 --> 00:02:44,331 it seemed like Charles Schulz was destined to be in the comics. 43 00:02:44,414 --> 00:02:45,916 When he was a baby, 44 00:02:45,999 --> 00:02:48,377 one of his uncles called him Spark Plug, 45 00:02:48,460 --> 00:02:51,755 which came from Spark Plug the horse, a comic strip character. 46 00:02:52,422 --> 00:02:54,883 So, everybody called him Sparky. 47 00:02:54,967 --> 00:02:56,885 He was an only child, 48 00:02:56,969 --> 00:03:01,181 and he was the little kid that no one really talked to. 49 00:03:01,265 --> 00:03:02,891 He was so painfully shy 50 00:03:02,975 --> 00:03:06,228 that when he and his mother would walk down the street in Saint Paul, 51 00:03:06,311 --> 00:03:07,563 he'd walk with his head down. 52 00:03:07,646 --> 00:03:10,524 Shy little Sparky did so well in school 53 00:03:10,607 --> 00:03:11,984 that he skipped a grade. 54 00:03:12,067 --> 00:03:14,778 But that really wasn't all it was cracked up to be. 55 00:03:14,862 --> 00:03:19,324 He was the youngest person in the room by a year, 56 00:03:19,408 --> 00:03:21,660 which when you're a kid is a big deal. 57 00:03:21,743 --> 00:03:26,957 And it was hard to keep up with the older kids. He was miserable. 58 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:31,628 He just felt as if he didn't mean anything to the rest of the kids in school. 59 00:03:31,712 --> 00:03:35,799 After school, Sparky liked to hang out in his father's barbershop. 60 00:03:36,550 --> 00:03:40,220 "When I'm real lonesome, I like to go to my dad's barbershop. 61 00:03:40,721 --> 00:03:43,390 They always ask if I've come in for a shave." 62 00:03:44,391 --> 00:03:46,185 But even that had its downside. 63 00:03:46,268 --> 00:03:49,605 When I used to go into the shop, and he'd be working on me, 64 00:03:49,688 --> 00:03:54,026 the embarrassing thing about that was maybe he'd be halfway through my haircut, 65 00:03:54,109 --> 00:03:56,320 and a real good customer would come in. 66 00:03:56,403 --> 00:03:59,072 And he would say, "Why don't you just sit over there 67 00:03:59,156 --> 00:04:02,034 and wait for a little bit because I have to wait on this man." 68 00:04:02,117 --> 00:04:05,996 It was so embarrassing to sit on the bench with just a half a haircut. 69 00:04:06,079 --> 00:04:08,332 By the time he was in middle school, 70 00:04:08,415 --> 00:04:11,001 even Sparky's good grades were starting to slip, 71 00:04:11,084 --> 00:04:13,212 and he felt like a total failure. 72 00:04:13,295 --> 00:04:16,339 I think it was in the eighth grade when the roof fell in. 73 00:04:16,423 --> 00:04:18,800 I failed everything there was possible to fail. 74 00:04:19,301 --> 00:04:21,720 One place where Sparky found happiness 75 00:04:21,803 --> 00:04:23,347 was in his sketchbook. 76 00:04:23,430 --> 00:04:27,392 He drew all the time, and he dreamed that someday he would draw comics 77 00:04:27,476 --> 00:04:29,853 like the ones he read in the newspaper. 78 00:04:29,937 --> 00:04:33,148 We subscribed to two papers in Saint Paul, and on Saturday night, 79 00:04:33,232 --> 00:04:36,068 my dad would drive up to the local drugstore 80 00:04:36,151 --> 00:04:40,072 and buy the two Minneapolis papers so we could get four comic sections to read. 81 00:04:40,864 --> 00:04:43,075 And that was what life was about to me. 82 00:04:53,460 --> 00:04:57,714 Five hundred words about who I am. Who am I, Snoopy? 83 00:04:57,798 --> 00:04:59,299 I'm the son of a barber. 84 00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:04,972 I like baseball. I go to school. I just try to make it through the day. 85 00:05:05,597 --> 00:05:07,808 This assignment is impossible. 86 00:05:11,019 --> 00:05:15,065 You wouldn't understand, Snoopy. You never have to do anything difficult. 87 00:05:15,566 --> 00:05:18,402 Sit, stay, roll over. 88 00:05:19,319 --> 00:05:20,988 A dog's life is so simple. 89 00:06:32,100 --> 00:06:34,978 "Sparky Goes to War!" 90 00:06:35,979 --> 00:06:39,983 In 1942, Sparky was drafted into the army. 91 00:06:40,734 --> 00:06:43,070 "What happens when you get drafted?" 92 00:06:43,153 --> 00:06:45,197 "They send you someplace." 93 00:06:45,280 --> 00:06:47,282 "That's what I was afraid of." 94 00:06:51,995 --> 00:06:55,123 Leaving home was heartbreaking for Sparky. 95 00:06:55,207 --> 00:06:59,586 He was very close to his mother, and she had been sick for a long time. 96 00:07:00,087 --> 00:07:03,590 Sparky was never told how ill his mother was. 97 00:07:04,424 --> 00:07:08,804 And that she probably wasn't going to make it. 98 00:07:09,388 --> 00:07:15,102 And he felt very left out and isolated because of that. 99 00:07:15,686 --> 00:07:18,814 The night that I had to report back to Fort Snelling 100 00:07:18,897 --> 00:07:21,650 in Minnesota, she said, "I think we should say goodbye 101 00:07:21,733 --> 00:07:25,362 because we will probably never see each other again." 102 00:07:25,445 --> 00:07:27,072 And off I went. 103 00:07:27,155 --> 00:07:29,700 He would get very depressed, visibly shaken, 104 00:07:29,783 --> 00:07:31,785 when he talked about the death of his mother. 105 00:07:31,869 --> 00:07:34,204 Really did reduce him to tears. 106 00:07:34,788 --> 00:07:41,211 It left him, probably, with something that he thought about all his life. 107 00:07:42,045 --> 00:07:44,131 "It's all very strange. 108 00:07:44,631 --> 00:07:48,260 You can be walking along, not thinking of anything in particular. 109 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:51,263 Suddenly, you're reminded of a lost love..." 110 00:07:52,139 --> 00:07:53,140 Ten-hut! 111 00:07:53,223 --> 00:07:56,268 I don't know how I ever survived those days though. 112 00:07:56,351 --> 00:07:57,603 It's a long time ago, 113 00:07:57,686 --> 00:08:00,647 but those are some things that you just never forget. 114 00:08:10,199 --> 00:08:14,203 Young Sparky had never spent a single night away from home. 115 00:08:14,286 --> 00:08:15,537 But during the war, 116 00:08:15,621 --> 00:08:18,707 he traveled all the way to France and Germany. 117 00:08:19,291 --> 00:08:23,754 Throughout his time in the service, Sparky was often homesick and lonely, 118 00:08:23,837 --> 00:08:27,508 so he drew pictures, just as he had when he was a kid. 119 00:08:27,591 --> 00:08:30,219 He brought his sketchbook everywhere he went. 120 00:08:30,302 --> 00:08:33,804 And when the war was over, he came home more determined than ever 121 00:08:33,889 --> 00:08:35,765 to make it as a cartoonist. 122 00:08:40,604 --> 00:08:43,815 Big brother, I need help with my math homework. 123 00:08:44,316 --> 00:08:46,652 Can't you see I'm busy writing my essay? 124 00:08:46,735 --> 00:08:48,195 What's it about? 125 00:08:48,278 --> 00:08:49,988 It's about who I am. 126 00:08:50,489 --> 00:08:52,950 Who you are? I'll tell you who you are. 127 00:08:53,033 --> 00:08:54,743 You're my big brother. 128 00:08:54,826 --> 00:08:56,620 And you're a lousy big brother 129 00:08:56,703 --> 00:08:59,206 if you don't help me with my math homework. 130 00:08:59,915 --> 00:09:01,917 Here, take a look at this. 131 00:09:02,876 --> 00:09:04,086 Good grief. 132 00:09:04,753 --> 00:09:09,508 Okay. If you have two apples, and I give you three more, 133 00:09:09,591 --> 00:09:11,426 how many apples do you have? 134 00:09:12,594 --> 00:09:13,595 Who cares? 