List of minor characters in Peanuts
The following is a list of all notable secondary characters in the American comic strip Peanuts. Begun in 1950 by Charles M. Schulz, Peanuts saw several secondary characters come and go throughout the strip's fifty-year run.
The cat next door (World War II)
The cat next door (World War II) | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | November 23, 1958 |
Last appearance | Unknown |
Information | |
Gender | Unknown |
A never-seen cat lives next door to Snoopy. The main focus on this cat occurred in the 1970s, although Charlie Brown mentioned "the cat next door" as early as November 23, 1958. Snoopy often taunts the cat (usually starting with, "Hey, stupid cat!"), who generally responds by violently carving up his doghouse in a single swipe. The neighbors who own the cat have complained to Charlie Brown about Snoopy harassing their "kitten". The cat's name was revealed to be "World War II" in the October 20, 1976, strip.
Charlotte Braun
Charlotte Braun | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | November 30, 1954 |
Last appearance | February 1, 1955 |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Charlotte Braun first appeared on November 30, 1954. She was originally intended as a female counterpart of the strip's protagonist, Charlie Brown (hence her self-applied nickname "Good Ol' Charlotte Braun"). In the few comic strips that she appeared in, Charlotte Braun had the trait of speaking too loudly, a trait uncomfortably similar to Lucy van Pelt, although the two characters never appeared together (Charlotte did appear with Linus). Schulz decided to abandon Charlotte Braun after only ten appearances because "he had run out of ideas" for her, didn't think that the character's personality was very developed, and realized that fans were not particularly liking this character, the latter thanks to a letter from Elizabeth Swaim, a fan who wrote to him to complain about Charlotte Braun. On January 5, 1955, he sent a letter back to Miss Swaim, saying in reply, "I am taking your suggestion regarding Charlotte Braun and will eventually discard her... Remember, however, that you and your friends will have the death of an innocent child on your conscience. Are you prepared to accept such responsibility?" The letter ended with a sketch of Charlotte Braun standing with an ax in her head.[1] The last time she appeared was on February 1, 1955.
Clara, Shirley and Sophie
Clara | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | June 18, 1968 |
Last appearance | July 22, 1987 |
Voiced by |
Sally Dryer (1969) Linda Ercoli (1972) |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Shirley | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | June 18, 1968 |
Last appearance | July 20, 1987 |
Voiced by | Sally Dryer (1969) |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Sophie | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | June 18, 1968 |
Last appearance | August 19, 1987 |
Voiced by |
Sally Dryer (1969) Roseline Rubens (1980) |
Information | |
Gender | female |
Clara was a female character who first appeared in June 18, 1968. The first Clara, a prototype of the later character, Marcie, was one of the three little girls who were under the tutelage of Peppermint Patty during one of her Summer Camp adventures.
Shirley is a female character who first appeared on June 18, 1968. She, along with Sophie and Clara, were the little girls who were under the tutelage of Peppermint Patty at Summer Camp.
Sophie is a female character who first appeared on June 18, 1968. She was one of three little girls who were under Peppermint Patty's tutelage while she was at Summer Camp. Sophie was lonesome, but met a new friend, Snoopy. Sophie was the only one of the trio to appear in animated form in 1969's It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown.
Clara
Clara | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | November 12, 1970 |
Last appearance | August 29, 1997 |
Voiced by | Linda Ercoli (1972) (Snoopy, Come Home) |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
An unnamed girl was an antagonist in the 1972 movie Snoopy, Come Home. She was identified as Clara in the film's theatrical release poster. Clara briefly kidnapped Snoopy (and later Woodstock), renamed him "Rex", and gave him a forced and painful bath. In her last scene of the film, Snoopy and Woodstock escape in a wild chase.
This character, like Lila, had appeared only one time in the comic strip before the release of the film. She kidnapped Snoopy in a similar way in the strip of November 12, 1970,[2] when Snoopy was helping Woodstock to travel south for winter (Charlie Brown released him a few days later). A similarly behaving girl, presumably the same character, made another brief appearance in the comic strip in August 1997 as part of a year-long story arc about Snoopy's brothers, Andy and Olaf, who are on their way to meet Spike, Snoopy's other brother. She takes Andy, puts him into a baby pram and ties him onto a tree until Olaf breaks him out two days later.[3][4][5] The character was not given any name in either of her appearances in the strip.
Cormac
Cormac | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | July 17, 1992 |
Last appearance | October 10, 1992 |
Information | |
Gender | Male |
Cormac was a male character who was Charlie Brown's swimming buddy and Sally's classmate. He loves to go swimming at summer camp, but he did not know how his nose goes under water. He tells Marcie that she is beautiful. He calls her smooth. Later, after summer ends, Cormac meets Charlie Brown's sister, Sally at her class. He is in love with her, but Sally calls Linus "Sweet Babboo" because she is in love with Linus. When he became taller, he gave a love letter to Sally, but Snoopy ate it.
