Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced.
Speaker 2: I'm Roger Basseg and I'm Gillian Woodward. Spotlight uses a
Speaker 2: special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people
Speaker 2: to understand no matter where in the world they live.
Speaker 1: Charlie Brown and Lucy stand on an empty field. Autumn
Speaker 1: leaves are scattered on the ground. Lucy holds an American football.
Speaker 1: Charlie Brown wants to kick it, but every time Lucy
Speaker 1: holds it on the ground for him to kick, she
Speaker 1: pulls it away at the last second. Charlie Brown shakes
Speaker 1: his head.
Speaker 3: No, absolutely not. You must think I am crazy. You
Speaker 3: say you will hold the ball, but you will not.
Speaker 3: You will pull it away and I will break my neck.
Speaker 3: Why Charlie Brown, how you talk? I would not think
Speaker 3: of such a thing. I am a changed person. Look
Speaker 3: is this not a face you can trust? All right?
Speaker 3: You hold the ball and I will come running up
Speaker 3: and kick it.
Speaker 2: Charlie Brown races as fast as he can towards the ball.
Speaker 2: He pulls his leg back. He tries to kick the ball.
Speaker 2: Lucy pulls it away. Charlie flies into the air and screams.
Speaker 3: She did it again.
Speaker 2: He crashes to the ground. Lucy looks down on Charlie.
Speaker 3: I admire you, Charlie Brown. You have such faith in
Speaker 3: human nature.
Speaker 1: This is a scene from the comic strip Peanuts. Today's
Speaker 1: Spotlight is about Charles Shule's creator and author of Peanuts.
Speaker 1: We talk about the history of comic strips. We examine
Speaker 1: how Shules started writing. We discussed the impact Peanuts had
Speaker 1: on other comic strips and on society. We look at
Speaker 1: why Peanuts is the most popular comic strip of all time.
Speaker 2: A comic strip is a row of little boxes on
Speaker 2: a piece of paper. The boxes have drawings and words
Speaker 2: that tell us story. They are usually in newspapers, comic books,
Speaker 2: or on the Internet. The first comic strips appeared in
Speaker 2: the late eighteen hundreds. Two of the first strips were
Speaker 2: called The Yellow Kid and the Kats and Jamma Kids.
Speaker 2: These became popular. Soon newspapers started publishing daily and weekly
Speaker 2: comic strips to attract readers.
Speaker 1: Over the next thirty years, comic strips became a regular
Speaker 1: part of American newspapers. Comic strips such as Popeye and
Speaker 1: Flash Gordon were beloved. In Britain, the comic strip Pop
Speaker 1: was popular. Andy Capp also became a favorite in Britain
Speaker 1: and later America. Tintin was famous in France. Valentina was
Speaker 1: popular in Italy.
Speaker 2: Some of the most famous comic strips were created in
Speaker 2: the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties. These include Pea Nuts,
Speaker 2: Dennis the Menace, and Dick Tracy. They all became popular,
Speaker 2: but Pea Nuts was the most famous.
Speaker 1: Peanuts was written by Charles Schultz. It is the story
Speaker 1: of several children living in the same neighborhood. The main
Speaker 1: character is Charlie Brown. He always wears black shorts and
Speaker 1: a yellow shirt with a big black pattern across it.
Speaker 1: He has a dog named Snoopy that is very smart.
Speaker 1: Linus is Charlie's best friend. He carries his special blanket
Speaker 1: with him everywhere. Lucy is Linus's sister. She likes to
Speaker 1: chease Charlie as much as possible. There are many other
Speaker 1: characters with fun personalities in the comic strip.
Speaker 2: When it was first released, Peanuts was different from other
Speaker 2: comic strips. It dealt with emotions that were not usually
Speaker 2: expressed in cartoons. Writer Matt Blitz said.
Speaker 4: At a time when comic strips were ruled by stories
Speaker 4: involving action, adventure, and marriage, humor, Peanuts was different. The
Speaker 4: comic expressed sadness, anger, depression, loneliness, and other complex emotions.
Speaker 1: For example, in one Peanuts strip, Lucy sets up a
Speaker 1: small building where she offers advice in exchange for money,
Speaker 1: Charlie Brown tells her he has feelings of depression. He asks,
Speaker 1: what can I do about this? Lucy says, stop feeling
Speaker 1: that way five cents please.
