Cartoonist Charles Schulz and the Peanuts Gang

 

The Peanuts comic strip has been beloved by millions of people for decades. It was drawn solely by one man, Charles Schulz, from 1950-2000. That is very rare for one person to draw 100% of the strips, especially for that duration. Many prominent cartoonists say that Schulz was an influence, such as Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes), Matt Groening (Life in Hell, The Simpsons) and Jim Davis (Garfield). Schulz was born in Minneapolis in 1922. He served in the Army during World War II. From 1947-1950 he drew a one panel strip called Li’l Folks that featured a young boy named Charlie Brown. A four-panel comic strip was developed but United Feature Syndicate said they name had to be changed due to legal reasons. Schulz said that he was never a fan of the name Peanuts. Some of the Sunday strips were titled as “Peanuts, featuring good ol’ Charlie Brown.” At its peak, Peanuts was published daily in 2,600 newspapers, in 75 countries, in 21 languages. Over the 50-year period of the strip, Schulz drew nearly 18,000 strips. The merchandising for the characters was prominent and lucrative, earning more than $1 billion per year. Schulz earned $30-$40 million per year. The Peanuts TV specials proved to be very popular, and they became holiday traditions, airing around Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Schulz was writer or co-writer of these and closely monitored the production. One of the specials was called “Snoopy’s Reunion.” It was very enjoyable since it revealed a lot of things about the life of Snoopy that many would not know about. Snoopy and his siblings were separated when they got adopted by different people from the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. The TV show has them reuniting and reveals that all of them are musical. They come together and bond with each other in a musical jam session.

Various aspects of the strip are based on the life of Schulz and people that he knew. Themes of sports, art, the military and religion were prominent in the strip since those topics were important to Schulz.

  My dad was just 18 years old when the strip first appeared in newspapers, and he was always a fan. He was a fan of other strips too, such as Blondie and Beetle Bailey. I have always admired the talent of cartoonists since they need to be able to draw, plus come up with funny ideas. I have been a fan of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the Peanuts gang for as long as I can remember.

Schulz died on February 12, 2000. His final strip was in papers the following day. His strips were drawn weeks in advance. His final strip was a goodbye message with Snoopy sitting on his doghouse writing on a typewriter. The strip has Schulz expressing his thankfulness for being about to draw the strip for 50 years. It says that he was unable to continue doing the strip, and it would not be drawn by anyone else. His final line was “Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, how can I ever forget them…” On May 27,2000 Schulz was honored by over 100 comic strips, where the Peanuts characters were incorporated into various strips.

The Charles M. Schulz Museum was opened in 2002, in Santa Rosa, California. This is just two blocks from the studio where Schulz drew Peanuts.

The thing that made Peanuts special was the character development. We knew them and loved them. Here are a few profiles of the prominent characters.

Charlie Brown…first appeared in 1950…a boy who struggles to get through life due to his confidence issues. He loves sports, and even though he is not a great athlete, he never gives up. He has a crush on the little red-haired girl but is too afraid to approach her.

Snoopy… first appeared in 1950…Charlie Brown’s dog who is a beagle that everyone loves. His imagination is second to none, seeing himself as a World War I flying ace, a star athlete, a best selling author and “Joe Cool.”

Linus…first appeared in 1952…a philosophical, intelligent, religious boy who never lets go of his beloved security blanket. He is often the voice of reason for Charlie Brown.

Lucy…first appeared in 1952…the fussbudget with a short fuse. She has a crush on Schroeder but it’s an unrequited love. She is the sister of Linus. She is notorious for holding the football for Charlie Brown and pulls it away at the last minute.

Sally… first appeared in 1959…The sister of Charlie Brown who has a crush on Linus. She hates school.

Schroeder… first appeared in 1951…the child prodigy who can play anything on his piano. The toy piano sounds like a real piano when he plays it. He idolizes Beethoven and has a bust of him on his piano. Lucy has a crush on him and leans on his piano as he plays.

Peppermint Patty… first appeared in 1966…she is the best athlete in town and the worst student. She is best buddies with Marcie, (first appearance was 1971) who calls her “Sir.”

A bit of trivia, some Peanuts characters had very unusual names. One young boy was named 5 (first name) 95472 (last name). He had younger twin sisters named 3 and 4.

Molly Volley was a mixed doubles tennis partner for Snoopy who has a hair trigger temper.