135 00:09:13,679 --> 00:09:16,473 I've never eaten more than one apple at a time. 136 00:09:16,557 --> 00:09:19,184 And who's handing out all these apples anyway? 137 00:09:20,394 --> 00:09:22,855 I guess my essay will have to wait until later. 138 00:09:27,734 --> 00:09:31,488 Sparky wanted to be a cartoonist more than anything. 139 00:09:32,364 --> 00:09:35,075 Just like Charlie Brown, he kept on trying. 140 00:09:35,576 --> 00:09:39,037 And just like Charlie Brown, he kept on failing. 141 00:09:40,038 --> 00:09:43,500 I would send in ten cartoons to The Saturday Evening Post. 142 00:09:43,584 --> 00:09:46,295 While they were out, I'd be working on my comic strip. 143 00:09:46,378 --> 00:09:49,798 And when I mailed in the comic strip, I'd be working on something else. 144 00:09:49,882 --> 00:09:53,093 Sparky was able to get a few of his cartoons published, 145 00:09:53,177 --> 00:09:56,263 but they didn't have Charlie Brown or Snoopy in them yet. 146 00:09:56,346 --> 00:09:59,099 Now, you always think that the first sale you make 147 00:09:59,183 --> 00:10:02,102 is gonna open up everything to you, but it doesn't work that way. 148 00:10:02,186 --> 00:10:05,606 I sold two or three and then, suddenly, I couldn't sell any for months. 149 00:10:05,689 --> 00:10:09,318 For five years, Sparky tried and failed. 150 00:10:09,401 --> 00:10:12,112 And then he started to realize something. 151 00:10:12,196 --> 00:10:15,073 He drew this comic strip called Li'l Folks, 152 00:10:15,574 --> 00:10:17,784 which featured a character called Charlie Brown 153 00:10:17,868 --> 00:10:22,456 and featured a dog that didn't quite look like Snoopy but was close enough. 154 00:10:23,415 --> 00:10:27,127 I discovered, little by little, that when I drew little kids, 155 00:10:27,211 --> 00:10:31,632 these seemed to be the type of cartoons that editors liked the best. 156 00:10:31,715 --> 00:10:34,176 His work was finally starting to catch on. 157 00:10:34,259 --> 00:10:36,637 And one day in 1950, 158 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:40,474 Sparky published his first Peanuts comic strip. 159 00:10:40,557 --> 00:10:44,228 The first strip that ever appeared showed three characters. 160 00:10:44,311 --> 00:10:49,149 One of them was a little girl named Patty, and another was a little boy named Shermy. 161 00:10:49,233 --> 00:10:52,945 And Charlie Brown was in the strip, and he came walking by in front of them. 162 00:10:53,028 --> 00:10:56,823 There he is. There goes Charlie Brown. "Good ol' Charlie Brown." 163 00:10:56,907 --> 00:10:59,743 Then as soon as he's gone, he's like, "Boy, how I hate him." 164 00:11:00,619 --> 00:11:02,913 Like, it's so-- 165 00:11:02,996 --> 00:11:05,290 That's harsh, right? 166 00:11:05,374 --> 00:11:07,876 But that's childhood. 167 00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:11,296 Kids are rough. It's like the way kids treat each other 168 00:11:11,380 --> 00:11:15,717 is what sort of helps inform you to build up your armor. 169 00:11:15,801 --> 00:11:18,136 And then you have to spend the rest of your life 170 00:11:18,220 --> 00:11:20,180 remembering to take off the armor. 171 00:11:20,264 --> 00:11:23,308 Before long, people all over America 172 00:11:23,392 --> 00:11:26,103 were falling in love with good ol' Charlie Brown. 173 00:11:26,186 --> 00:11:28,730 Here's a character I can relate to 174 00:11:28,814 --> 00:11:33,402 who's clearly as nerdy or just as not accepted as I am, 175 00:11:33,485 --> 00:11:36,864 or as I feel. That was a huge thing. 176 00:11:36,947 --> 00:11:40,576 We would see Charlie Brown being bullied. 177 00:11:40,659 --> 00:11:45,622 You'd root for Charlie Brown because he was so painfully human. 178 00:11:45,706 --> 00:11:47,541 He keeps going even when it gets tough. 179 00:11:47,624 --> 00:11:51,587 He gets right back up and tries again. So that's, like, really cool to me. 180 00:11:51,670 --> 00:11:54,882 Sparky's dream was finally coming true, 181 00:11:54,965 --> 00:11:57,384 and he did it by just being himself. 182 00:11:57,467 --> 00:11:59,344 This whole business about Charlie Brown. 183 00:11:59,428 --> 00:12:02,264 These are memories of my own miserable days. 184 00:12:02,347 --> 00:12:08,562 I think Charlie Brown is just a little bit of what all of us have inside of us. 185 00:12:08,645 --> 00:12:11,523 Mainly me. Mainly, I'm Charlie Brown. 186 00:12:17,029 --> 00:12:18,071 Linus, 187 00:12:18,155 --> 00:12:21,700 how am I supposed to come up with 500 words about myself? 188 00:12:22,201 --> 00:12:25,162 There's nothing about me that's worth writing down. 189 00:12:25,245 --> 00:12:28,165 This assignment is actually a great opportunity for you, 190 00:12:28,248 --> 00:12:29,458 Charlie Brown. 191 00:12:29,541 --> 00:12:31,168 An opportunity for what? 192 00:12:31,710 --> 00:12:36,089 It's a chance to ask yourself some of life's most essential questions. 193 00:12:36,173 --> 00:12:40,552 Who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose in the world? 194 00:12:40,636 --> 00:12:44,431 Good grief. How am I supposed to figure out all of that? 195 00:12:44,515 --> 00:12:48,143 Well, Charlie Brown, when I'm faced with difficult questions, 196 00:12:48,227 --> 00:12:50,729 I look to the great minds of history. 197 00:12:50,812 --> 00:12:54,608 The Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes once wrote, 198 00:12:54,691 --> 00:12:58,362 "Tell me what company you keep, and I'll tell you what you are." 199 00:12:59,279 --> 00:13:02,908 What company I keep? What does that mean? 200 00:13:02,991 --> 00:13:05,661 It means you should look to your friends, Charlie Brown. 201 00:13:05,744 --> 00:13:09,122 The people you spend your time with. Maybe they can help. 202 00:13:09,623 --> 00:13:13,418 I don't know, Linus. It seems impossible. 203 00:13:13,502 --> 00:13:15,045 Cheer up, Charlie Brown. 204 00:13:15,128 --> 00:13:19,758 You have a whole week to find the answers to life's most fundamental questions. 205 00:13:23,428 --> 00:13:26,640 Sparky always said he was a lot like Charlie Brown, 206 00:13:26,723 --> 00:13:30,978 but there's actually a bit of Sparky in almost all the Peanuts characters. 207 00:13:32,896 --> 00:13:34,606 He was exactly the person 208 00:13:34,690 --> 00:13:36,984 you would hope the creator of Peanuts would be. 209 00:13:37,067 --> 00:13:40,153 He is sort of all his characters in one person. 210 00:13:40,237 --> 00:13:43,156 Linus is the philosophical part of Mr. Schulz. 211 00:13:43,240 --> 00:13:46,535 You know, has the philosophy, has something to say. 212 00:13:46,618 --> 00:13:49,997 He's quietly philosophical. That's kinda what Sparky was like. 213 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:53,458 Linus is always asking these bigger questions about 214 00:13:53,542 --> 00:13:58,130 the meaning of life and our place in the universe and how it all fits together. 215 00:13:58,213 --> 00:14:01,133 "Life is difficult, isn't it, Charlie Brown?" 216 00:14:01,216 --> 00:14:06,221 I think I related to Linus because of-- Well, I had a security blanket. 217 00:14:06,305 --> 00:14:09,266 I used to, like, also carry around a blue blanket, 218 00:14:09,349 --> 00:14:11,435 so I just really relate to him. 219 00:14:12,102 --> 00:14:14,438 I, too, had a blankie. 