Cartoonists honor Charles Schulz's 100th birthday with comic strip tributes

Saturday, November 26, 2022, is the 100th anniversary of Charles Schulz's birth.  To celebrate, Mutts cartoonist Patrick McDonnell has organized a tribute with help from his fellow cartoonists - on November 26, more than 75 comic strips will feature tributes, Easter eggs and references to "Peanuts."  For more information and background, see this Associated Press article.

So be sure to buy a copy of your local newspaper and check out their comics page!  But of course, no one paper will carry all the strips.  Fortunately, the Schulz Museum has set up a webpage that will showcase the entire collection of strips.

Needless to say, there have been quite a few news articles and other items on the subject of Charles Schulz's 100th birthday.  Here's a sampling of them:

• A nice article from Sonoma Magazine about Charles Schulz's contributions and legacy in his home county of Sonoma, California.
• The Washington Post ran an article titled Schulz at 100: How ‘Peanuts’ lifts those on stage, on ice and in space .
• The Santa Rosa Press Democrat - the local newspaper of the town where Schulz lived, and where the Charles Schulz Museum is located - had a special section celebrating Charles Schulz; see this post from The Daily Cartoonist for the links.
• A short video tour of the Charles M. Schulz Museum in honor of Schulz's 100th birthday, hosted by curator Benjamin Clark, courtesy of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
• As part of their celebration, the Schulz Museum has published a new book titled Charles M. Schulz: The Art and Life of the Peanuts Creator in 100 Objects.  "This heavily illustrated volume reveals the art and life of Charles M. Schulz through 100 objects from the Schulz Museum's expansive collection—from Schulz's childhood drawings to NASA's Silver Snoopy Award that is still used today.  Alongside commentary by Curator Benjamin L. Clark and Peanuts historian Nat Gertler, Schulz's family, friends, and colleagues share their favorite objects and provide an intimate look at the cartoonist's creative legacy."  For a limited time, if you order the book directly from the Schulz Museum, you'll get a copy signed by Jean Schulz, widow of Charles M. Schulz and also president of the museum's board of directors.
• Check out this BBC article about the recent Artemis I spacecraft, which features a video titled, "Can you see Snoopy moving around inside the Orion capsule?" - a brief look at the Astronaut Snoopy zero-g indicator in action.  Also see this NASA Photo of the Day,  this CollectSpace article with more info about Snoopy's mission.

A classic Peanuts Christmas countdown on FiveCentsPlease.org for 2022

Christmas is coming, and so is FiveCentsPlease.org's tradition of counting down to the Big Day with the Peanuts gang. Starting Friday, November 25 and continuing every day through December 25, our home page will feature a different, seasonally themed single panel.

As long-time readers will know, new Christmas countdown panels are no longer being made, but once again we have reached into our recently expanded archives to bring you panels from 1988, unseen (as far as we know) since their original run over 30 years ago.

(A couple of years ago, research efforts by FiveCentsPlease.org co-host Derrick Bang uncovered 12 years of previously lost countdown panels... 1988 being one of them. You can read all about his hunt in his blog post.)

Unfortunately, the sources for these panels were not high quality and they required a fair bit of cleanup, so they aren't as crisp or detailed as the panels from the late 1990's and 2000's.

But we hope you'll enjoy visiting our home page each day for the latest panel... and don't put off your holiday preparations until too late!

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving streams free on Apple TV+ from November 23 - 27, 2022

As previously announced, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will not be shown on broadcast television in 2022.

Instead the classic Thanksgiving special will be streaming for free - without a subscription - via the Apple TV app from Wednesday, November 23 through Sunday, November 27, 2022.  (Yes, it's even worse than a Thanksgiving dinner of jelly beans and toast, but it's the best on offer this year.)

You do not need an Apple device to use the Apple TV app. It's also available on a variety of streaming devices, including Rokus and Amazon Fires, and on many different smart TV brands. You can also watch using a web browser on any device by going to tv.apple.com . See this Apple support page for a more detailed list of supported devices and how to watch.

While you won't have to subscribe to Apple TV+, you will need to either have, or create, an Apple ID to sign in and watch. After you sign in, search for A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

The special also remains available for purchase on DVD and Blu-ray as an alternative.

And don't forget that the Astronaut Snoopy balloon, and a Snoopy's Doghouse float, will be in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday, November 24 from 9 AM to noon on NBC in all time zones, and streaming on Peacock.

MeTV celebrates Charles Schulz's 100th birthday with the first two Peanuts feature films on November 20 & 27, 2022

MeTV, an over-the-air broadcast channel specializing in classic television, is honoring the 100th birthday of Charles Schulz by showing the first two Peanuts feature films, A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969) and Snoopy Come Home (1972), on Sunday, November 20 and Sunday, November 27, 2022 respectively, at 8 PM Eastern/Pacific time each day.

It's been some years since the two movies were last shown on broadcast television, plus it's nice to see some Peanuts animation available over-the-air, given that the usual Peanuts holiday specials are only available via streaming this year.

You can read MeTV's full announcement here, and watch their trailer for the films here.

To find out if MeTV is available in your area, and how to watch, visit their website. (The channel is available over-the-air in most major markets, although it isn't carried by all cable companies.)

In addition to showing the two Peanuts movies, MeTV is also marking the Schulz centennial on their website with a variety of amusing and interesting trivia articles and quizzes about Charles Schulz, Peanuts, and the two films.

Quiz yourself on How well do you actually remember A Boy Named Charlie Brown? or Who said it: A Boy Named Charlie Brown edition; and learn 8 interesting and surprising facts about Charles M. Schulz or Charles Schulz thought his appearance was forgettable, so he gave Charlie Brown a blank face - plus there are several more related quizzes and articles, all of which you can find here.

Kudos to MeTV for making a big deal about the 100th anniversary of Charles Schulz!

Snoopy returns to the Macy's 96th annual Thanksgiving Parade

(This special post is by 5CP Associate Editor Gayna Lamb-Bang.)

The Thanksgiving Parade will be televised on NBC-TV from 9 a.m. to noon November 24th, all time zones, and also streaming via Peacock.

 

The orange-suited Astronaut Snoopy balloon returns to the festivities for the fourth consecutive year, making the World-Famous Beagle the parade’s longest-running balloon character. Also be on the lookout for the Snoopy's Doghouse Float, which represents Mission Control for the launch of Astronaut Snoopy!

 

NASA's "zero-gravity indicator"

Snoopy’s flight along the parade route of downtown New York’s streets will take place shortly after NASA’s November 14th launch of the giant Artemis I rocket.  It will be the first of three uncrewed Artemis I flights designed to circle the moon and return to Earth. The subsequent Artemis II flights, a few years later, will include a crew.  Astronaut Snoopy — in a much smaller form than his balloon persona — will be onboard as a zero-gravity indicator alerting Mission Control of the moment each flight achieves weightlessness.

Snoopy’s involvement with NASA hearkens back to 1969’s Apollo 10 mission, when the command module was named Charlie Brown, and the lunar module was named Snoopy.

Not bad for a World War I Flying Ace!