Peanuts (comic strip)

Peanuts
The Peanuts gang Top row left to right: , Snoopy, Charlie Brown Bottom row left to right: Franklin, Lucy van Pelt, Linus van Pelt, Peppermint Patty, Sally Brown
Author(s)	Charles M. Schulz
Current status / schedule	Concluded, in reruns
Launch date	October 2, 1950 (dailies), January 6, 1952 (Sundays)
End date	January 3, 2000 (dailies), February 13, 2000 (Sundays)
Syndicate(s)	English: United Feature Syndicate (October 2, 1950 – February 26, 2011) Universal Uclick (February 27, 2011 – present)
Genre(s)	Humor, gag-a-day, satire, children, adults

Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. The comic strip is the most popular and influential in the history of comic strips, with 17,897 strips published in all, making it "arguably the longest story ever told by one human being". At its peak, Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of 355 million in 75 countries, and was translated into 21 languages. It helped to cement the four-panel gag strip as the standard in the United States, and together with its merchandise earned Schulz more than $1 billion. Reprints of the strip are still syndicated and run in almost every U.S. newspaper.

The strip focuses entirely on a social circle of young children, where adults exist but are never seen or heard. The main character, Charlie Brown, is meek, nervous, and lacks self-confidence. He is unable to fly a kite, win a baseball game, or kick a football.

Peanuts is one of the literate strips with philosophical, psychological, and sociological overtones that flourished in the 1950s. The strip's humor (at least during its '60s peak) is psychologically complex, and the characters' interactions formed a tangle of relationships that drove the strip.

Peanuts achieved considerable success with its television specials, several of which, including A Charlie Brown Christmas and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, won or were nominated for Emmy Awards. The holiday specials remain popular and are currently broadcast on ABC in the U.S. during the corresponding seasons. The Peanuts franchise met acclaim in theatre, with the stage musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown being a successful and often-performed production.