Charlie Brown

This article is about the character from Peanuts. For other uses, see Charlie Brown (disambiguation).

Template:Peanuts character Charles "Charlie" Brown is the main character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.

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Character

Charlie Brown is a lovable loser, a child possessed of endless determination and hope, but who is ultimately dominated by a "permanent case of bad luck", and is often dominated and taken advantage of by his peers. These traits are best-shown from his baseball team: Charlie Brown is the manager of the team and its pitcher, but the team consistently loses (their all-time record is said to be 2–930, and the two wins were only by forfeit when the opposing team's players were ill. However, it should be noted that the team is said to have won when Linus was pitching in Charlie Brown's absence.) Charlie Brown is constantly cursed as a pitcher, often giving up tremendous hits which either knock him off the mound or leave him with only his shorts on. The team itself is poor, with only Charlie Brown's dog Snoopy being particularly competent; however, most of the occasions when his team has won games have been when Charlie Brown is not playing, although Charlie Brown did help the team win with a home run on two occasions (the pitcher of the other team later admitted that she let him hit the home runs because she thought he looked cute standing at the plate). On the rare occasion that he does succeed at something, circumstances invariably arise to lessen his victory, such as when he wins a bowling trophy on which his surname is misspelled. Charlie Brown is also an avid kite-flyer, but a running joke is that his kites keep landing in a "Kite-Eating Tree" or suffering even worse fates. Once in 1958, he finally got the kite to fly before it spontaneously combusted in the air. However in the 13 July 1961 strip Charlie Brown not only gets his kite to fly, but to fly so high that he has to ask Lucy to tie on some extra string. The punch line is that Lucy does this in a huge bow. The kite is airborne through the four panels of the strip. A Sunday episode showed that once Charlie Brown tried to fly his kite in winter - and it froze solid in the air.

He is often called "blockhead" by Lucy van Pelt, despite his rather round head. Every autumn Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown to kick, and every year she pulls it away as he follows through, causing him to fly in the air and land painfully on his back. He was never shown as succeeding in kicking the football in the comic strip.

When Charlie Brown was ill in the hospital in a 1979 sequence, Lucy promised she would never pull the football away again. She did not pull the football away when Charlie Brown tried to kick it after he got well, but he missed the football and kicked her hand. He was depicted as kicking it in a 1981 TV special, It's Magic, Charlie Brown, in which he was invisible, but this is not considered canon. In 1999, Lucy delegated the task of holding the ball to her brother Rerun, but he did not reveal whether he pulled the ball away or not.

Charlie Brown is drawn with only a small curl of hair at the front of his head, and a little in the back. Though this is often interpreted as him being bald, Charles Schulz has explained that he saw Charlie Brown as having hair that was so light, and cut so short, that it was not seen very well. Charlie Brown has often mentioned getting a haircut, or his hair in general, throughout the strip's run. Snoopy thinks of his owner as "that round-headed kid". He almost always wears black shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, usually yellow, with a black zig-zag stripe around the middle.

Charlie Brown often utters the catch phrase "Good grief!" when astonished or dismayed. In moments of extreme disappointment or despair he sometimes simply cries out, "I can't stand it!" Other times, he will exclaim 'Augh!' when particularly frustrated or surprised.

Peanuts Sunday strips were often (unofficially) titled Peanuts featuring Good Ol' Charlie Brown. Schulz later stated that he had wanted to name the strip Good Ol' Charlie Brown but that the name Peanuts was chosen by the cartoon syndicate instead; as a result, some people inferred that Charlie Brown's name was "Peanuts". Schulz suggested the Sunday title as a clarification device.

Names and nicknames

Charlie Brown is almost always addressed by his full name by other characters in the comic strip. Two of the exceptions to this are Peppermint Patty, who calls him "Chuck" most of the time, and her friend Marcie, who calls him "Charles" most of the time, and occasionally calls him "Chuck". Some readers interpret this as an indication of the portrayed crushes that both girls have on him, which they both admitted to each other in a comic from 1979 . His sister Sally usually calls him "Big Brother", however, even she calls him "Charlie Brown" from time to time. Snoopy is also known to refer to him as "The round-headed kid," but referred to him as Charlie Brown in both of the musical specials. The only other exceptions are Eudora, who also calls him "Charles", and a minor character named Peggy Jean in the early 1990s who called him "Brownie Charles", because Charlie Brown, in his typical nervous and awkward fashion, messed up his own name when he introduced himself and couldn't bring himself to correct the mistake when it turned out he liked when she called him that. It was eventually revealed that the first person to have called him "Charlie Brown" was Poochie, a blonde little girl who played with Snoopy as a pup, and who first appeared in the strip on January 7, 1973.

