Podcast: The Ride - Camp Snoopy

Episode Date: June 19, 2020

An overview of Peanuts in theme parks! Plus, we drag some maniac who doesn't like Snoopy! Keebler Elves Episode up at The Second Gate: Patreon.com/PodcastTheRide FOLLOW PODCAST: THE RIDE: https://twitter.com/PodcastTheRide https://www.instagram.com/podcasttheride BUY PODCAST: THE RIDE MERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/podcast-the-ride PODCAST THE RIDE IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/podcast-the-ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forever. Dog. Warning, the following podcast features depressed children, photo ops that take place in a dirty livery stable, and a really, really great pumpkin. Sit down on top of a piano and gaze lovingly at your podcast listening device. It's Camp Snoopy on Podcast The Ride. Welcome to Podcast The Ride, the theme park podcast that... My name is Mike Carlson. Joining me as always, Jason Sheridan.

You downplayed what that was, and I love it so much. Joining me as always, Scott Gierner as well. Did you love it as much as Jason? Oh, good grief um yeah i you know i did though because i like that i like things like that i like that i like snoopy sounds uh you know i like the music there's so much aesthetically uh you know just little cues that make me so happy about the peanuts universe so universe. So I'm excited we're going to talk about it today. Yes, there is. Yes, there's so many different iconic parts of it. I will say Snoopy's noises sometimes are unnerving to me.

Sure, sure. Like when he cries, it's so like grating and it's like makes you so sad. Oh, yeah. Like he like kind of whines. You know what I'm talking about? That specific Snoopy whine. I'd have to of whines you don't talk about that specific snoopy wine i'd have to hear you don't have a full soundboard over there do you uh i don't have a full peanut soundboard although we should just have that in general for the podcast where we can soundboard like a morning zoo and just have any sort of peanuts sound effect ready to go but only

peanuts exclusively peanuts but just peanuts yeah just peanuts i do i do think peanuts is like a good thing that encompasses like all all emotion like it is good for kids because it has so many emotions and i would go so far as to say i think it one of the few like big evergreen pieces of popular culture. You mean like it'll be around forever. Always relevant. It'll be around forever. You can give it to anyone at any age. And I think it like makes sense,

you know, it's got, it's got, it's got cute character designs. It's got existential dread. Yes. It's got a mix of things for all it's very uh sweet without being um cloyingly so uh yeah there's there's nice messages but it's not like a you know the most like moralistic in your face thing either it's just uh it's just perfectly

pleasant like who wouldn't love to take a little trip to to peanuts world as we're doing right now right sure um so we're gonna talk obviously about the theme park aspects but i assume yeah with a topic like peanuts we should probably do a little up top about just our you know growing up with peanuts i i like i like many kids watched the Halloween special and the Christmas special and read the cartoon strips. I am not a Peanuts nut, though. I'm not great because I think I just want to say that up front. I'm going to probably get things wrong about Peanuts because I know there are much like there are Muppet people. I know there are Peanuts people.

So I just want to say I'm not an expert. Is it so? I feel like I've seen less evidence of that. As I learned researching a little bit, there's a very exhaustive Peanuts wiki. But there's exhaustive wikis for all things on this earth. I think the Peanuts people probably skew older. Yeah, I think the Calvin and Hobbes people are more intense. Right, I think that's right.

But I found a lot of stuff online. And tell me if you found stuff like this. I found a lot of articles talking about Snoopy ruining peanuts. The hell? What? Yes. What are you talking about? So this, I guess we should just, I get this right out of the way.

Because this is one of the most fascinating things I've found. And it's not theme park related at all. But I found an article in The Atlantic. Okay. Defending Snoopy against criticisms of him ruining Peanuts. This is an argument needed to be made? There's enough anti-Snoopyism out there? I get, this is what I'm saying.

I opened up a whole world for myself of like peanuts opinions is it sort of um an elmo yes effect is that what the the idea that like it's it's silly and really the urkelification there's uh you know there's this whole the specific world here and now it's just become all about this single character who's silly and there's not as much i i if i had to guess what the line of thought was even though it's uh it's just become all about this single character who's silly and is not as much. If I had to guess what the line of thought was, even though it's dumb, as it is about all of those other ones, too, especially Urkel. Yes. It's Fonzie taking over Happy Days.

It's Jimmy J.J. Walker taking over Good Times. The Sector Keeper taking over Podcast the Ride. Exactly. There's people that believe the podcast was better before the city walk saga i think yes if you took snoopy out of the peanuts it would just be way too bleak like i think his antics and whimsy help balance out like you know the dread the ennui yes so yeah well a world without a cute dog to counterbalance everything that's like the trump white house yes exactly uh so i look i agree with you guys i'm just saying i stumbled upon like the intelligentsia of peanuts who there's a there's a multiple articles about Snoopy

ruining Peanuts. Basically, like, I think about 15 years into the strip is when they started doing more of, like, Snoopy's flights of fancy. Which is very Urkel-esque. Alter egos and little adventures that are entirely about him

and that leave the other Peanuts in the dust. This all predates Urkelism. Right. I think this is one of the earliest examples of sort of a character like superseding the other characters in popularity and sort of doing something that's just fun that more people probably respond to

than the actual like original mission statement of the TV show or cartoon strip well i i've read the first few years of peanuts and it it any comic strip that runs for decades and decades evolved significantly as it goes along and certainly charles schultz's art style really evolved as the years went on um that's true but i'd like to say when mike and you're talking about our personal connections to peanuts uh i don't not not that i prefer it but i really like the original peanuts designs where they're they're they're littler they're kind of like squatter and blanker looking like if you if you just google peanuts 1952 or 1953 do you guys know what i'm talking

about i know 100 know what you're talking about yes i have some in front of i think the issue with some of that is a lot of the characters aren't super fleshed out yet so a lot of them it's kind of hard to track some of them because they all look a little similar but it is it is different but appealing the art style. Yeah, I just find it, I wouldn't replace current Charlie Brown with it, but Charlie Brown, 1953, I can't stop looking at it. He's so cute.

I might have babies on the brain now, but he is more like a baby of Charlie Brown. That's true. The very first peanut strip is so funny like i know it's so it just hits the ground running do you guys have the first peanuts strips how i hate him is that it yeah yeah yeah here i'll text it i have it in front of me uh the first panel is charlie brown walking along and then two kids sitting on a step and a boy says well here comes old charlie brown good old charlie brown yes sir good old charlie brown how i hate him

it's so dark it's so dark uh yeah so that's what the purists were upset about Snoopy ruining is that darkness which look I can see some points about it but you know I know I have a fun dog adventure once in a while absolutely I also like puppy Snoopy a lot baby Snoopy is wonderful as well

my mom's no baby Aladar but yeah few things are my mom had the old dolls the old peanuts dolls based on more of like the first designs and they were kind of beat up or they're still beat up but when i was in japan i found they like there's a they're called like ultra detailed figures and i found original design peanutsanuts figures. They're new, but they're making them based on that original Peanuts design that you're talking about and not the newer ones.

How do you define this? What do you call it? Is it just original Peanuts? Because I kind of want some merch. Well, right. You know, I should look it up because I don't know if they even... Oh, you know what? I take this back.

There's a company called Super 7 that just started making the same type of designs with Peanuts, and they came out last year. So I wonder if they – I'm going to take a quick look. I wonder if they designate – like they make a specific, like, I don't know, brand or name for what the old-style peanuts design oh i say yeah yeah i got this in front of me now yes super seven um yeah very cool yeah and they come one of them comes in a package uh with the the strip that jason just read to us yes uh so i guess there's probably i didn't find too many like people arguing online about the differences, like what's better, new or old.

