“And actually, we realized it was so much wider
than you can even imagine.”
The series, which debuts Friday, consists of three
seven-minute vignettes per 23-minute episode.
They are mined from the almost 18,000 strips
cartoonist Charles M. Schulz left behind.
It’s an enchanting and endearing show; we
see Charlie Brown overcoming his nerves at
speaking in front of his class, and an epic game
of tag between Snoopy and Rerun that leads to
mild injuries and laughter.
Adults will recognize the classic visual style
and the world they read as kids: Kites still get
eaten by trees, Lucy’s psychiatric booth still
costs a nickel and Snoopy keeps flying
missions on his doghouse.
“There’s something to the timelessness of
Charles Schulz’s drawings,” said Mark Evestaff,
showrunner and an executive producer. “I feel
like this is the kind of show that we need now.”
The series’ writers were each given a large red
volume — nicknamed “the Snoopy Bible” — that
contained Snoopy-centric strips, and were told
to use them for inspiration.
“It was like, ‘How do you build on what he was
trying to tell the audience in four strips?’ We get
seven minutes,” said Betts.
If the writers were intimidated, so were the
artists, many of whom revere “Peanuts.”
“One of our storyboard artists would get
nervous every time they had to draw Lucy’s
psychiatry booth, just because it was this
heritage thing and there’s so much weight.
Everyone’s a little bit terrified,” said Evestaff.