220 00:14:15,189 --> 00:14:18,150 And I used to stand in front of the washer-dryer 221 00:14:18,233 --> 00:14:20,652 at the Laundromat my mom went to, 222 00:14:20,736 --> 00:14:25,532 crying on the wash cycle, and then crying on the dryer cycle. 223 00:14:25,616 --> 00:14:27,826 And so everybody called me Linus. 224 00:14:28,994 --> 00:14:31,371 Linus can be very smart. He can be dumb. 225 00:14:31,455 --> 00:14:33,498 He can be innocent. He can be all-knowing. 226 00:14:34,166 --> 00:14:38,504 The nature of his personality lends himself to all sorts of ideas. 227 00:14:38,587 --> 00:14:42,674 Linus and Charlie Brown showed the sweet side of Sparky's personality. 228 00:14:43,342 --> 00:14:46,595 Linus's big sister, Lucy, on the other hand... 229 00:14:46,678 --> 00:14:48,347 Lucy's really mean. 230 00:14:48,430 --> 00:14:51,391 "You're a very boring person, Charlie Brown." 231 00:14:51,475 --> 00:14:54,228 And loud and kind of scary. 232 00:14:54,311 --> 00:14:57,397 Lucy is funny, but she's really mean. 233 00:14:57,481 --> 00:15:00,359 Most of us don't like Lucy 'cause she's so mean. 234 00:15:00,442 --> 00:15:01,610 But at the same time, 235 00:15:01,693 --> 00:15:05,280 she's so over-the-top mean that it's kinda funny. 236 00:15:05,364 --> 00:15:07,950 Everybody knows what Lucy with the football means. 237 00:15:08,033 --> 00:15:11,119 Charlie Brown's, like, running, and Lucy pulls away the football, 238 00:15:11,203 --> 00:15:12,955 and he screams and he falls on his back. 239 00:15:14,331 --> 00:15:15,415 Classic. 240 00:15:18,293 --> 00:15:21,338 Which of the characters do I feel in closest sympathy with? 241 00:15:21,421 --> 00:15:24,466 I like them all because each one is probably a little bit of myself. 242 00:15:24,550 --> 00:15:27,678 The sarcastic part of me belongs to Lucy. 243 00:15:27,761 --> 00:15:30,472 The wishy-washy part of me belongs to Charlie Brown. 244 00:15:31,056 --> 00:15:33,350 And the dreamer belongs, of course, to Snoopy. 245 00:15:36,687 --> 00:15:38,021 Snoopy. 246 00:15:38,522 --> 00:15:42,234 While Charlie Brown and the other kids were a bit like Sparky himself, 247 00:15:42,317 --> 00:15:44,987 the sky was the limit with Snoopy. 248 00:15:45,070 --> 00:15:48,532 Snoopy was a dog who refused to be a dog, 249 00:15:48,615 --> 00:15:50,993 and he was very aspirational, right? 250 00:15:51,076 --> 00:15:56,081 Oh, my God. I love Snoopy. He's so cute and so funny. 251 00:15:56,164 --> 00:15:58,375 Everyone loves Snoopy because he represented 252 00:15:58,458 --> 00:16:00,252 what I think we all wanted to be. 253 00:16:00,335 --> 00:16:03,255 You go, "Okay, today, I'm pretending I'm a World War flying ace. 254 00:16:03,338 --> 00:16:06,967 Tomorrow, I'm pretending I'm a movie star." Whatever it is. 255 00:16:07,050 --> 00:16:09,678 Snoopy kinda lives his own life and has all these fantasies. 256 00:16:09,761 --> 00:16:14,057 But even Snoopy came from someplace in Sparky's life that was real. 257 00:16:14,141 --> 00:16:16,643 Snoopy really is based upon a dog that I had 258 00:16:16,727 --> 00:16:18,604 when I was about 13 years old. 259 00:16:18,687 --> 00:16:22,482 There's a reason Snoopy played hockey and ice-skated, 'cause Schulz did as well. 260 00:16:22,566 --> 00:16:24,359 So, like all the best creators, 261 00:16:24,443 --> 00:16:26,862 there's a lot of himself in the work, 262 00:16:26,945 --> 00:16:30,282 that you can kind of see in what the characters speak about 263 00:16:30,365 --> 00:16:32,284 and the things they're also fans of. 264 00:16:41,752 --> 00:16:44,171 I've gotta get a good grade on this essay. 265 00:16:45,005 --> 00:16:47,174 Maybe I should talk to a professional. 266 00:16:50,802 --> 00:16:54,473 Hi, Charlie Brown. What seems to be the problem today? 267 00:16:54,556 --> 00:16:57,392 I'm having trouble writing my essay for class, Lucy. 268 00:16:57,476 --> 00:16:58,644 Can you help? 269 00:16:58,727 --> 00:17:02,564 Absolutely. I've actually thought a lot about you and your imperfections. 270 00:17:02,648 --> 00:17:06,777 My imperfections? I'm not sure that is going to help with my-- 271 00:17:06,859 --> 00:17:07,861 Listen, Charlie Brown. 272 00:17:07,944 --> 00:17:09,780 There's no better way to learn who you are 273 00:17:09,863 --> 00:17:12,657 than to have your many faults pointed out by a professional. 274 00:17:13,157 --> 00:17:14,576 My many faults? 275 00:17:14,660 --> 00:17:15,827 Exactly. 276 00:17:15,911 --> 00:17:20,207 And I've created a proprietary system that I think you'll find very enlightening. 277 00:17:23,292 --> 00:17:25,337 Make yourself comfortable, Charlie Brown. 278 00:17:25,838 --> 00:17:29,591 I've prepared a few hundred slides to illustrate your many flaws and foibles. 279 00:17:31,343 --> 00:17:32,427 Lights, please. 280 00:17:41,895 --> 00:17:44,189 Let's start with your early years. 281 00:17:45,107 --> 00:17:48,110 As you can see, from the very beginning, 282 00:17:48,193 --> 00:17:50,279 you were not well-liked. 283 00:17:51,113 --> 00:17:52,948 Popularity eluded you. 284 00:17:55,033 --> 00:17:58,036 You never really measured up to your peers. 285 00:17:58,954 --> 00:17:59,955 See? 286 00:18:00,831 --> 00:18:02,040 Now, pay attention. 287 00:18:03,458 --> 00:18:06,545 If we dig deeper, we'll see that a pattern emerges, 288 00:18:06,628 --> 00:18:09,089 a pattern of repeated failure. 289 00:18:12,092 --> 00:18:13,552 Under your management, 290 00:18:13,635 --> 00:18:17,389 your baseball team has lost every game you've ever played. 291 00:18:17,472 --> 00:18:20,100 Well, we've won a few times. 292 00:18:20,184 --> 00:18:23,270 Yes, but that was only when you broke your arm. 293 00:18:25,772 --> 00:18:27,941 Continuing with the sports theme, 294 00:18:28,775 --> 00:18:32,112 you've never managed to kick a football, ever. 295 00:18:33,614 --> 00:18:34,615 See? 296 00:18:35,407 --> 00:18:39,077 Even when you're not playing a team sport, you still fail. 297 00:18:41,038 --> 00:18:43,290 You fail alone and with others. 298 00:18:44,333 --> 00:18:47,044 Now, let's take a look at Valentine's Day. 299 00:18:50,464 --> 00:18:53,300 Enough! I can't take it anymore. 300 00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:01,475 I hope I helped with your essay! Expect an itemized bill in a few days! 301 00:19:03,769 --> 00:19:07,940 Failure, failure, failure. 302 00:19:09,274 --> 00:19:12,945 Sparky got most of his ideas for Charlie Brown from his own childhood. 303 00:19:15,072 --> 00:19:16,657 But once he had kids of his own, 304 00:19:16,740 --> 00:19:19,868 their childhoods started to make their way into Peanuts. 305 00:19:19,952 --> 00:19:24,373 I think I probably get more ideas from watching my own kids 306 00:19:24,456 --> 00:19:28,377 than I probably really would like to admit. 307 00:19:28,460 --> 00:19:32,005 Just watching the little arguments that they go through and this sort of thing 308 00:19:32,089 --> 00:19:34,091 has given me quite a few ideas. 