But I imagine those people exist, too. But they probably don't listen to the show, so they won't be upset with us. Sure. I do real quick want to read a couple just to illustrate the type of discourse around this. Christopher Caldwell wrote in 2000, a month before Charles M. Schultz, right? That's his name, died. He wrote an essay

in the New York Press titled Against Snoopy. He wrote, but certainly by the 1970s, Snoopy had begun wrecking the delicate world that Schultz had built. The problem, as Caldwell saw it, was that Snoopy was never a full participant in the tangle of relationships

that drove Peanuts in its golden age. He couldn't be. He doesn't talk, and therefore, he doesn't interact. He's there to be looked at. That's insane. That's insane. I've got strips.

I've got a ton of strips in front of me of like him interacting with with all of them like i don't that's bizarre right yes i agree i was just uh christopher caldwell what a what a miserable man and uh what do you think of the the minions oh my god we should find his minions i say although he might like them because there are inter relationships between them and they they do speak to some extent there is a tangled web as far as the minions relationships are concerned i will google his name and minions right now. Super 7 has an action figure that is Snoopy wearing Charlie Brown's shirt and a Charlie Brown mask. And that is a little unsettling.

Oh, I've seen that. Yeah, that is unsettling. Yeah. That's from a strip. Caldwell's Nightmare, you call it. The first article is like he's writing about like civil rights revolutions and stuff right now in Wikipedia. This is I assume this is the same man who wrote about Snoopy ruining the peanuts. Huh.

He people are upset, though, like in that store where I bought those peanuts in Japan. The floor is not called Peanuts. It's called Snoopy Town. And that's cited as a that's cited as a problem. And we're talking about Camp Snoopy today. So that's another thing. People are upset that Snoopy gets the brand over Peanuts, the name Peanuts.

And by people, you mean 12 people, nine of whom have since died. It's possible that like 12 intellectuals are really the ones who are upset about this and they'd be upset anyway yeah I mean I don't know are they upset about like changes in the Beatle Bailey strip

perhaps yeah they have a lot of thoughts on Gasoline Alley and I want to say Peanuts is not King Features Syndicate. It's United Features Syndicate. Yes. At least it was when Schultz was making it.

I don't know if it's changed hands now. But it is as long as it's a syndicate. I don't trust a comic coming from a non-syndicate. Yes. It's a syndicate, which I, of course, think of the Sinister Syndicate, which is another version of Spider-Man's multi-villain gang that tries to stop him. But no, these are just nice companies that want to put comic strips, cartoon strips out into the world. Why does the Green Goblin get the attention over the rest of the Sinister Six?

We've overlooked their tangled web. Right. I mean, they would be upset like Hobgoblin would usurp Green Goblin's glory. Because Hobgoblin was newer, but he's just like an orange version of the Green Goblin. So there would be anti... Christopher Caldwell will write about Hobgoblin, I assume, soon. About the injustice that was done to the green goblin yeah yeah well then i'll put a flaming bag of poo on his door that's

what i'll do all right i hate this guy this guy's a stick in the mud he's to be to be pranked until he can't face the public anymore i'm gonna carry this guy you're gonna become like a real bully hi yeah is this guy around can i see does he have a twitter account i'm gonna start responding to everyone but like with the most anti-intellectual thing i could say um let's see he is i'm gonna try to find his twitter his first credit on wikipedia was editor at the weekly standard which is kind of uh right wing kook publication i think more like the weekly more like the weekly shit turd yeah take that caldwell yeah boy oh he's gonna rue the day he ever wrote something that

scott heard about two decades later snoopy is there to be looked at i mean that's yeah that's what i'm doing i'm doing that too yeah that's true he's right he's right about that yeah not every not every statement that dumb old Caldwell makes it's that far off base oh man I just found another anti-snoopy quote by a different writer I shouldn't read it but I have have to. I am getting upset. Let's get to the fun ice shows. Hold on, hold on. I have to do it.

I gotta hear it. Daniel Mendelsohn put it in a piece in the New York Times book review. Snoopy represents the part of ourselves, the smugness, the avidity, the pomposity, the rank egotism. Most of us know we have, but try to keep decently hidden away all these psychos would be the people going like we've got to push on to baghdad

that oil is our like it's in between their in between their warmongering pieces they're writing about how it's like snoopy is a piece of shit this is insane hey you man you lee mendel suck oh it was daniel oh never oh wait lee is a oh i'm sorry i think lee mendelsohn is oddly it's the same name i think lee mendelsohn might be a a snoopy or a snoopy a peanuts producer i think wait is he the opposite of Mendel Sucks. I have that name in my head. I think it might be right. So, sorry, Daniel.

It's Daniel Mendel Suck. Yes, Daniel Mendel Suck. Yeah, for sure. That's so weird. Yeah, the producer of all, because I was just looking up, oh, my God, who passed away on Christmas of 2019. Oh, my God. Wow.

It was a total mistake to say he is the one who Mendelsohn's because this guy, the opposite of, because I was reading about how did Vince Giraldi, the wonderful musician buying all the peanuts music, get involved. And it was that this producer just like heard some of his jazz on the radio and like, I don't know,

it should be him. And then you want to do it. And two weeks later he called and just put his phone up to the uh put the phone up to the piano and started playing the iconic uh linus and lucy that we know today wow that's great yeah we'll get a little we'll get some more of the magic uh very soon on the podcast don't worry we'll get we're gonna get away from this this negativity this is uh this intellectual this is like this populism. This is like people who like the Beatles but hate wings.

Yes, exactly. What? It would be funny. No. I don't accept that at all. What are those people? What do you mean? On which side? Oh, no. I just like wings a lot. Yeah, hell yeah. Fuck yeah. You like wings and you like Snoopy as you should. Also, I just like wings a lot. Yeah, hell yeah. Fuck yeah. You like wings and you like Snoopy, as you should.

Yeah. Also, I think of wings as just being nice, you know? I don't think of it as very divisive. Yeah, I don't know how you could have an agenda against wings. I don't know. And it is only snooty journalists. It's the exact same syndrome. Only a snooty journalist.

Because anyone else would just go, Eh, that's fun. Yes, it's crazy. I meanul mccartney's solo career get he got so much shit and if you go through it it's like of course there's some schmaltzy garbage in there but like the majority of it is good he was paul mccartney it's not like he changed from the year the couple years in the beatles he was just making like good pop songs i don't know what people what people's problem was the schmaltzy garbage didn't really start till like three years ago my valentine my valentine okay he has a song called my valentine for his current wife uh and he we saw him at dodgers a couple years ago and he played my valentine and i've never seen so many

people go to the bathroom at once. It was in the middle of the show. He sat down. Everyone was losing their mind. It's hit after hit after hit. It's like 15 hits in a row. You're as high as possible. We're lucky and had very good seats that year. And he plays My Valentine, and it was just people

running to the bathroom. Bathroom's flooded. Suddenly on the field, just a torrent of yellow, and it was just people running to the bathroom. Bathroom's flooded. There was suddenly on the field just a torrent of yellow and it swept Paul away and he wasn't able to finish the concert. Whoops. Oh, boy. Oopsie-daisy. Whoopsie.

Paul, you have to stop playing My Valentine. It's ruining the plumbing systems of all the cities you're performing so sorry what keeps happening is that what those little flood seas are yes you have to look i understand you want to play it for dancy if you want to start the show with my valentine maybe because they won't have a full bladder at that point no so be my own opening act you mean that's fine if that's if that's what you need to do. But you cannot have My Valentine be played any more than like five songs into the show. I think I'm going to play it seven times. Paul.

