65 Years Ago, Peanuts Completely Missed Snoopy's Purpose With One New Character
An experienced Editor representing Canada via ScreenRant's Team Anime, J.R. has been reading manga since the first printing of Shonen Jump in North America. This passion drove him to write about anime, manga, and manhwa since 2022, having recently served as Lead Anime Editor for ComicBook.com.
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When it originally made its proper debut in 1950, Peanuts did not look like the series that would captivate the hearts of millions of readers worldwide. Its cast of characters was decidedly more limited, with key additions like Linus and Lucy van Pelt being years away from helping round out the principal cast. But aside from the addition of Woodstock to supplement Snoopy's iconic antics, the Brown family Beagle hardly needed much changing aside from gradual design revisions and being able to stand upright, being his imaginative, clever, expressive self early on. But on May 23, 1961, creator Charles M. Schulz tried, and ultimately failed, to create a cat counterpart with Faron.
Originally introduced as Frieda's pet, Faron was largely cute but treated as a prop more than a full-fledged character, fodder used by Frieda to have her friends hold in their arms while she went out and about. But the worst things that Faron's introduction did to the series were that the two pets couldn't interact in the way Schulz normally writes Snoopy, and the cat's mere presence rendered Snoopy either terrified or completely inert, thus robbing readers of one beloved character while short-changing another as a result. Within less than a year, several story arcs, and a lone Sunday Peanuts strip, the failed Snoopy foil was unceremoniously never added again.
1961's New Peanuts Character Missed The Point Of Why Readers Love Snoopy
Snoopy as a character was far more than a dog; he was utterly brimming with personality and charm, often with a far more vivid imagination than the other human characters. His personas were distinctly humanlike, and even though his career as a World-Famous Author never seemed quite likely, there was still charm in his repeated use of "It was a dark and stormy night." The addition of Faron largely overwrote his personality save for a few befuddled thought bubbles. Snoopy didn't know what to do in the presence of a cat, was frequently terrified, and even Schulz himself acknowledged that the two just couldn't gel together in 1975's Peanuts Jubilee: My Life and Art with Charlie Brown and Others:
The cat and the dog could not talk to each other because Snoopy never talks, he only thinks. So I would have had to show the cat and dog thinking to each other, which was totally unreasonable.
It raised a significant point that he'd later address creatively through Woodstock, but Schulz also claimed he couldn't draw cats very well. While Faron was arguably quite adorable and well-drawn, the cat couldn't communicate with Snoopy, rendering their dynamic as little other than a cat and a dog trying and failing to hold onto his usual self. Faron would have one last strip on November 20, 1961, and would never return. While the cat-and-dog dynamic would be reinstated between Snoopy and the neighbor's cat, the latter was an entirely offscreen element, proving that, regardless of whether Schulz actually wasn't good at drawing cats, he didn't seem to enjoy it.
Schulz's Failed Snoopy Foil Was A Disservice To Faron As It Was To The Series
Peanuts was better off after no longer including Faron, as his presence hardly felt the same as a proper character. Frieda would treat him like a booby prize for other friends to hold onto, and Snoopy would largely just get spooked by his presence. Other characters would actively avoid holding him, as they'd be stuck waiting for Frieda often for multiple daily strips at a time, with Faron only ever meowing, unable to contribute in any other meaningful way. It's a shame, as while it meant other characters would be actively frustrated in his presence, Faron got a raw deal as well, being completely underwritten in the process.
October 2, 1950 – February 13, 2000 · 17,897 Strips How Well Do You Know Peanuts? “Good grief!”
⚾Charlie BrownGood Ol’ Chuck
🐕SnoopyThe Flying Ace
🧣LinusSecurity Blanket
🏈LucyPsychiatric Help
🐥WoodstockBest Friend
01
Before Peanuts launched in 1950, Charles M. Schulz drew a weekly cartoon panel for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. What was it called?
✓ Correct! Li’l Folks ran from 1947 to 1950. When the syndicate renamed the new strip “Peanuts,” Schulz hated the title for the rest of his life.
