It's a Podcast, Charlie Brown

You may be noticing this episode showing up in your feed a bit earlier than usual. Good grief! What's happening? We're trying something new with the release schedule. Instead of one omnibus episode on the 15th, we're going to cut the fun into two parts and release them separately, on the 10th and 20th of the month. If we like it, we'll keep doing it. If we don't, we won't.  In episode 78, we've go...

The podcast is HUGE this month! We've got not one, but TWO, er...Peanuts? Peanuts kids? Peanuts gang members? Both Melanie Kohn, who was Lucy in several of the specials from the seventies, as well as the film "Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown" AND Duncan Watson who was Charlie Brown in that film and several specials are here. TOGETHER! I hid the footballs. Then we've got "The Snoopy Show", S2, ep...

It might still be summer, but SCHOOL IS BACK IN SESSION in episode 76!  Yay....? This month we've got the BRAND NEW Apple TV+ special just released on August 12 - LUCY'S SCHOOL. The kids crave an Endless Summer. Can Lucy deliver? Then because numbers are hard, we skip over episode 3 of THE SNOOPY SHOW and watch episode 4 instead. Guess I should have gone to Lucy's School.  Plus, we've got a "Peanu...

Beagles to the left of me! Beagles to the right of me! Beagles everywhere! It must be a Beaglefest! The annual Beaglefest celebration coming up in August in Santa Rosa that is! Peanuts Collectors' Club president Kathy Magrane is on the show in episode 75 this month to tell us all about it, all about the club, and (maybe) how Snoopy made her the tennis player she is today. We've also got a review o...

Episode 74 is here with love. And it's no small thing!  (Seriously, this thing is like two hours long. Get comfy.) This month, we take a gander at the latest offerings from Apple TV+, Wildbrain and Peanuts Worldwide. First up: "It's the Small Things, Charlie Brown" in which Sally has dandelion-angst. Then we watch "To Mom (and Dad) With Love", in which everyone, especially Peppermint Patty, has Mo...

Hey, everybody. I took a little break from producing the latest episode to enjoy a little theatre. I attended opening night of a production of Bert V. Royal's play "Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead", a reimagining of the Peanuts kids as teenagers dealing with some heavy issues. Homophobia, suicide, sex, drugs, death and life. Good grief there's a lot of stuff.  Anyway, here's a bon...

In episode 73, either all those voices in my head have spilled out onto the podcast, OR this episode is nearly bursting at the seams with INTERVIEWS! Good grief! We've got the hosts of the new podcast "Unpacking Peanuts": Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen and Harold Buchholz. I tried real hard not to let my jealousy over their perfect pod-naming color our conversation. THEN, for the first time since th...

Listen, the reality is many of us Peanuts fans are...of a certain age. But guess what, "You Don't Look 40, Charlie Brown", so that's something! This month, we look at that 1990 TV special celebrating 40 years of the strip. Then we look at "The Snoopy Show", season 2, episode2. We've got a "Peanuts by Schulz" episode called "Beauty Contest" and another "Random Strip of the Month".  Join us...won't...

In episode 71 of IT'S A PODCAST, CHARLIE BROWN, all your questions will be answered... ...because we're checking out the five-volume series CHARLIE BROWN'S SUPER BOOKS OF QUESTIONS & ANSWERS and the FIFTEEN volumes of the 'cyclopedias that followed. Then, once you have your fill of Snoopy-fied knowledge, we take a look at the first episode of THE SNOOPY SHOW, season 2! And, of course, we've got a...

The glow of the Peanuts Universe is a bit dimmer this month in episode 70 of IT'S A PODCAST, CHARLIE BROWN. Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown on TV and film passed away at age 65 after a life full of highs and far two many lows. We take a few minutes this episode to remember him. We also talk about episode 13 of season 1 of Apple TV's "The Snoopy Show", enjoy a "Random Strip of th...

In episode 69, we find out just why The Great Pumpkin never came around - he was too disappointed in his blockheaded hired guns!  We're watching the legendary 1986 student film "Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown" in which the Great Pumpkin puts out a hit on our man Chuck and the Peanuts kids try to collect. We also check out "The Snoopy Show", season 1, episode 12, which is decidedly less violent...

Remember how when we were kids, we'd celebrate New Year's Eve at, like, 5 p.m. because midnight was too far away? Episode 68 of IT'S A PODCAST, CHARLIE BROWN is a little like that. Even though this episode drops December 15, we're going to a New Year's Eve party! We've got the BRAND NEW special "Snoopy Presents: For Auld Lang Syne". How new? So new, I had to cram my review of it into the rest of t...

You, dear listener, are even luckier than Woodstock soaring across the Browns' backyard with that wishbone. YOU get to listen to episode 67 of IT'S A PODCAST, CHARLIE BROWN! This month, Luke Epplin, author of the new book "Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball", drops by to chat about baseball, the intersection of "Peanuts" and baseball, and whether "Peanu...