That's just Paul. That's just Paul. So, yeah, My Valentine. So, yes, he's got's got look i don't know if any i think that's gone i think that's mostly gone except for like like grizzled like 60 year olds who are still like hung up about wings and stuff being bad i think we're arguing a point that was that should have been argued in 1978 yeah we're mad this is an issue that was maybe settled before we were born um we're still in the jungle fighting the war and the war is over nobody told us nobody told us we're still

trying to well this is this is like um the the peanuts arguing i could see happening because it feels very comic shop arguing but it's the it's the very niche of niche like it's the narrow portion of the comics world because most like classic comic strips have like the the big ones have collections from like fan of graphics or drawn and quarterly which has a lot of art you know uh uh you know acclaimed graphic novels too and a lot of those, you know, acclaimed graphic novels, too, and a lot of those people have very strong opinions about, like, Little Lulu and Gasoline Alley.

Sure. Yes, I mean, we have strong opinions, too. We know that, but ours are better opinions. Ours are better opinions in general. Yeah, of course. That's why you come here to listen to our better opinions. Better opinions. I do. I don't want to go right back to wings. I just looked down and realized I'm wearing a wings jet shirt.

Yeah. I didn't realize that. As we talked about wings, I was sporting the merchandise. When I just looked down and I'm in a full Snoopy bathrobe and slippers. I assume Jason as well. Oh, I am in my full red baron gear as I am every podcast recording you got the goggles

fogged up by the time this is over okay the goggles fly off my head as I start going into Snoopy's extensive family tree we're gonna need some fan art of that. That's all I'll say.

Don't want to beg, just saying, putting it out there. You got quarantine time. Let's see Jason in the goggles. And Scott in the robe, too. Yeah, well, I'll just do that and post a picture. I'll do my own fan art. That's good.

That's a good point. Well, what? Is there more misery? No, I think, I mean, there is, but that's the g's a good point um well what is there more misery uh no i think i mean there is but that's that's the gist of it and i that's just what i was i kept running into which i found fascinating uh research stuff odd and especially because that the snoopy opinions at this point boiled down to mostly like a three-year-old going snoopy because you know in the in the theme parks especially the presence is very little kid i mean i think that's the is there a peanuts attraction or show that isn't for the youngest children yeah that's a good question i didn't see one i mean

there's a lot of there's different the peanuts are in a lot of different places in theme parks. It's a very confusing corporate breakdown where, you know, we obviously know it primarily from Knott's Berry Farm, which we're close to in our beloved bee park. It is also currently in Cedar Point. it's in carowinds it's controlled by the cedar fair organization um can we but was also oh sorry i i was gonna say i can go into this more i have the timeline on this sure sure oh yeah go for it um so camp Snoopy, the Camp Snoopy area, Snoopy first showed up at Knott's in 1983. And so it was there first. And the Camp Snoopy area at Knott's is very good. A lot of big trees and like fun rides.

And there's a big cave you can walk through and then when knots bought uh knots got bought by cedar fair in 1997 they were able to adjust the agreement the licensing agreement so that it could be used at all the cedar fair parks and the timing was very helpful uh down the line because um cedar fair would start to absorb a lot of the former paramount parks so the snoopy stuff would go on to replace a lot of um uh nickelodeon play areas and uh in some cases uh i remember this specifically at doherty park replaced um bernstein bear play areas as well oh interesting but then also and we're jumping all around we'll go ahead individual ones but at the mall of america the theme park in the center of the mall of america was camp snoopy and then that got replaced by nickelodeon stuff so yes that's nickelodeon anduts have been at war for many years.

It's been a turf war, really. And I don't know who's win. I think Nickelodeon might be win. I think there's more probably Nickelodeon theme park presence, which we'll have to get to at some point. Yeah, and the American Dream Mall is Nickelodeon, right?

Oh, that's right. Yes, indeed. Yeah, we've been, we also have, that's part of the, the sector keeper there has also made us, wants us to. Yes, indeed. Yeah, we've been, we also have, that's part of the, the sector keeper there has also made us, wants us to go do that eventually

as well. Oh, that's right. And we should say Camp Snoopy is not Planet Snoopy. They're different. Only Cedar Point has both Camp Snoopy and Planet Snoopy. Most parks have Camp Snoopy or Planet Snoopy.

Wait, it has both separately? Apparently, from I saw some things, and I could be wrong, but at least Wikipedia was saying Cedar Point has both. And what's the difference? It's indecipherable it i think there might be a little more space kind of stuff although mike you and i saw some of a snoopy space show at a camp snoopy at the knots camp snoopy before so i think it all just kind of you know they they might rename some stuff planet snoopy when they give it a fresh coat of paint or add a couple more new rides but also then confusing it even more

so so peanuts are usually in these non-disney universal parks but then in universal studios japan there is a kids area called universal Wonderland, which is home to Sesame Street, which is also all across, splatter all across Theme Park Universe. Sesame Street, Hello Kitty, and Snoopy Studio are things at that. So weirdly, only in Japan, it's a Universal property.

Yes, because the licensing agreement, Cedar Fair only operates parks, I believe in America. Maybe there's one Canadian Cedar Fair park. I could be wrong. But mostly in America. Right. It's a big, confusing web.

It's definitely hard to chart. You made it more confusing knowing that there's camps and planets right next to each other. Yes. And then there's also, like, by the Schultz Museum, there's, like, an ice skating rink as other. Yes. And then there's also like by the Schultz Museum, there's like an ice skating rink as well. Yes. Well, here, this might be, I can explain some of this stuff that,

because I didn't know the connection between, I didn't know why all the ice skating in not just, I mean, obviously in like in the Christmas special, that's so iconic, but then, you know, Knott's has been doing Snoopy ice shows for a very long time. And I think it's all a product of Charles Schultz growing up in Minnesota. So having a very skate centric existence, but since 1969 in his home, in his town of Santa Rosa,

he has owned no longer because he's passed away but owned it still his family operates uh this place which is what's the official name redwood empire ice arena but then it's it's casually called snoopy's home ice yeah on the website it's snoopy's home ice unless that's just a specific part of the website. But I'm looking at the website. That's Snoopy's Home Ice. And, of course, it has a place to eat as well, which is called, of course, the Warm Puppy Cafe. Adorable.

So cute. It's got a fireplace. That sounds so lovely. And the whole thing is very Swississ alps themed it's that soul vang madonna inn kind of vibe which i always like anywhere in this world with the matterhorn too uh love love i love 60s swiss alps stuff always it's great and i don't know if you found this fact uh but in 1973 shultz and his wife divorced and a month later he married genie cde, a woman he met at the Warm Puppy Cafe. Whoa!

He built his own pickup spot. That's right. Wow. That's interesting. So then the ice skating connection is also what led to the entire Knott's relationship, because it was

in 1982 that they were poking around like well we don't do a lot with ip and you know it might be fun to try to do something with snoopy but they had to approach schultz and he was interested because he has such a big ice skating connection and his daughter is an ice skater i think his whole family are ice skaters so just kind of in him trying to seal the deal he said all right if you do the show could my daughter play snoopy and that wow that pushed it over the finish line and and then that show went over so well they decided to expand and do this uh do this whole area so there wouldn't be i don't think any peanuts or snoopy in theme parks anywhere if not for this this tie to ice skating wow that's interesting do you do you think that ties directly to the snoopy on ice show

yeah oh completely i mean that's right that's what i'm saying they they were they did a a knots they did a snoopy on ice show i misunderstood, I misunderstood. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yes, before they built the area. That was the very first pillar of this relationship. Of course. That makes too much sense then. Mm-hmm. Interesting.

Yeah. So we can thank this series of events for us seeing Snoopy dance to gangnam style in an ice show a couple years ago yeah that is that is right yes yeah you and i's first theme park hang yeah that was that was kind of the highlight of it um that was extremely exciting front row at the ice show we were getting hit with ice shavings oh i forgot we were front row. That's right. Excitedly ran down to the front row of Snoopy on ice. Better seats than McCartney for a better show. It didn't have any My Valentine in it. No My Valentine.