Tapioca Pudding is a character whose unique name comes from the fact that her father works in licensing.

Joe Richkid is from a family of wealth and is not liked by others due to his arrogance.  

The legacy of Charles Schulz and Peanuts will live on forever. He will always be remembered as one of the great artistic visionaries of the 20^th Century, along with Walt Disney and Jim Henson.

*Some information from Wikipedia and peanuts.fandom.com.

 

 

The Career of Conan O’Brien

 

Conan O’Brien is 60 years old, so he still has plenty of time ahead of him to accomplish more in show business. He has an impressive resume, although he has weathered some significant challenges. I wanted to write about him since he is an impressive figure in the history of late-night TV, who is #3 on my list of favorites, behind Johnny Carson and David Letterman.

Conaco Productions is a production company was founded by Conan O’Brien in 2001. It produced “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” and “Conan” (TBS). Having ownership of his programs has contributed significantly to Conan’s wealth, which is estimated at $200 million. Other shows produced by Conaco produced included “Andy Barker PI,” “Operating Instructions,” and “Outlaw.”

His dad was a doctor and his mother was a lawyer, so he came from a family that emphasized education. Both of his parents died in December of 2024, a few days apart. They were both in their 90s.

Here are a few key events in the timeline of Conan.

1981 Conan graduates from high school in Brookline, Massachusetts as valedictorian.

1981-85, attends Harvard where he was president of “The Harvard Lampoon,” the college humor magazine. He majored in history and literature.

1985-1987 Conan wrote for “Not Necessarily the News.” Another writer on the show was Greg Daniels, who Conan knew from Harvard. Daniels went on to write for “Parks and Recreation”, and he was the creator/writer for “The Office” and “King of the Hill.”  Around this time, Conan took improvisational classes at “The Groundlings” in Los Angeles.

1987 “Rich Hall Show,” writer

1987-88 “The Wilton North Report,” writer

1987-1991 He wrote for “SNL.”

1991 He worked with Robert Smigel to write a pilot for “Lookwell,” starring Adam West. NBC chairman Brandon Tartikoff liked the show, but it was not picked up as a series. Smigel would end up writing for “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and “Saturday Night Live.”

1992-1993 he wrote for “The Simpsons”. Two episodes in season 4 (New Kid on the Block, Marge vs. the Monorail), 2 in season 5 (Homer Goes to College, Treehouse of Horror IV).

1993 marked his debut on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” replacing David Letterman in the 12:35 am time slot. He stayed at the show until 2009.

2009-2010 “Tonight Show” host. Conan was only host for a short period of time and then Jay Leno was reinstated as “Tonight Show” host. NBC wanted to hand on to Conan and Jay so they made a deal where Conan would eventually replace Leno as “Tonight Show” host. NBC tried putting Jay into a Monday-Friday 10 pm show, but the ratings were poor. An offer was made to Conan to start his show at 12:05 am eastern, following a 30-minute Jay Leno show but Conan declined. This was a poorly handled fiasco for NBC. The whole situation is detailed in the book “The War for Late Night.” This was written by Bill Carter, who also wrote “The Late Shift” which chronicled the period in 1991-93 where it was Leno vs. Letterman to take over for Johnny Carson. Leno got The Tonight Show and Letterman left for CBS.

April 2010 Kicked off a 30-city tour of live performances since he could not do TV shows for a certain period after leaving The Tonight Show.

2010-2021 Conan on TBS.

2019 Conan show on TBS was trimmed back to 30 minutes and the live band was dropped. Conan switched to a more casual wardrobe, often wearing a jean jacket over a button-down shirt.

2018 “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast begins. This is released every Monday. This podcast has become very successful, and Conan attracts big name guests.

2019-2023 “Conan without Borders.” This made sense since often the best Conan comedy bits were when he was outside of the studio.

2022 Conan’s podcast and entire Team Coco digital media business were sold to SiriusXM radio for $150 million.

2024 “Conan O’Brien Must Go” on MAX. This is another travel show, but it’s a brilliant concept since Conan is meeting up with people overseas that he has interviewed on his podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan.” That podcast comes out on Thursdays and features interviews with non-celebrities. It’s kind of like Conan took a cue from Johnny Carson who would sometimes feature non-celebrities on his show, or as he called them, “civilians.”

