The Worst ‘Peanuts’ Character Was Based on a Real Person (And Even Charles M. Schulz Didn’t Like Her)
Though everyone’s favorite Peanuts character is different, most people are in agreement that football-pulling bully Lucy Van Pelt is the worst member of Charlie Brown and Snoopy’s crew. Surprisingly, Charles M. Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip and characters, agreed!
Schulz, who passed in 2000, admitted in an interview with Psychology Today that his favorite characters were Snoopy, Linus and Charlie Brown, while his least favorite was Lucy. He said of Lucy, “Lucy is not a favorite, because I don’t especially like her, that’s all.”
Tony Esparza/TV Guide/Everett Collection
However, despite the dislike, he kept her in the comic strip because “[s]he works, and a central comic-strip character is not only one who fills his role very well but who will provide ideas by the very nature of his personality. This is why Charlie Brown, Linus, Snoopy, and Lucy appear more than the others. Their personalities are so broad and flexible that they provide more ideas.”
Everett Collection
It gets even more awkward when you learn that Lucy was actually based on a real person. Schulz sometimes played bridge with a woman named Louanne Van Pelt and her husband around the time he was developing Peanuts. Van Pelt was reportedly a very eccentric type, and Schulz would often make notes about Van Pelt’s behavior to later use it as inspiration for his comic.
Van Pelt’s son, David Merrill, once said that his mother wasn’t always appreciative of the comparisons — quite understandably!
Apple TV+/Everett Collection
“Peanuts, I think, is something she actually felt bittersweet [about]… ” Merrill admitted. “She wasn’t very flattered, I believe, with the character that Charles Schulz withdrew from her actual personality. The narcissistic, kind of cruel [kid], always yanking that football from poor Charlie Brown’s foot, making him land on his head all the time. But she learned to live with it and was very pleasant about it just the same.”
Now tell us, who are your favorite and least favorite Peanuts characters? And do you think Lucy gets a bad rap?
Kid Stuff
June 2018
Unleash your inner child by reliving your favorite kids TV shows, cartoons, toys and more!
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