There was a Weird Al song in it, I believe. Was Eat It in it, maybe? That sounds right. I think it was Eat It and it was like they were throwing stuff in and out of the refrigerator. And then the big closer was gang of a gang of style done on ice skates which that's not a dance that that little gang of styles step in place uh doesn't really lend itself to ice skates in particular so no it was a very impressive physical feat on the part of the skaters yeah very impressive great show so yeah ice skating and

obviously like kids ice skate in the peanuts christmas special yeah which i guess is a reflection of his minnesota upbringing uh which is very which then also his minnesota childhood is why he ended up in the Mall of America. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. And why I think it was considered a blow to the Mall of America to have to shift to the Nickelodeon IP because I think people really liked

that it was a Minnesota native property. Right. I'm looking at Snoopy's home ice website and there's a live webcam of the ice. Now, we are still recording this in social distancing era. You can just watch the ice. I'm assuming no one on it. I don't see anyone in the shot, but the rink is lit up, and it's got a timestamp on the bottom, which is the exact time we're doing this.

And I guess, yeah, I guess anytime you want to go. There's something next to it called the Charlie Brown Cam that is not open. It doesn't work. So I don't know what that is, but the ice cam is working, and you can see into the building right now. I'm very excited. So we'll be recording this and we'll talk about other things. And then in 20 minutes, you'll go, oh, my God, I just checked the ice cam again. There's been a murder.

There's blood on the ice. I'm the only witness to it. But you like looked away when it happened. But you're seeing other figures sneak around. So now it becomes like a clue scenario. But you looked away when it happened, but you're seeing other figures sneak around. Oh, right, right, right. So now it becomes like a clue scenario. There's eight different people skating away from a body on the ice. The murder may happen.

It may be happening at the Charlie Brown cam, the one that's not working. Maybe they disabled it to get away with the murder. Yeah, like an Ethanhan hunt style imf team has disabled the charlie brown cam so we cannot look cannot see what they're going to do on the ice cam wait a minute the charlie brown cam was previously used in epstein's cell oh no oh no two guards there's no record of the Charlie Brown can. This conveniently broken, named after an adorable character, camera. And the two guys who were working there weren't even like guards.

They were just people they found off the street. And they said, hey, can you come in here and watch this for a couple minutes? Sounds good. I like peanuts. Sure. So weird. I like peanuts. Sure. So weird. Oh, man. Well, yeah.

Keep an eye on any potential wrongdoings. I will have it open in the corner here. It means after we're done recording, too. I think you owe Snoopy's home ice being an unpaid security guard. Now that you know about it. You know what? I'm going to throw it up. I have a little TV here now that I've been using to monitor like as a monitor i'm gonna throw it up on the monitor

and i'll take a photo of it to let you guys know that i'm just watching the ice cam for any wrongdoing we need to take shifts no no no i want to tell you okay yeah i only trust want to do it. Okay. Yeah. I only trust myself to do this. I think somebody needs to watch it because I don't want something to happen to this place. Yeah, I know. You want to go to that warm puppy cafe when all this current crap is over? Exactly. I'm looking at the menu right now. Oh, if I mention this flyer, I can get a free coffee, tea, or soft drink with any meal.

Wow. This place is great. Jason,ason you want to list some of the the items you can get there some of the food oh you can get the schroeder sourdough breakfast sandwich wow um uh let's see the home ice favorite turkey and swiss on sourdough lettuce tomato and quote the best crunchy dill pickle on the side you can get the good grief grilled cheese that's good you can get it's a good burger charlie brown oh that's great this is great remember you know sometimes we run into these things where they we're excited about some themed restaurant and then they didn't theme the menu. I was, I was really worried about being let down here.

Thanks. Do a warm puppy cafe. You got it right. It's peppermint patty, hot chocolate. That's good. Wonderful. Yeah.

But fucking if fucking Caldwell went there, he'd be like, the Snoopy sub is not a substantive meal it has almost no nutritional value uh yeah and then like you know uh bill crystal would say why why doesn't snoopy's brothers and sisters have any representation on the menu where is the olaf uh chowder well i mean maybe that's a good oh sorry okay i was gonna say i found uh another fact about caldwell his 2009 book reflections on the revolution of in europe which deals with increased Muslim immigration to Europe received a mixed reactions.

Cool, man. Sounds good. He probably gets mixed reactions from ladies when he gets in a bed with them. Yeah. Take it to him. That's right.

Take it to him. Do you think you ever like in, in a book about something like that? Do you ever just like, he does a chapter on Snoopy just because it's still bothering him? He just tries to like shoehorn Snoopy into any argument he's making. The postscript is about the menace of Woodstock. Woodstock is a hat on a hat. Two Elmos.

Two Elmos. Too many, even more antics than Snoopy. Disgusting. Well, then, yes, truly, what would he think of Snoopy's relatives? I mean, he must despise these characters. And this is, I mean, this is maybe a good transition point. Because, Mike, when you wanted to talk about Peanuts for an episode, I know you have a longstanding affinity for the aforementioned Olaf and Spike, but I'll let you take it from here. Yeah, so I realize, okay, I don't want to make this even more negative.

In that article, it claims that Schultz believes creating these characters was a mistake. What? What? What? Come on. Okay. So it says in 1980s. Okay. So basically, yes.

Snoopy, after a while, they introduced his brothers and sisters. And I guess let's, I like the brothers and sisters. I think most of us like the brothers and sisters. I will say as a kid, I was a little creeped out by Spike. Spike is like his brother who lives, he has a long mustache, and he was kind of like a drifter. Yeah, Spike lives outside of the desert town of Needles, California, and he's definitely a little squirrely looking, for sure. He has almost, his mustache is sort of cactus spike esq it's a very prickly looking mustache and a real dirty hat it was a very dirty like yeah

hat that like seemed like somebody stepped on and he put it back on his head so as a kid i don't know that i trusted spike um but i like spike now and we'll talk a little bit when jason and i went last because there was a peanut celebration at knots and we went to an event in january and we tried very hard to get a photo with spike and it was so hard and we didn't do it he kept like he kept going on breaks there were the line was too long like we tried three tried three times, Jason, am I right? Yeah, we tried so many times and kept seeing the same employees, probably, to tell us that, like, Spike has to take a break now. It's possible they saw us coming and kept making up excuses why Spike wouldn't take a photo with us.

Yeah. spike wouldn't take a photo with us yeah uh so wait and so spike is is new at that knots this year i i'm not sure if he's new this year but they were really seeing an article indicating that okay i think it is i think that it was his debut at this peanuts celebration so that might have been some of the mania you were witnessing sure right well he also had a silent disco we did not get to see the silent disco either what what did that was silent disco you don't know about these things this is a thing where a dj plays music but everyone's got wireless headphones on so it just looks like a bunch of people. Yes. So it's one theme to Spike. Why does he have a, why would he be a silent disco guy?

I mean. Oh, he likes, he likes to party. I think he's maybe like a Coachella guy because he lives out in the desert. He lives in Needles, California. Which, side note from my looking into Schultz trivia, Schultz grew up in Minnesota, but his family spent one year in Needles, California. Right. So when he created Spike in 1975, that's when Spike came along. Yes, he was inspired by his firsthand knowledge of Needles, California.

Bizarre. Wait, now I'm looking at footage of this silent disco, which is packed. Everybody's in like glowing headphones. This is like one of those pieces of footage that's so distressing to watch deep into the COVID crisis. It's bizarre. It's bizarre to me to look at this footage. Like so many teenagers all jammed together in this little space,

all with headphones that were handed to them by a theme park. And it's weird to look at that and then look down and see the date 2020 just doesn't seem right i think that is the thing during this your brain starts to like forget that stuff was made before because like i was watching yeah i was watching i i decided to watch 10 minutes of lily hammer because i never seen it before cool and he's trying and like look you know it's it's the ultimate comedic setup an american gangster in norway um but he's trying to bribe people and he was like putting like touching money and handing money and i like my brain kept being like oh you gotta he's better wash his hands after that. And I was like, no, it's before. It's before.

