First watched : Early 1976
Charlie Brown was a series of television specials based on the long-running American comic strip Peanuts.
I was familiar with some aspects of American culture from buying Marvel comics but this was my first insight into what children may be like across the pond. That's not to say a knowledge of baseball and Thanksgiving Day was necessary to understanding what was going on here. The themes of insecurity, cruelty and the grim truth that much of our life consists of melancholy failure are pretty universal.
Charlie was a pretty ordinary good natured kid but his vulnerability made him prone to bullying particularly from the ghastly Lucy despite her possessing no talent, intelligence or physical attractiveness herself. The other kids didn't treat him so badly, and Peppermint Patty ( above ) actually had a crush on him, but could have done more to stand up for him. As I was becoming conscious of the fact that I was not attractive to girls this cartoon struck a painful chord. The only gripe I had with the series was the amount of screen time given to Snoopy's adventures which always seemed to me a silly childish distraction from the real drama.
Illness forced Charlie's creator Charles Schultz to discontinue the strip in 1999 and he died the day before the last one was published in February 2000. He didn't wish anyone else to continue it and so far that wish has been respected. Some more television specials have been made but they've been based on Schultz's strips. A movie is due out later this year.
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