Peanuts (1997 adult TV series)

Peanuts is an American adult animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, loosely based on Charles M. Schulz's comic strip of the same name and developed by Brian Graden for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show revolves around the five main characters Snoopy, Charlie, Sally, Linus and Lucy and their bizarre adventures in and around their hometown, South Park, Colorado.

Parker and Stone loosely developed the show from The Spirit of Christmas, two consecutive animated shorts created in 1992 and 1995. The latter became one of the first Internet viral videos, ultimately leading to Peanuts' production, boughting the TV rights to Schulz's strip. It debuted in August 1997 with great success, consistently earning the highest ratings of any basic cable program. Subsequent ratings have varied but it remains one of Fox's highest rated shows, and is slated to air through at least 2019.

In one of his last interviews, Schulz said he always disliked this TV incarnation because of its faithfulness to the comic strip, as well as its off-color humor, sexual innuendo, dark humor, adult jokes, violence and crude language (things that he never used in his strips), and Snoopy speaking. But then again, he decided not to say another word because of its success.

Premise
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Setting and characters
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Main

 * Snoopy (voiced by John Kricfalusi) - A beagle and the main protagonist. Unlike other dogs, he's able to speak like humans and do things that humans would do, like cooking, building, raping women, killing some bully's parents and making him/her eating them in Chilean hot sauce, driving wildy and having trouble with the police.
 * Charlie Brown (voiced by Matt Stone) - A boy and one of Snoopy's owners, he is is a third- then fourth-grade student who commonly has extraordinary experiences not typical of conventional small-town life in his hometown of South Park. In many episodes, Charlie often reflects on the lessons he, Sally, Linus and Lucy have attained with a speech that often begins with "You know, we learned something today...".
 * Sally Brown (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997-1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999-2003 and April Stewart in 2004–present) - Charlie's sister and one of Snoopy's owners. In some instances, Sally is the only child in her class to not initially indulge in a fad or fall victim to a ploy. This has resulted in both her eagerness to fit in, and her resentment and frustration. She has an obsessive crush over Linus, even though he doesn't feel the same way.
 * Linus van Pelt (voiced by Trey Parker) - a immature boy. He carries around a light blue blanket which is his most valued possession. He runs a lemonade stand.
 * Lucy van Pelt (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997-1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999-2003 and April Stewart in 2004–present) - Linus' older sister. She is a tough girl not to be messed with. Other children and classmates are alienated by Lucy's insensitive, racist, homophobic, anti-semitic, misogynistic, self-righteous, and wildly insecure behavior. Lucy often makes anti-semitic insults towards Sally, particularly manipulates and mistreats Butters Stotch and Kenny McCormick and displays an extreme disdain for hippies, but she always recives consecuences for all these things. As a recurring gag, she is usually arrested for crimes she commits around a episode.
 * Leopold "Butters" Stotch (voiced by Matt Stone) - A cheerful, naive, optimistic, sweet-natured, gullible and more passive relative to the show's other child characters, and can become increasingly anxious, especially when faced with the likelihood of his father's punishments, which is usually being grounded, usually for no good reason, such as when Butters threatened to "kill" himself as part of a scheme by Snoopy, and his father said he would ground him for two weeks if he came down. He once becomed a official part of the main cast when Snoopy resquested a temporarly sixth member for the group for the sixth season, but eventually gets ousted after five episodes and vengefully adopts his super-villain alter ego of Professor Chaos, whom, in spite of his name, only seems to be able to screw things up that either nobody takes notice of, or can be easily resolved. Despite this, Butters continues to be a major character in recent seasons.
 * Spike (voiced by Trey Parker) - Snoopy's brother. He is a drug adict and a idiot. He speaks like a beatnik, and is usually seen either annonying to humans or, more often, getting high on cannabis and voicing his permanent confusion. He usually stars in episodes where the other six main characters make a minor role or not appear.
 * Belle (voiced by April Stewart) - Snoopy's sister, she is usually portrayed as a happy-go-lucky beagle who is unlucky. She mainly stars in episodes where Snoopy and his human companions not appear.