Speaker 2: At the time, most people thought that if someone felt depressed,
Speaker 2: he just needed to stop feeling that way. They thought
Speaker 2: that being depressed was a choice, But Schultz understood the truth.
Speaker 2: Depression is a mood disorder that causes someone to feel
Speaker 2: sad most of the time. Treatment often requires special drugs.
Speaker 2: Schultz was the first comic strip writer to address this
Speaker 2: type of topic.
Speaker 1: Shules was also a strong follower of Jesus. His faith
Speaker 1: is evident in a television film that he wrote called
Speaker 1: a Charlie Brown Christmas. The film first showed in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty five. It was the first time a television network
Speaker 1: aired a program based on a comic strip. In the program,
Speaker 1: Charlie Brown and his friends must put on a Christmas show,
Speaker 1: they get distracted with decorations and music. Finally, Linus quotes
Speaker 1: a passage from the Christian Bible about the birth of
Speaker 1: Jesus christ Christmas marks this event for followers of Jesus
Speaker 1: Linus reminds them of the real reason for their show.
Speaker 2: Some of the television executives did not want to include
Speaker 2: this scene. They were afraid it would offend some people,
Speaker 2: but Schultz insisted they include it. He would not let
Speaker 2: them air the show if the executives did not include
Speaker 2: this scene. These people finally agreed with Schultz.
Speaker 1: The network that aired the show was not sure the
Speaker 1: program would be successful. No one had ever tried anything
Speaker 1: like it before, but they were wrong. Nearly half of
Speaker 1: all American television sets played A Charlie Brown Christmas that year.
Speaker 1: The program later won several awards. In the coming years,
Speaker 1: more networks showed animated holiday specials each Christmas. A Charlie
Speaker 1: Brown Christmas still plays each year on television to this day,
Speaker 1: more than half a century after it first aired. Many
Speaker 1: families include watching A Charlie Brown Christmas as one of
Speaker 1: their annual holiday traditions.
Speaker 2: Schultz also turned pe nuts into films and books. He
Speaker 2: made more television programs, such as A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
Speaker 2: and It's the Great Pumpkin. Charlie Brown Schultz became one
Speaker 2: of the highest paid entertainers in America, making thirty to
Speaker 2: forty million dollars a year. Pe Nuts was translated into
Speaker 2: over twenty languages in seventy five countries. It appeared in
Speaker 2: over two thousand, six hundred newspapers.
Speaker 1: Schules was able to address the complicated nature of human
Speaker 1: relationships through the eyes of the children in Peanuts. The
Speaker 1: comic made complex issues much easier for a mass audience
Speaker 1: to understand. According to the writers at Africa Nova.
Speaker 5: It redefined the comic strip. It introduced a level of
Speaker 5: depth previously unseen. Short's ability to mix humor with life's
Speaker 5: darker issues connected deeply with readers. It entertained people it
Speaker 5: reflected on human experience.
Speaker 2: Schaltz died at the age of seventy seven, but Charlie Brown, Linus,
Speaker 2: Lucy and Snoopy live on. Schultz wrote and drew nearly
Speaker 2: eighteen thousand Peanuts strips. Future generations can learn important life
Speaker 2: lessons from his comic strips. Bill Wasson, famous writer of
Speaker 2: the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, said.
Speaker 6: Things that we now take for granted reading the thoughts
Speaker 6: of an animal, for example, there is not a comic
Speaker 6: strip writer who has done anything since nineteen sixty that
Speaker 6: does not owe Schultz a great debt.
Speaker 1: Have you ever read Peanuts? Do you have a favorite character?
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen at Charlie Brown? Christmas? You can
Speaker 1: leave a comment on our website at www dot Spotlight
Speaker 1: English dot com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook,
Speaker 1: tik tok, Instagram, and x You can also get our
Speaker 1: programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple device through
Speaker 1: our free official Spotlight English app.
Speaker 2: The writer of this program was Peter Anderson. The producer
Speaker 2: was mitchio Osaki. The voices you heard were from the
Speaker 2: United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted
Speaker 2: for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This program is
Speaker 2: called Playing with Peanuts.
Speaker 1: We hope you can join us again for the next
Speaker 1: Spotlight Advance. It's to program. Goodbye, h