Peanuts is a comic strip about a group of children and one beagle, drawn by Charles M. Schulz for almost fifty years. It began on 2 October 1950 in seven newspapers and became one of the most widely read strips in the world. At its centre is Charlie Brown, a kind, anxious boy who loses at almost everything and keeps trying anyway.
The strip has no adults on the page, and that's part of its magic: the kids handle love, failure, faith and loneliness on their own, with surprising seriousness. Schulz's cast grew slowly over five decades, from a handful of children in 1950 to a whole neighbourhood, a second friend group across town, and Snoopy's family. Peanuts turned 75 in October 2025, and the gang is still everywhere, from holiday specials to Apple TV+ series.
- Creator
- Charles M. Schulz
- Comic strip
- 2 October 1950 – 13 February 2000
- First TV special
- A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
- Films
- A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969) to The Peanuts Movie (2015)
- Streaming
- Apple TV+ (specials and new series)
Charlie Brown and the core cast
A handful of characters carry most of the strip. Each one has a running gag that Schulz returned to for decades, and each gag hides something real underneath.
Charlie Brown
The lead · Manager of a losing baseball team
Charlie Brown is the round-headed boy in the zigzag shirt. He manages and pitches for a baseball team that almost never wins, loses kites to a tree that seems to eat them, and agonises over a red-haired girl he can't bring himself to talk to. He's a worrier and a loser by every outside measure, yet he's decent, loyal and stubbornly hopeful. His father is a barber, and he's proud of him.
- Classic voice
- Peter Robbins (1960s)
- 2015 film
- Noah Schnapp
Lucy van Pelt
Crabby · Psychiatrist for five cents
Lucy is bossy, loud and absolutely certain she's right. She runs a lemonade-stand-style psychiatric booth where she charges five cents for blunt advice, and every autumn she offers to hold a football for Charlie Brown and snatches it away at the last second. She's hopelessly in love with Schroeder, who ignores her. Underneath the bluster, she's often lonelier than she lets on.
- Classic voice
- Tracy Stratford (1965)
Linus van Pelt
Lucy's brother · Philosopher with a blanket
Linus is Charlie Brown's best friend, a thoughtful boy who never goes anywhere without his security blanket. He's the gang's theologian and scholar, quoting scripture and philosophy with ease. Every Halloween he waits in a pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin, who never comes. His quiet speech about the meaning of Christmas is the best-known scene in any Peanuts special.
- Classic voice
- Christopher Shea (1960s)
- 2015 film
- Alexander Garfin
Sally Brown
Charlie Brown's little sister
Sally was born in the strip in 1959 and grew into a sharp, cheerful, self-interested little girl who would much rather not go to school. Her book reports are confident and wrong, and she gets words hilariously mixed up. She's devoted to Linus, whom she calls her "Sweet Babboo", and he wants nothing to do with it.
Schroeder
Pianist · Catcher
Schroeder plays Beethoven on a toy piano with painted-on black keys, and he plays it brilliantly. He's the team's catcher and Charlie Brown's most loyal player. He celebrates Beethoven's birthday every December and has no time for Lucy, who leans on his piano gazing at him.
Snoopy, Woodstock and Snoopy's family
Snoopy began as an ordinary dog and gradually became the strip's star: a beagle with an enormous inner life, who thinks in thought balloons and walks on two legs. Most of his adventures happen in his imagination, on top of his doghouse.
Snoopy
Charlie Brown's beagle
Snoopy sleeps on the roof of his doghouse rather than inside it, and the doghouse becomes whatever he needs: a Sopwith Camel for the World War I Flying Ace, who is forever battling the Red Baron, or a writer's desk where he starts yet another novel. He's also Joe Cool, a hockey player, a lawyer and a scout leader. He can't always remember Charlie Brown's name ("that round-headed kid"), but he never misses suppertime, and the two of them clearly love each other.
- Classic voice
- Bill Melendez (vocal sounds)
Woodstock
Snoopy's best friend · Small yellow bird
Woodstock is a tiny bird who flies badly, often upside down, and serves as Snoopy's secretary, mechanic and scout troop. He talks in scratch-mark speech balloons that only Snoopy understands. He was named in 1970 and has been Snoopy's constant companion since. A whole flock of similar birds, among them Conrad, Olivier and Bill, joins them on scout hikes.
- Classic voice
- Bill Melendez (vocal sounds)
Spike
Snoopy's brother
Spike is a thin, droopy-moustached beagle who lives alone in the desert outside Needles, California, with a cactus for company. He's gentle and lonely, and he has a knack for getting into trouble with coyotes. He visits Snoopy now and then and appears in several specials.
Belle, Marbles, Olaf and Andy
Snoopy's other siblings
Belle lives in Kansas City and has a teenage son. Marbles is the clever, spotted brother who finds Snoopy's lifestyle baffling. Olaf and Andy are a hapless pair who set off together to visit Spike and get lost. They're occasional characters who show Snoopy has a family outside the neighbourhood.
