The Family Van Pelt Episode 6 - All in the Valley of Death Rode Rerun Van Pelt

Re-Run arrives and struggles to assimilate into the family for the next twenty years. Lucy is still a grouch. Sally still loves Linus. And speaking of consistency, which Peanuts characters changed the least? The gang investigates. 

Transcript available at UnpackingPeanuts.com

Jimmy’s, Michael’s, and Harold’s books are available at UnpackingPeanuts.com/store.

Unpacking Peanuts is copyright Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen, Harold Buchholz, and Liz Sumner. Produced and edited by Liz Sumner. Music by Michael Cohen. Additional voiceover by Aziza Shukralla Clark. 

For more from the show follow @unpackpeanuts on Instagram and Threads, and @unpackingpeanuts on Facebook, Blue Sky, and YouTube. For more about Jimmy, Michael, and Harold, visit unpackingpeanuts.com.  

Thanks for listening.

Episode Transcript

VO (00:02):
Welcome to Unpacking Peanuts.
The podcast where three cartoonists take an in-depth look at the greatest comic strip of all time, Peanuts by Charles M.
Schulz.

Jimmy (00:18):
Hey, everybody.
Welcome back to the show.
It's Unpacking Peanuts, and today we are wrapping up our season looking at Linus, Lucy, and Rerun.
And I'm dog-sitting, if you just heard the Snoopy standing in the background.
That's Harper.
I'm also your host for the proceedings.

(00:39):
My name is Jimmy Gownley.
I'm a cartoonist.
I did things like Seven Greases, Not to Grow Up, The Dumbest Idea Ever.
And the 25th anniversary of Amelia Rules is right now, and you can pre-order those books at your favorite bookstore.
Joining me, as always, are my pals, co-hosts, and fellow cartoonists.
He's a playwright and a composer, both for The Van Complicated People, as well as for this very podcast.

(01:01):
He's the original editor for Amelia Rules, the co-creator of the original comic book Price Guide, and the creator of such great strips as Strange Attractors, A Gathering of Spells and Tangled River.
It's Michael Cohen.

Michael (01:11):
Say hey.

Jimmy (01:12):
And he's the executive producer and writer of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a former vice president of Archie Comics, and the creator of the Instagram sensation, Sweetest Beasts.
It's Harold Buchholz.

Harold (01:24):
Hello.

Jimmy (01:25):
And making sure everything runs smoothly and keeping us out of trouble, it's our producer and editor, Liz Sumner.

Liz (01:31):
Howdy.

Jimmy (01:33):
So guys, we did it.
We did it again.
We're at the end of another season, coming up on 200 episodes.
And do you have anything that you want to say to start off?
We've been doing our new segment called The Thinking Wall.
Anyone got something for The Thinking Wall?

Michael (01:50):
I think I do.

Jimmy (01:52):
All right.
Hit us.

Michael (01:53):
Okay.
Well, I was thinking about Peanuts, which is unusual.
And which characters have changed the most over the course of the strip?
Because we, I think we agreed that Snoopy definitely, well, yeah, definitely goes to you.

(02:15):
He went from being a tiny little puppy to being an old man.
So we saw the course of Snoopy's life.
I would think Charlie Brown, from being kind of a wisecrack guy, to being a really depressed, self-pitying individual, to being sort of a normal, healthy, good friend, morphed a lot.

(02:43):
Linus, because we're coming up to some of the later, well, not the second half of the peanuts run, Linus has abandoned his blanket, and seems to have changed quite a bit.
He's not as a significant character as he was, but I think-

Harold (03:04):
He's checked out a little bit, at least with Rerun, right?
We kind of noticed that.

Michael (03:07):
Yeah.

Harold (03:08):
He's not involved with his little brother very much usually.

Michael (03:11):
So I think those three have changed a lot.
But you have characters like Schroeder, who I think is essentially the same character the whole time.
Yep.
Yeah.

Jimmy (03:23):
Schroeder would have to be one of them that didn't change hardly, that changed the least at least.
Marcy and Peppermint Patty pretty much continue on their own little path.

Harold (03:34):
Yeah.
Marcy was kind of layers of an onion though.
We kept learning more.
She's kind of deepening her character as I remember.

Michael (03:42):
Lucy, still a crabby fest budget, but she seems a little more supportive.
Certainly with Rerun, she's more supportive of him than she was with Linus.
So she learned some lessons.

Harold (04:00):
Yeah.

Jimmy (04:00):
I mean, there's a lot of characters that he was able to just maintain with an immaculate consistency all the way through.
It's such a strange way to write, right?
Because when you think about any other form of writing, really, maybe outside of sitcoms, you're trying to advance the characters, change the characters, and grow the characters.

(04:22):
Somehow he managed to change, grow, and deepen the strip without a lot of characters changing.

Harold (04:30):
That's pretty wild.
Yeah.

Michael (04:34):
Yeah.
Well, it's clearly not like a sitcom or a novel or anything.
The comic strip, since it really, at least in those days, would never have an ending.

Harold (04:47):
Right.

Michael (04:48):
You're assuming that this is like an eternal world that never changes.

Jimmy (04:56):
Yeah.
I think Barnaby ended.
Did Barnaby, the comic strip, end with Mr.
O'Malley going away?
I think so, but I could be wrong.

Michael (05:08):
I mean, occasionally, they tack the last strip, they might tack in something.
But I think the cartoonists end to live pretty long.

Harold (05:16):
My favorite strip that had an ending, I think dates back to like 1913.
It's in the Smithsonian Book of Comic Strips.
It was called Old Doc Yak.
And he's being evicted by his landlord.
And so, he's trying to stop it.

(05:38):
He can't stop it.
He tries to sell his car off.
The guy bids a dime for it.
He just tries everything he can to not be evicted.
But he's evicted and the family that moves in is the new strip.
That's genius.

Jimmy (05:55):
That is really genius.

Harold (05:57):
I think it was, was it the Gumps, I think, that moved in?
And then that turned out to be a massively successful strip.
But, I mean, obviously, it made an impact on the guys editing that collection, which is an amazing collection, by the way.
If you can get your hands on the Smithsonian Book of Comic Strips, it'll blow your mind.
There'll be things you've never seen before that you'll just love.

Liz (06:18):
And you'll understand what Harold is talking about in every episode.

Michael (06:21):
Yeah, because everybody's dead, whoever read that strip.

Jimmy (06:25):
That's right.
So what do you say, guys?
Should we get into this last group of Van Pelt?

Harold (06:35):
Yeah.

Liz (06:36):
I suppose.
I'd be sorry to see them go.

Jimmy (06:40):
Yeah.
Well, the Van Pelt won't be gone for long.
They're around the whole run, so we'll be seeing them again soon.
And if you want to follow along with us while you're listening, you can do that in a couple of different ways.
The first thing you got to do is go over to unpackingpeanuts.com, sign up for the great Peanuts re-read, and that will get you our once-a-month newsletter that will let you know what's going on on the podcast and what strips we're going to be covering.

(07:06):
Now, we're not going to be able to tell you that you can find them all for free on the Peanuts Wiki, so you'll have to just figure that out for yourself.
But then you can find those dates that we have, find them, however, and then read along with us, and that would be great.
All right, let's start it.
September 21st, 1972, Lucy is hanging out in her classic position at Schroeder's piano as he plunks away on it, and Lucy says, you have no idea how important it is for a girl to get presents.

(07:37):
If no one gives her presents, her life has no meaning.
Then she turns and looks at Schroeder, who makes no reaction at all.
He just continues to pound away at the keys, and then in the final panel, Lucy says, aren't you interested in the meaning of life?
Now, you were talking about how some characters change and some characters don't.

(08:01):
This whole system, this whole little bit between the two of them, remained basically unchanged for the entire 50 years, which is one of the reasons I wanted to talk about it here.