309 00:19:34,174 --> 00:19:38,846 The only stuff that really resonates in entertainment, I feel, 310 00:19:38,929 --> 00:19:42,224 is when it's coming from a very singular point of view. 311 00:19:42,307 --> 00:19:47,521 And the only point of view any creator has is his or her own point of view. 312 00:19:47,604 --> 00:19:51,567 Even as a kid, I was, like, cognizant of the fact that 313 00:19:51,650 --> 00:19:54,111 there is a man somewhere in America 314 00:19:54,194 --> 00:19:58,782 who sits at a large slanted desk, and he's got a wife and kids. 315 00:19:58,866 --> 00:20:01,910 And he gets up, he draws Snoopy, and then he goes ice-skating. 316 00:20:01,994 --> 00:20:04,371 One of the boys was making model airplanes, 317 00:20:04,454 --> 00:20:06,331 and he was showing me the latest model. 318 00:20:06,415 --> 00:20:09,918 And all of a sudden, it occurred to me, why not put Snoopy on the doghouse 319 00:20:10,002 --> 00:20:12,629 and let him pretend he's a World War I flying ace? 320 00:20:12,713 --> 00:20:15,966 He was listening to Craig, his other son, one day, 321 00:20:16,049 --> 00:20:18,260 and a young man walked by, and Craig said, 322 00:20:18,343 --> 00:20:20,679 "That guy acts like Joe Cool." 323 00:20:20,762 --> 00:20:22,389 Joe Cool started. 324 00:20:23,390 --> 00:20:27,060 Everything in the comic strip had something personal to Sparky. 325 00:20:27,144 --> 00:20:32,232 If he wrote about a symphony that Schroeder was playing, 326 00:20:32,316 --> 00:20:34,234 that was a symphony that he loved. 327 00:20:34,776 --> 00:20:36,236 He took a lot from his life. 328 00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:39,865 You always wondered what he was observing if you were ever around him. 329 00:20:39,948 --> 00:20:44,661 I remember I called him my sweet babboo. Pretty soon it was in the comic strip... 330 00:20:44,745 --> 00:20:48,415 "And this is a very special one for my 'sweet babboo.'" 331 00:20:48,498 --> 00:20:53,378 ...and became something that Sally tormented Linus with. 332 00:20:53,462 --> 00:20:56,089 "I'm not your sweet babboo." 333 00:20:56,173 --> 00:20:58,800 "Pigpen." What does that phrase mean to you? 334 00:20:58,884 --> 00:21:03,722 "Pigpen" came from a friend of mine who used to call his children by funny names. 335 00:21:03,805 --> 00:21:06,391 And I can remember, his little boy was running around the living room, 336 00:21:06,475 --> 00:21:07,893 and he says, "Go to bed, Pigpen." 337 00:21:07,976 --> 00:21:11,313 And I thought that would make a good title for a comic character. 338 00:21:11,396 --> 00:21:15,275 Here's this character who seems like he should be a laughingstock. 339 00:21:15,359 --> 00:21:16,818 And occasionally other characters, 340 00:21:16,902 --> 00:21:20,197 they come over to Pigpen and they say, "You should be ashamed of yourself." 341 00:21:20,781 --> 00:21:23,450 "You know what he looks like?" "What?" 342 00:21:23,951 --> 00:21:26,161 "A human soil bank." 343 00:21:26,245 --> 00:21:30,582 And he'll have none of it. There's this dignity to Pigpen. 344 00:21:30,666 --> 00:21:33,043 As a young transgendered kid, 345 00:21:33,126 --> 00:21:35,462 I think maybe that's a thing that I was drawn to. 346 00:21:45,889 --> 00:21:48,267 Lucy sure wasn't very helpful. 347 00:21:48,350 --> 00:21:50,644 I think I need a second opinion. 348 00:21:51,562 --> 00:21:56,191 Ninety-seven, 98, 99, 100. 349 00:21:56,275 --> 00:21:57,484 My turn. 350 00:22:02,447 --> 00:22:03,574 Pigpen! 351 00:22:05,701 --> 00:22:07,327 You're making a mess. 352 00:22:24,928 --> 00:22:28,348 Hi, Charlie Brown. Do you wanna help me make mud pies? 353 00:22:28,432 --> 00:22:33,270 I don't think I can, Pigpen. I have to work on a school project. 354 00:22:33,353 --> 00:22:35,856 Hey! Come jump rope with us! 355 00:22:35,939 --> 00:22:38,734 Oh, no. That little red-haired girl is coming. 356 00:22:41,737 --> 00:22:43,697 What's the matter, Charlie Brown? 357 00:22:43,780 --> 00:22:46,700 -I can't let her see me. -Why not? 358 00:22:47,284 --> 00:22:49,286 What if she doesn't like what she sees? 359 00:22:49,828 --> 00:22:53,040 I think what's more important is how you see yourself. 360 00:22:53,123 --> 00:22:55,542 I like myself no matter what people think. 361 00:22:56,251 --> 00:23:00,631 Really? Even if they think you're... filthy? 362 00:23:01,131 --> 00:23:06,136 Well, I don't see myself as filthy. I see myself as a part of history, 363 00:23:06,220 --> 00:23:09,723 covered with the dust and dirt of countless ages. 364 00:23:09,806 --> 00:23:12,392 Guess I just don't have your confidence, Pigpen. 365 00:23:13,393 --> 00:23:16,396 I better go before the little red-haired girl sees me. 366 00:23:18,982 --> 00:23:20,567 Poor Charlie Brown. 367 00:23:27,574 --> 00:23:29,117 Just like Charlie Brown, 368 00:23:29,201 --> 00:23:33,205 in real life, Sparky had his own little red-haired girl. 369 00:23:33,705 --> 00:23:38,126 As a young man, Sparky met Donna Wold, the little red-headed girl, 370 00:23:38,710 --> 00:23:41,713 and fell head over heels in love with her. 371 00:23:41,797 --> 00:23:45,384 And Donna was engaged to marry a fireman, 372 00:23:45,467 --> 00:23:49,012 and she wasn't sure about this fireman. 373 00:23:49,096 --> 00:23:53,058 And she broke up with him, and she went out with Sparky. 374 00:23:54,601 --> 00:23:57,187 I had the high hopes that she would marry me. 375 00:23:59,106 --> 00:24:00,315 But she didn't. 376 00:24:00,816 --> 00:24:03,902 I think that he thought, "Well, if I work hard enough, 377 00:24:03,986 --> 00:24:06,029 if I'm this and I'm that and-- 378 00:24:06,113 --> 00:24:08,782 She'll forget the fireman and stick with me." 379 00:24:08,866 --> 00:24:12,494 But, nope, she made up her mind and she married the fireman. 380 00:24:12,578 --> 00:24:18,625 I gave her my complete devotion, my heart, and she walked away. 381 00:24:19,459 --> 00:24:23,463 I didn't deal with it very well. I dreamed about it for years. 382 00:24:24,464 --> 00:24:27,176 That was the woman he wanted to marry. 383 00:24:27,259 --> 00:24:30,929 This story is so Charlie Brown. 384 00:24:36,852 --> 00:24:39,730 Charlie Brown wasn't the only one in the Peanuts Gang 385 00:24:39,813 --> 00:24:41,481 who was unlucky in love. 386 00:24:41,565 --> 00:24:44,193 Peanuts, it's a world of unrequited love. 387 00:24:45,319 --> 00:24:47,863 Lucy pines for Schroeder. 388 00:24:47,946 --> 00:24:52,075 That always cracked me up, 'cause he was always like, "No." 389 00:24:52,159 --> 00:24:53,702 Sally wants Linus. 390 00:24:53,785 --> 00:24:56,788 At one point, Peppermint Patty actually sort of wants Charlie Brown. 391 00:24:56,872 --> 00:25:00,876 So it's like this unbroken chain of these children 392 00:25:00,959 --> 00:25:07,174 whose hearts are full of love, and the love is... almost never returned. 393 00:25:08,175 --> 00:25:10,302 His constant quest for the little red-haired girl 394 00:25:10,385 --> 00:25:13,514 was just such a-- so relatable to me, 395 00:25:13,597 --> 00:25:15,974 because I always had some monster crush 396 00:25:16,058 --> 00:25:21,188 on some girl in the school who I never had the nerve to even go near. 397 00:25:21,271 --> 00:25:24,316 And there's a lot of like, "Today's gonna be the day when I'm gonna get in there 398 00:25:24,399 --> 00:25:26,652 and I'm gonna finally talk to that little red-haired girl." 399 00:25:26,735 --> 00:25:30,072 "Today's gonna be the day." And then it never ever comes. 400 00:25:50,342 --> 00:25:52,135 You're so talented, Schroeder. 