The rest of the gang
Schulz kept adding children as the strip went on. In the 1960s and 70s he gave Charlie Brown a whole second friend group from across town, led by Peppermint Patty, who brought new energy and new jokes.
Peppermint Patty
Tomboy · Star athlete
Peppermint Patty is a freckled, sandal-wearing sports fanatic who runs her own baseball team and calls Charlie Brown "Chuck". She's confident on the field and hopeless at school, where she sleeps at her desk and collects D-minuses. She doesn't seem to notice Snoopy is a dog and calls him "the funny-looking kid with the big nose". She's also quietly fond of Charlie Brown.
Marcie
Peppermint Patty's best friend
Marcie is studious, polite and much wiser than she lets on, with round glasses that hide her eyes. She calls Peppermint Patty "sir", which annoys her, and calls Charlie Brown "Charles". She does well in school, is terrible at sports, and often gets the last word in her friend's misunderstandings.
Franklin
Friend from the beach
Franklin meets Charlie Brown on a beach in 1968, and they bond over their grandfathers. He was the strip's first Black character, added after a schoolteacher named Harriet Glickman wrote to Schulz suggesting it. He's calm, good-humoured and often the most sensible kid present. He sits in front of Peppermint Patty at school.
Pig-Pen
The one with the dust cloud
Pig-Pen walks around in a permanent cloud of dust and dirt, no matter how recently he's washed. He doesn't mind. He thinks of the dust as the dust of ancient civilisations, and he is cheerfully himself, which makes him one of the strip's quietly wise characters.
Rerun van Pelt
Lucy and Linus's little brother
Rerun arrived in 1973 and was named because his family felt like more of the same. In the strip's later years he became a major character, spending much of his time on the back of his mother's bicycle and trying to talk Snoopy into playing.
Frieda
Girl with naturally curly hair
Frieda introduces herself by her naturally curly hair and never stops mentioning it. She's mostly known for trying to get Snoopy to chase rabbits like a proper dog. She also brings home a cat named Faron, to Snoopy's disgust.
The Little Red-Haired Girl
Charlie Brown's crush
She's Charlie Brown's classmate and the object of his longing, and she never appears in full in the strip. Schulz kept her offscreen so readers could feel the distance Charlie Brown feels. The Peanuts Movie finally shows her and gives her a name, Heather.
- 2015 film
- Francesca Capaldi
Shermy, Patty and Violet
The original kids
These three were among the earliest characters. Shermy appeared in the very first strip, and Patty (not to be confused with Peppermint Patty) and Violet were often the girls who teased Charlie Brown. As Schulz's later characters took over, they faded into the background.
Eudora
Sally's friend
Eudora is a later addition who befriends Sally at school. She's a minor character from the strip's later years, and gives Sally someone to talk to about school other than her big brother.
When each character first appeared
Peanuts changed a great deal over fifty years. The early strip looks quite different, and many favourite characters didn't exist yet.
| Character | First appeared | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Charlie Brown | 1950 | Lost ball games, kites, the football |
| Snoopy | 1950 | Doghouse roof, the Flying Ace |
| Shermy and Patty | 1950 | The original neighbourhood kids |
| Schroeder | 1951 | Toy piano, Beethoven |
| Violet | 1951 | Early cast |
| Lucy van Pelt | 1952 | Psychiatric booth, the football |
| Linus van Pelt | 1952 | Security blanket, the Great Pumpkin |
| Pig-Pen | 1954 | Cloud of dust |
| Sally Brown | 1959 | School reports, "Sweet Babboo" |
| Frieda | 1961 | Naturally curly hair |
| Peppermint Patty | 1966 | Sports, "Chuck" |
| Franklin | 1968 | Met Charlie Brown at the beach |
| Woodstock | Late 1960s (named 1970) | Snoopy's sidekick |
| Marcie | 1971 | Glasses, "Sir" |
| Rerun van Pelt | 1973 | Back of mom's bike |
| Spike | 1975 | Life in the desert |
The TV specials and films
A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired on CBS in December 1965. Producer Lee Mendelson and animator Bill Melendez made it on a small budget, and Schulz insisted on real children's voices, no laugh track and a scene of Linus reading the Nativity story. The network was nervous; audiences loved it, and it won an Emmy and a Peabody. Vince Guaraldi's jazz score defined how Peanuts sounds ever since.