✗ Not quite! It was Li’l Folks — and Schulz never forgave United Feature for rechristening his strip “Peanuts.”
02
Which member of the gang is almost never seen without his security blanket — and waits every year in the pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin?
✓ Correct! Linus — Lucy’s little brother, the strip’s resident theologian, and the reason “security blanket” entered the dictionary.
✗ Not quite! It’s Linus van Pelt, whose blanket gave the English language the term “security blanket.”
03
Schroeder hammers away at his toy piano in devotion to a single composer — whose bust sits on top of it. Who?
✓ Correct! Beethoven. Schroeder even observes Beethoven’s birthday every December 16 — while ignoring Lucy entirely.
✗ Not quite! It’s Beethoven — the one thing in the world Schroeder loves more than tuning out Lucy.
04
When Snoopy climbs onto his doghouse in goggles and a scarf, he becomes the World War I Flying Ace — forever hunting which nemesis?
✓ Correct! The Red Baron — and the Sopwith Camel doghouse always goes down in flames, sending the Ace off to curse him in a French café.
✗ Not quite! It’s the Red Baron. Snoopy’s doghouse is a Sopwith Camel, and it never once wins the dogfight.
05
Lucy runs a curbside psychiatric help booth out of a lemonade stand. What does she charge per session?
✓ Correct! Five cents, please. The nickel never went up in 50 years — and the advice was never once worth it.
✗ Not quite! It’s 5¢ — “The doctor is in.” Lucy held that price for half a century.
06
Snoopy’s tiny yellow best friend went unnamed for years before Schulz finally christened him. What was he named after?
✓ Correct! Woodstock got his name in 1970, borrowed straight from the music festival held the summer before.
✗ Not quite! He’s named for the 1969 Woodstock festival — Schulz gave the bird the name in 1970, years after he first appeared.
07
The jazz score for A Charlie Brown Christmas — including the immortal “Linus and Lucy” — was written by which musician?
✓ Correct! Pianist Vince Guaraldi scored the 1965 special, and network executives were sure the jazz soundtrack would sink it. It became a permanent holiday fixture.
✗ Not quite! It’s Vince Guaraldi, whose trio gave Peanuts its unmistakable sound.
08
Schulz drew every Peanuts strip himself for nearly 50 years. What made the final original Sunday strip — February 13, 2000 — so haunting?
✓ Correct! Schulz died the evening of February 12, 2000 — and his farewell strip, signed off with “Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy... how can I ever forget them,” appeared in papers the very next morning.
✗ Not quite! Schulz died on February 12, 2000 — hours before his own farewell strip ran in the Sunday papers.
The Doctor Is In · Five Cents, Please Your Peanuts Report Card
⚾
/ 8
Good grief — or good ol’ Charlie Brown? Either way, the football is still there. Wanna try again?
Still, Faron is hardly alone in the cast of Peanuts' forgotten or underused characters. Shermy was gradually phased out, Pig-Pen rarely got actual memorable moments, and Charlotte Braun was so drastically disliked her removal is still a topic of discussion today. Realistically, Faron only lasting six months with one Sunday strip on November 5, 1961, feels like a softer ending than it could have been. But for those who and were sad to see Faron go, another artist wound up properly capturing the magic of a dog and a cat without compromising his vision, with Patrick McDonnell's Mutts turning Mooch and Earl into a truly dynamic duo. Peanuts did plenty of things right, but Schulz knew ahead of time how his Snoopy foil was going over, and made the right call not to waste Faron any further.
- TV Show(s)
- The Snoopy Show, Peanuts by Schulz
- First Film
- The Peanuts Movie
- Cast
- Christopher Shea, Kathy Steinberg, Bill Melendez, Sally Dryer, Peter Robbins, Noah Schnapp, Hadley Belle Miller, Mariel Sheets, Lisa DeFaria, Venus Omega Schultheis
- Created by
- Charles M. Schulz
- Movie(s)
- The Peanuts Movie, A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown's All Stars!, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown
- Character(s)
- Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy van Pelt, Linus van Pelt, Sally Brown, Pig-Pen, Marcie (Peanuts), Peppermint Patty, Woodstock
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.