Michael (08:12):
Well, this strip could have come in anywhere.

Harold (08:16):
Yeah, it's amazing how resilient this particular setup is.
We talked about the football strip, which is a big deal every year, and how we could get tired of it.
But how many of these are there?
Yeah.
I don't get tired because I'm always fascinated to see what version we get or who comes out on top.

(08:41):
It just seems to stay fresh.
It doesn't seem like an obligation to make a new one every so often.

Jimmy (08:48):
Well, that stuff too, if I was saying, oh, well, you get tired of the football strips or whatever.

Harold (08:56):
That's us.

Jimmy (08:58):
That's Ari and the fans saying they don't like losing my religion.
That's fine.
You can say that.
But because those things are the things that make the world love it and make it huge.
The only way that it's huge like that is through repetition.
If you did 10 football strips, it wouldn't have the impact.

(09:19):
He had to do like 45.
It's this weird thing, I think, that you have to, if you're trying to get to this level, you are going to be constantly balancing, reaching out and trying to do something for the larger audience and make it stick in their head and play to the people who really, really, really love it.

(09:44):
But that's always the smaller percentage.
Yeah.

Liz (09:47):
But speaking of things that didn't stay fresh, I'm not sure that if no one gives her presence, her life has no meaning really holds up anymore.

Harold (10:01):
Why do you say that?

Liz (10:02):
I just think that that's a rather old-fashioned way for to speak about women.

Harold (10:10):
I don't know.
I've seen some influencers on social media that would back this up 100 percent.
I don't know.

Liz (10:17):
I guess it depends on-
I find it a little offensive.

Jimmy (10:20):
Offensive?

Harold (10:22):
Now, is it because it's Lucy or just because anybody would say this?
Because I see materialism everywhere today.
Maybe it's in a slightly different package.
Maybe could he rewrite this in a way where you feel-

Liz (10:33):
He could say that you have no idea how important it is for a person to get presents.
The fact that it's a girl to get presence and if no one gives her presence.
I think it's really specifically about girls.

Harold (10:48):
Okay.
If she was just talking about it generally, then that wouldn't seem-

Liz (10:52):
Yeah, or he could also make a different joke.

Jimmy (10:58):
November 16th, 1975.
It's a Sunday and we start off with one of those symbolic panels where it's a three scoop dish of ice cream, looks like pistachio, strawberry, and French vanilla.
Lucy, her head is on the end of a spoon which is jammed into there.
Totally normal.
Then we cut to Linus and Lucy watching television.

(11:20):
They're both on their little stools and Lucy says to Linus, go out in the kitchen and get me a dish of ice cream.
Then Linus says, say please.
Then Lucy says, I'd kill myself before I'd say please.
Then Linus leaves and Linus comes back with a little dish of ice cream and says, here you are.
Then Lucy starts eating it and Linus says, he didn't say it, thank you.

(11:41):
Then Lucy screams, I'd rather die.
Then sit in silence watching TV and Linus says, I'm tired, I think I'll go to bed.
Then he walks away and then as he leans back in, he says, you didn't say pleasant dreams.
Then Linus runs away as Lucy throws the ice cream and spoon out.

Harold (12:02):
He's so pleased with himself on that last panel.
Totally.
I like that the two little scoops of ice cream are still intact in the bowl.
I guess he didn't stay long.
It wasn't melting.

Jimmy (12:16):
Yeah, I guess that.
Yeah.
Probably just the next segment of the show.
Now, this is the kind of thing is to talk about things that are socially unacceptable.
If I were to write a comic book today and submit it to Soulclastic or Simon and Schuster or Disney or Dark Horse or Random Hustler, any other publisher I work for that said, I'd kill myself before I'd say please, I would not make it.

(12:45):
I'd rather die might make it.
That would be close, but I'd kill myself, would never make it.

Harold (12:51):
Yeah.
Again, I keep talking about old media, but I've seen an old famous old Jack Benny Christmas special, where he goes to a department store and Mel Blank, who was this voice of Bugs Bunny, he was the regular on the show.
In the end, he's been so driven crazy by Jack Benny, having him rewrap all these presents and change them out.

(13:16):
The punchline at the end of the show is he goes off camera and shoots himself.
I don't think that would fly.
There's no way.

Jimmy (13:24):
Yeah.
The thing that always rubs Mira wrong about that thing is, just whitewashing a piece of media while the real world stays unchanged.

Harold (13:40):
Yeah.

Jimmy (13:41):
It does not help anybody.
You know, light is the best disinfectant.
So it's pretending everybody's care bear isn't going to help anyone.
December 9th, 1972.
Hey, it's another one about Linus and Lucy.
And Linus says, oh, this is a sequence where Lucy is trying to talk about the fact that she has to get presents from Linus for Christmas.

Harold (14:08):
Another present.

Jimmy (14:09):
Yeah, because she found the word sister in the Bible.
And so Linus goes, so you found the word sister in the Bible.
What does that prove?
And then Lucy says, it proves I know more about the Bible than you thought.
And then Linus, giving her a wide eye, casually says, did you find it in the Old Testament or in the New Testament?

(14:30):
And then Lucy says, the what?
And then Linus goes, aha!
And then Lucy says, I may have to hit him again.

Liz (14:40):
And he's quoting himself from many years ago when his first word was ha.

Harold (14:49):
That's a favorite of Linus, I guess.

Jimmy (14:52):
I don't actually think, I think your guy's opinion on particularly Linus in the second half of the strip is totally skewed by the fact that you adore him so much.
And I think you don't, I think the fact is everybody's role, with the exception of Snoopy, slightly diminished because the cast kept expanding.

Michael (15:16):
Yeah, but it's the blanket thing.
That was what people remember about Linus.
The kid with the blanket.

Jimmy (15:24):
Yeah, but doesn't that feel like kind of a chore and an obligation?
Don't you get bored with that after a while?

Michael (15:31):
Well, it was a source of some really great bits.
Oh.
But he abandoned the blanket and to me, that's sort of like, you know.

Jimmy (15:42):
But he did abandon the blanket.

Michael (15:43):
Well, he came back to it after a while.

Jimmy (15:45):
He was in the strips of Snoopy Chasing after it.

Michael (15:48):
Yeah, but there was a lot of period.

Jimmy (15:49):
You guys see it differently because you love him so much.

Michael (15:52):
Well, he was my favorite character.
And in this period, 70s, 80s, he wasn't.
So he definitely was relegated to the backbench.

Jimmy (16:04):
But couldn't that just be your changing opinion of the character?
Like, couldn't that just be that he didn't change, but you changed?
Like, or you've seen enough of that and now you've moved to this other thing?

Michael (16:17):
No, Schulz changed.
Schulz didn't find him a source of inspiration.
Okay.

Jimmy (16:25):
June 3rd, 1976.
Lucy's out in the outfield and there must be a high fly ball hit to her.
And she's like, I got it.
I got it.
I got it.
As she positions herself underneath it.
But then the ball lands about 16 inches short of her glove.
And then she says, I got it can mean a lot of things.

Michael (16:45):
That's a very typical Lucy play.

Jimmy (16:47):
Totally.

Michael (16:49):
This is no better or worse than most of her plays.

Jimmy (16:54):
But I love that she has an explanation for her, I got it.
It could mean she just senses it.
She fully understands baseball now.

Harold (17:05):
Yeah.

Liz (17:06):
Well, and she just really doesn't want to take responsibility for this.

Jimmy (17:10):
All right.

Michael (17:11):
So why does the sky turn purple when the ball hits the ground?

Harold (17:14):
I'm glad you asked, Michael.

Jimmy (17:17):
Because the only guys that they hired long afterwards decided to.
Yeah, we talked to Alex about this.
I don't know if Michael was on the phone with us, but at least Harold and I were talking about it at one point, where he said they have to have somebody go through and rearrange all the panels so that they match the current format for newspaper strips.