Elementary school
Sally Brown started getting angry at her school and yelling at it, but eventually apologized and gave it a hug. The school responded by expressing a floating heart. This was the first time Ace Elementary School had showed signs of consciousness; it would later begin to think in thought balloons. Sally would continue to hold one-sided conversations with it, and it occasionally found ways to communicate in return, for example by dropping bricks on those who had scoffed at Sally for talking to an inanimate object. One time Charlie Brown was sent as a proxy for Sally to talk to the school because she was sick. The school eventually collapsed from depression, marking one of the few times a character in Peanuts "died" of sorts. This greatly upset Sally. When transferred to a new school in the interim, she said her old school spoke fondly of the new school, which was revealed to be able to think as well. In the Peanuts Television Specials, the Peanuts gang attended Birchwood Elementary School.
Emily
Emily | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | February 11, 1995 |
Last appearance | August 13, 1999 |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Emily was a female character who was Charlie Brown's partner in a school dance. She first appeared on February 11, 1995. It was revealed that Emily was merely a figment of Charlie Brown's imagination as the teacher said that there was no one in the class named Emily. However, in her later appearances, Emily was never mentioned to be an imaginary character and Snoopy was also able to see her as well. The question of whether Emily was an imaginary character or not was never resolved.
Ethan
Ethan | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | July 14, 1993 |
Last appearance | July 15, 1993 |
Information | |
Gender | Male |
Ethan was Charlie Brown's bunk mate. He first appeared on July 14, 1993. He made an Indian arrow in art class, but it was not a weapon. The next day, he says that when he grows up, he wants to be a newspaper columnist, because he has strong opinions about everything. As an example, he says that the shirt Charlie Brown is wearing is stupid.
Eudora
Eudora | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
Eudora, the last major character to be introduced to Peanuts | |
First appearance | June 13, 1978 |
Voiced by |
Casey Carlson (1982) Mary Tunnel (1983) Gini Holtzman (1984-1986) Lauren Schaffel (2002) Cassidy May Benullo (2016) |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Eudora is a female character with long, straight black hair and usually wears a knitted hat. Eudora moved to Charlie Brown's neighborhood from another state, though which state was never specified.
The first other Peanuts character Eudora met was Sally, on the bus to summer camp on June 13, 1978. Eudora then showed up in Sally's class at the school that fall. The two girls quickly became friends, and became even better friends when Eudora moved into Sally's neighborhood. However, Sally gets angry at Eudora when she is able to charm Linus into giving her his blanket, since she has a crush on Linus herself. Eudora gives the blanket to Snoopy's nemesis, the "stupid cat who lives next door," and it takes the combined forces of Linus, Snoopy and Woodstock to get the blanket back.
Sally gets upset with Eudora whenever she shows feelings toward Linus, as when Eudora calls Linus her "Sweet Babboo", a name by which Sally commonly calls the boy.
In some strips Eudora appears to be even more ditzy than Sally, such as when she tries to give a book report on the TV Guide and coming to school on Saturdays without realizing what day it is.
Eudora is shown playing on Charlie Brown's baseball team in some strips, taking the outfield spot next to Lucy that had once been held by Frieda before the latter disappeared from the strip. She was also one of the girls who was nicer to Charlie Brown often hanging out with him and playing board games. Eudora would eventually disappear as well, with her swan song coming on June 13, 1987, exactly nine years to the day after her introduction.
Eudora was the last new character to join the Peanuts world who could arguably be classified as a major character. Any new characters introduced after her only made limited appearances as part of specific storylines.
Television appearances
She only appeared in A Charlie Brown Celebration (1982), The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show episodes "Snoopy's Cat Fight" and "Sally's Sweet Babboo", and had a quick cameo in A Charlie Brown Valentine, where she is seen walking with Sally. Eudora is also featured in the whole episode of "A New Best Friend," part of the new Peanuts cartoon on Boomerang.
Voiced by
- Casey Carlson (1982)
- Mary Tunnel (1983)
- Gini Holtzman (1984-1986)
- Lauren Schaffel (2002)
- Cassidy May Benullo (2016)
Faron
Faron | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | May 23, 1961 |
Last appearance | November 20, 1961 |
Information | |
Gender | Male |
Family | Frieda |
Faron was Frieda's cat, who first appeared on May 23, 1961. Faron was a lazy, "boneless" cat who never walked because he preferred being carried everywhere, draped over Frieda's arm. Faron only spoke once ("Meow", causing Snoopy to jump into the air in fright). Faron's only Sunday appearance was November 5, 1961, in which the running gag was Frieda trying to get someone to hold Faron while she went to the library; the last to end up holding the cat was poor Snoopy. Frieda made occasional subsequent appearances, but again with Faron only once; in the cover art for the 1975 retrospective book Peanuts Jubilee, Schulz drew Frieda holding Faron. Schulz later said he dropped Faron because he felt not only couldn't he draw a cat well enough, but Faron caused Snoopy to act more like a "real" dog. Faron's last appearance was November 20, 1961.
He made a cameo appearance in Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown along with Frieda.
Faron was named for country singer Faron Young.