Yeah, I'm projecting it onto every single thing that I watch, absolutely. I'm going to go ahead and say, I never have to go back to handshakes. Except for like close friends. Like I never need to do handshakes again. Because you either get really squeezed by like some aggro guy,

or you get a very wet, handshake and there's no common ground and i'm good i'm done i'm done i think we leave that in the before times uh can i say i think this is a bridge that i feel comfortable burning um okay when you say limp wet handshake uh okay let me just say on the record that the limpest, wettest handshake I ever received in my entire life was from Jamie Kennedy. In some bizarre setting, I met Jamie Kennedy one time. And there's no question. It was like 50% limper and wetter than any other hand I ever shook. And if handshakes are a thing of the past, the main thing I will associate it with is Jamie Kennedy andedy and how dripping wet he was wow that is wow gross that is a revelation that's is this gonna become clickbait

am i gonna see this is this gonna bite me some again i think i feel comfortable burning the bridge and hey i'm just stating facts i'm not casting aspersions on malibu's most wanted i just i shook his hand and that's what i could tell you what if we like what if like they bring like the original star tours back but it's jamie kennedy's voice and we want to have him on the show um i guess then i will be that will be one of his conditions uh that that bastard scott with the overly dry hands will not be... I will speak to you, Mike and Jason, but not to that Caldwell-esque judgmental freak, Scott Gairdner.

All right, that's fair. So, yeah, so in this situation where we have to interview Jamie Kennedy, then you will sit this one out. And Jason and I will right now on the record say, I think he probably has a great handshake. Such a fan. Such a fan.

I'm such a... Moisture. I think his hand is probably the right moisture. I think it's like perfect kind of. It's almost like you're feeling, like you feel comforted when you're in his hand. That's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking that maybe my hands are just,

were always too dry. They were just brittle and chalky. No one will ever know again. We'll never shake hands again. It's like being in a hot tub and then getting in a regular pool. And it's so cold, but it's not really that cold. It just seemed extreme. Yeah, yeah, you're right.

Or it's possible that, why haven't I put this together? It's possible that I haven't i put this together it's possible that i was getting the ultimate x do you think right before i came in the room he dipped his hand in a bucket of water and i had been x'd and i didn't realize it until now and maybe the show got canceled and then that never aired yes it would have been the last one his last prank they ever did the very wet handshake they ran out of money towards the end and it was just him dipping his hand in a bucket and shaking people's hands the other thing i remember is that he he laughed like he was a member of griff's gang that during this wet hands shake he was like this sounds like a scene from son of the mask

like this seems like he's like he's like being wacky extra wacky or something uh yeah i mean it'd be a funny scene but not funnier than the scene where the son of the mask performs a rip and rendition of is just too good to be true. Can't take my eyes off of you, but it's a rap version. You've seen this clip. I know I have not seen what you're talking about. Obviously, I like it already, but I've never seen it. It's they're trying to do the like, you know the the equivalent of the like samba club scene or whatever the first one but they do it with a rap version of that song like you're just too good to

be true okay take my eyes off of you i love you baby oh my god it's it's something bug main favorite oh well yeah i believe that that sounds right right anyway let's get let's get off of this back to someone else with what who looks like he has a wet handshake. Spike the Dog. He probably has a wet handshake. Probably. Dogs get wet. It happens.

Yes. They get wet. They sweat different ways. He lives in Needle. It's the desert. It's hot. Yeah. So he's the most popular, I think, of all those characters.

He was the first. I think that's right. Yeah. So he's the most popular, I think, of all those characters. He was the first. I think that's right. Yeah. But OK, so the rest of the characters, Snoopy has a sister named Belle and she probably has my favorite character description. I'm assuming you're looking at it. She is Snoopy's sister and has an unnamed teenage son. I read that and I texted you. This seems like something you came up with. Snoopy's sister who has a teenage son. An unnamed teenage son. Unnamed.

And he's long. He's real long. He's tall. He's long and tall. Did she forget to name him? It's unclear. Okay, Snoopy has a brother named Marbles. He was from...

Bell was from 1976. Marbles is from 1982. He is the smart one, as Jason said. And then we got to the... I guess probably our second favorite, I'm guessing olaf yes he's a little stout guy seems like it's a little chubs 1989 he is the family misfit and was originally referred to as ugly olaf which i do not care for i do not care i think it's too mean when they introduce him

they introduce him as winning the ugly dog contest and lucy is very excited but olaf clearly does not care for it oh yeah go everybody people should go to peanuts.fandom.com and find this this is great lucy saying he won. Olaf won. Your brother won the ugly dog contest. And then it cuts to him and he says rats. Rats. Olaf is cute. First of all, he's not.

He's very cute. Yeah. What is what's up with his face, though? It is. These like big. They like liver lips. McGraw like big droopy lips. Is that what I'm looking at?

Yeah, there's one picture. I think he's drawn differently depending on the one picture on the wiki. He has got a weird mouth. I will say I will agree with that. I'm looking at a color photo, which I think is from the special Snoopy's reunion that gets all these characters together. And in this's got a bit like a bright red tongue sticking out so maybe that's he's just got a perma tongue a lot of the time right it's but he's a again he's a dog certain dogs have a tongue that hangs yeah so that's do you um do you uh who what dog of subi's family who do you think is the closest to your dog, Edwin? Well, Edwin is a very, he's a small dog, but he is long.

I'm constantly commenting about how long he is. So I guess maybe he's most like Belle's unnamed teenage son. Then in that respect, as you said that he walked into the room, I swear he can't hear you. But he walked into the room and is just sternly looking at me now. Like, just really focused on me in a strange way. Boy, I miss Edwin. We've been recording remotely for so long. Yeah.

I will say Edwin does not miss the podcast. Oh, I bet. I bet not. Does the listeners know this, how stressed out he gets just when the equipment comes out yeah i don't know if you said that yeah we figured out i mean he he does not like people coming over it stresses him out uh and he has gotten to the point where if i just set up microphone stands in the living room he starts humping my leg like furiously and it's uh with things like that you would assume the dog would get more comfortable and used to it he's gotten worse he has not he has not gotten used to that so he

during quarantine he's just living it up do you feel comfortable naming the guest who edwin had the biggest amount of trouble with i think i know what you're gonna say but there's been a couple people there have been a few but i i just just I think the listeners might most want to know that he had a little bit of trouble with a certain bad man. Yes, it happened. Nick Mundy. Mundy moves fast. So what happens with Edwin is that you kind of have to come in slow. You say hello to him. He'll kind of walk over to you and sniff you. And even even then sometimes he'll do what i call like a cheap shot he'll kind of try to nip at your heel a little bit or like grab a little bit of pants because he's a coward um but i think one of the first or second times that monday came in monday just barrels right into into the apartment

and edwin went right at his pants. And like pulling on his pants a little more aggressively than normal. And Monday's funny. He's like, it's fine. It's fine. Everything's fine. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Just slow down and maybe greet the dog. It's fine. Don't worry about it. It's fine. No, can't do it.

I'm on the move, duder. So yeah, when Monday comes over... He nipped a little at Rachel Bloom, I think, right? I think so, yes. We made her talk about a water park for hours, and a dog nips at her, and a week later, she's, like, doing bits at the Emmys.