(17:38):
Because obviously the strip was changing size all over the years.
So they're formalizing them for the reprint, and that same person goes in and colors them.
So you would have to ask them why they made it purple.
But I think it's a great look because it gives it an emotional charge to that third panel.

Michael (17:58):
Yeah.
No, I'm not saying it doesn't work.
It's just if it did reflect reality, it would be weird.

Harold (18:05):
Does purple reflect failure?
Is that the cult?

Liz (18:08):
Well, maybe a cloud came by which affected her vision.

Jimmy (18:13):
Guys, we may be about out of things to talk about this.

Michael (18:16):
Yeah, we're trying to move on to another strip.

Jimmy (18:21):
All right.
Let's take an early break here.
We'll come back, we will check the mail, and we will finish off the Van Pelt.
We're going to get a lot of good rerun content coming up, so you don't want to miss that.

Harold (18:32):
Be there or be square.

Liz (18:34):
All righty.
Hi, everyone.
I just want to take a moment to remind you that all three hosts are cartoonists themselves and their work is available for sale.
You can find links to purchase books by Jimmy, Harold and Michael on our website.
You can also support the show on Patreon or buy us a mud pie.
Check out the store link on unpackingpeanuts.com.

Harold (18:57):
And we're back.

Jimmy (18:58):
Hey, Liz, do we got anything in the mailbox?

Liz (19:00):
We do.
We heard from a bunch of people.
In our Van Pelt's episode 2, we talked about the January 17th, 1954 strip where baby Linus was crawling.
And I said that it looked like a yoga pose, but I couldn't remember the name.

Michael (19:16):
Now we're facing the dog meat.

Liz (19:18):
No, no.
And friend of the show and Yogi Marcia Hepps informed us that it was actually hero's pose.
And she added that that's kind of perfect.

Jimmy (19:28):
Here's what I do every day when I walk out of my door.
I stop for a moment on the doorstep, do the hero pose.

Harold (19:35):
So you crawl.
So it's a crawling?
It's not a crawling pose, is it?

Liz (19:38):
Yeah.

Harold (19:39):
Oh, interesting.

Liz (19:40):
It's bent front leg.

Harold (19:41):
I can see Jimmy.

Liz (19:43):
Yeah.
I'm trying to picture it.
That would look really strange, Jimmy.

Jimmy (19:48):
People stop and they ask me.
I'm like, it's the hero pose, let me alone.

Liz (19:53):
So thank you, Marcia.
On Spotify, also about the Van Pelt's episode 2, Marcus Entroleso, I'm not sure how to pronounce that.
Sorry, Marcus.
He writes and says, Your podcast has been and will always be great.
Keep it up, Jimmy and friends and be of good cheer.

(20:14):
Always.

Harold (20:15):
Thank you.

Jimmy (20:16):
That's a lot of pressure.

Harold (20:18):
Don't tell Jimmy.
He likes to prove people wrong.

Liz (20:22):
That's very true.

Harold (20:24):
But thank you.
That is so kind of you.
We're so glad you're enjoying it.

Liz (20:29):
Also on Spotify, responding to our interview with Lynn Johnston, Xavier O'Mac writes, So wholesome.

Jimmy (20:41):
She's the best.
That was wonderful to have her.
I'm so happy that we've been able to talk to these cartoonists, especially the ones that got to know Schulz and that were working at his level or as close as you can get to his level.
She had thousands of newspapers syndicating that strip, and that was just awesome.

Harold (21:00):
She's just so open and forthright and warm at the same time.
That was a real treat to get her perspective.

Liz (21:09):
Yeah.

Jimmy (21:10):
Absolutely.

Liz (21:13):
Richard Witt writes on YouTube responding to our 1972 part 2, the Tootaloo Caribou episode.
He says, perhaps it's from being a bit younger and visiting online spaces that skew even younger.
But it's amazing that the June 22nd strip, and I think I'm going to cry again, which people repost repeatedly doesn't get a mention.

(21:39):
That strip's become iconic for its depth of pathos, it's Peppermint Patty's defining moment, and it was surprising to see it ignored.
No punchline in that one, just utter despair.

Jimmy (21:52):
Calm down.
What date is it?

Liz (21:55):
June 22nd, 72.

Harold (21:58):
All right.

Jimmy (21:58):
Let's do it right now.

Harold (22:00):
Okay.
Oh, we did talk about this one, but maybe not the episode that you saw.

Liz (22:07):
Oh, yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
So it was our Lex episode that we talked about it.

Jimmy (22:11):
When we had Lex Fajardo, who works with the Schulz people, he discussed it with us.
And Liz, if you can find it, could we haul out the dust off the old peanuts time machine and put it in here?

Liz (22:23):
I certainly can.

VO (22:25):
It's time for the peanuts time machine.

Jimmy (22:29):
June 22nd, 1972.
Peppermint Patty is sitting in the grass.
She's speaking to someone.
She says, I stood in front of that little red haired girl and I saw how pretty she was.
We now see that she's speaking with Linus.
She continues, suddenly I realized why Chuck has always loved her and I realized that no one would ever love me that way.

(22:53):
I started to cry and I couldn't stop.
I made a fool out of myself, but I didn't care.
I just looked at her and I cried and cried and cried.
Peppermint Patty buries her face in her hands and says, I have a big nose and my split ends have split ends and I'll always be funny looking, and I think I'm going to cry again.

Harold (23:12):
Yeah.
All right.

Jimmy (23:13):
Tell us about that, Lex.

Lex Fajardo (23:14):
This one just breaks my heart.

Harold (23:16):
Yeah.

Lex Fajardo (23:18):
Peppermint Patty is probably my favorite character.
All the characters are really well-developed, but three-dimensional, they have internal thoughts and emotions and whatnot.
And this strip just sort of illustrates just how good Schulz was at delineating character and like, and yeah, you read this strip, and how can you not feel sorry for Peppermint Patty?

(23:45):
Out of how we not ourselves felt something like that.
He just captures that so beautifully.
And I just wanted to point this one out because I just feel like he's such a good writer and really digs deep with this character in particular.

Michael (24:01):
That's an amazing strip.
Jimmy's thought of that this is actually a separate strip in a way.
Makes me look at it in a different way.
Rather than this is not following the formula, which is Charlie Brown is miserable, but it's always funny.
So the fact that he's doing this is like kind of startling.

(24:26):
I've never seen this one before.

Jimmy (24:29):
In one of our earlier episodes, we were talking about the golf strip, where Lucy goes to the golf tournament and there's all the people.
Previous to that, Harold noticed that Schulz also has a gag about human interest strips, which I'd never heard that term before.
I always thought of them as soap opera strips or whatever.
But Peppermint Patty, it almost is like a prototype of a YA comic.

(24:54):
People always talk about the influence Schulz had on me and they always say Lucy and stuff.
But Amelia's most direct antecedent in Peanuts is Peppermint Patty.

Lex Fajardo (25:07):
Yeah.

Jimmy (25:08):
I love this strip.

Lex Fajardo (25:10):
Yeah.
It's just great.
The other thing I love, like you said, the Peppermint Patty in her neighborhood is a separate universe.
As you say, it dips in and out with Charlie Brown and his gang.
But that he can have these fully formed characters and just living their lives and then intersecting wherever he wants is great.

(25:34):
You're right.
There's no gag to this.
It's just which is also, I think, what year is this?
I think one of the reasons I like the 70s a lot is that he's just writing stories.
He's doing what he wants to do.
He's at the top of his game, he's supremely confident in his writing and his drawing, and you just see it in the strips.

(25:59):
I don't know how this would have, and I suppose actually if you're reading this as it came out in the newspaper, you'd be on the hook.
You'd want to know what happens the next day.
It's just get resolved.
So again, just a real master of the form.