Floyd
Floyd | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | July 26, 1976 |
Last appearance | August 6, 1976 |
Voiced by | Jeremy Schoenberg (1983) |
Information | |
Gender | Male |
Floyd appeared July 26, 1976, at a summer camp Peppermint Patty and Marcie were attending, flagging Marcie's attention by calling her "Lambcake" as an expression of his immediate infatuation with her. But whenever he called her "Lambcake," Marcie retaliated by pushing Floyd off the dock or into poison oak, or hitting him with a first-aid kit and landing him in the infirmary. But he kept stalking her with that same pet name until Marcie and Peppermint Patty left camp, leaving him heartbroken that he never even knew his heartthrob's name. Floyd never surfaced again in the strip.
The Goose Eggs
Austin, Leland, Milo, and Ruby (The Goose Eggs) | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | 1977 (Comic Strip) |
Last appearance | It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown (Leland only) |
Voiced by | Jenny Lewis (Ruby), Johnny Graves (Austin), Joel Graves (Leland), Jason Mendelson (Milo) (as Jason Muller) |
Information | |
Gender | Female (Ruby); Male (Austin, Leland, and Milo) |
Austin, Leland, Milo, and Ruby appeared in 17 strips of a 1977 storyline in which Charlie Brown ran away from home to flee the United States Environmental Protection Agency after taking revenge on the Kite-Eating Tree. He soon found himself coaching a baseball team of diminutive toddlers: Milo and Leland, half Charlie Brown's height, were two years old, while "the two biggest" on the team, Austin and Ruby, might have been three. They always addressed Charlie Brown as "Charles" and respected him as a wise elder, something he was completely unused to. The team was named the "Goose Eggs" after the baseball term for a zero score. The story ended when the visiting team turned out to be Charlie Brown's original team from home (Lucy: "We can't play them! They're too little! We'd step on them!") and it was revealed that the evidence against him was destroyed in a storm.
Janice Emmons
Janice Emmons | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | Why, Charlie Brown, Why? (first and only appearance) |
Voiced by | Olivia Burnette |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Family | Two sisters (resembling Frieda and Patty) |
Janice Emmons is a girl who only appears on the 1990 TV special Why, Charlie Brown, Why?. She has blonde hair, goes to the same school that Charlie Brown and Linus go, and has a particularly close friendship with the latter. She also loves playing in the swings with Linus. Unfortunately one day, she gets hospitalized and diagnosed with a kind of cancer called leukemia, leaving Linus sad and shocked. After some time, Janice manages to recover and returns to school. Janice shares some similarities with character Lila.
Joe Agate
Joe Agate | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | April 7, 1995 |
Last appearance | April 11, 1995 |
Voiced by | Taylor Lautner (2006) |
Information | |
Gender | Male |
Joe Agate was a male character who first appeared on April 7, 1995. He usually wore an orange sweater and a green hat. He bullied Rerun Van Pelt by stealing his marbles. He was the adversary in the animated TV special He's a Bully, Charlie Brown, voiced by Taylor Lautner.
Joe Shlabotnik
Joe Shlabotnik | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | 1963 |
Last appearance | 1997 |
Information | |
Gender | Male |
Joe Shlabotnik is a minor-league baseball player who, inexplicably, is greatly admired by Charlie Brown. He never appears in the strip, but is occasionally mentioned by Charlie Brown as his hero and is part of several plots involving Charlie Brown:
- Even before the minor character was introduced, Schroeder made up the name to impress Charlie Brown with his "knowledge".
- Joe is introduced (with no name yet) when Charlie Brown reads in the paper that his "baseball hero" is sent down to the minor leagues for a low batting average.[6]
- In 1964, Charlie Brown spends $5.00 (a huge sum of money for a child back then; equal to $37 adjusted for inflation) on 500 penny packs of bubble-gum cards (incidentally, the last year Topps offers penny packs) to get a Joe Shlabotnik card, but none of the 500 cards he buys has Joe's picture. Lucy then buys one penny pack, and it turns out to be a Joe card.[6] Charlie Brown offers Lucy his entire baseball card collection in trade for Lucy's Joe Shlabotnik card, which he has been trying to get for five years. Lucy declines, then (after Charlie Brown walks away, dejected) throws the card into a receptacle, deciding Joe is "not as cute as I thought he was."[7]
- In his Joe Shlabotnik Fan Club News, Charlie Brown writes that Joe, now playing in the Green Grass League, batted .143, made some "spectacular catches of routine fly balls" and "threw out a runner who had fallen down between first and second." The newsletter lasts only one issue, owing to Lucy's comment on it: "Who needs it?"[8]
- Charlie Brown and Linus attend a sports banquet so that Charlie Brown can sit next to planned attendee Joe Shlabotnik, who doesn't show up because he had "marked the wrong date on his calendar, the wrong city, and the wrong event."[8]
- Charlie Brown's baseball teammates invite Joe to be guest speaker at a testimonial dinner honoring Charlie Brown's dedication as their manager. Joe accepts the invitation for a reduced speaking fee (down from his usual $100 fee), because all they can offer is 50 cents. However, they cancel the dinner at the last minute when they decide it would be hypocritical because they would be giving Charlie Brown untruthful praise. Joe gets lost along the way and does not show up for the dinner.[9]
- Charlie Brown discovers that Joe is managing the Waffletown Syrups in a location near his summer camp, so Charlie Brown attends the game and cheers Joe on as he manages. Somehow catching a foul ball, Charlie Brown waits after the game for Joe to sign it, only to find out that he's been fired for "signaling for a squeeze play with nobody on base." Charlie Brown finally meets Joe in person when he catches up with Joe as his bus is about to leave. Joe autographs the baseball, but hits Charlie Brown on the head with it (demonstrating his incompetence in baseball) when he throws it to him as the bus departs.[10]
- In a series of strips in 1996-97, Charlie Brown purchases a baseball signed by Joe Shlabotnik, but it turns out to be a forgery.