401 00:25:52,886 --> 00:25:55,889 Do you think your music is the reason people like you? 402 00:25:57,099 --> 00:26:00,769 That may be true, Charlie Brown, but it's sort of ironic, 403 00:26:00,853 --> 00:26:05,148 since one of the things I like most about playing music is the solitude. 404 00:26:10,028 --> 00:26:12,698 It's like your music represents who you are. 405 00:26:13,574 --> 00:26:16,577 I wonder what music would represent who I am. 406 00:26:26,044 --> 00:26:30,257 How's your essay coming along, Charlie Brown? Did my slideshow help? 407 00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:36,972 Hi, Schroeder. Did you miss me? 408 00:26:48,775 --> 00:26:53,488 Over the years, Peanuts grew and changed just like Sparky did. 409 00:26:53,572 --> 00:26:56,200 And it wasn't always just about being funny. 410 00:26:56,283 --> 00:27:00,287 My own children grew up, the strip became really less kid-oriented. 411 00:27:00,370 --> 00:27:02,873 The strip has become more abstract, 412 00:27:02,956 --> 00:27:06,502 and the kids are really just caricatures of what adults are 413 00:27:06,585 --> 00:27:10,005 and the problems that adults have and the things that adults really say. 414 00:27:11,215 --> 00:27:14,301 It's a cute little cartoon, funny characters, funny moments. 415 00:27:14,384 --> 00:27:17,888 But it also is kind of deeper. 416 00:27:17,971 --> 00:27:21,600 The characters are so complex, and they're talking about human feelings 417 00:27:21,683 --> 00:27:24,686 and emotions, you know, the human condition. 418 00:27:25,270 --> 00:27:32,236 I think he was one of the best when it came to capturing the mood. 419 00:27:32,986 --> 00:27:35,864 He captured the mood of the country. 420 00:27:35,948 --> 00:27:39,576 I feel like he always was searching for the truth and telling the truth. 421 00:27:39,660 --> 00:27:45,207 Sparky wanted the world to be equal for everyone, and that's what his truth is. 422 00:27:46,959 --> 00:27:51,588 In the late 1960s, Sparky created Peppermint Patty, 423 00:27:51,672 --> 00:27:54,216 an independent girl living with a single parent, 424 00:27:54,299 --> 00:27:58,178 who broke her school dress code by wearing sandals and shorts. 425 00:27:59,054 --> 00:28:01,348 She was so different. 426 00:28:01,431 --> 00:28:03,725 She was not the stereotypical female character 427 00:28:03,809 --> 00:28:05,352 you would see on the comics page. 428 00:28:05,435 --> 00:28:07,312 She's totally her own person. 429 00:28:07,396 --> 00:28:10,691 She's just, like, so unique, and she's comfortable being unique 430 00:28:10,774 --> 00:28:12,192 and in her own skin. 431 00:28:12,860 --> 00:28:15,362 Peppermint Patty gets terrible grades. 432 00:28:15,445 --> 00:28:18,240 She's always falling asleep in class. 433 00:28:19,324 --> 00:28:20,659 But she's a great pitcher. 434 00:28:20,742 --> 00:28:24,496 And she beats Chuck's baseball team every time. 435 00:28:24,580 --> 00:28:27,541 Sometimes by, like, you know, 100-1. 436 00:28:28,125 --> 00:28:30,002 Sports-loving Peppermint Patty 437 00:28:30,085 --> 00:28:33,589 was partially inspired by Sparky's friend, Billie Jean King, 438 00:28:33,672 --> 00:28:36,884 one of the greatest tennis players of all time. 439 00:28:37,634 --> 00:28:40,304 You saw the women, the girls in sports, 440 00:28:40,387 --> 00:28:43,348 which of course, as a girl, I'm like, "That's great." 441 00:28:43,432 --> 00:28:45,017 Sparky was really a feminist. 442 00:28:45,100 --> 00:28:46,935 In the world of Peanuts, 443 00:28:47,019 --> 00:28:50,230 Sparky always made sure that the girls were just as strong, 444 00:28:50,314 --> 00:28:52,399 and often even stronger than the boys. 445 00:28:52,482 --> 00:28:55,736 The comic strips really have mirrored our culture. 446 00:28:55,819 --> 00:29:01,200 And it just may be that Peppermint Patty does represent a new trend among kids 447 00:29:01,283 --> 00:29:03,493 to be more independent and to speak out. 448 00:29:03,577 --> 00:29:07,456 "Here I come, fella! Stop me if you can!" 449 00:29:41,698 --> 00:29:42,741 Yeah! 450 00:29:45,410 --> 00:29:46,411 Yes! 451 00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:54,211 Good game, Chuck. 452 00:29:54,294 --> 00:29:56,880 But you looked a little distracted up here. 453 00:29:56,964 --> 00:30:00,133 I'm surprised your team's manager didn't pull you off the mound. 454 00:30:00,217 --> 00:30:02,302 He is their manager, sir. 455 00:30:02,886 --> 00:30:04,721 Are you okay, Charlie Brown? 456 00:30:04,805 --> 00:30:06,807 It's this homework assignment. 457 00:30:06,890 --> 00:30:09,351 I have to figure out the meaning of my life. 458 00:30:09,434 --> 00:30:12,229 Boy, Chuck, that is a tall order. 459 00:30:12,312 --> 00:30:15,482 I sure am glad our teacher didn't give us any homework. 460 00:30:15,566 --> 00:30:18,318 We've had homework every day this week, sir. 461 00:30:19,695 --> 00:30:22,614 The meaning of life is something people have always wondered about, 462 00:30:22,698 --> 00:30:23,699 Charlie Brown. 463 00:30:23,782 --> 00:30:26,827 My grandfather always said that our main purpose in life 464 00:30:26,910 --> 00:30:28,620 is to give and receive love. 465 00:30:30,664 --> 00:30:32,749 He also used to sigh a lot. 466 00:30:34,251 --> 00:30:36,920 I don't know if anyone could ever love me. 467 00:30:37,004 --> 00:30:41,633 I asked Lucy for help, but all she did was tell me what's wrong with me. 468 00:30:41,717 --> 00:30:43,760 Is there anything right with me? 469 00:30:43,844 --> 00:30:47,598 Absolutely, Chuck. You've got plenty of good qualities. 470 00:30:47,681 --> 00:30:50,767 I do? Like what, for example? 471 00:30:55,647 --> 00:30:58,066 Well, you're very kind. 472 00:31:00,944 --> 00:31:02,237 And you're generous. 473 00:31:02,321 --> 00:31:05,782 And don't forget helpful. You're super helpful, Chuck. 474 00:31:05,866 --> 00:31:10,662 Wow. Kind, generous and helpful. Thanks, guys! 475 00:31:11,163 --> 00:31:13,081 Hey, Lucy. Guess what? 476 00:31:13,165 --> 00:31:17,002 You were wrong. I'm kind, generous and helpful. 477 00:31:17,085 --> 00:31:19,421 Of course they would say that, Charlie Brown. 478 00:31:19,505 --> 00:31:22,132 You're kind because your pitches were so easy to hit. 479 00:31:22,216 --> 00:31:24,593 You were generous to give them so many runs. 480 00:31:24,676 --> 00:31:26,845 And you helped them win the game. 481 00:31:28,555 --> 00:31:31,266 You sound just like my grandfather, Charlie Brown. 482 00:31:34,311 --> 00:31:37,689 Franklin Armstrong was one of the last major characters 483 00:31:37,773 --> 00:31:39,358 to join the Peanuts Gang. 484 00:31:39,441 --> 00:31:42,736 And when he arrived, he changed the comics forever. 485 00:31:43,445 --> 00:31:48,825 I was in eighth grade when Franklin made an appearance in Peanuts. 486 00:31:48,909 --> 00:31:52,120 And I remember thinking, "Wow." Here was a Black character. 487 00:31:52,204 --> 00:31:53,372 Here was a Black kid. 488 00:31:53,455 --> 00:31:56,750 Here I am reading this comic strip, and all of a sudden there's a kid in there 489 00:31:56,834 --> 00:31:57,835 that looks like me. 490 00:31:58,919 --> 00:32:03,006 It may not seem like a big deal today, but in 1968, 491 00:32:03,090 --> 00:32:07,636 Black and white kids playing together in a comic strip was a huge deal. 492 00:32:08,387 --> 00:32:12,140 When he brought Franklin into the strip, it was 1968, 493 00:32:12,224 --> 00:32:16,019 and the cities were burning because of Dr. King being assassinated. 