- 1965 A Charlie Brown Christmas
- 1966 It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
- 1969 A Boy Named Charlie Brown, the first feature film
- 1972 Snoopy Come Home
- 1973 A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
- 1974 It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown
- 1975 Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown
- 2015 The Peanuts Movie, a computer-animated film from Blue Sky Studios
- 2019–2024 Apple TV+ series including Snoopy in Space, The Snoopy Show and Camp Snoopy
Voice cast
The specials have always cast real children, so voices change every few years as actors grow up. A few voices are worth knowing.
| Character | Original specials (1960s) | The Peanuts Movie (2015) |
|---|---|---|
| Charlie Brown | Peter Robbins | Noah Schnapp |
| Linus van Pelt | Christopher Shea | Alexander Garfin |
| Lucy van Pelt | Tracy Stratford (1965) | — |
| Snoopy and Woodstock | Bill Melendez | Bill Melendez (archival recordings) |
| Little Red-Haired Girl | — | Francesca Capaldi |
Charles M. Schulz
Charles Schulz grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, the son of a barber, like Charlie Brown. His early panel, Li'l Folks, ran in a St. Paul newspaper before United Feature Syndicate picked up his work and renamed it Peanuts, a title he never liked. He drew, lettered and inked every strip himself, with no assistants, for nearly fifty years. He announced his retirement in December 1999 because of illness and died on 12 February 2000; his last Sunday strip appeared the next day. The Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California, holds much of his original art.
Peanuts also went to the Moon, in a sense. In 1969 the Apollo 10 crew named their command module "Charlie Brown" and their lunar module "Snoopy", and NASA still uses Snoopy as a safety mascot.
What the characters are about
Peanuts was one of the first comic strips to treat children's feelings as fully serious. Charlie Brown's losses aren't punchlines so much as small, recognisable griefs, and his decision to keep showing up is the strip's quiet philosophy. Lucy and the football is about trust and how hard it is to stop hoping. Linus and the Great Pumpkin is about faith. Snoopy is the opposite of Charlie Brown: a dog who lives entirely in his imagination and is happier for it.
Those simple, sharply defined personalities are why the cast is still used to explain character archetypes, and why Peanuts shaped later family comedy from The Simpsons to Bluey, which shares its child's-eye view. Lucy and Charlie Brown's football ritual earns a spot in our guide to iconic rivalries, and the strip's gentle, lasting cast belongs alongside the other classics in our cartoon characters hub. For another set of instantly recognisable characters, see Sanrio.
All Peanuts character names A–Z
A–C
- Andy — Snoopy's brother
- Belle — Snoopy's sister
- Charlie Brown — Main
- Conrad — Bird
E–L
- Eudora — Sally's friend
- Faron — Frieda's cat
- Franklin — Across town
- Frieda — Neighbourhood
- Linus van Pelt — Main
- Little Red-Haired Girl — Charlie Brown's crush
- Lucy van Pelt — Main
M–P
- Marbles — Snoopy's brother
- Marcie — Across town
- Olaf — Snoopy's brother
- Olivier — Bird
- Patty — Early strip
- Peppermint Patty — Across town
- Pig-Pen — Neighbourhood
R–S
- The Red Baron — Snoopy's imaginary foe
- Rerun van Pelt — Van Pelts
- Sally Brown — Main
- Schroeder — Main
- Shermy — Early strip
- Snoopy — Main
- Spike — Snoopy's brother
V–W
- Violet — Early strip
- Woodstock — Bird
Frequently asked questions
What kind of dog is Snoopy?
Snoopy is a beagle. He came from the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm and has several siblings, including Spike, who lives in the desert near Needles, California, and his sister Belle.
What is the name of Snoopy's bird friend?
Woodstock. The small yellow bird appeared in the strip in the late 1960s and got his name in 1970, borrowed from the music festival. He speaks only in little scratch marks that Snoopy understands perfectly.
Who is Charlie Brown's crush?
The Little Red-Haired Girl, a classmate Charlie Brown is too shy to speak to. Schulz never fully drew her in the strip; she stays offscreen, which is the joke and the heartbreak. She finally appears on screen in The Peanuts Movie (2015).
Are Lucy and Linus siblings?
Yes. Lucy and Linus van Pelt are brother and sister, and their little brother Rerun joined the strip in 1973. Sally Brown is Charlie Brown's younger sister and has a long, one-sided crush on Linus.
Who created Peanuts?
Charles M. Schulz, a cartoonist from Minnesota. He drew every Peanuts strip himself, from its debut on 2 October 1950 until his retirement. He died on 12 February 2000, the night before his final Sunday strip was published.
Why do the adults sound like a trombone?
In the strip, adults are never seen. The TV specials kept the idea by keeping adults offscreen and giving their voices to a muted trombone, so the "wah-wah" sound stands in for a teacher or parent talking. The world stays at child height.
Where can I watch the Charlie Brown specials?
The classic holiday specials, including A Charlie Brown Christmas and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, stream on Apple TV+, which also makes newer Peanuts series such as The Snoopy Show and Camp Snoopy. Check Apple TV+ for any free holiday viewing windows.