- Schroeder points out that the reason Joe Shlabotnik is sent back down to the minors is because he has a .004 batting average.
José Peterson
José Peterson | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | March 20, 1967 |
Last appearance | September 24, 1969 |
Information | |
Gender | Male |
José Peterson was introduced in 1967 as a friend of Peppermint Patty's whom she recommended to Charlie Brown to be on his baseball team. José Peterson was a very good hitter, but Peppermint Patty was disappointed in the quality of the rest of Charlie Brown's team, so she and José Peterson decided to start a team in their own neighborhood.
José Peterson is notable in that his mixed ancestry — a Swedish-American father and Mexican-American mother — made him one of the first characters of Hispanic descent in U.S. comics. His mother apparently combined her and her husband's ethnicities in cooking, serving tortillas with Swedish meatballs. Before moving to Peppermint Patty's neighborhood, José Peterson had lived in New Mexico and North Dakota.
After his initial appearance, José Petersen was only ever seen again as a bystander in one panel on September 24, 1969, and in the back cover illustration for the 1975 book Peanuts Jubilee.
In that book, Schulz noted that the character's name came to him in a dream, and he found the combination of a Mexican given name and a Swedish family name hilarious.
Lila
Lila | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | August 24, 1968 (comic strip) |
Last appearance | Snoopy's Reunion (May 1, 1991) |
Voiced by |
Johanna Baer (1972) Shelby Flint (1972) Megan Parlen (1991) |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Family | Unseen mother and father |
Lila is a female character in Peanuts and is Snoopy's previous owner. She got him from the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm and they loved each other very much, but her family couldn't keep him because the apartment they moved to did not allow dogs. In a daily strip sequence from June 3 to 8, 1968, Lila comes to visit Snoopy, although she's never actually seen during this episode. That August, Snoopy visits Lila in the hospital, wherein she makes her only appearance in the strip, on August 24. Snoopy's hospital visit is also depicted in the second Peanuts movie, Snoopy Come Home, where it leads to his decision to return to her; but he goes back to Charlie Brown after reading the No Dogs Allowed sign where she lives. Lila made a flashback appearance when she went to the Humane Society of the United States (actually the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm) and bought Snoopy. At her apartment, Snoopy was fetching a ball, fetching a frisbee, watching TV, and being fed dog food. When there was a sign that said "No Dogs Allowed", she returned him. Her only other animated appearance was in the special Snoopy's Reunion.
The Little Red-Haired Girl (Heather)
Little Red-Haired Girl (Heather) | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
The Little Red-Haired Girl as seen in It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown | |
First appearance | November 19, 1961 |
Voiced by |
Michelle Muller (1977) Francesca Angelucci Capaldi (2015) |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
The Little Red-Haired Girl is a female character who has red hair and is Charlie Brown's unrequited love interest through most of the strip, first mentioned by him on November 19, 1961. She is not shown for most of the strips and is known simply as "the little red-haired girl". She appears in the animated television specials It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown (1977) and Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! (1986), and her name is given as Heather. Schulz first publicly suggested that name for her in an article in the February 1968 issue of Woman's Day magazine, but did not utilize it in the strip. She also makes a brief appearance in the 1988 TV special Snoopy!!! The Musical. She is a main character in The Peanuts Movie.
Lydia
Lydia | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | June 9, 1986 |
Last appearance | March 23, 1999 |
Voiced by |
Lauren Schaffel (2002) Cassidy May Benullo (2016) |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Lydia is the presumed name of the girl that sits behind Linus in school. She is two months younger than Linus but always asks "Aren't you kind of old for me?" She also goes by a different name every day, leading an exasperated Linus to stick with the name Lydia. Her antics drive Linus crazy, but at the same time he finds her fascinating. In Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales, he once tried to send her a Christmas card, but she never gave him her correct address. Her feelings towards Linus remain ambiguous.