494 00:32:16,603 --> 00:32:18,522 Dr. Martin Luther King, 495 00:32:18,605 --> 00:32:21,775 the apostle of nonviolence in the civil rights movement, 496 00:32:21,859 --> 00:32:24,528 has been shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee. 497 00:32:24,611 --> 00:32:29,992 And a woman contacted Sparky. Her name was Harriet Glickman. 498 00:32:30,075 --> 00:32:34,663 She said, "It's time for you, with this platform you have, Mr. Schulz, 499 00:32:34,746 --> 00:32:36,415 to do something." 500 00:32:36,498 --> 00:32:42,254 She said, "I think you should add a Black child in Peanuts." 501 00:32:42,337 --> 00:32:46,466 He's like, "I can't. I don't know what it's like to be a young Black child." 502 00:32:46,550 --> 00:32:50,512 So Harriet Glickman asked her friends Kenneth Kelly and Monica Gunning, 503 00:32:50,596 --> 00:32:54,600 who were Black, and also parents, to write to Schulz as well. 504 00:32:55,267 --> 00:32:59,813 Back then, there were almost no people of color in the comics, 505 00:32:59,897 --> 00:33:03,108 and Sparky realized what it might mean to all kids 506 00:33:03,192 --> 00:33:05,152 if he could help change that. 507 00:33:05,235 --> 00:33:08,572 He wanted to do something that had meaning, 508 00:33:08,655 --> 00:33:10,157 that actually said something. 509 00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:13,410 You got the sense from him he was a very fair-minded person. 510 00:33:13,493 --> 00:33:17,539 And, I mean, racial inequality is not fairness. 511 00:33:17,623 --> 00:33:19,875 I held off on Franklin for a long time 512 00:33:19,958 --> 00:33:23,045 because I simply felt I wasn't capable of doing him properly. 513 00:33:23,587 --> 00:33:26,924 And I didn't want to appear to be patronizing. 514 00:33:27,007 --> 00:33:29,676 I tried to do it without fanfare. 515 00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:34,306 The little incident when he did appear was two little boys meeting on a beach. 516 00:33:34,389 --> 00:33:37,643 And they discovered they both liked to make sandcastles. 517 00:33:37,726 --> 00:33:40,270 It doesn't matter that one is Black and one is white. 518 00:33:40,354 --> 00:33:42,439 "Now, there you are, Charlie Brown. 519 00:33:42,523 --> 00:33:44,858 There's a real sandcastle!" 520 00:33:44,942 --> 00:33:47,611 You know, papers threatened to drop the strip. 521 00:33:47,694 --> 00:33:50,656 And he was like, "Fine, drop it." And then they didn't. 522 00:33:50,739 --> 00:33:53,700 And then they were like, "Well, just don't show them in school together." 523 00:33:53,784 --> 00:33:56,036 And of course, then it's exactly what he did. 524 00:33:56,119 --> 00:33:58,413 The interesting thing about Franklin was, 525 00:33:58,497 --> 00:34:04,336 you don't remember his personality per se, as much as he seemed pretty serious. 526 00:34:04,419 --> 00:34:08,422 He was a serious kid that you almost got the feeling, again, 527 00:34:08,507 --> 00:34:10,634 looking back at it now as an adult, 528 00:34:11,217 --> 00:34:16,306 you know, the burden, almost, of being this Black kid in a white world, 529 00:34:16,389 --> 00:34:18,266 even though it was a comic strip world, 530 00:34:18,350 --> 00:34:20,143 was weighing on him. 531 00:34:20,226 --> 00:34:23,397 He knew that everybody was kind of looking at him. 532 00:34:40,121 --> 00:34:44,543 Maybe that's my purpose in life: feeding a dog. 533 00:34:49,089 --> 00:34:51,425 I guess I can't put it off any longer. 534 00:34:51,507 --> 00:34:52,885 I better start writing. 535 00:35:24,708 --> 00:35:28,420 Who am I? Who am I? 536 00:35:31,507 --> 00:35:33,050 This is hopeless. 537 00:35:33,133 --> 00:35:35,135 Maybe I should get some fresh air. 538 00:35:47,648 --> 00:35:49,691 One of the biggest things to ever happen 539 00:35:49,775 --> 00:35:54,154 to Charlie Brown and his friends was when they were first brought to life on TV 540 00:35:54,238 --> 00:35:57,074 with A Charlie Brown Christmas. 541 00:35:57,157 --> 00:36:00,035 My mother timed the purchase of our first color TV 542 00:36:00,118 --> 00:36:03,455 so that I could watch the Christmas special in color. 543 00:36:03,539 --> 00:36:05,707 That was a huge moment for me. 544 00:36:05,791 --> 00:36:09,211 Every Christmas, we just all watch it together and drink hot cocoa, 545 00:36:09,294 --> 00:36:11,088 and it's just really fun. 546 00:36:12,005 --> 00:36:15,509 I personally don't celebrate Christmas. I'm a Jew. I hate Christmas. 547 00:36:15,592 --> 00:36:18,178 It means nothing to me. Christmas means nothing to me. 548 00:36:18,262 --> 00:36:23,183 But the Charlie Brown Christmas special... I mean, does it get better than that? 549 00:36:23,267 --> 00:36:25,978 A Charlie Brown Christmas was a huge hit, 550 00:36:26,061 --> 00:36:29,565 and soon there was a Peanuts special for almost every holiday. 551 00:36:29,648 --> 00:36:32,359 I didn't have traditional holidays when I was a kid. 552 00:36:32,442 --> 00:36:34,903 Like, I was probably traveling for work. 553 00:36:34,987 --> 00:36:37,072 And so to me, 554 00:36:37,155 --> 00:36:41,660 those specials were like the marker I didn't have in a traditional home of, 555 00:36:41,743 --> 00:36:44,329 "It's this holiday. It's this time of year." 556 00:36:44,913 --> 00:36:47,416 I remember the Halloween special ran, 557 00:36:47,499 --> 00:36:48,834 the Great Pumpkin special, 558 00:36:48,917 --> 00:36:51,628 and the ongoing joke, "What did you get?" 559 00:36:51,712 --> 00:36:55,048 "I got an apple." "I got a candy bar." Charlie Brown... 560 00:36:55,132 --> 00:36:57,134 I got a rock. 561 00:36:58,385 --> 00:37:01,013 All right. Let's take it from the top again. 562 00:37:06,351 --> 00:37:11,148 Five, four, three, two... All engines running. 563 00:37:11,648 --> 00:37:14,484 The holiday specials helped make Peanuts so popular 564 00:37:14,568 --> 00:37:19,573 that NASA named the Apollo 10 modules after Charlie Brown and Snoopy. 565 00:37:19,656 --> 00:37:22,993 We are very flattered to be part of your whole program, 566 00:37:23,076 --> 00:37:24,453 and extremely grateful. 567 00:37:24,536 --> 00:37:27,706 I had no idea that all of these strange things were going to happen, 568 00:37:27,789 --> 00:37:29,833 like Snoopy going to the moon. 569 00:37:29,917 --> 00:37:32,252 Roger. We notice the resemblance there too. 570 00:37:34,129 --> 00:37:37,466 Certainly one of the most moving experiences of my entire life. 571 00:37:39,051 --> 00:37:42,429 You have to be such an iconic part of the culture 572 00:37:42,513 --> 00:37:44,806 for them to name a lunar lander after you. 573 00:37:44,890 --> 00:37:47,559 Do you know what I mean? Like, can you imagine being that famous? 574 00:37:47,643 --> 00:37:49,686 Like, can you imagine? Like, that's crazy. 575 00:37:50,562 --> 00:37:54,066 But while Charlie Brown and Snoopy were going to outer space, 576 00:37:54,149 --> 00:37:56,610 Sparky was living a quiet life. 577 00:37:57,110 --> 00:37:58,779 He built a world around himself 578 00:37:58,862 --> 00:38:01,949 that was filled with the things he had loved since he was a kid, 579 00:38:02,533 --> 00:38:03,951 like a skating rink, 580 00:38:04,743 --> 00:38:06,245 and a baseball field. 