Monday, February 14, 2000: Charles M. Shulz, 1923-2000

[NonsenseWords]

[Tom_Radigan]

Peanuts itself had changed quite a lot over the years. In the 1950's, it was a conventional strip (though with all kids and no adults shown) about young kids and how the play, fight, etc., and Charlie Brown was the local troublemaker, playing pranks and annoying the other kids, and Snoopy was a regular dog. Then Snoopy became anthromorphized, and Charlie Brown became the lovable loser, and Linus went from being a tyke to the same age as the other kids, and the strip became overall philosophical. Unfortunately, in the strip's last 20 years of existence, it basically became boring and repetitive.

[datherman]

Damn, has it really been ten years since then? I remember when it happened, the local paper decided to continue showing "classic" Peanuts strips every Sunday, and to the best of my knowledge continue to do so. Didn't realize they've been running old strips for ten years though.

[Cactus Jack]

Alot of papers still run the old strips, although they don't run the really old ones which would actually be far more interesting then running the ones everybody recognize.

[Muninn]

Peanuts itself had changed quite a lot over the years. In the 1950's, it was a conventional strip (though with all kids and no adults shown) about young kids and how the play, fight, etc.

Actually the philosophical musings were there almost from the start which prompted several people of the time to say that the kids in Peanuts didn't behave like kids. It changed forever how all kinds of comics and shows could handle children. There's a L'il Abner strip parodying Schulz who has recently moved houses and telling a group of men from the comic syndicate that it was the psychiatrist next door who muddled his brain and now he'd be making the kids act like kids again. The resulting strip shows a less cartoonish Charlie Brown and gang with Snoopy looking like a real dog and barking. The syndicate promptly ceases the comic.