Secondary

 * Woodstock (voiced by Frank Welker) - a bird and Snoopy's best friend and companion. He talks in bird vocals, which only Snoopy is able to know he says, despite he usually mistakes Woodstock says, since subtitles, saying other things, appear when he talks.
 * Wendy Testaburger (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997–1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999–2003 and April Stewart in 2004-present) - She is the show's most prominent female supponing character. Her best friend is Bebe Stevens, she is the on-and-off girlfriend of Charlie.
 * George Liquor (voiced by John Kricfalusi) - The main characters' adult neighbor, who is so conservative "that he thinks the Republicans are Commies".
 * Kenny McCormick (voiced by Matt Stone) - One of the main characters' classmates, who wears his parka hood so tightly that it covers most of his face and muffles his speech. Kenny always die in almost every single episode where he appears before returning in the next without explanation. He rarely have major roles, most notably the Coon and Friends three-part story arc, where he is revelated to be the superhero Mysterion.
 * Peppermint Patty "Patricia" Reichardt (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997–1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999–2003 and April Stewart in 2004-present) - The friend of Marcie. She always gets D-Minuses and she is the dumbest person in her school (Sometimes intresting too).
 * Marcie Johnson (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997–1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999–2003 and April Stewart in 2004-present) - The friend of Peppermint Patty. She always call Peppermint Patty "Sir". She is also very smart.
 * Franklin Armstrong (voiced by Matt Stone) -
 * Pig-Pen Dustson (voiced by Trey Parker) - A kid who is one of the main characters' friends. He is so dirty that he can dust up a duststorm.
 * Schroeder "Beethoven" Benny (voiced by Trey Parker) - A blond-haired kid, and one of the main characters' friends. He is a fan of Ludwig van Beethoven, and a master at playing the piano, harpsichord, and electric keyboard.
 * Violet Gray (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997–1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999–2003 and April Stewart in 2004-present) -
 * Patty Willbarrow (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997–1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999–2003 and April Stewart in 2004-present) -
 * Frieda Curlyhair (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997–1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999–2003 and April Stewart in 2004-present) -
 * Sherman "Shermy" Smith (voiced by Trey Parker) -
 * The Great Pumpkin (voiced by Eric Bauza) - Appears only on the Season 12 premiere, but he's fake, and he is part of Linus's beliefs, but he comes life thanks to Linus' imagination, and ends up chasing the four kids and Snoopy, after realizing humans eat pumpkin.
 * The Red Baron - Snoopy's unseen archnemesis.
 * Tweek Tweak (voiced by Matt Stone) - The main characters' hyperactive and paranoid classmate due to an excessive intake of coffee, although his parents believe it to be because of ADD. He temporarily becomes a sixth member of the main group during the sixth season.
 * Bebe Stevens (voiced by Jennifer Howell) - The main characters' blonde, female classmate and Wendy's best friend.
 * Bradley Biggle (voiced by Matt Stone) - One of the main characters' classmates, who appears as a background character in most episodes until the Coon and Friends story arc.
 * Clyde Donovan (voiced by Trey Parker) - One of the main characters' classmates and considered himself as the cutest of the class. Accidentally caused the death of his mother by leaving the toilet seat up.
 * Craig Tucker (voiced by Matt Stone) - One of the main characters' classmates, who used to antagonize them. Frequently gave the middle finger to authority figures then denies doing so in early seasons.
 * Dougie (voiced by Trey Parker) - A first-grader who assumes the role of General Disarray, sidekick to Butters' super villain alter-ego Professor Chaos.
 * Jimmy Valmer (voiced by Trey Parker) - One of the main characters' two handicapped classmates and an amateur standup comedian. He stutters a lot when he talks due to his disability.
 * Timmy Burch (voiced by Trey Parker) - One of the main characters' two handicapped classmates, whose vocabulary is mostly limited to the enthusiastic shouting of his own name.
 * Randy Brown (voiced by Trey Parker) - Charlie and Sally's idiotic father, who worked as a geologist. He gets involved in stupid things such as becoming a celebrity chef and getting into baseball fights.
 * Mr. Garrison (voiced by Trey Parker) - The main characters' former teacher who had a sex change operation during season nine, before changing it back during season twelve; now the president-elect of the United States of America.
 * Mr. Mackey (voiced by Trey Parker) - The school guidance counselor. He has a disproportionately large head and mumbles "M'kay" into most sentences. He speaks with a Southern accent, and he is believed to be from Louisiana. He is at least 48 years old. He has occasionally taught classes at the school, and taught sex education with Ms. Choksondik.
 * Chef (voiced by Isaac Hayes) - The school's chef and good friend of the main characters, who was killed at the beginning of the tenth season but was brought back to life as Darth Chef. Despite this, he never appears again after his resurrection.