What was the classier affair? I assume... Yeah, and she did all the right she like was like gentle with him and then like yeah he's very specific about like where you pet him sometimes jason has even done this and he likes jason he wags when he sees jason but jason you were petting him like on his sides sometimes he gets weird about his sides uh yeah. He humped Mary Holland's leg, too. It was accidental, though, because he doesn't do that with strangers. But what happens is somebody buzzed the door right as she came in. And he was, like, comfortable with her.

And he gets freaked out by that buzzer. And he just, like, on instinct, just, like, started humping the nearest leg he could find. And I was like ah god and i like pulling him off i pray that one day edwin uh has the possibility of humping michael eisner i mean well no we really hit the big time how many great things about michael eisner having to come over to my apartment. Yeah, we've never talked about that that's how it would be, but I mean, yeah, it's, you know,

Obama went to the garage. Yeah, so why not? Yeah. And to be surprised by Edwin, open his leg and say, hello? I mean,

we wouldn't even need to do the interview. Just film that. Just him having to buzz in here, getting out of like a car. He's like 82 years old. Like, just him going, what am I doing here? And then Edwin humping him.

We don't even need, we can just tell the story on the podcast and it'll be just as good. Well, I think you'd just leave anyway, so that's probably true. That would be our only option. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Okay, let's...

Alright, Olaf. Yeah, those are the siblings and then Andy is the last one who appeared in 94. He is shaggy. He's a shaggy dog and always appears with Olaf. Yeah. And the family's been in his World War I flying ace fantasy. Wait, there's two more. Oh, am I missing two?

Oh, I know. Oh, yes, I see. I see. Yes, yes. Okay. You go for it. Go for it. Yeah, so this is very, very specific.

There's two more siblings, Molly and Rover, and they are TV exclusive. They first appeared in Snoopy's reunion and then kind of like later on mentioned in the comic strip, Snoopy's dad says he gets like a birthday card or a Father's Day card. He says all eight of them signed it. So eight would be Snoopy, Spike, Belle, Marbles, Olaf, Andy, and then Molly and Rover. Molly and Rover as names, it does feel like those are TV people phoning it in.

Kind of simple names. Less fun than Olaf, yeah. You're saying it's a Helen test situation. Yeah, kind of, kind of. I mean andy's kind of simple too but i mean marbles is very fun olaf is very fun bell is unique um a lot of these strips with the first i mean these are definitely worth looking up the way these characters get introduced because there's some very funny moments like when snoopy writes a letter to Charlie Brown about Belle and his nephew and says, as I said, my sister's son is a disappointment. This is, okay.

Yeah, sorry. Marbles, sorry. When Marbles shows up and goes to Peppermint Patty's house accidentally, and there's a strip, and she says, so you're Marbles. I know your weird brother.

Like, I don't know why. That's just so great. That stuff, that sort of flies in the face of what the people are saying about the strip getting less dark, or that all like kind of mean, weird humor. Yeah. Not like completely light and frivolous.

Yeah. Yeah. But there's a lot of odd, like mumbly darkness in one of the things that I watched because I wanted to see something good that Spike factored heavily into. And, you know, I think he's mainly from the strips, but he has a very big role in the, the special Snoopy's getting married, Charlie Brown,

which just that in and of itself, that it's about, you don't even get to meet her really. You just suddenly in the special, you've just heard the news that Snoopy's getting married to a poodle named genevieve genevieve so you know about genevieve already well i found an article called the 10 peanuts characters you've probably forgotten oh great uh on mentalfloss.com and genevieve is number three. Ooh. Oh, I'm so curious who tops Genevieve. Um,

I don't know. I don't have much to say about this special, except that it's nice to see where spike lives, which is in a cactus with a door next to a cactus. That is a mailbox where he gets the invite to Snoopy's wedding. And then he has to, he has no money. He's like a bum kind of so

he has to like do little odd jobs to have the bus fare he doesn't use a magical way to get to wherever the peanuts live he just needs bus fare so he has to be in a dog race which is very humiliating for him and he's just sitting on a

bus and then at the end you get to hear like a really sincere uh like wedding song sung by sally um who in this is one of the specials where sally is voiced by stacy ferguson aka fergie did you know that oh wow i didn't know that yeah fergie was uh was sally in a couple of them. So it's this wonderful, sincere, barely even referencing the dog thing. It's just a nice love song sung to two dogs by the singer of MILF Money. And then Genevieve ends up cheating on him with a golden retriever, and that's it. Wait, so I see here well i see snoopy's fiancee runs off with snoopy's brother spike what not in the special oh oh what that's

what the uh the mental floss says that's what it says a mental floss and then so snoopy's heart broken and he receives a letter from spike after that saying that the ex-fiance then ran off with a coyote. Genevieve! She gets around! I think that, okay, here, I think what the deal is that they cleaned it up for that special. That's too, that's too grim, yeah. But this was the strip, I think. This happened in the strip. Whoa, I mean, your

brother stealing your fiance at the wedding? That'd be a little dark yes this is crazy so that quote I was referencing earlier because they were talking about Schultz because Schultz said that he thinks he made a blunder and putting the siblings in but this is all

very heady dark stuff so I don't know what he's talking about he said he realized a couple years ago when I began to introduce Snoopy's brothers and sisters it destroyed the relationship that Snoopy has with the kids. I don't know that it destroys the relationship. This is just a different set of characters to have horrible things happen to them. Well, and I also loved getting to watch.

The fun is less like dogs getting dressed up and more watching Charlie Brown. Like, good grief. My dog's getting married. Watching him have to, like, organize a bachelor party, which happens. I mean,, good grief. My dog's getting married. Watching him have to organize a bachelor party, which happens. I mean, that's great. That's great Charlie Brown business. And that's like Merv Griffin Seinfeld. Like, yes, is it maybe the core idea of the original strip?

No. But is it great? Yes. Yeah. Things have to stretch. This is decades into Peanuts. We've got to have some fun. So here, I'll just read a couple of the characters that you probably forgot about.

Charlotte Braun. Do you guys know Charlotte Braun? Nope. No. In fact, I don't know many Peanuts characters with a last name. You mean Ava Braun's last name? Oh, wow. Charlotte Braun was written as the female version of Charlie Brown.

In fact, she looked just like him, except she had curly hair. She, too, was ostracized by her peers, but it was because she was loud and obnoxious, a fact she constantly pointed out during her appearance in the comic strip that's too fucked up for me and she was introduced in 1954 huh um i love brown brown the brown equivalent being brawn it's great yes i mean maybe they maybe they pronounced it brown but it's spelled brawn full disclosure that took me a second to get that word play i get it makes more sense to me now uh they're a little bit more about her in this in this article shortly after her introduction in 1954 schultz received a letter from elizabeth swain a young fan in pittsburgh who told him to get rid of braun because swain found the character annoying and unfunny

schultz wrote swain a letter saying that he would soon discard braun as requested he he added a touch of dark humor by saying that swain would have the death of an innocent child on your conscience he wrote that too are you prepared to accept such responsibility? Wow, Schultz rules. Wait, one more thing. Next to his signature, he included a sketch of Charlotte Braun with an axe stuck in her head. Wow.

Wow. Amazing research, Mike. She showed up in the... Braun showed up in the comic one more time, but then never returned. I have to go now. My planet needs me. Really?

Yeah. Whoa, that's amazing. That's really like letting fans drive it. That's some pre-release the Snyder Cut. Yes, it is. That was the original Snyder Cut. Oh my God. There's a character called Tapioca Pudding.