Umberto Eco has pointed out that the fact that Charlie Brown is invariably referred to by his full name follows a convention found in epic poetry giving Charlie Brown a sense of universal identification.

History

First Comic and First of Charlie Brown 2 October, 1950

Charlie Brown was one of the original cast members of Peanuts when it debuted in 1950, and the butt of the first joke in the strip. Aside from some stylistic differences in Schulz’s art style at the time, Charlie Brown looked much the same. He did, however, wear an unadorned T-shirt; the stripe was added within the first year of strips, in order to add more color to the strip. Charlie Brown stated in an early strip (November 3, 1950) that he was "only four years old", but he aged over the next two decades, being six years old as of November 17, 1957 and "eight-and-a-half years old" by July 11, 1979. Later references continue to peg Charlie Brown as being approximately eight years old. Another early strip, on October 30, 1950, has Patty and Shermy wishing Charlie Brown a happy birthday on that day, although they are not sure they have the date right. Allegedly, he was named for Schulz's love for Edgar Huntly.

Initially, Charlie Brown was more assertive and playful than his character would later become: He would play tricks on other cast members, and some strips had romantic overtones between Charlie Brown and Patty and Violet. He would cause headaches for adults (knocking all the comic books off their stand at a newsstand, for instance), though he was from the start not especially competent at any skill.

Charlie Brown soon evolved into the Sad Sack character he's best known as: feeling enslaved to the care of Snoopy, beset by comments from everyone around him. Common approaches to the strip's storylines included Charlie Brown stubbornly refusing to give in even when all is lost from the outset (e.g., standing on the pitcher's mound alone on the ballfield, refusing to let a torrential downpour interrupt his beloved game), or suddenly displaying a skill and rising within a field, only to suffer a humiliating loss just when he's about to win it all (most famously, Charlie Brown's efforts to win the statewide spelling bee in the feature-length film A Boy Named Charlie Brown). Charlie Brown never receives Valentines or Christmas cards and only gets rocks when he goes trick or treating on Halloween but never loses hope that he will. His misfortunes garnered so much sympathy from the audience that many young viewers in North America of the Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown TV specials have sent Valentine cards and halloween candy respectively to the broadcasting television network in an effort to show Charlie Brown they cared for him. This also extended to protest letters when viewers felt the victimization of Charlie Brown went too far such as in It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown where Charlie Brown is publicly derided for making his football team lose when it is obvious that he is not at fault.

Charlie Brown maintained this demeanor until the strip ended its run in 2000, and classic strips run in many newspapers today. He did have occasional victories, though, such as hitting a game-winning home run off a pitch by Roy Hobbs' great-granddaughter on March 30, 1993 (though she later admitted she let him hit the home runs) and soundly defeating "Joe Agate" in a game of marbles on 11 April, 1995. Usually, Charlie Brown was a representative for everyone going through a time when they feel like nothing ever goes right for them; however, Charlie Brown refuses to give up. In the final weeks of his strip, determined to finally have a winning baseball season at last, Charlie Brown tried to channel Joe Torre, which made his sister think he was cracking up.

Relationships

Despite all this, and despite the abuse he has often received, Charlie Brown has many friends, the best being Lucy's brother Linus, who may occasionally admonish Charlie Brown, but stands by him. Linus's brother, Rerun van Pelt, also seems to look up to and admire Charlie Brown; in one comic strip, he wanted to watch him pitch in a baseball game, thinking that he was a master at it.

Charlie Brown's dog Snoopy seldom treats him with respect or affection except when Charlie Brown pleases him – preferably by feeding him. Snoopy often refers to him as "That Round-Headed Kid".

Linus initially appeared as an infant, but as he aged (and grew to a year or two younger than Charlie Brown) he became a profound philosopher and Charlie Brown's best friend, often supporting each other in small ways when the other's foibles had been painfully exposed (Schroeder and Lucy Van Pelt were also significantly younger than Charlie Brown when they first appeared, but they too aged where he did not, to the point where they became his peers.). Linus was himself a sort of loser like Charlie Brown, because of his inability to let go of his eccentricities (his security blanket, belief in the Great Pumpkin, paralyzing stage fright, etc.), so the two had much in common.