Mary Jo
Mary Jo | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | Someday You'll Find Her, Charlie Brown (first and only appearance) |
Voiced by |
Jennifer Gaffin (1981) Dana Ferguson (1985-1986) |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Mary Jo was another of Charlie Brown's "true loves" in Someday You'll Find Her, Charlie Brown. He first saw her during the broadcast of Super Bowl XVI; she was in the audience and the TV camera zoomed in on her face. The only difference between her and any other of his loves is that, while he is extremely nervous about the others (so nervous, in fact, that he cannot even bring himself to speak to some of them), he sought after her in a wild-goose chase attempt to find her and win her heart.
Maynard
Maynard | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | July 21, 1986 |
Last appearance | July 29, 1986 |
Information | |
Gender | Male |
Family | Marcie (cousin), Marcie's parents |
Maynard was Marcie's cousin, who appeared in the strip July 21, 1986, when Peppermint Patty's father hired him as her tutor to help her in school. His condescending attitude was apparent from the start when he asked her, "Hi, are you the dumb one?" upon first meeting her, and when he said, "Well, there were these numbers on the houses, see..." when she asked him how he had found her house. In turn, Maynard couldn't stand Peppermint Patty's own condescending attitude, when she kept calling him "Captain Tutor" and he kept having to remind her that his name was Maynard.
When Marcie revealed to Peppermint Patty that her cousin was getting paid to tutor Peppermint Patty, she threw Maynard out of the house, because she thought he was tutoring her "out of the kindness of his heart." However, Maynard justified his recompense with a Biblical passage: "The laborer is worthy of his hire" (Luke 10:7, mistakenly attributed by Maynard as Luke 10:4). Having been fired as Peppermint Patty's tutor, Maynard never appeared again in the strip.
Mimi
Mimi | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown (first and only appearance) |
Voiced by | Jamie Cronin (1996) |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Mimi is a female character in the animated TV special It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown.
Miss Othmar
Miss Othmar | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | 1959 |
Last appearance |
August 24, 1993 (comic strip) The Peanuts Movie (film) Peanuts (2016 TV Series) |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Miss Othmar served as Linus's teacher starting in 1959. There was a series of comics where Linus had to bring egg shells to class so she could teach the class about igloos but Linus kept forgetting to bring the shells. As with most adults in the strip, Miss Othmar was never seen. In the strip she is never heard even though the children have conversations with her. She was given an unintelligible speaking voice in TV specials in the form of trombone sounding "wah-wahs" (recorded by trombonist Dean Hubbard.[11] This became her trademark and all other voices of adult characters off camera in the cartoons and is sometimes parodied in other programs.
Linus developed a long-lasting crush on her. As a result, Linus held her in unreasonable esteem, which made his discovery that she earned a salary for her profession a crushing disillusionment he tried to rationalize away. Though infatuated with her, Linus understands that she can't really love him, he is content with just being "fond of the ground on which she walks."
Eventually, Miss Othmar married, assuming her married name of Mrs. Hagemeyer; Linus, however, continued to call her Miss Othmar, and other characters in the strip began referring to her as Miss Othmar again as well. (As Linus said, "In real life she's still Miss Othmar!")
Although Miss Othmar quit teaching after she got engaged, she returned to teaching a few years later, much to Linus' delight. However, in 1969, Miss Othmar was fired following a teacher's strike, and Linus was devastated. Miss Othmar's replacement was Miss Halverson ("Halverson" being the maiden name of Charles M. Schulz's first wife, Joyce), whom Linus initially refused to accept as his new teacher, although he eventually seemed to learn to live with it.
Miss Othmar talks briefly to Sally in the TV special You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown.
Marcie mentions that she is taking organ lessons from a "Mrs. Hagemeyer" in a 1979 strip, but it is unclear whether this Mrs. Hagemeyer and Miss Othmar are one and the same.
In The Peanuts Movie, her "talking" is provided by New Orleans trombonist Trombone Shorty.
Other teachers
Aside from Miss Othmar and Miss Halverson, few other teachers were mentioned by name in Peanuts (and none were ever drawn), with the children most often addressing their teacher as "Ma'am" (only once was a male teacher mentioned, in the infamous "GEORGE WASHINGTON!!!" storyline from 1967 featuring Sally and Charlie Brown).
In the 1966 strip storyline about Charlie Brown's competing in the class spelling bee (later adapted into the movie A Boy Named Charlie Brown), Charlie Brown mentions that his teacher's name is Mrs. Donovan, but he was later shown in Miss Othmar's class with Linus. Peppermint Patty and Marcie's teacher was named Miss Swanson in the early 1970s, but had changed to Miss Tenure by 1978, in a storyline in which Patty disguised herself as a janitor to investigate the theft of Miss Tenure's box of gold star stickers and to clear her name of said theft. On August 24, 1993, in conversation with Marcie, Peppermint Patty refers to her book report as being written for Miss Davis. Marcie reveals to her that Miss Davis quit two years previous to have a baby.