Jimmy (26:16):
Yeah, going back to one of the, I can only talk about like three things, Lex.
I could talk about baseball, I could talk peanuts, I could talk about the Beatles, that's about it.
But I read an interview years ago with Greg Maddox, who's the pitcher for the Braves, and he talks about how he wasn't a fastball pitcher.
But he's like, fastball pitchers are great, but once you see a guy throw a fastball at you, you're not impressed the next time, it's just a pitch.

(26:43):
Even though the guy, the pitcher, is doing something that's superhuman, he's throwing a baseball 100 miles an hour into a strike zone.
But you've seen it once.
I think because Schulz has been brilliant for 22 years by the time this strip comes out, it's like, oh, well, okay.
But in reality, this is radical.
This is radical.

Lex Fajardo (27:05):
Yeah.
That's the other thing.
When I think about the other cartoonists that we've already talked about in the course of the podcast, people like, you know, Brethead and the other superstar, Bill Watterson, of course, Gary Larson.
These guys in the 80s, they did it for just 10 years.

(27:25):
That's what boggles my mind.
It's like for whatever reason there was burnout, they wanted to move on, they done their stint.
But if you think about 10 years for Schulz, that just barely gets us, you know, to the end of 59, Suppy has just sort of started to climb on top of his dog house.
Can you imagine if he stopped then?
Well, we wouldn't be taught, we wouldn't be having this podcast for sure.

(27:47):
Peanuts would have just been some weird little strip, little relic in the past, and every decade is just another just amazing look at this guy who's just telling the story.
That's what I love about it, and that's what I think when I think of my time at the studio, like the most important publications we've done are these fanographics books.

(28:10):
Like Gary Graf and his team, man, thank the Lord that he and Jeannie Schulz did this project because it's so massively important to be able to read the strip frontways and backways and sideways and understand it from all these different angles in the context of who he was as his life and what other strips happened to be on the page in 1972.

(28:35):
For me, it always opens up different ways to think about what he was doing as an artist.

Michael (28:42):
No one else could have gotten away with this.
Imagine Nancy doing this monologue here.

Jimmy (28:54):
Wow, that's great.
I had no idea this was something.
I mean, it's a great strip, obviously, but I had no idea it was becoming something online, and that it was being referenced a lot, or that it had resonance.

Harold (29:04):
It's understandable.

Liz (29:06):
Thank you, Richard.

Jimmy (29:08):
All right, Richard.
Thank you for checking in with us.

Liz (29:12):
Finally, on Instagram, Rich Thomas forwarded a video posted by Paddy O'Wagon with a Snoopy sibling tier list, which is based primarily on a video called Snoopy's Reunion.

Harold (29:29):
Oh, yeah.

Liz (29:30):
But the video includes siblings named Rover and Molly, and I've never heard of those.

Jimmy (29:37):
Must be a different timeline that we're just seeing.
I feel like I could explain that.
We switched timelines.

Harold (29:44):
I don't know Molly and the other one.

Liz (29:47):
But it was a very funny tier list because all of the siblings ended up on the top tier.

Harold (29:55):
Very cute.

Jimmy (29:56):
That's great.

Liz (29:57):
So that's it for the mail.

Jimmy (29:59):
All right.
Well, I got something on the hotline.
We heard from a super listener of Sawyer Honeycutt who said, hello, this is your fan, Sawyer Honeycutt.
I was just wondering since you all did an amazing Patrick McDonald interview, I was wondering could you all do Jim Davis?

Harold (30:13):
Oh yeah.

Jimmy (30:14):
Give him our number.

Liz (30:15):
Yeah.

Jimmy (30:17):
I would love to have you talk about someone who worked at that level.
You know what else I would love to know?
I don't know if all of you guys were involved, but I did a bunch of videos for that Professor Garfield site.

Harold (30:30):
Yeah.

Jimmy (30:32):
How did any of that happen?

Lex Fajardo (30:36):
Explain yourself.

Jimmy (30:39):
There was a website called Professor Garfield that was an educational site obviously featuring Garfield.
It was one of Davis' pet projects and it had a lot to do with the creativity and art and that kind of stuff.
We did three videos of where ideas come from, and I don't remember the other ones, and elaborately produced for the time, this was like 15 years ago, green-skimming backgrounds and animated graphics and all this stuff from back in my old TV days.

(31:11):
I have no idea how any of that came about.

Michael (31:14):
Who approached us?

Harold (31:16):
How did it happen?
Yeah, I think you told me about it because I was working with you at the time.

Jimmy (31:21):
Yeah.

Harold (31:21):
But I wasn't involved.
It was like, who was behind getting all of that to come together?
It's lost.
I'm just looking here online, it says it was active for 15 years from 2005 to 2020.
It's a pretty good run on the Internet.
Yeah.
There were all sorts of features, and so you might have been part of what, Comics Lab or?

Jimmy (31:42):
Yeah, Comics Lab.
Yeah, that's it.

Harold (31:44):
That's pretty cool.
Yeah, there's some great stuff in Garfield, so yeah, he'd be great to talk to.

Liz (31:50):
Well, I remember Lin Johnston saying that Schulz was actually mean to him.

Harold (31:56):
I think there might have been that rivalry.
He was genuinely a competition for him in the 80s.
Yeah, I can see.

Jimmy (32:06):
I think it would be hard to deal with seeing someone coming up on the outside after 25 years of you just dominating so totally.

Harold (32:17):
Yeah, but I don't think it was all rivalry.
I think there was some respect there.
So we'll see.

Jimmy (32:23):
Well, hey, Stoyer, I'll tell you what, give him my number, tell him to give me a call, and we'll get him on here.
Actually, I would love that.
There's a couple of newspaper strip cartoonists from the Schulz era, I would still love to get and he's definitely on the list.
All right, well, if you guys want to reach out to us, we would love to hear from you, because remember, when I don't hear, I worry.

(32:44):
So you can email us, we're unpackingpeanuts.gmail.com, or you can call us or text us on the hotline [phone].
We would love to hear from you.
All right, what do you guys think?
Should we get back to the strips?
No, wait, we have one more thing.
Unpacking Peanuts recommends.
Does anyone have anything to recommend?

Michael (33:06):
I did finish all the Amelia books.
If you can't get a hold of them, they're being reissued.
It's really worth reading the whole thing straight through.
Well, eight books.

Jimmy (33:17):
Thank you, Michael.
I really appreciate that.

Harold (33:21):
Good recommendation.
I agree.

Jimmy (33:23):
Those 25th anniversary editions are out right now, which would be great for you to order them.
Is there anything else?
Oh, here I have something I recommend, Coke Zero.

Harold (33:32):
Yeah?

Jimmy (33:32):
Love it.

Harold (33:33):
What's so good about it?
It tastes just like Coke.
What?

Jimmy (33:37):
Yeah, it doesn't taste like Diet Coke.
Like Diet Coke will give me heart palpitations, make me feel like I'm dying.
But Coke Zero goes down smooth and easy.

Harold (33:48):
Really?

Jimmy (33:49):
Yeah.

Michael (33:49):
So we need a sponsor.

Jimmy (33:51):
Uh-huh.
That'd be good.
I would sell it if Pepsi wants to sponsor us, I'll switch.

Harold (33:58):
Okay.

Jimmy (33:58):
I'm not that loyal.

Harold (34:01):
All right.
Well, I've got a recommendation.
Again, old media, but this blew me away.
I was watching it with Diane this past week.
It's a forgotten film called Broken Lullaby from 1932, directed by Ernst Lubitsch.
This film is essentially a story of a French soldier who killed a German soldier in the trenches and pulled his effects out, and got a letter back to his fiancee, and he is just tortured by the fact that he killed this guy.

(34:36):
So he goes to the town where he killed this man, and he would just have to clear his conscience before the family.
But as soon as he shows up, things start to get really complicated.
It is just a gut-wrenching, powerful movie.
I highly recommend it.