Is that a person or a dog? I like. Let me see. I'm looking. The images did not load on the website, so I need to find separate images. Here she is. She just kind of looks like Sally. So Tapioca Pudding

was introduced in 1986. She said that with her blonde hair, smile, and catchy name, her father believes they can make a million dollars by licensing her image for products like t-shirts, lunch boxes, and greeting cards. She was created in the 80s purely to be licensed

for use on products. It was like taking a jab at like cash grab characters wow her name as well as other hints throughout the story suggests that the real target of schultz's satire was probably a strawberry shortcake a character originally featured on a line of greeting cards satire with your merch. Amazing. Yes. He was doing some satire of

cash grab characters. This all made me like Charles Schultz way more. This is all awesome. Let's see here. Some of these aren't as good as the other ones. The goose eggs. Have you ever heard of the goose eggs? No. Some of these aren't as good as the other ones. The Goose Eggs.

Have you ever heard of the Goose Eggs? No. After Charlie Brown took a bite of his old nemesis, the kite-eating tree, he received a stern letter from the Environmental Protection Agency. Convinced he's headed to jail, Charlie Brown went on the lam. He met a group of Little Leaguers, Austin, Ruby, Leland, and Milo, who asked him to coach their team, the Goose Eggs. The kids are young and small.

The catcher's mask completely covers Leland's head. Milo can't even lift the bat to swing it. And Austin asks how he's supposed to get down from the pitcher's mound. So they're underdogs for sure. Of course, their first game is against Charlie Brown's friends, who refuse to play because they're afraid they'll step on the little kids. It's here that Charlie Brown learns he can go back home as the evidence against him was destroyed when the kite eating tree blew over in a storm. Charlie Brown is on the lam and meets a bunch of tiny kids.

What? See, OK, so this is one of my this is one of my big things is I think as much as I like the peanut stuff in the parks, I need a little more of this madness. Like, I want a little more weirdness, a little more ennui, you know? It's all pretty sanitized in the parks. That's very true so if that's our general that's what this is all this is saying is this is a our plus up

would be let's get weird peanuts into the parks yes there's a at least this one more I have to read because it's dark it's very dark character Emily in 1995 does anyone know Emily from from peanuts no uh charlie

brown met a girl named emily who asked him to be her partner in a dance class after they shared an enchanted afternoon charlie brown was smitten but at the next class emily was absent when charlie brown asked the instructor where emily is he's told there's no one there by that name. It turns out Charlie Brown was dancing alone and talking to himself the whole time. Emily was merely a figment of his lonely imagination. Dear God. Jeez.

Yes. Charlie Brown is so sad he creates a character in his mind that he believes is real. Wow. I think that plot is It's so sad he creates a character in his mind that he believes is real. Wow. Wow. I think that plot is in a TGIF show. I wanted to say it was Urkel, but it actually might be Step by Step, the invention of a ghost at a dance so you're not alone.

Yes. I wonder if Schultz, I mean, this was from 95. I wonder if he stole it from tgif it itself was a satire to show that he didn't like step by step um let's see okay there's peggy jean charlie brown and his girlfriend peggy jean met on the boat docks at summer camp in 1990 peggy jean gave Charlie Brown his first kiss, said she loved him, and wrote letters to him after camp was over. Sadly, he never received those letters. That's because upon meeting her, he was so nervous that he introduced himself as

Brownie Charles, a mistake he was too embarrassed to correct. So when the mailman tried to deliver Peggy Jean's letters, Sally turned them away, saying no one by that name lived at the address. Which, come on, Sally. That's pretty close to your brother's name. Sally, god damn it. Brownie Charles.

Which, by the way, Brownie Charles is a great name. Yeah, I'm going to use that as a pseudonym from now. I'm going to use that as like an alias. When you need to check into a hotel. Yeah, when I check in. When we're on the road doing shows. Yeah, Brownie Charles, I'll pay in cash.

Jason's too famous here in Pigeon Forge. Better go by Brownie Charles. Hopefully the listeners don't hear this and know to ask for Brownie Charles. They the listeners don't hear this and know to ask for Brownie Charles. They'll know the code. I'll have to use Charlotte Braun. So yeah, that's basically,

that's the next, that's it. There's a couple more, but they're not as good as those. Yeah. This is all great. It's nice to hear about this expanded universe, and I would like to see more of this in the parks. You know, if I could bring it back to theme park world and to Camp Snoopy, I think maybe the segue back in

is that there are, you know, there's a couple ways that the characters live, especially in the theme park world. There's, you know, there's the camp Snoopy rides and then there's these, there's little shows in a very small little outdoor amphitheater, which I find very charming. Um, because like, I, I'm the most familiar with the Halloween one. I think I saw it in person one time and it's, it's usually, it's the peanuts characters. And then one, uh,

actress who is not dressed as a peanut, um, who kind of leads them in some very mild choreography. And it's really nice seeing Charlie Brown with a Frankenstein head. You know, like just the adjust the green and the flat top shoved on top of his head and doing a really slow dancing to Ghostbusters. I believe we saw that the same day we saw the ice skating show oh yeah yeah yeah because there was a a thriller parody yes yeah yeah uh called like spooky night oh they changed it yeah they took out for a year and then put back that's how it yeah because it's like i believe it was like because it's a spooky spooky night that's right they did a parody to make it they like

scarified it but then just to a diff it's already scary right i don't know i don't understand either why changing monster mash to zombie mash right the lateral move yes i don't know if they like save some money that way i don't know what the rationale behind it was they have that yeah there's this little stage at knots and they do that show and they do that i think jason mentioned earlier space beagle they do the space show jason and i saw a little bit of space beagle when we were there in january they. Space Beagle was fun. Yeah, I like that. It's a similar setup, though.

There's like one human, three Charlie Brown characters that come in and out, and they dance to songs. And then what we saw, they had some fun Woodstock antics, too. They would pop up different Woodstocks around the theater. I don't know if that's new. I don't know if that's a plus- but they would do like some fun stuff with woodstock which i don't believe they did and when we saw the snoopy halloween show yeah because snoopy had gone to the moon and the aliens were lots of little woodstocks uh and that was great um there's

a yeah there's a snoopy in space like series of shorts on apple tv that i watched one of uh and i i thought like oh was that show connecting to this thing and then i'm like oh wait no half of the like over half of the snoopy lands in the parks are called planet snoopy so yeah duh make up snoopy in space thing but he went to space a good amount in the comic strip so well he has like a connection to NASA too yes yes he gets letters from NASA in the TV

show like Apollo 10 he was affiliated with the Apollo 10 mission do you know what I'm talking about what do you mean by affiliated all right there's here I had to find the article here. I completely forgot about this because they were like celebrating this

last year at Comic-Con. NASA and Peanuts celebrate Apollo 10's 50th anniversary. There was, let's see, the agency, like, he was like kind of the mascot for the mission, I believe. And, hold on, now I'm reading reading this is before the blimp because he's

also met blimp guy yeah life yes um yeah vamp vamp for a second while i just read real quick well let me uh what i was going to bring it around to and you you mentioned the woodstock thing there's a lot of little woodstock puppets that pop up in a show that i think maybe debuted this year that's on a bigger stage uh further into the park um called woodstock's music festival and i can't not read the these aren't original characters but of course snoopy had a lot of different uh guises you know joe cool among them and they introduce a lot of guises within this music this rock themed show uh why he he shows up as jimmy houndrix uh as as fido mercury yes to perform bone bone heme and rhapsody he uh there is a rap section where he appears as Sir Barks a lot. And the parody that they do there is just Snoopy got back.

They just keep it back. And he kind of like shows you his tail. So that's nice. A little, a little body. It's a tad body for me, but it'll do. And then Woodstock appears as bird cobain this is the woodstock music festival yeah yeah that's what they call it yeah yeah yeah uh um i uh do we think do we think uh bird cobain committed suicide or was he? I don't really want to explore any of these options.