Molly Volley
Molly Volley | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | May 9, 1977 |
Last appearance | September 16, 1990 |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Molly Volley was a female character who first appeared on May 9, 1977, and was often Snoopy's doubles partner in tennis. A hyperaggressive tennis player, she did not suffer fools gladly, and had a bad temper, a great aversion to losing and a reputation for beating up others (including other doubles partners).[12] She also had a tendency to be highly sensitive about her weight: when one of her opponents, a bully called "Bad-Call" Benny, called her "Fat Legs", she hit him in the mouth. She measured all her ground-calls in centimeters. She did get along well with Charlie Brown; in fact, he and Linus were the only ones who usually watched Molly Volley and Snoopy play.
Her most constant opponent was a loudmouthed girl named "Crybaby" Boobie, who joined the strip in 1978. "Crybaby" had a tendency to cry and complain about absolutely everything. This trait, as well as the car horn honking antics of her stage-door mother, always tended to drive Molly crazy. Tired of always losing while playing doubles with Snoopy, she eventually refused to be his doubles partner and then she disappeared from the strip.
Morag (the "Pencil-Pal")
Morag | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | 1958 |
Last appearance | 1994 |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
In 1958 Charlie Brown had a pen pal, but after several frustrating attempts at writing with a fountain pen results in only messy smudges, Charlie instead addresses and writes to him as a "pencil-pal". When asked by Lucy about what they write about, he says, "He tells me about his country, and I tell him about ours...", so it is presumed he does not live in the USA. In one strip, Charlie Brown writes to him, telling him that he is his only friend, with the postscript "Everyone hates me". He has been known to write back to Charlie Brown at least once, when Charlie Brown reads his letter to Lucy, reading that he and his class at school all agree that Charlie Brown must be a very pleasant person. In a strip series in 1994, the Pen Pal was revealed to be a girl in Scotland named Morag.
Peggy Jean
Peggy Jean | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | July 23, 1990 |
Last appearance | July 11, 1999 |
Voiced by | Deanna Tello (1992) |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Charlie Brown meets Peggy Jean at camp, and she shows an interest in him. He even forgets about the little red-haired girl. When she asks him his name, he gets so nervous that he says his name is "Brownie Charles". Peggy Jean finds a football in the rec room and asks Charlie Brown to run up and kick it. He gets very nervous and hesitates, remembering Lucy's trick, and Peggy Jean leaves, claiming that Charlie Brown doesn't trust her. She comes back three days later saying that she could never stay mad at him. He later tells Linus that; she then kisses Charlie Brown. He later buys expensive gloves for her, getting all the money by selling his entire comic book collection. She runs up to him at the mall right after he buys the gloves and says, "I've been shopping with my mother..Look, I just bought this new pair of gloves!" Snoopy is seen using them, so "they don't go to waste". Her last appearance was July 11, 1999, when she breaks Charlie Brown's heart by telling him she has another boyfriend.
Poochie
Poochie | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | January 7, 1973 (first and only appearance) |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Poochie was a female character whose made her first and only appearance on January 7, 1973. She was almost the first person to adopt Snoopy but was distracted by an English sheepdog while Snoopy was fetching a stick Poochie threw; Snoopy held a grudge against Poochie for this for years afterward. In her sole physical appearance in the strip (she had been mentioned by name in previous strips), it was also revealed that it was she who had first started to call Snoopy's owner Charlie Brown.
Roy
Roy | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | June 11, 1965 |
Last appearance | May 27, 1984 |
Voiced by | Matthew Liftin (1969), Arrin Skelley (1977), Paul Butcher (2006) |
Information | |
Gender | Male |
Roy was a male character who first appeared on June 11, 1965. Roy first meets Charlie Brown in camp, where Charlie Brown quickly befriends him. He meets Linus van Pelt at camp the following summer. He later introduces Peppermint Patty to Charlie Brown and his friends. Roy was Peppermint Patty's closest friend until Marcie entered the picture. Roy appeared in the television specials He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown (1968), It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown (1969), Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown? (1983), Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown (1985), and He's A Bully, Charlie Brown, (2006) and the films Snoopy, Come Home! (1972) and Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977).
He disappeared in the comic strip in 1975 but he was shown once more in 1984.
Royanne Hobbs
Royanne | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | April 1, 1993 |
Last appearance | March 12, 1994 |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Family | Great-grandfather Roy Hobbs (so she says) |
Royanne Hobbs was a female character who first appeared on April 1, 1993. Royanne, who claimed to be "Roy Hobbs' great-granddaughter", was a pitcher on the opposing team when Charlie Brown hit a game-winning home run. Showing up later that summer, she is again pitching when Charlie Brown hits one of her pitches for an inside-the-park home run. Later that summer, Royanne confesses that she let Charlie Brown hit those home runs because she liked him; Charlie Brown retaliates by informing her that "Roy Hobbs" is a fictional character.
Shortly afterwards, Royanne appears in a story arc where she tries to sell "the bat used by Roy Hobbs", despite her revelation that Roy Hobbs is a fictional character ("So if I sold you this bat, it would be a real con job."), Lucy purchases this bat and lashes out at her upon being informed by Charlie Brown that Roy Hobbs is fictional. Royanne then admits that she wanted to play on Charlie Brown's team, but utterly refuses to play with Lucy.
