PBS Show, New Book Look at "Peanuts" Creator Charles Schulz

Charles Schulz, creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip featuring Charlie Brown, had more in common with his main character that you might have thought.

PBS aired a new profile of Schulz for the first time tonight, and a new biography called "Schulz and Peanuts" by David Michaelis just came out. In the PBS show, Schulz is shown to be insecure and melancholy, much like Charlie Brown, throughout his life. And this continues even after Schulz's incredible success that stretched over many decades.

I read "Peanuts" in my newspaper every day and a kid and collected many of the books of its strips, so I enjoyed hearing Schulz, his friends, and loved ones talking about how he got started in the business (after much initial rejection) and the twists and turns his career took. And how many of the things Charlie Brown said and did reflected events in his creator's life.

It was also enjoyable seeing photos of some of the early "Peanuts" strips in which Charlie Brown and the other characters are recognizable, but are not in the more developed form that everyone came to know them.