Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. Its original run extended from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. Peanuts is among the most popular and influential in the history of comic strips, with 17,897 strips published in all,[1] making it "arguably the longest story ever told by one human being".[2][3] By the time of Schulz's death in 2000, Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of around 355 million in 75 countries, and was translated into 21 languages.[4] It helped to cement the four-panel gag strip as the standard in the United States,[5] and together with its merchandise earned Schulz more than $1 billion.[1]
Peanuts focuses entirely on a social circle of young children, where adults exist but are never seen and rarely heard. The main character, Charlie Brown, is meek, nervous, and lacks self-confidence. He is unable to fly a kite, win a baseball game, or kick a football held by his irascible friend Lucy, who always pulls it away at the last instant.[6]
Peanuts is one of the literate strips with philosophical, psychological, and sociological overtones that flourished in the 1950s.[7] Peanuts's humor is psychologically complex and driven by the characters' interactions and relationships.
Peanuts achieved considerable success with its television specials, several of which, including A Charlie Brown Christmas[8] and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,[9] won or were nominated for Emmy Awards. The Peanuts holiday specials remain popular and had been broadcast on network television for over 50 years before moving to the Apple TV+ streaming service in 2020.[10] In addition, the specials occasionally rerun on PBS and PBS Kids since 2020.[11] Peanuts also had successful adaptations in theatre, with the stage musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown an oft-performed production. In 2013, TV Guide ranked the Peanuts television specials the fourth-greatest TV cartoon of all time.[12] A computer-animated feature film based on the franchise was released in 2015.