After she refused to play with Lucy, Royanne sold the bat and she never appeared in the strip again.
Royanne resembles Eudora but with longer hair covering her eyes and usually wears a baseball cap.
Russell Anderson
Russell Anderson | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown (television special) |
Last appearance | You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown |
Voiced by | Todd Barbee |
Information | |
Gender | Male |
Russell Anderson is a boy with blonde hair. He appeared in the television special You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown, as Linus' rival for school president. Russell eventually ended up voting for Linus, because Russell thought Linus could do a better job as school president than he, Russell, could.
"Shut Up and Leave Me Alone"
"Shut Up and Leave Me Alone" | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | July 21, 1971 |
Last appearance | August 23, 1971 (unseen) |
Information | |
Gender | Male |
That was all this nameless, faceless kid ever said whenever Charlie Brown tried to be friendly with him. He was Charlie's bunkmate at the summer camp where Marcie was introduced in 1971. He did nothing but sit on his bed and look at the wall so we could see only the back of his head. He even said those words to Peppermint Patty when she visited their cabin and was about to introduce herself and Marcie, making Peppermint Patty angry at Charlie Brown. Those were even his parting words to Charlie when camp was over. After camp, Charlie wrote him a letter, but the response was, of course, "Shut up and leave me alone."[13] Finally, later, during the following school year, out of the blue, Charlie Brown received an unexpected letter from his old bunkmate. He tells Charlie Brown in the letter response to "shut up and leave me alone."
Tapioca Pudding
Tapioca Pudding | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | September 4, 1986 |
Last appearance | December 1, 1986 |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Family | Father, Unseen Mother |
Tapioca Pudding first appeared on September 4, 1986. She is Linus's classmate. Tapioca has a small crush on Linus, which annoys Sally. Sally is jealous of the friendship. Tapioca is also keen on licensing of brand names. Tapioca Pudding once had what was "planned" by Snoopy (who was portraying a Hollywood agent for Tapioca) an appearance at the Olympics in L.A. (only for her to find out from Linus that the Olympics were two years ago). Tapioca's last appearance was December 1, 1986. Her dessert-based name and association with merchandise may peg her as a parody of Strawberry Shortcake.
Thibault
Thibault | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | June 4, 1970 - June 9, 1970 |
Last appearance | July 30, 1973 - August 4, 1973 |
Voiced by | Kevin Brando (1983) |
Information | |
Gender | Male |
Thibault /ˈtiːboʊ/ was a male character who first appeared on June 4, 1970. Thibault is a bully on Peppermint Patty's baseball team. He borrowed Charlie Brown's baseball glove (as a favor for Peppermint Patty), and after the game refused to give the glove back, telling Charlie Brown "I know your kind. You come around thinking you're better than us." Charlie Brown, thrilled that anyone would think of him as superior in any way, let Thibault keep the glove. He also ran afoul of Peppermint Patty and Marcie in 1973 after he chauvinistically told the latter that she should not be playing baseball simply because she was a girl. After insulting Marcie one too many times, she told Thibault that if he said one word, she would slug him. When he said, "Oh?", Marcie made good on her threat. Thibault's role as troublemaker is reflected in his name, a variation of "Tybalt", the hostile troublemaker in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Thibault made an animated appearance on The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show.
Truffles
Truffles | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | March 31, 1975 |
Last appearance | January 29, 1977 |
Voiced by | Casey Carlson (1982), Stacy Heather Tolkin (1983) |
Information | |
Gender | Female |
Family | Grandfather, Grandmother (mentioned in "A Charlie Brown Celebration") |
Truffles was a female character who first appeared on March 31, 1975. She has a larger nose and eyes than other Peanuts characters. Named by her grandfather after the fungus that grows underground, she was the second girl who caught Linus's heart (his slight crush on Sally Brown being the first). However, Linus's blossoming relationship with Truffles would be thwarted twice; first in 1975 by Snoopy as he and Linus go on a truffle hunt. Two years later, when Linus found her again while on a school field trip in 1977, Sally, who would call him her "Sweet Babboo" for the first of many times to his annoyance, saw to it that his reunion with Truffles was short-lived with Snoopy's help. She made two appearances in A Charlie Brown Celebration and The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show. Truffles may be based on a young French girl in a family Charles Schulz met and befriended after the liberation of France during the Second World War.
Snoopy's Beagle Scouts
Snoopy's Beagle Scouts | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | June 9, 1974 |
Voiced by | Bill Melendez |
Information | |
Gender | Males (Bill, Olivier, Raymond, Fred, Roy, Wilson, Conrad), Female (Harriet) |
Woodstock is sometimes accompanied by as many as seven other almost identical yellow birds named Bill, Harriet, Olivier, Raymond, Fred, Roy, Wilson and Conrad, who, together, are known as Snoopy's Beagle Scouts, or simply the Beagle Scouts. Despite their similar looks, Snoopy seems to be able to tell the difference between the birds. In a 1983 strip, while the Beagle Scouts are on a photo hike, Bill and Harriet get married. The Beagle Scouts appear in The Peanuts Movie alongside Woodstock, acting as the pit crew for Snoopy's 'plane' in the Flying Ace sequences.