(34:57):
Broken Lullaby.
Broken Lullaby.
You know what?

Jimmy (35:00):
Get yourself Coke Zero, sit down in a cab, watch yourself in Broken Lullaby.
It will be a perfect afternoon for you.
Because if your gut is wrenched by the movie, you could snooze it with a nice cold Coke.

Harold (35:14):
Wow.
I just see how those synapses make you connect things and those unique ways.
Just like you see in A Million Rules.

Liz (35:22):
We would be such a good spokespeople for different companies.

Jimmy (35:27):
Come on, puff it up, people.

Liz (35:28):
Really?

Michael (35:30):
Yeah, we'll like anything for enough money.

Jimmy (35:35):
Have you seen the Tesla Cybertruck?

Lex Fajardo (35:37):
It's beautiful.
Oh my God.

Jimmy (35:44):
All right, let's go back to these comic strips.
April 29th, 1973.
We see little Rerun and he's screaming and crying.
Waaah!
Linus sees it too from a different panel and he rushes to see what's up and he says, Don't cry, Rerun.
Rerun continues to cry.

Harold (36:01):
Waaah!

Jimmy (36:02):
Linus, please don't cry.
Rerun continues.

Harold (36:05):
Waaah!

Jimmy (36:06):
Then Lucy comes in and says, What's going on?
And then as Rerun still continues to cry, Linus says, Rerun found out that he's staying home while the rest of us are going out to dinner.
And then Lucy, as they walk away, says, So what's the problem?
He'll be with a good sitter.
And then Rerun thinks to himself, A sitter?
That's different.

(36:26):
What a relief.
In the final panel, he thinks, I was afraid they were going to put me in a kennel.
I think this version of Rerun's hair looks better than the eventual bird's nest hair, which is very Trumpian, by the way.

Harold (36:46):
This is shorter, right?

Jimmy (36:49):
In that first panel, he almost looks like five.

Harold (36:53):
Yeah.

Jimmy (36:55):
But here we have Linus not being checked out with his brother, and Lucy.
It's a kind of a bummer that for Rerun has to stay behind, but I guess that's the case when you have a baby sometimes.

Liz (37:07):
It's all three of them, which we didn't see for a long time.

Lex Fajardo (37:11):
Yeah.

Harold (37:13):
Yeah, 1973.
What year was he introduced?

Jimmy (37:16):
I think 73, isn't it?
Or 72.

Harold (37:19):
I mean, 72 probably, actually.
So this is really, really early stuff.

Jimmy (37:24):
Yeah.
Now, what do you think about...
Just let's talk just about the idea that they added this character so much later.
What do you think the impulse was?
Do you think Schulz regretted it in the long term?
I think he regretted it in the short term, and that's why he felt obliged to make Rerun more of a prominent character later.

Michael (37:49):
Well, he's introduced several characters that just didn't work.
Right.
And get rid of them.

Harold (37:55):
Right.

Liz (37:57):
You can't get rid of a family member.

Michael (37:59):
Yeah, you can't get rid of the kids.
So he was probably nagging at him that, Jesus, another Van Pelt, I got to do something.
Yeah.

Jimmy (38:09):
That's how I feel too.
It's like, yeah, he could have absolutely, if Rerun had just been a character that just in the neighborhood, and he wasn't sparking joy.
I don't know why that came up seven years later.
But yeah, I think he would probably have just abandoned him totally.
But you're right.
Once he made them, made him a Van Pelt, he's too integral.

Harold (38:32):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I'm not sure when the first grandchild showed up.
Meredith's child was born in 1974.
So I don't know if grandkids were kind of in the mix around the time this happened.

Michael (38:44):
Yeah.

Jimmy (38:44):
May 23, 1972, his birthday and first appearance.

Harold (38:50):
Okay.

Michael (38:50):
Yeah.

Harold (38:52):
So yeah, it is strange that he shows up.
I mean, the thing, we've said this before, but I just feel like I've never seen the character given so much baggage from the very start by calling him Rerun.
That to me is just, it's just telling you to dismiss this character.

Jimmy (39:11):
Well, I mean, that happens in real families, of course.
Do you know my dad's nickname and his brother's nickname?

Harold (39:17):
Have we ever talked about this?

Liz (39:18):
I don't think so.

Jimmy (39:19):
My dad was Rock, Rock Gownley, because he was the toughest person in the world.

Harold (39:23):
His little brother was nicknamed Pebbles.

Jimmy (39:29):
Uncle Pebbles, yeah, because he was this little short guy.
So when you're Pebbles, you know what I mean?
That affects you, right?
That's like being named Rerun.
It's lesser, less interesting, smaller.
It's a bummer.

Liz (39:47):
Did you notice it affect his personality?

Jimmy (39:51):
I don't think, no, he was like the nicest guy in the world.
Actually, he was, no, I don't think so.
I think he was the happiest person I may have ever met in my life.
I died in 53, but he was happy for those 53 years.

Harold (40:01):
Wow.

Jimmy (40:01):
I'm older than Uncle Pebbles, Jesus.
Oh my God.

Harold (40:06):
Wow.
Wow.
But I think to me, the tough thing about him being called Rerun is that he does look so much like Linus.

Liz (40:18):
Yeah, but he doesn't here.
He doesn't in this strip.
I mean, all his face does, but the hair makes him separate.

Jimmy (40:26):
Because I think, like Michael said, he knew this was a bad idea.
The rerun is a bad idea, and designing him to look just like Linus is a bad idea, if you're going to do something long-term.
I think he immediately starts fooling around with it to try to back off that idea.

Harold (40:43):
Although he could have changed the name and just said, here's what his real name is if he wanted.
That was an option, but he didn't opt to do that.

Liz (40:51):
I wish there was somebody we could ask to find out what that story is behind calling him Rerun.

Harold (40:58):
Yeah.

Jimmy (41:01):
Maybe the idea of rerun, maybe the name was the first thought.
It'll be a little Linus or something.

Harold (41:10):
Or maybe that's him hedging his bets.
Don't expect too much of this character.
I don't have a lot of thoughts for him.
Don't expect him to be part of the Pantheon or anything.

Jimmy (41:23):
It's crazy because in 1997 in the Comics Journal, Schulz was like, and now rerun is basically over taking over the strip.

Harold (41:32):
Wow.
It's amazing.

Jimmy (41:34):
January 22nd, 1974.
This is one of reruns earliest bits is right in the back of his mom's bicycle.
We see that right now.
He's situated in his little passenger plastics and metal seat over the rear wheel, and he says, wow.
They're racing around the road and rerun says to us, riding around all day on the back of your mom's bicycle gives you plenty of time to think, gives you time to think about people and about life, and about what would happen if we ran into a tree.

(42:11):
So this is the first thing he latches on for rerun to do.
And what's interesting about it is a couple of things to me is like this, the seats on the back of bikes were super popular back then, into the 80s.
I don't know that they, you can even buy those anymore.

Liz (42:29):
You can here in Italy, they're all over the place.

Jimmy (42:31):
Are they so popular?
Because I've seen like for the girls, I had twin daughters, we had like a, you attached it to the back of your bike and it was a two seater like thing that you would pull along.
But these things, the seats on the back of the bike were pretty dangerous.
My friend Frankie got his ankle caught in the spokes of his mom's bike riding exactly this way.

Lex Fajardo (42:52):
Real bad.

Jimmy (42:54):
But it's so strange that he's like, the first thing he does with them is not like integrate him with the family, the other kids anyway, in the family or the group.

Harold (43:06):
He's still off by himself.
And having walked away from this strip, just living my life when I was in high school and college, I remember seeing one of these bike strips in the art building on one of the professor's doors.
And looking at this, I just thought, well, that's Linus, right?

(43:26):
Because his hair is covered by the hat.
And even if I had seen the hair, I might have thought, but it looks like Linus.
There's no giveaway here that it wouldn't be Linus.