I have always felt that Conan had a very impressive career even before getting his Late-Night job in 1993. He graduated from Harvard, wrote for “SNL” and “The Simpsons.” Many writers for “The Simpsons” and “SNL” came out of Harvard, which can be a reason for the success and longevity of those programs.

Conan owes a large debt of gratitude to Lorne Michaels, who recognized his talents and saw his potential as a late-night host. Conan had zero experience as a stand-up comic or interviewer when he took the job filling the shoes of David Letterman in 1993. The odds were against him, but he prevailed. He worked in late night TV for 28 years, coming close to the longevity of 2 of his idols, Johnny Carson (30 years) and David Letterman (33 years). Other influences include Bob Hope, Woody Allen, Bob Newhart, Peter Sellers, Sid Caesar and others.

Conan may no longer have a late-night show on TV anymore, but Samsung has a 24/7 channel that has highlights from his TBS show.

Conan has been married to his wife Liza since 2000 and they have 2 children.

*Some information from imdb and Wikipedia.

 

Succession

 

This is another HBO produced hit, joining shows like The Sopranos, Veep, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Larry Sanders Show, Oz, The Wire, Entourage, etc. HBO has the slogan “It’s not TV, it’s HBO.” This makes sense since the quality of programs put out by HBO is impressive. TV critic David Bianculli wrote a book called “The Platinum Age of Television.” He mentioned many of the 21^st century HBO shows in his book since their productions are outstanding.

This aired from 2018-2023, with 39 episodes. The show was created by Jesse Armstrong, who wrote 16 of the episodes. He was nominated for an Oscar in 2010 for the film “In the Loop.” 8 Primetime Emmys were won for “Succession.”

The imdb rating is 8.8, which is very high. The Godfather is 9.2, The Sopranos is 9.2, The Wire is 9.3, Breaking Bad is 9.5, Mad Men is 8.7.

The show is about the Roy family, a very wealthy family who owns the world’s largest media company. The drama arises when the elderly man who founded the company has serious health issues, and it needs to be decided who will take over the company. Brian Cox plays Logan Roy, the patriarch of the family. His kids are played by Kieran Culkin, Alan Ruck, Jeremy Strong and Sarah Snook. These characters have no redeeming qualities. They are spoiled brats who have zero integrity. There is a lot of backstabbing, lying and bickering in this show. You never know who is being sincere when they say something. The members of the Roy family think nothing of double crossing one another.  But, that makes it entertaining. People have drawn parallels between the Roy family and Rupert Murdoch’s (founder of Fox News) family. The show is heavily influenced by King Lear by Shakespeare.

The actors, sets and costumes are all top notch. The writing staff is incredible and the scripts are highly creative. It’s easy to get sucked into this show. It's just fascinating and so well done. 

Some information from imdb.com. 

 

Book Review: Carson the Magnificent by Bill Zehme and Mike Thomas

 

This Johnny Carson biography has been long awaited. It was released on election day, November 5, 2024. Bill Zehme wrote a good portion of the book, then contracted cancer. He passed away in 2023 at age 64 and his assistant, Mike Thomas, finished the book. Zehme had written books about show biz giants such as Frank Sinatra, Andy Kaufman, Hugh Hefner and Jay Leno.  I expected this book to be longer, especially since Zehme worked on it for many years. The book did a good job of covering the major events in Johnny’s life, from his time growing up in Nebraska, to his various TV shows that he hosted and touched on his retirement years. Many people have questions about Johnny’s 13 retirement years (1992-2005) after The Tonight Show ended. Apparently, he spent a lot of time on his 130 foot yacht, Serengeti. The book mentioned how Johnny and his fourth wife Alex had some challenges, but he did not want to be a guy who got divorced four times.  I would have liked Zehme to go into more detail about Johnny’s different shows, such as Carson’s Cellar, The Johnny Carson Show, Earn Your Vacation, Who Do You Trust and of course The Tonight Show. The Carson biography by his talent coordinator Craig Tennis went into more detail about the behind-the-scenes aspects that went into producing The Tonight Show. The book talked about Johnny’s challenging relationship with his mother and how that led to shape his view of women. This can be linked to the fact that he had four marriages and had problems with infidelity. His drinking got in the way of building strong relationships with women, so did the fact that he was married to his job. But that was common with many men of his generation. In his 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace, Johnny discussed how he did not handle alcohol well.  The book talked about his four wives, how he met them, the differences between them, and factors that led to the marriages ending. The end of Johnny’s first marriage was devastating to him, probably since they had three kids together, and she was with him through the early days of his career. Some may think that Johnny was always rich and famous, but he was not. He had to pay his dues like anyone else. He had shows that were not successful. I wish the book would have talked more about people like Ed McMahon, Doc Severinsen, Fred de Cordova, Peter Lassally, etc. This book did not delve into the psychological analysis of Johnny to the degree that other books did, especially the book by his lawyer Henry Bushkin. The book had some email quotes from Johnny’s son which I don’t think we have seen before. It's not a revelation that Johnny was not a great father or husband, but his son realizes that he did the best he could under the circumstances.  It would be nice to get a definitive biography of Johnny that went into extensive detail about every aspect of his life, but it remains to be seen whether that will happen.