555 95472
555 "5" 95472 | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | September 30, 1963 |
Last appearance | May 22, 1983 |
Voiced by | Silent character (1965-2011), Brett Johnson (1984) |
Information | |
Gender | Male |
Family | 3 & 4 (twin sisters), 1 (father), 2 (mother) |
555 95472, or 5 for short, debuted in the September 30, 1963, strip, and appeared occasionally until the 1980s. A boy close in age to Charlie Brown and Linus van Pelt, 5 had brown spiky hair, and he wore an orange shirt with the number 5 on it. 5 was given a numerical name by his father, who was upset over the preponderance of numbers in people's lives; when questioned, 5 clarified that this was not his father's way of protesting, it was his way of "giving in." His last name, 95472 (the accent is on the 4), was taken from the family's ZIP code; it is also the zip code for Sebastopol, California, where Schulz lived at the time.
5 had twin (presumably older) sisters, dark-haired girls named 3 and 4. ("Those are nice feminine names," Charlie Brown dryly commented.) All three siblings appear in A Charlie Brown Christmas, where they have non-speaking roles, but demonstrate distinctive 1960s dance moves during the dancing scene. 5's dance is the famous head-bobbing, side-to-side shuffle that has been widely parodied. 5 also played for Charlie Brown's baseball team; his position was never expressly stated, but it is conjectured that he played third base, since the other spots seemed to be taken (Charlie Brown, pitcher; Schroeder, catcher; Shermy, first base; Linus, second base; Snoopy, shortstop; and some combination of Lucy, Patty, Violet, and Frieda in the outfield). Fittingly, 5 is scorer's shorthand for the third baseman.
5 was largely phased out of the strip by the late 1960s, except as a background extra. Despite this, he appears in multiple animated Peanuts television specials, mainly as a background character, and is also briefly seen in the films A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Snoopy Come Home, and Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown. In his animated appearances during the 1960s, the number 5 on his shirt was generally absent, though he was still distinguished by his thin, spiky hair and orange T-shirt, which remains the color orange throughout the majority of his appearances. Despite having few speaking appearances, 5 is seen much more frequently in the television specials and movies than any other minor character from the Peanuts comic strip and was considered a regular character until the 1980s, after which his animated appearances ceased. However, he did make a cameo appearance in Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown along with Frieda, Faron, and his twin sisters 3 and 4. His name also appears on the test scores sheet in The Peanuts Movie, and he also has a cameo appearance in the film's dance sequence.
333 95472 and 444 95472
333 95472 (3) and 444 95472 (4) | |
---|---|
Peanuts character | |
First appearance | October 17, 1963 |
Last appearance | October 20, 1968, July 28, 1978 (Possibly 3 or 4) |
Voiced by | Silent character (1965-2011) |
Information | |
Gender | Females |
Family | 5 (brother), 1 (dad), 2 (mom) |
333 and 444 (3 and 4 for short) were the twin sisters of 5 and were named by their parents who were giving in to all the numbers that are required in everyone's life. All three siblings appear in A Charlie Brown Christmas where they have non-speaking roles, but demonstrate distinctive 1960s dance moves during the dancing scene. The pair appeared occasionally until the mid-1960s; one strip has one of the girls by herself, chatting with Charlie Brown and Snoopy. They make a cameo appearance in You're in Love, Charlie Brown when they make a sand castle (which is immediately assimilated into Pig-Pen's passing dust cloud) and Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown along with Frieda, Faron, and their brother 5.
Both sisters make cameo appearances with their brother in The Peanuts Movie.
References
- Derrick Bang with Victor Lee; Fifty Years of Happiness, 1999, ISBN 978-0-9685574-0-2
- Various cartoons, published in various books, including The Complete Peanuts series.
Notes
- ↑ "Letters of Note: The Ax". Retrieved 2013-08-14.
- ↑ Peanuts strip November 12, 1970 Gocomics.com.
- ↑ Peanuts comic strip August 28, 1997 Gocomics.com.
- ↑ Peanuts comic strip August 29, 1997 Gocomics.com.
- ↑ Peanuts comic strip August 30, 1997 Gocomics.com.
- 1 2 Schulz, Charles M. You Can Do It, Charlie Brown. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1963.
- ↑ Schulz, Charles M. Sunday's Fun Day, Charlie Brown. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1965.
- 1 2 Schulz, Charles M. You're Out of Sight, Charlie Brown. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1970.
- ↑ Schulz, Charles M. You're the Guest of Honor, Charlie Brown. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1973.
- ↑ Schulz, Charles M. Don't Hassle Me With Your Sighs, Chuck. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976.
- ↑ Trombone.org
- ↑ Schulz, Charles M. The Beagle Has Landed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978.
- ↑ Schulz, Charles M. Ha Ha Herman, Charlie Brown. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1972.