Jimmy (43:39):
What do you think, Michael, if you had seen this with no context, or had seen it with no context?
And you would have thought it was Linus?

Michael (43:48):
Yeah.
I mean, the fact that he almost exclusively appeared on the back of the bike made it pretty obvious, at least now, that it's not Linus.
Because Linus wouldn't be riding on the back of a bike.
Yeah.
And then when he didn't do the back of the bike stuff, he didn't appear at all.

Jimmy (44:11):
He didn't appear at all.

Michael (44:12):
Yeah.

Jimmy (44:12):
It's so strange.
But I feel like the bike thing had to be something he observed.
Seeing moms drive around the Santa Rosa with their kids on the bike.

Harold (44:24):
Yeah.
And this is a tiny, tiny little piece of trivia, but I'm guessing Schulz was happy with these strips and pleased with them because this sequence ran within the first two weeks of the Daily Strip ending and it came out before the Sunday strips ended.
So this was during Schulz's lifetime that the selections of repeat strips had begun.

(44:47):
And I'm guessing Schulz was involved in that and that he was picking these to be kind of where he wanted to.

Jimmy (44:53):
Well, yeah.
What he decided was 1974 was the earliest year he wanted reprint of.

Harold (45:00):
And then really interesting.

Jimmy (45:02):
Yeah, he's like, because I had all my cast then.

Harold (45:05):
Oh, and the look is not that different than where it is in 2000 relative to, say, 1958 or something.

Jimmy (45:15):
But ultimately, one of, if not the last person that can judge their own work is the artist.
You know, I think it's insane to say, well, those first 24 years or whatever.
Like, I mean, you know, some pretty good comic strips in those first 24 years.

Harold (45:39):
Right.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, it seems like it also just, I think he's, strangely, it's also kind of a, I wouldn't say it's a business thing, but it's like, yeah, I had a strip that looked different and felt different.
If I want to keep this going and people to have some continuity, I can't go that far back.

(46:00):
I have to be in this certain realm for people to accept it.
It's almost like a pragmatic choice, maybe.

Michael (46:06):
Some people just really dismiss all their earlier work, but John Lennon did.
Famously, after The Beatles broke up, he just, that was all rubbish.

Jimmy (46:16):
Right.
Yeah, it's very, very hard, I think, for an artist to judge their own work, especially, like you say, the early stuff, because you want to be thinking you're getting better.
Right?
Now I'm doing my best work.

Harold (46:33):
Right.
You're making what you want to make at the end of your career.

Jimmy (46:38):
Right.

Harold (46:38):
If there's something that looks closer to the thing you wanted to make when you're making it at the end of your career, you're going to favor it, I would guess.
Because otherwise, you'd be drawing it the way you were drawing it in 1958.

Jimmy (46:49):
Yeah.

Liz (46:49):
Do people make their best work at the end of their career?

Jimmy (46:53):
Some people do, but I don't think all of us do.

Michael (46:56):
Very, very rarely.

Harold (46:58):
It does seem like, certainly in the comic strip world, it seems like it's incredibly hard to stay in that, that's kind of a straitjacket of format.

Liz (47:08):
I would think filmmakers too.

Harold (47:11):
It's really, well, isn't it weird how you had to get to a certain place in your career like in film, you have to have made enough successful films to someone hiring you.
But then after a while, you then have a body of work, and then you had successes, and then they're going to keep hoping that, oh, the thing you did 10 years ago, maybe you'll have a hit again to give you another chance, based even if you have failure.

(47:37):
And so, you're more likely to have just by averages, more bad stuff after your success, because people give you more shots at it.

Liz (47:43):
What about musicians?
Musicians of?

Michael (47:45):
Well, it's different.
I mean, if classical musicians might improve with age.
But I think for pop musicians, other composers, I think at extreme old age, some people say, okay, screw this, I'm just going to do exactly like Johnny Cash.

(48:06):
I'm just going to do what I want, no frills.

Liz (48:08):
I wouldn't call that extreme old age.

Michael (48:11):
Well, it's right before he died.
Yeah.
That's the oldest he's going to be.

Jimmy (48:16):
Extreme in his sense, yeah, right?

Michael (48:20):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Generally, it's like physicists too.
Most people do their best work when they're in their 20s.

Liz (48:28):
Mathematicians.

Jimmy (48:29):
I do think that of the art forms that you could continue to get better at, things like writing music, comic strips, writing novels, short stories, whatever, probably are among the things that you can continue to improve at.
Movie making is a hugely physical act.
If you're going to do a giant movie, you're marshaling hundreds of people and that stuff.

(48:56):
Acting is a very physical thing.
I think there's a chance.
The problem with the music part is, of course, that the fashions have changed and you're not going to be writing for 15-year-olds.

Harold (49:07):
Well, the one really fascinating thing is if you think of comedy, you think of film or television, are there any people who, let's say in their 70s, were turning out great comedy as actors or directors or writers?
Do we have a track record of that where someone was just still right in there, sharp, making the stuff that makes you laugh?

(49:32):
What about Mel Brooks?

Michael (49:36):
Mel Brooks has a new movie out he directed.

Liz (49:38):
But in his 70s, what was he doing 25 years ago?

Michael (49:41):
Probably not bothering.

Harold (49:43):
I mean, I remember stuff like Life Stinks and-

Jimmy (49:45):
Yeah, no, he was on-
Yeah, Life Stinks and Dead Loving.

Harold (49:48):
There was a slope.

Jimmy (49:50):
Yeah.

Harold (49:52):
Yeah.

Jimmy (49:52):
Well, I think currently, and he's not in his 70s, but I think a comedian who has gotten better and better and better, and is doing their best stuff right now is Mark Maron.
I don't know if you guys are aware.

Liz (50:05):
Yeah.
He also does straight acting too.

Jimmy (50:08):
Yeah.
He's very good.
Yeah.

Liz (50:10):
I just saw him in something the other night.
But he finished his podcast.

Jimmy (50:14):
So, yeah.

Liz (50:15):
Oh, well.

Jimmy (50:17):
January 23rd, 1974.
He's still on the bike and he's saying, and here we go again over the curb and out into the street.
And then he begins quoting.
This is very Van Pelt's.
All in the Valley of Death, road the 600, cannon to the right of them, cannon to the left of them, into the jaws of death, road the 600.

(50:39):
And then we see he's whizzing by a train car.
Through the yellow light between the trailers.
And home again in one piece, I think.

Michael (50:50):
Where would he have seen?
This poem is the charge of life.
That's the Crimean War.
I mean, it's not in school yet.

Liz (51:00):
This is very Linus.

Harold (51:04):
Yeah, maybe he has been reading to his little brother.

Jimmy (51:09):
Yeah, yeah, maybe.
Well, that room that Linus has to go in to find something to read before the serial gets soggy and there's millions of books.
So yeah, it's a slim volume of poetry.

Harold (51:20):
Now the parents might be doing it.

Jimmy (51:23):
There I have another recommendation.
Do you guys remember the little rascals where Alfalfa recites this poem?
No.
And the firecracker, he has firecrackers in his back pocket.
And someone's lighting them with a magnifying glass.
Canon to the left of the alcohol.

(51:43):
It's very funny.

Harold (51:45):
To add to our 30s and prior 90 years plus.

Liz (51:51):
We'll do something fresh like from 1990.

Harold (51:54):
Right.

Jimmy (51:57):
February 12th, 1995.
We start off with the symbolic panel of Sally looking sad and what it looks like a torn up Valentine.
And then we see she is finishing a Valentine on the next panel saying, Love, Sally.
And she's putting her coat on and telling her brother, I'm going out to deliver my Valentine's.