Lucy, along with early characters Violet, Patty, and sometimes Shermy, often attacked Charlie Brown physically or verbally. On one occasion when Lucy was little, she falsely claimed that Charlie Brown was about to hit her, and grinned in the background when Patty came to retaliate. Violet once hit Charlie Brown with her doll after he accidentally hit it with his tricycle. Shermy once sent Charlie Brown home because he allowed a goal during a hockey game. Although Charlie Brown had romantic occasions with Violet and Patty, the two clearly favored Shermy. Yet when Charlie Brown asked Lucy during their psychiatrist booth sessions why no one liked him, Lucy always laid the blame on Charlie Brown himself. Lucy often thinks ridiculous facts are true (i.e: there's a different sun every day, snow comes up out of the ground, birds can fly to the moon and back)and regards them as "little known facts", and thinks that true facts are silly, and laughs at Charlie's attempts to prove her wrong.

Like all adults in the strip, Charlie Brown's parents are never seen (nor "heard" in speech balloons, except in a few very early comics), but occasionally referenced. His father is a barber (as was Schulz’s). His mother is a housewife.

In 1959, Charlie Brown's sister was born, Sally, who resembled Charlie Brown in some ways, but with a shock of blonde hair. Like Linus, Lucy, and Schroeder, Sally began as an infant but soon became "mature" enough to interact with the other characters on a more-or-less equal basis. Initially Charlie Brown doted on her, though she too became a thorn in his side as she would pester him for help with her homework, and berate him for misunderstanding certain concepts (despite herself being the one in the wrong). Charlie Brown would stoically and guiltily bear this, although sometimes he was able to let Sally dig her own holes without pulling him in with her while very occasionally firmly putting his foot down on truly unacceptable behavior.

Charlie Brown has a pen pal, but because he uses a fountain pen (rather than ballpoint) and because he has less skill than others at keeping the ink flow under control, he resorts to graphite and starts off the letters, "Dear Pencil Pal". These correspondences, which began in the 25 August, 1958 strip, are usually one-way; but on 14 April, 1960, Charlie Brown read Lucy a letter he'd received from his Pen Pal. In the letter, the Pen Pal revealed that he or she had read Charlie Brown's latest letter to his/her class, and that they all agreed he must be a nice person and someone who is pleasant to know. In response to which, Charlie Brown uttered a vigorous "Ha!" to Lucy. In a strip series in 1994, the Pen Pal was revealed to be a girl in Scotland named Morag. Charlie Brown also fantasized about a future romance with Morag, but his plans were crushed when he learned Morag had 30 other Pen Pals.

Charlie Brown is infatuated with an often unseen character known simply as "the Little Red-Haired Girl", (named "Heather" in the valentine special "It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown!") though he rarely has the courage to talk to her, and when he does (in encounters which always occur off-panel) it always goes badly. Because of his preoccupation with the Little Red-Haired Girl, he remains oblivious to the occasional attentions of Peppermint Patty and Marcie. In particular, he has a tendency to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, to both of them; Peppermint Patty when she seeks reassurance over her "big nose" and her femininity, and Marcie when she tries to show that she cares about him (once, when asking if Charlie Brown missed her while she was away, got the reply "my cereal's going soggy").Charlie Brown once had a brief flirtation with a minor character called Peggy Jean who he met at summer camp.

Catch phrases

Charlie Brown has accumulated many memorable catch phrases and utterances:

• "Good grief!"
• "I (just) can't stand it."
• "Why can't I have a normal [or an ordinary] dog like everyone else?"
• "AAAAARRRRRRGH!"
• "Rats!"
• "Somehow, I never (quite) know what's going on"

Charlie Brown's most famous expression, "Good grief!" was ranked at #18 on the TV Land program The 100 Greatest TV Quotes and Catchphrases.

Portrayals

• 1960's child actor Peter Robbins first played Charlie Brown in A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965. His last performance as Charlie Brown was in 1969. Since then various actors including Chad Allen played Charlie Brown. Erin Chase was the first girl to play Charlie Brown. She played him for the "This Is America, Charlie Brown" series.
• In the off-Broadway musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (1967), Charlie Brown was played by Gary Burghoff. In the 1998 Broadway revival, he was portrayed by Anthony Rapp.
• Michael Mandy provided the voice of Charlie Brown for Life Is A Circus, Charlie Brown, It's Magic, Charlie Brown, The Fabulous Funnies opposite Loni Anderson, and A Charlie Brown Celebration. He also voiced the character in three commercials for Dolly Madison Cakes & Pies, and many Buena Vista 45rpm Read-Along-Books.

• Samuel Dunford portrayed Charlie Brown in the 2006 Namco game "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron".

External links

• Charlie Brown at Snoopy.com