Snoopy is no doubt one of the most recognisable little dogs in the world, while his owner Charlie Brown is surely the most familiar ’round headed kid’ around.
Even at retirement age he is still working hard along with the rest of the Peanuts crew. A series of Peanuts specials have brought the group in to the new millennium culminating in a brand new 3D film due for release in 2015. The old favourites still consistently dominate the airwaves around the world, with A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown topping ratings as recently as the 15th of October. Of course nothing gets to the heart of Charlie Brown and Snoopy more than the original comic strip, which is still in print around the world even though many of the original readers are now retired themselves. But nothing speaks for the staying power of the comic more than the huge numbers of fans who buy Snoopy socks and Peanuts mugs or the legions who talk and write about it.
Although Charles Schultz unfortunately passed away in the year 2000, perhaps he would have been proud that the idea he came up with two thirds of a century ago was a hot social media topic on an internet that hadn’t even been born then. Perhaps he would have liked to see all of the #rejectedpeanutsspecials that his 21st century fans were suggesting: Such potential TV touchstones as “Charlie Brown’s Angels”, “It’s The Great Pumkin Spiced Latte, Charlie Brown!” “It’s Autocorrect, Chocolate Brownie” or the ironic “This Hashtag isn’t Trending Anymore, Charlie Brown”. Either way, just a few weeks after each Peanuts birthday, that good ol’ Halloween special about good ol’ Charlie Brown is aired and Twitter explodes with these would-be-shows. You can’t say fairer than that, Charlie Brown.