(52:18):
And she does this and she goes over to the Van Pelt house and meets Rerun.
And she says to him, Hi, give this to your brother, will you?
And Rerun reads it and says, To my sweet baboon.
Sally says, Not baboon, baboo.
And then Rerun says, What's a baboo?
And then Sally says, A term of endearment, give it to him.

(52:41):
And then Rerun goes inside and we hear from inside, I'm not her sweet baboo.
And Rerun comes back out saying, He says he's not your sweet baboo.
And a frustrated Sally says, Of course he is, what's the matter with him?
And she takes the valentine back saying, Give me that.
And she comes home and says, And sees Charlie Brown who says, Well, did you deliver all your valentines?

(53:06):
And an angry Sally says, I only had one.
And I gave it to your dog.
We see Snoopy on the dog house reading his valentine.
And he says, What's a baboo?
Now, I love the various failed and unrequited love affairs all throughout Peanuts.

(53:27):
And the Van Pelt's have a few of them here with the Schroeder.
And then we have Sally loving Linus.
I love Sally loving Linus.
I think that it's just the most adorable thing.

Harold (53:39):
Yeah.
And I love seeing this through the eyes of somebody who's not read the strip.
He's just in the middle of the strip and he doesn't know all this history.
And that's really charming, actually.
It gives us a freshness to it.

Jimmy (53:55):
Absolutely.
Very, very funny.
And I love, this is late, late period stuff.
But if you look at that first panel on the second tier of Sally with the valentine in between her lips and she's putting a coat on, Charlie Brown turning on the TV and stuff.
Actually, I guess he's warming up his hands on the TV because the knobs are on the side.

(54:18):
So I don't know what's going on.

Harold (54:21):
Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on.
Maybe he's adjusting the vertical hold.

Jimmy (54:27):
January 5th, 1996.
Rerun is sitting there with Snoopy.
And Rerun says to Snoopy, I asked my mom again if I could have a dog but she said no.
I told her about good dogs, dogs who make you happy.
I told her about dogs who are like friends, dogs you can talk to and then cease.
Snoopy has fallen asleep while Rerun has been blabbing on them.

Harold (54:50):
Z.
Oh, man.
I don't know why but looking at this strip, I saw 1996 and I just thought, you know, what if I had never seen this strip before?
I don't know these characters and I'm in 1996, pulling through the newspaper strips.
How would this come across?

(55:11):
I was thinking, that's a pretty adorable dog.

Jimmy (55:16):
Really funny.

Harold (55:17):
That looks like some pretty interesting characters.
It works.

Jimmy (55:23):
Absolutely.
Now, what do you guys think of Rerun's quest to get a dog?
I find that gives him a lot of poignancy.

Harold (55:31):
Yeah.
Tells you something about the Van Pelt's as well.
You know, it's not a dog household.
It's not an animal pet household.

Jimmy (55:39):
Now, what about you guys?
Did you have, what was your first pet growing up?
Not counting fish.

Michael (55:47):
Is a frog count?

Jimmy (55:48):
Yeah, frog counts.

Michael (55:49):
So it jumped off the roof.

Harold (55:52):
What?

Liz (55:53):
And you kept it?

Michael (55:55):
No, we had him and then he jumped off the roof.
And then that was the last we saw that.

Harold (56:00):
That was the end.

Liz (56:01):
What was he doing on the roof?

Michael (56:04):
When you live above a gas station, everything's above.
Your patio is the roof of the gas station.

Liz (56:11):
So he jumped off the patio.

Michael (56:13):
Well, but then you would think it was on the ground floor.

Jimmy (56:17):
I had no idea you lived above a gas station.
My best friend growing up lived above a gas station.

Michael (56:22):
It was pretty smelly.

Liz (56:24):
You never have told me that either.

Harold (56:27):
Wow.
So what was the, was it a rental thing or were you related to the gas station as a family or what was going on?

Michael (56:34):
We were poor.
That was all we could afford.

Harold (56:38):
So, I mean, I'm not used to gas stations having second floors.

Liz (56:41):
How old were you when you moved?

Michael (56:44):
We were there a couple of years.
I remember my first pet.
Also, we had a dog that they had to give back because the landlord didn't want us to have dogs.
So heartbreak and heart wrenching.
That's tough.

Harold (57:03):
Well, I had cats.
You had cats?

Michael (57:05):
Yes.

Jimmy (57:05):
What was your first cat's name?

Liz (57:07):
Pootie.
Actually, her formal name was Marshmallow.
That's what she would sign checks with, but we called her Pootie.

Harold (57:17):
I came into a family that had blind miniature schnauzer named Pepper.
I never made friends with her.
She could be a little skittish, and I never figured out how to interact with her.
My sister could carry her around and she trust her, but I remember one moment, it was under the dining room table as a little kid.

(57:42):
I'm like, okay, I'm going to try to connect to Pepper.
So I'm going to go really slowly, make my way.
Well, that wasn't the way to do with a blind dog, scared me out of her wits.
She snapped at me, she's like, okay, I'm done.
But it wasn't until we moved from the Rochester, New York area to Columbia, Missouri when I was 11.
I was just finishing up fifth grade.

(58:03):
That summer, we just made the mistake of back, this is a 70s thing.
We were walking by the pet and plants patio, speaking of patios.
It was a pet shop.
We walked in and there was this little, I don't think it was even eight, maybe it's just barely eight weeks old dog that was there.

(58:26):
They let it out of the cage and it's made a beeline for me.
I remember the winter time and it just went right up into my jacket and I was so awkward.
I was actually scared because my experience with the other Schnauzer was, you can get hurt.
But he was so loving and so just sweet and I was just blown away by this little dog who's wanting to love me.

(58:48):
My parents said, all right, we're going to get in this dog and so I came back from band one day, end of fifth grade, I guess, or maybe it was, I don't know.
Anyways, around that time, and I got in the car and there was a little cardboard box in the back with holes in it and Herbie, who I got to name, Herbie the love bug.

(59:10):
He was in the back seat and he became my dog.

Jimmy (59:12):
That's awesome.

Harold (59:13):
Loved that little Schnauzer.
I said, I genuinely, he taught me how to love.

Liz (59:21):
And you, Jimmy?

Jimmy (59:23):
Yeah, when I was five, I got a dog named Spunky.
I named him after Fonzie's dog, who was only one episode of Happy Days.

Harold (59:31):
Wow.

Jimmy (59:33):
And then we had him for a couple of weeks and then my mom decided she didn't want a dog.
So I lived up with my grandmother.
I split time with him like a divorced dad.
He would come and visit me on the weekends.
January 6th, 1996.

(59:54):
Rerun is writing a story with Snoopy and he's talking to his sister Lucy.
And Rerun says, we're writing a story about a little kid who wants a dog, but his mom won't let him.
Here we go.
It's a heart wrenching tale.
And then he hands it to Lucy, but he warns her before she reads it.
Don't read it if you fear having your heart wrenched.

Harold (01:00:16):
Oh, Snoopy just kind of peering over the edge of the desk at Linus.
I see him at the Linus rerun.
Yeah.

Liz (01:00:25):
But that's very strange that his, in the first panel with his head leaning down, that that's an odd face.

Harold (01:00:36):
Yeah.
I love his outfit here.
I really do like the overalls.
I think that helped a lot to define him as a little romper rim kind of kid who's not Linus.
Yeah.
That was a smart move.

Jimmy (01:00:49):
And speaking of, here he gets a compliment on his wardrobe in the very next strip.
May 3rd, 1996.
Rerun is in a swing and Sally's pushing him.
And Sally says, that's a nice shirt you're wearing, Rerun.
And Rerun says, thank you.
Actually, it used to belong to Linus.
I'm the youngest, so all I get are throw ups.

(01:01:10):
Sally continues pushing him and says, hand me downs.
Rerun says, whatever.

Harold (01:01:16):
That's a very modern skill.

Michael (01:01:18):
That's always good for a laugh, a little throw up.