Episodes
Peanuts (1997 adult TV series)/Episodes

Beginnings: 1989-1992
An idea for a Peanuts animated sitcom was envisioned as early as 1984. And in March 1989, production began on a new short about Native American History, featuring the prototype characters. The animation was done with a mixture of hand-drawn animation and stop-motion and the audio was recorded on audio tape, thus mixing the tracks onto 8mm film. The short was successful in-between mixed reviews and it did not really establish the Peanuts characters yet. At this point, Lucy and Linus were originally portrayed here as unnamed original characters. The brother had childlike innocence as Linus in the latter show, while the sister had no trace of crabbiness or being madly obsessed with Schroeder at all. This short cast the two as a polite Native American sister and brother trying to make friends with the Puritans.

Soon after meeting in film class at the University of Colorado in 1992, Trey Parker and Matt Stone began work on a short film. They bought the rights to Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts comic strip and wrote down the storyline for a short entitled The Spirit of Christmas. They animated the film using only construction paper, glue and a very old 8 mm film camera, and premiered it at the December 1992 student film screening. The film features four children very similar in appearance to three of the four main characters of Peanuts, including a character resembling Lucy but called "Penny", a kid resembling Linus and two others similar in appearances and voices to Charlie and Sally Brown.

Development of the show: 1995-1997
In 1995, after seeing The Spirit of Christmas, Fox executive Brian Graden paid Stone and Parker $1,000 to make another animated short as a video Christmas card that he could send to friends. In turn, the duo created The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Santa.

Graden initially distributed the video to eighty friends in December 1995. After months' being passed around on bootleg video and the Internet, Graden then decided pitch up a series based on both the original comics and the short for Fox, which premiered in the United States with the episodes Snoopy Go to Mars and Lucy Gets an Anal Probe on August 13, 1997.

This version of The Spirit of Christmas features an traditionally animation style very similar to Charles M. Schulz's original drawing style, which it is used in the eventual Peanuts series, as well as more developed versions of Snoopy (who was added for remaining part of Schulz's original humor), Charlie, Sally, Lucy and Linus (each of whom are referred to by name) living in a city named South Park. Unlike the other version, Larry Leichliter and all the other Mendelson/Melendez animators (not counting Bill Littlejohn) animated this short despite not being a kids' special. Later recurring characters created for the series Wendy Testaburger and Kenny McCormick appear unnamed in a non-speaking role as children sitting on Santa's lap. The film largely establishes the characters as they are used in the show and contains elements that recur in the series, such as Snoopy speaking, Charlie and Sally being part Jewish, adult characters beign fully shown and speaking normally instead of the mute trombone "wah-wah" sounds, and rats eating Kenny McCormick's corpse. The film reportedly had a budget of $750, with Parker and Stone keeping the remainder of their commission.

Production
An episode takes three or six months to complete, although multiple episodes would be worked on at the same time.

Animation
The animation for the pilot was done using hand-drawn animation. All subsequent episodes used Toon Boom Harmony simulating the old hand-drawn style.