581 00:38:07,538 --> 00:38:10,499 He didn't work in a studio. It was a campus. It was Disneyesque. 582 00:38:10,582 --> 00:38:13,961 This building was a café, this building had hockey. 583 00:38:15,462 --> 00:38:19,383 I love my daily routine of getting up and going down to the ice arena 584 00:38:19,466 --> 00:38:22,344 and having breakfast and going to the studio in the morning. 585 00:38:22,427 --> 00:38:23,804 When it comes right down to it, 586 00:38:23,887 --> 00:38:26,974 I'd rather sit and draw a funny picture than do anything else. 587 00:38:27,683 --> 00:38:30,769 He'd get up in the morning, drive down the hill, 588 00:38:30,853 --> 00:38:33,397 would park his car in the same place across the street. 589 00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:35,566 He had breakfast at the ice arena. 590 00:38:35,649 --> 00:38:38,026 An English muffin with grape jelly. 591 00:38:38,110 --> 00:38:42,197 And then he went into his office, sat at his desk and worked. 592 00:38:42,281 --> 00:38:46,785 He would literally go in his office and wait for the inspiration to hit. 593 00:38:48,245 --> 00:38:50,831 I never saw him not working, really. 594 00:38:50,914 --> 00:38:53,709 Whenever we visited, he was always in his studio. 595 00:38:53,792 --> 00:38:56,503 That's what he did. He loved it. 596 00:38:56,587 --> 00:39:01,800 That solitary part of his studio where he would sit and create. 597 00:39:01,884 --> 00:39:06,013 It takes a certain solitary type of personality 598 00:39:06,096 --> 00:39:11,560 that can handle hours alone in the room, hours alone in your head. 599 00:39:12,769 --> 00:39:18,400 Even as successful as he was, I don't know that he got 600 00:39:18,483 --> 00:39:24,573 the full depth of the love and devotion 601 00:39:24,656 --> 00:39:27,451 people had to him and those characters. 602 00:39:36,627 --> 00:39:40,964 Doesn't looking at all these stars make you feel sort of insignificant, 603 00:39:41,048 --> 00:39:42,257 Charlie Brown? 604 00:39:42,758 --> 00:39:45,093 I always feel insignificant, Linus. 605 00:39:48,263 --> 00:39:50,516 How are you doing with the assignment? 606 00:39:50,599 --> 00:39:52,643 I haven't written a single word. 607 00:39:53,435 --> 00:39:55,604 Maybe I'm just a nobody. 608 00:39:55,687 --> 00:39:58,190 I don't think you're a nobody, Charlie Brown. 609 00:39:58,273 --> 00:39:59,399 Thanks, Linus. 610 00:40:00,025 --> 00:40:04,613 But what am I supposed to do? My essay is due tomorrow. 611 00:40:05,113 --> 00:40:07,449 Well, when I'm feeling overwhelmed, 612 00:40:07,533 --> 00:40:10,619 sometimes I find the answers by staring at the sky. 613 00:40:16,375 --> 00:40:18,043 It's not working, Linus. 614 00:40:18,544 --> 00:40:20,003 What do you see? 615 00:40:20,087 --> 00:40:22,381 A bunch of stars, I guess. 616 00:40:22,464 --> 00:40:25,801 But what does that have to do with my assignment? 617 00:40:25,884 --> 00:40:29,096 Well, in some ways, the stars are a lot like you. 618 00:40:31,723 --> 00:40:35,686 If you look closely, you'll see that every star is different. 619 00:40:35,769 --> 00:40:40,315 They each vary in color, size and how brightly they shine. 620 00:40:40,399 --> 00:40:43,569 But it's those differences that create something beautiful. 621 00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:46,780 Just like us, Charlie Brown. 622 00:40:47,489 --> 00:40:48,782 Each of us is unique, 623 00:40:48,866 --> 00:40:51,827 but we're part of something much greater than ourselves. 624 00:40:51,910 --> 00:40:53,662 We each have a purpose, 625 00:40:53,745 --> 00:40:56,707 even if it's hard to know for sure what it is. 626 00:40:56,790 --> 00:41:00,752 And there's joy to be found in the journey of figuring it out each day. 627 00:41:00,836 --> 00:41:05,132 Maybe for now, your purpose is just to be Charlie Brown. 628 00:41:08,177 --> 00:41:12,181 Maybe you're right, Linus. Well, I better get to work. 629 00:41:14,057 --> 00:41:17,769 I guess if there's hope for Charlie Brown, there's hope for all of us. 630 00:41:23,358 --> 00:41:24,776 By 1980, 631 00:41:24,860 --> 00:41:29,656 Sparky had been drawing Peanuts practically every day for 30 years. 632 00:41:30,157 --> 00:41:32,784 That's over 10,000 strips. 633 00:41:33,410 --> 00:41:34,494 And in all that time, 634 00:41:34,578 --> 00:41:38,582 he never took a vacation or missed a single deadline. 635 00:41:38,665 --> 00:41:42,628 You're like a squirrel running in a cage day in and day out. 636 00:41:42,711 --> 00:41:43,879 No vacations. 637 00:41:43,962 --> 00:41:47,633 A comic strip is a completely unique form of entertainment. 638 00:41:47,716 --> 00:41:50,969 It lives with you day after day after day. 639 00:41:51,053 --> 00:41:56,266 You gotta be a machine that way to write the same thing every day 640 00:41:56,350 --> 00:41:58,018 without repeating yourself. 641 00:41:58,810 --> 00:42:01,271 A lot of cartoonists would pencil the strip 642 00:42:01,355 --> 00:42:03,065 and then have someone else ink it. 643 00:42:04,191 --> 00:42:07,653 But he always insisted on inking it himself. 644 00:42:07,736 --> 00:42:11,240 He had this matter of pride that no one ever touched the strip but him. 645 00:42:11,323 --> 00:42:13,116 He did all the work himself. 646 00:42:13,700 --> 00:42:18,539 In July of 1981, Sparky started having chest pains. 647 00:42:18,622 --> 00:42:21,333 He was rushed to the hospital for surgery on his heart. 648 00:42:21,416 --> 00:42:22,918 He was in the hospital. 649 00:42:23,001 --> 00:42:26,463 He asked for a sheet of paper just to see if he could draw a character. 650 00:42:26,547 --> 00:42:31,301 He wanted to do that immediately to make sure that he could still draw. 651 00:42:31,385 --> 00:42:33,887 And he could, but it had changed. 652 00:42:38,016 --> 00:42:40,853 His hand got shaky, and his lines got shaky. 653 00:42:41,645 --> 00:42:44,857 And you can see in the later strips, 654 00:42:44,940 --> 00:42:47,734 the edges of the lines are quite wiggly. 655 00:42:48,235 --> 00:42:51,238 He would say, "Sometimes my hand shakes so much 656 00:42:51,321 --> 00:42:53,991 that I have to hold it up to draw." 657 00:42:54,074 --> 00:42:58,078 I remember watching him drawing, say, Charlie Brown, 658 00:42:58,161 --> 00:43:00,038 which is a fairly large circle, the head. 659 00:43:00,122 --> 00:43:02,791 And his hands would shake, and he'd get so angry. 660 00:43:02,875 --> 00:43:07,713 But yet he said, "I can do rain." Like, little slashes and lines, 661 00:43:07,796 --> 00:43:09,882 like rain or grass. 662 00:43:11,133 --> 00:43:15,679 He just said, "This is what it looks like now. This is still authentically my work." 663 00:43:15,762 --> 00:43:20,392 The shaky line becomes his signature move. 664 00:43:21,268 --> 00:43:25,147 Like, that is amazing. That is amazing. It would've harmed a lot of careers. 665 00:43:25,230 --> 00:43:28,692 But it took Peanuts to another level, 666 00:43:28,775 --> 00:43:35,282 and actually made us feel more empathy for both him and his characters. 667 00:43:36,283 --> 00:43:40,662 It tells you that he's willing to put himself out there. 668 00:43:41,246 --> 00:43:43,332 He didn't stop. His ego didn't say, 669 00:43:43,415 --> 00:43:46,001 "If I can't draw perfectly, I'm not doing that." No. 670 00:43:46,084 --> 00:43:49,129 This was his being. This is how he communicated. 