At its peak, over 350 million people around the world read the Peanuts comic strip. Its creator Charles Schulz led a much darker life than anyone ever realized, and he put his troubles into the funny pages every day. Kurt Andersen talks with Schulz's biographer, David Michaelis, about how America’s most beloved comic strip made “depressed” a household word.
Great Pumpkin Waltz
Artist: Vince GuaraldiAlbum: Oh Good Grief!Label: Warner BrosPurchase: AmazonIt's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Artist: Peanuts TV specialLabel: ParamountPurchase: AmazonA Charlie Brown Christmas
Artist: Peanuts TV specialLabel: ParamountPurchase: AmazonYou're Not Elected, Charlie Brown
Artist: Peanuts TV specialLabel: ParamountPurchase: AmazonBon Voyage, Charlie Brown
Artist: Peanuts TV specialLabel: ParamountPurchase: AmazonGuests:
David Michaelis
Featured Comments
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Fantastic interview. Love you, Alan! You were one of the main influences for me to get back into acting later ...
on Alan Cumming -
Really difficult to convey this as a "sound story" and it was done beautifully. Really compelling.
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Alan Cumming
Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen is a co-production of Public Radio International and WNYC Radio, and is funded in part by Ken and Lucy Lehman and the National Endowment for the Arts. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Our Science and Creativity series is supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Comments [1]
I just got the Complete Peanuts 1950-1952 from the library last night (again). I find the first two years to be his best works. The characters had so much personality and seemed to occupy a real place. They are truly wonder cartoons.
Once the characters codified into the ones we know today, they became and stayed comparatively flat and boring. A peanuts strip from the 80's is virtually indistinguishable from one from the 60's. The first two years shine.
My favorite old one is the mashed potatoes/ice cream cone joke.
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