There have been many biographies of Johnny Carson over the years. Some others that I’d recommend include:

Johnny Carson by Henry Bushkin

King of the Night by Laurence Leamer

And Now…Here’s Johnny! By Nora Ephron

Johnny Tonight by Craig Tennis

Carson: The Unauthorized Biography by Paul Corkery

So, there are many ways to learn about the fascinating life of a supremely talented but complicated man who many view as the undisputed king of late-night TV.

People who crave a deep dive into the life of Johnny Carson and his Tonight Show should check out Mark Malkoff’s Carson Podcast. This podcast was produced from 2014-2022 and totaled almost 400 episodes. Many prominent celebrities were interviewed who appeared on Johnny’s show. In addition, several people who were crew members on Johnny’s show discuss what it was like behind-the-scenes on such an iconic program.

 

 

HBO's The Newsroom Was Another Hit for Aaron Sorkin

 

The Newsroom aired from 2012-2014 on HBO, 25 episodes (all are now on MAX).

The creator/primary writer was Aaron Sorkin (Syracuse University, Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater).

Writer of…The West Wing, A Few Good Men, Moneyball, The Social Network, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The American President, etc. He also adapted “To Kill a Mockingbird” into a stage production where Jeff Daniels played the lead role of Atticus Finch.

He’s known for writing rapid fire dialogue, and “walk and talk” scenes that feature tracking shots that lead characters down a hallway as they converse.

He has had challenges in his personal life. He was a chain smoker but quit after having a stroke. He has battled substance abuse issues.

He has won one Oscar (The Social Network), three Golden Globes and six primetime Emmys.  He has been nominated 174 times for various awards and has had 104 wins.

The Newsroom starred Jeff Daniels who played Will McAvoy, a cable news anchor in New York. Other stars included Emily Mortimer, John Gallagher Jr, Allison Pill, Dev Patel, Olivia Munn, Sam Waterston, Marcia Gay Harden and Jane Fonda.

This show did a fantastic job of demonstrating the intensity, manic energy and pressure-cooker atmosphere that comes with working in TV news. In news coverage, there is the balance between being first and being right. Multiple sources must be confirmed before putting a story on the air. This show was excellent since it was a time capsule of the period in which it took place. Real stories were covered in this show, such as the BP oil spill, the killing of Osama Bin Laden, and the explosion at the Boston Marathon. The character development is excellent, and I wish there would have been more episodes.

Jeff Daniels won a leading actor Emmy Award for his role in 2014.

The lobby and exterior shots depicting ACN (Atlantis Cable News), the fictional cable network, are New York’s Bank of America tower.

The interiors were shot at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood.

Sorkin learned about the world of cable TV news by observing Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN newsrooms first-hand as a fly on the wall.

The role of Mackenzie McHale (the new executive producer) was offered to Marisa Tomei but the negotiations fell through.

Jane Fonda had a memorable role as Leona Lansing, the CEO of the media conglomerate that owns the ACN cable channel. This is not unlike her third husband, CNN Chairman Ted Turner.

Surprisingly, the reviews for season one were mixed. Seasons two and three received better critical acclaim.

“Newsroom” stars Jeff Daniels and Sam Waterston starred together in the TV mini-series “Godless”.

The show aired on the Canadian, European and Indian versions of HBO, as well as on other networks around the world.

The show has an imdb rating of 8.6 out of 10. That is very high. For comparison, The Godfather is 9.2, Schindler’s List is 9.0 and Seinfeld is 8.9. The West Wing, another Sorkin creation, is 8.9.

*Some information from imdb.com and Wikipedia.