Recurring gags
Usually the series have various recurring gags, here is the most famous:
 * Kenny's Deaths - Kenny McCormick's manner of death changes from episode to episode, and usually features someone or something that fatally hurts him. A typical gag features the culprit or accident (usually caused by Snoopy) killing Kenny, followed by the phrases "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" and "You bastards!" from Charlie and Sally, respectively. Series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have said that the "You bastards!" line (often used even for deaths by inanimate objects/accidents) is actually directed towards said creators, for writing the death into the script. In more recent seasons (starting with Season 15), the gags occur only a few times.
 * Animated Cameos - Some episodes usually include various other animated media characters in cameos. (For example: Snoopy destroying a house, revelating Ren and Stimpy having sex with female versions of them)
 * Ain't I an Asshole? - During a non-sense scene or when Lucy recives consecuences for her activities, The camera draws back and reveals Bugs Bunny at a drawing table drawing the scene (a reference to the Daffy Duck cartoon ), who turns around and says to the audience: "Ain't I an asshole?".
 * White Trash In Trouble - a fictional television show which documents the arrests of "White Trash" people (usually the culprit or some other person). The introduction of the show claims that a popular beer, Pabst Blue Ribbon, combined with being "White Trash" can make anyone "not help getting arrested". The catchphrase of this show is "I'm white trash and I'm in trouble!" which the white trash people are forced to say.

Voice cast

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Guest stars

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Music
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Title sequence
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Distribution
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Episodes
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International
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Syndication
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Home media
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Streaming
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Re-rendered episodes
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Reception
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Ratings
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Recognitions and awards
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Criticism
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Controversies
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Influence
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Cultural
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Political
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Films
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Shorts
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Music
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Video games
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Merchandising
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Trivia

 * This is what Peanuts and South Park would be if they were the same show.
 * Because of the show's style, the Peanuts TV specials, The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, and the four Peanuts films were permanently forgotten and most of them are lost, while some of its media have been reworked for the series.
 * In this show, Snoopy is the main protagonist instead of Charlie, and is able to speak, acts like a human and is a crazy adult companion to the four kids, being foul-mouthed, heavy-drinking, cigar-smoking, kleptomaniacal, misanthropic, egocentric, ill-tempered, self-centered, self-interested, devious, cheater and ridiculed.
 * Unlike the comics and the television specials, adults can be seen and heard instead of using the mute trombone "wah-wah" sounds.
 * Unlike the comics, Charlie is now called "Charlie" rather than "Charlie Brown".
 * Also, he isn't unlucky anymore. His famous unlucky gags (such as Football, Kite and Baseball) were dropped. In Lucy's Silly Hate Crime 2000, it was revealed in a flashback told by him that Lucy doesn't pull her football prank anymore. Charlie revengefully kicked her instead, which sends her flying right into the Pumpkin Patch.
 * John Kricfalusi (the voice actor for Snoopy)'s company Spümco worked for the series (adding his character George Liquor as a recurring character), until its shutdown in 2005. Despite the shutdown of his studio, Kricfalusi still continued to voice Snoopy and George Liquor, as well as writing and directing episodes.
 * Also, the Ren and Stimpy "banned" episode "Man's Best Friend" (Spümco's final Ren and Stimpy episode before the company's controversial departure from the show) is remade as Canine Kids, where Charlie, Sally, Linus and Lucy are transformed into dogs after drinking out of a cursed water fountain, in which Snoopy decides to search for the solution.
 * In this series, Sally and Lucy are rivals (since they are in the respective roles of Kyle and Cartman).
 * Spike, Snoopy's brother, is also the star of some episodes (such as A Million Little Fibers, Sponsored Content, Truth and Advertising and PC Principal Final Justice), as well as webisodes.
 * There are several episodes that parodied other shows and movies in cameos:
 * The Smurfs
 * SpongeBob SquarePants
 * Alvin and the Chipmunks
 * Felix the Cat
 * The Earthworm Jim cartoon series
 * The Raccoons, an 80s Canadian cartoon that previously aired on CBC
 * The Simpsons
 * Rick and Morty
 * T.U.F.F. Puppy
 * The Pink Panther
 * The Ant and the Aardvark
 * Garfield
 * U.S. Acres/Orson's Farm, a comic strip created by Jim Davis (also creator of Garfield)
 * Animaniacs
 * Pinky and the Brain
 * Adventure Time
 * Regular Show
 * The Muppet Show
 * Ren and Stimpy
 * Popeye the Sailor
 * Bonkers
 * Sesame Street
 * Tom and Jerry
 * Droopy
 * Betty Boop
 * Transformers
 * Jem and the Holograms
 * My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
 * Mulan
 * Pocahontas
 * The Powerpuff Girls