671 00:43:49,213 --> 00:43:50,506 This is how he lived. 672 00:43:51,882 --> 00:43:54,968 I like to think that I bring up some solutions now and then. 673 00:43:56,136 --> 00:44:01,642 I suppose one of the solutions is, as Charlie Brown, just to keep on trying. 674 00:44:04,311 --> 00:44:07,814 He never gives up. And if anybody should give up, he should. 675 00:44:20,202 --> 00:44:23,914 Good morning, Charlie Brown. How did your essay writing go? 676 00:44:23,997 --> 00:44:27,084 I was up all night, but I finished it. 677 00:44:27,167 --> 00:44:30,546 -Maybe I'll even get an A. -That would be nice. 678 00:44:30,629 --> 00:44:33,006 But life's rewards often manifest themselves 679 00:44:33,090 --> 00:44:35,008 in unconventional ways. 680 00:44:35,092 --> 00:44:38,011 I'm not sure what that means, Linus. 681 00:44:38,095 --> 00:44:41,807 But if I get an A, that would certainly be unconventional. 682 00:44:55,612 --> 00:44:59,408 Our essays have been graded. I wonder if I finally got an A. 683 00:45:03,370 --> 00:45:05,372 I can't take the suspense. 684 00:45:07,916 --> 00:45:11,086 C minus? Good grief. 685 00:45:11,837 --> 00:45:13,005 I got an A. 686 00:45:13,088 --> 00:45:16,550 The teacher complimented my penmanship and perfect margins. 687 00:45:23,223 --> 00:45:27,978 I can't believe it, Linus. All that work for a C minus. 688 00:45:28,061 --> 00:45:32,232 Cheer up, Charlie Brown. Grades aren't a measure of one's value. 689 00:45:32,316 --> 00:45:36,486 Anyway, a true work of art can only be judged over time. 690 00:45:36,987 --> 00:45:40,073 Well, I guess that's something to look forward to. 691 00:45:44,953 --> 00:45:48,665 "Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, 'Why me?' 692 00:45:49,750 --> 00:45:53,504 Then a voice answers, 'Nothing personal, your name just happened to come up.'" 693 00:45:59,927 --> 00:46:03,263 Just a few weeks ago, Charles Schulz announced his retirement from drawing 694 00:46:03,347 --> 00:46:07,059 the Peanuts comic strip in order to concentrate on treatment for colon cancer. 695 00:46:08,435 --> 00:46:14,274 He was weak from chemo, and he decided he was going to retire. 696 00:46:14,358 --> 00:46:19,363 I remember very clearly when he said, "I can't draw the strip anymore." 697 00:46:19,446 --> 00:46:24,284 He came in one day, and we were talking about doing the last strip. 698 00:46:24,368 --> 00:46:26,745 And he was sitting a few feet away from me, 699 00:46:26,828 --> 00:46:29,373 and he just looked at me and he sort of laughed, and he said, 700 00:46:29,456 --> 00:46:31,458 "I really drew some funny things." 701 00:46:31,542 --> 00:46:35,420 And you could just feel how sad he was 702 00:46:35,504 --> 00:46:37,840 that he knew he wasn't gonna be able to draw it anymore. 703 00:46:38,757 --> 00:46:41,760 The last daily strip is going to be January 3rd, 704 00:46:41,844 --> 00:46:43,470 the day this story is airing. 705 00:46:43,554 --> 00:46:47,474 Has it completely sunk in that you're not gonna be doing this anymore? 706 00:46:48,058 --> 00:46:51,687 It didn't really sink in until 707 00:46:51,770 --> 00:46:58,068 I was writing a little kind of a "So long, friends" sort of thing. 708 00:46:58,151 --> 00:47:04,241 And then right at the end, I wrote his name, my name. 709 00:47:04,324 --> 00:47:06,076 And then it said-- 710 00:47:06,159 --> 00:47:07,870 And I'll probably start crying. 711 00:47:09,371 --> 00:47:10,414 It said, well, 712 00:47:12,249 --> 00:47:15,294 that was Charlie Brown, Linus and so-and-so. 713 00:47:15,377 --> 00:47:16,920 And all of a sudden, I thought... 714 00:47:18,297 --> 00:47:22,467 "You know, that poor, poor kid. He never even got to kick the football." 715 00:47:26,972 --> 00:47:30,517 Sparky died on February 12th of the year 2000. 716 00:47:31,018 --> 00:47:32,728 That very same day, 717 00:47:32,811 --> 00:47:35,939 his final Peanuts comic strip was published. 718 00:47:36,023 --> 00:47:37,441 The day he died 719 00:47:38,609 --> 00:47:41,445 was the day the last strip ran. 720 00:47:41,528 --> 00:47:46,283 I think it says something about how deeply connected his soul was 721 00:47:46,366 --> 00:47:49,745 to the soul of these amazing characters that he came up with. 722 00:47:49,828 --> 00:47:52,039 I mean, he was those characters. 723 00:47:52,122 --> 00:47:56,251 It's amazing. He dies doing the thing he loves. 724 00:47:56,335 --> 00:48:02,382 He was one person telling this really personal story every day. 725 00:48:02,466 --> 00:48:07,387 And I think the fans, they got that. They felt that. 726 00:48:07,471 --> 00:48:11,391 These funny, memorable, wondrous comic strips. 727 00:48:11,475 --> 00:48:14,394 And that you can really just love and cherish 728 00:48:14,478 --> 00:48:17,397 and take a lot of good life lessons from as well. 729 00:48:17,481 --> 00:48:21,109 It's about humanity at its most tender. 730 00:48:21,193 --> 00:48:24,112 It's about humanity and its silliness. 731 00:48:24,196 --> 00:48:26,573 It's about humanity without cruelty. 732 00:48:27,366 --> 00:48:30,077 And I think we need that in our world today. 733 00:48:31,119 --> 00:48:32,746 We may not agree with each other. 734 00:48:32,829 --> 00:48:34,998 We may be a fussbudget like Lucy. 735 00:48:35,082 --> 00:48:38,460 We may be insecure like Charlie Brown. 736 00:48:38,544 --> 00:48:41,964 We may think our philosophy's the most important, like Linus. 737 00:48:42,047 --> 00:48:44,341 But the reality is, we're all in it together. 738 00:48:44,424 --> 00:48:47,803 And the conversations those young children have 739 00:48:47,886 --> 00:48:50,472 resonate with all of us to our soul. 740 00:48:56,770 --> 00:48:59,648 Twenty years after Charles Schulz drew 741 00:48:59,731 --> 00:49:01,149 his last Peanuts strip, 742 00:49:01,233 --> 00:49:03,485 his work and the characters he created 743 00:49:03,569 --> 00:49:06,947 are still being celebrated around the world. 744 00:49:07,030 --> 00:49:09,074 Like Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, 745 00:49:09,157 --> 00:49:13,662 Peanuts is woven deep into the fabric of American pop culture. 746 00:49:13,745 --> 00:49:17,040 What resonates still is the human emotion of it. 747 00:49:17,624 --> 00:49:19,293 That's never gonna change. 748 00:49:19,376 --> 00:49:20,878 It's iconic and it's timeless, 749 00:49:20,961 --> 00:49:25,340 and that everybody around the world can identify with and love and cherish. 750 00:49:26,049 --> 00:49:28,969 You know, my grandkids are gonna read Peanuts. 751 00:49:29,052 --> 00:49:30,179 It's Charlie Brown. 752 00:49:30,262 --> 00:49:33,724 Is there anything you'd like to say to the folks who have read Peanuts 753 00:49:33,807 --> 00:49:35,809 for the last almost 50 years? 754 00:49:35,893 --> 00:49:42,524 It is... amazing that they think that what I do was good. 755 00:49:43,358 --> 00:49:45,986 I just did the best I could. 756 00:50:11,929 --> 00:50:15,682 Where have you been, Chuck? Grab your skates. 757 00:50:39,331 --> 00:50:41,124 Nice to see you, Charlie Brown. 758 00:50:43,252 --> 00:50:46,004 Hurry up, Charlie Brown. Grab on. 759 00:50:53,345 --> 00:50:56,723 There's nothing quite like the first snowfall of the year.