Jimmy (01:01:23):
Very, very funny.
And you know, he is, he's a total hand-me-down kid.
I also, as an only child, had tons of hand-me-downs, all from my cousins.
That's a humiliating situation to be, to be an only child and still getting hand-me-downs.

Liz (01:01:38):
But you did get that, that Fonzie jacket, right?

Jimmy (01:01:41):
I love the leather jacket.
Okay, but I got, so I remember getting, and they would come, my cousins would come, my aunt would come and she'd bring like garbage bags full of clothes and be like, go through.

Harold (01:01:51):
It's a nice way to do it.

Jimmy (01:01:52):
Yeah, right.
Thanks, go through and pick out what you want.
I don't want any of them.
So I went up to my room with a bag and I found one with a giant Heineken beer bottle on the front.
I said, grab a Heineken.
I'm like, this is the only one I want.
I walked downstairs wearing them like this is it.
This is the one I want.
I was not allowed to keep it.

Harold (01:02:12):
How old were you?

Jimmy (01:02:14):
Six, seven.
January 30th, 1996.
We've talked about this one before, but I don't care because I love it.
The three Van Pelts are sitting on the couch and Rerun says, someone at school today asked me if I had an older brother who dragged a blanket around.
No, I replied, I'm an only child.
Then someone said, but don't you have a weird older sister?

(01:02:37):
No, I insisted, I'm an only child.
And so I go day after day, dodging questions from curious outsiders.
And then in the last panel, Rerun gets thrown out into the snow on his head.
I think that's just a great way to sum them up.
And I love seeing the three of them on the couch.

(01:02:58):
And Rerun getting thrown out into the snow.

Harold (01:03:01):
Yeah.
Oh, man.
And then reading all of that text and that one giant panel, and then putting meaning into the little blank expressions on Linus and Lucy is such a blast.
Oh, it's great because they're not looking at it.

Jimmy (01:03:20):
They're not, you know, no, what to do.
All right.
Well, guys, that brings us to the end of our Van Pelt season.
So let's let's sum it up.
Michael, give us your thoughts having gone through just the Van Pelt.

Michael (01:03:37):
Life is terrible.

Jimmy (01:03:40):
For the Van Pelt or for just in general?

Michael (01:03:42):
For all of us.
Oh, no, we just some of us don't even realize it.
No, it's tough.
It's tough.
I mean, having an older sister and trying to be an older brother and being a little kid.
I mean, I mean, Schulz really nailed childhood.

Harold (01:04:04):
Yeah.
Yeah.

Michael (01:04:05):
It ain't a picnic.

Harold (01:04:07):
No.

Jimmy (01:04:08):
Yeah.
That goes back to what I was saying earlier is that like, if you don't allow kids to have art that expresses that, you're ripping them off.
Because I think a kid will feel more isolated like, boy, this isn't my experience of life.

Michael (01:04:25):
Yeah.

Jimmy (01:04:25):
It's really tough.
It's interesting to me.
You guys find this a relatively authentic portrait of a multi-child family?

Harold (01:04:37):
Yeah.

Michael (01:04:38):
I remember if two counts as multi.

Harold (01:04:41):
That's multi, I guess.
Well, three by the end.

Michael (01:04:45):
No, I'm talking about his.

Harold (01:04:47):
From our experience.

Jimmy (01:04:48):
I see.
I see what you're saying, right?
Yeah, that's another thing.
I imagine when you get into having more than one sibling, when it's multiple, that's probably a whole other thing.

Liz (01:04:58):
It was interesting to see Rerun in this squeezed timeline.
That, I mean, he felt like in our review today, it felt like he was a part of the family.
Whereas when we actually went through the great reread, he only appeared at the very end.

(01:05:20):
So he didn't feel, he didn't belong in the same way as he did in today's review.

Michael (01:05:27):
Right.

Jimmy (01:05:28):
Right.
And that is an interesting thing you can do with peanuts.
You can reassemble it in any way you can, really, which is awesome.

Harold (01:05:35):
Yes, yes.
And I think I agree, Michael, that Schulz found a way of capturing the small struggles of growing up as a kid that I wasn't seeing anywhere else in the pop culture I was experiencing as a little kid.
And I've said this so many times, but it's absolutely true that Linus was incredibly real to me.

(01:06:00):
The relationship between Linus and Lucy was, I was constantly looking at that through the lens of my limited experience of having an older sister.
And I learned things from this strip.
You know, I learned ways of approaching things, ways of seeing things, so that I was able to handle being a little brother a little bit better.

(01:06:25):
Those are the strips that really, really stick with me.
It's like, okay, he helped me along.
And Jimmy, you treat the stuff you did the same way, where it's like, I almost feel like Schulz is kind of looking out for me.
And I feel that for you in the work that you're doing, that it's done in the context of it's not just these random characters.

(01:06:48):
There's a hand behind it.
There's a mind behind it.
And for some reason, there's reassurance in it.

Jimmy (01:06:56):
Absolutely.
Well, and I just, you know, just in that context, just looking once again at this very last strip before we wrap up here.
You know, as Rerun is sitting there and he's ragging on his brother and sister, if you're a younger child in a family, you can completely relate to Rerun.
And this is a very funny strip.

(01:07:17):
If you're an older sibling and you have a maybe a know-it-all younger brother, or maybe the favorite or the family or whatever, who's dissing you and then he gets thrown out into the snow, you can relate to Linus and Lucy and find it as a very, very funny strip.
That's really hard.
There's no but of this joke because everybody, it's just about the relationship between the three of them.

Harold (01:07:40):
And everyone's getting it.

Jimmy (01:07:42):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right.
Exactly.

Harold (01:07:43):
Yeah.

Michael (01:07:44):
Do you think people in school think Lucy is weird?
Why on earth would they think that?

Harold (01:07:54):
That's the first time someone's called Lucy weird in like 50 years of this strip and it's just like this shock recognition.

Jimmy (01:08:01):
But yeah, maybe if you think all the kids in class who are not in the peanut strip are just looking at this little group of kids and going, those guys are the weird.

Harold (01:08:10):
Yeah.
The ones we never see that walk by the psychiatrist booth.

Jimmy (01:08:13):
Yeah.

Harold (01:08:14):
Go, what?

Jimmy (01:08:15):
Stay on this side of the street.
Right.
Well, you may have to avoid Lucy's psychiatric booth, but you don't have to avoid our podcast because we'll be back in two weeks where we're going to do a special episode.
We'll just let you stew in it.
We're just going to have to wait.

(01:08:35):
Who know what greatness it will be?

Harold (01:08:38):
Me don't.

Jimmy (01:08:40):
Then we'll announce our next season too.
But this has been a lot of fun.
As always, it's my favorite day of the week getting to hang out with my pals and talk about peanuts.
Of course, if you want to keep this conversation going, there's a couple of different ways you can do it.
First, go over to unpackingpeanuts.com, sign up for the great Peanuts reread.
Get that one email a month that will let you know what we're up to so you can follow along.

(01:09:04):
You can also, of course, call the hotline, which is 717-219-4162.
If you leave a text message, make sure you remember to identify yourself.
And if you want to follow us on social media, we're at Unpack Peanuts on Instagram and threads and at Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, Blue Sky and YouTube.
So with all that said, we'll be backing that two weeks.

(01:09:28):
For Michael, Harold and Linus, this is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.

Liz (01:09:33):
Be of good cheer.
Unpacking Peanuts is copyrighted by Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen, Harold Buchholz and Liz Sumner.
Produced and edited by Liz Sumner.
Music by Michael Cohen.
Additional voiceover by Aziza Shukralla Clark.
For more from the show, follow Unpack Peanuts on Instagram and threads.

(01:09:54):
Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, Blue Sky and YouTube.
For more about Jimmy, Michael and Harold, visit unpackingpeanuts.com.
Have a wonderful day and thanks for listening.
So wholesome.