Episode 66 offers up a treat better than even the Great Pumpkin could provide. (Kidding! I didn't mean it, Great Pumpkin!) We've got a discussion of "The Snoopy Show" S1, Ep 9 AND we take a little time to talk about MY MOST FAVORITIST OF ALL THE TIMES AWESOMEST CHARACTER EVER! ...Woodstock! (Now imagine Woodstock's excited chirping.) We've also got a review of the "Peanuts by Schulz" episode "The...

Before "Peanuts", there was "Li'l Folks"! In episode 65 of IT'S A PODCAST, CHARLIE BROWN, we chat a little about Sparky's single-panel comic that he did before "Peanuts". How different would our world be had he syndicated that one instead of "Peanuts"? Artist Robert Pope returns to the podcast to discuss that very question...and many others. We've also got S1, ep 8 of AppleTV's "The Snoopy Show",...

Will ye no come back again, Charlie Brown? Ye will after ye hear the lineup for IT'S A PODCAST, CHARLIE BROWN episode 64! We've got author Jason Cooper and artist Robert Pope discussing the legacy of Peanuts and their latest Peanuts graphic novel SCOTLAND BOUND, CHARLIE BROWN from Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates and Boom! Studios. We also talk about actor/comedian David Spade. Really. To a w...

In IT'S A PODCAST, CHARLIE BROWN episode 63, we go deep into the dark closets, boxes and hidden recesses of the endless Snoopy's doghouse that is the Charles M. Schulz Museum & Research Center. Our guest is museum archivist Sarah Breaux. You can ask her anything about Peanuts...the comic, not the legume.  After that, we discuss the new Apple TV+ documentary "Who Are You, Charlie Brown?" Maybe they...

IT'S A PODCAST, CHARLIE BROWN episode 62 offers up shocks - Schulz wasn't a one-comic man in the '50s! He also did, with Jim Sasseville, the sport-themed gag panels "It's Only a Game". The scandal! Tearful goodbyes - episode 6 of "The Snoopy Show" is the S1 finale! And the makings of an international incident - Author/publisher/"peanuts nerd" Nat Gertler tells us why we should hate Canada. As if w...

Can't get enough Peanuts on TV, in newsprint, comic books, phone apps, museums, collectibles and underwear? I feel you. And so did record publishers in the late seventies and eighties when "Charlie Brown Read-Along Records" debuted. We talk about them this month! We also talk about "The Snoopy Show" season 1, episode 5, a "Peanuts by Schulz" episode called "Technical Difficulties" AND another "Ran...

I am on record as saying Woodstock is one of my favorite characters, so I was thrilled to have voice actor Rob Tinkler on episode 60 of IT'S A PODCAST, CHARLIE BROWN. We talk about how he gets inside the head of a little yellow bird who doesn't talk to voice Woodstock on "The Snoopy Show" and "Snoopy in Space". We also talk about other things he's worked on and the craft of voice acting. Also on t...

In episode 59, we're going to the movies! Our guest this month is actor Brandon Ford Green. We're talking about his 2017 movie "Good Grief", which he wrote, directed and appears in. Interesting title, Brandon. And the group of adult friends gathering together for a funeral look awfully familiar. Hmmm. We'll ask Brandon about that. We also talk about "The Snoopy Show" episode 3, another random stri...

Guess what! There's new Peanuts content on our TV's! Well, those of us who have Apple TV+, but it's still pretty exciting! "The Snoopy Show" debuted on February 5 and this month on episode 58 of IT'S A PODCAST, CHARLIE BROWN, we watch and discuss the first two episodes of the six-episode season one. Is the show a tasty, televisual meal of jelly beans and toast or the bitter disappointment of a pul...

Remember travel? It's a thing people used to do before the pandemic. This month in episode 57, we vicariously take a trip abroad as Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Snoopy, Linus and good ol' Charlie Brown become exchange students in France. But mystery awaits our intrepid travelers. Who is Silas Brown? Who is Violette? Why were Linus and Charlie Brown invited to stay at a creepy old chateau? How dangero...

Snuggle down deep into your cozy bedclothes with a snack and beverage of your choice. In episode 56, from 2011, we're watching HAPPINESS IS A WARM BLANKET, CHARLIE BROWN. This was the first TV special made without Schulz, Mendelson or Melendez. So is the final product truly happiness or....something else? Tune in to find out. We've also got a "Peanuts by Schulz" short called "Trust Me" and a Rando...

We may still be in the time of Covid, but episode 55 of the podcast is going to the theatre...virtually. We're exploring Bert V. Royal's 2004 play "Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead". It's a self-described "Peanuts parody" imagining the Peanuts gang as teens dealing with LGBTQ issues, substance abuse, violence and issues of identity and place in the world.  To give us some perspecti...