All of these characters, these are all tragically killed. Yes. The pun bases of these names. And the one you haven't said had a bad end. The one you haven't said yet had a bad end, too. Oh, you're aware, Mike, of where i'm going with this oh yeah yeah i know i saw him yeah yeah yeah um because this show culminates in you know snooby keeps kind of disappearing and then reappearing in different guises and at the end of the show they want to

wrap it up with him but where is he uh and then suddenly a blast of purple light and the familiar beginning sounds of let's go crazy. And he comes out as paw Prince. I mean, Christopher Caldwell would be so upset if he saw paw Prince, he would be just his, the steam would be blowing out of his ears. If I could clockwork orange, Christopher Caldwell and just show him the full video of

woodstock's music festival yeah he would really every every snoopy i should actually just snoopy doing dancing to gangnam style in a 24-hour loop yes i think i have the knockout blow for Christopher Caldwell. Great. Good. Good. In 2020, he published a book called The Age of Entitlement, America Since the 60s, which seems to be mostly him complaining about the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Oh, my God. What? Yes. what yes and a review of the book quote uh from jonathan rosh uh if you think caldwell sounds

like bannon the self-appointed tribute self-appointed tribune of trumpian working class populism you're right so this guy sucks shit this guy's really bad we gotta make sure we gotta make sure it's the same guy oh yeah one guy just wrote a thing because he doesn't like Snoopy and then we put like shit on his grave it's like some conservative ghoul and we're just

running him down contributor to the Atlantic Monthly well I mean alright if it is the same person then that just goes to show that the this is the kind of monster who wouldn't like snoopy a goblin a living goblin spooky spooky guy guy i found the answer to the apollo 10 the apollo 10's missions call signs were the names of peanuts characters charlie brown and snoopy who became apollo 10's mission's call signs were the names of Peanuts characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy,

who became Apollo 10's semi-official mascots. And Peanuts creator Charles Schultz also drew mission-related artwork for NASA. Wow. So that's the space connection. And that's why they did those space cartoons and stuff. Real quick about Woodstock's music festival. I think, Scott, you started to say there's a bunch of little woodstock puppets in it and they pop up and they have little instruments like a little

trumpet or a little harmonica and that's just so great i mean it's so so good these little shows if just if anyone lists if anyone ends up at knots very funny if you go to Knott's a lot, you probably know about these little shows. But if you're just in town and trying to hit parks quick, do carve out the time to watch one of these charming little shows. I find them so delightful. Scott, did you find the show Beach Blanket Beagle? I didn't i i have uh uh there are some beach songs in the show blockbuster beagle but but these these are different things yeah you go ahead well i don't have too much i just that there's a few beach boys songs in there so i would i would think that beach blanket beagle

would be a big you'd be a big fan of it that does sound nice i was excited because blockbuster beagle uh has a big it's about uh snoopy wanting to make it in hollywood called well be damned and um he there's a big sequence around muscle beach where you get a mash-up of david lee roth's california girls and katie perry's california girls oh i like that I like that. So that is a ball. That's a blast. There are so many shows, especially during Peanuts Celebration. They have like a little...

Spike has obviously his disco. They have that little space show. They had... I think there was a Snoopy on Ice still happening? I mean, usually. Every time we've been there, we saw a Christmas show this year when we went to that christmas event right so like there's like four different shows potentially

running at the same time at knots maybe yeah between two and four i would say maybe more on during celebration mike you and i went down for it this year and kind of blitzed through it like we didn't see everything um the other thing that happened we tried to get on the train because they have little uh peanuts cutouts on during like scenes in the train like there's a scene of uh the daisy hill family which is snoopy and all his siblings that's their family band uh but we we tried to get on the train the train was down too so we couldn't get on the train we missed spike but but but but we did we did get the get the thing we came for the number one thing which i we haven't talked about yet which i've been

excited about is that we made a beeline for it. We walked around Snoopy taking pictures to get to this. We shoved Snoopy over to get to this specific photo op, and that was to get Jason with Pigpen in the livery stable. Oh, boy. It was great. It was mission number one. It was mission number one it was mission mission i have a photo with i i wanted a photo too i have a photo with pigpen and livery stable of course i'm not a crazy person i'm gonna

get that photo as well um so that yes they were really they had a lot of things to offer and that was number one on our list and we did it right away he gave us hugs he was so happy to see us like he was so feeling was mutual yeah he was we yes we hugged him he was dirty he was covered in soot but it didn't like stick to us um because they now operate that area as pig pens pig pen yes right so there are pigs in in there are actual pigs in pig pens pig pen yes right so there are pigs in in there are actual pigs in pig pens pig pen wait oh yes that's right there were yes that is right there were horses i think horses or donkeys they wanted to make sure that the smell was authentic when you meet pig pen they wanted that extra bit of imagineering there to know that if this was truly a dirty, messy child, that he would have some sort of unpleasant smell.

I don't want to put you on the spot, Jason, but it does seem like there's a particular affinity you have for Pigpen. Is there any way you could explain that, put your thumb on it? You know what I like about Pigpen? Pigpen always has a smile on his face and he's always fucking filthy and i just think that is such a great uh one two punch i just think that's so great there is a newer ride they they a few years ago um for the 30th anniversary when they were redoing um i think it was 2014 they would read it one of the calico rides and they redid a lot of the uh a little bit of the the camp snoopy for the 20th anniversary to

take out rides that had height limits that like adults couldn't go on to put in rides that families like there were no height limits everyone could go on and one of them is called pig pens mud buggies and i mean that's just that's so great well it's big man's not afraid to be himself i think is what what shines through there he might be the most yeah well adjusted of all the characters in a lot of ways well adjusted he's always got that big cloud around him he's very powerful like who can harness a cloud of filth like that but pig pen the the cloud of filth is almost like a sentient creature that can also like help pig pen out like there's a character in uh x-men comics called phantom x who has a nervous system that can like leave his body and turn into a ship yeah it's kind of the same thing with pig pen in that cloud of dust it's funny michael as soon as we start you said the cloud of dust is uh uh sentient i started

doing the mental math of can i describe phantom x in a very concise way but you did a great job thank you yes we both love phantom x he was created by grant morrison uh he's like french but not really french he's a gentleman french he's a gentleman thief uh and he has a nervous system that shoots out it kind of shoots out of his body and turns into a ship uh what do we say let's go around though let's go around the room here what is everyone who would you say your favorite Peanuts character? Would it be Pigpen Jason? I guess either Pigpen or just Snoopy.

I mean, it's hard to top the king. I mean, I love Charlie Brown too. Well, we're not saying, we don't have to put any of the other characters down, but if you had, maybe like when you were a kid, who appealed to you the most i think snoopy i had a lot of snoopy toys i had a lot of uh peanuts collections they were because you could just find them at like libraries trying to get rid of books or yard sales there was always peanut stuff for like

a quarter and i just had a ton of them i think i was i think i liked linus the best as a kid i think i liked linus because he wasn't as sad and i think i liked i liked the blanket for whatever reason i like the blanket too yeah i had a blanket as a kid that i was like very attached to i think everyone stressed me out a little bit except for linus fair yeah yeah i think um i think maybe now my answer is original charlie brown i think it is early 50s uh he's so cute i maybe i feel like if i the part of me that is not confident about things that i enter into it's like deep down you take away all the layers and there's a little more baby Charlie Brown in there. This little pensive, stressed out guy.

I texted you the pictures of those Japanese toys. Take a look at because they are truly the old design toys. Oh, gee. Oh, so they are. I like this linus a lot oh yeah i like the schroeder i was so excited to see those because those are the real deal old designs yeah yeah original charlie i think is my is my pick um so yeah that's i mean now do I like tapioca pudding? Yes. Do I like the goose eggs? Yes. I like all those characters.

And I like I like Snoopy's backstabbing fiancee, Genevieve. Yeah. So, I mean, are we thinking that they need to put in something? Maybe they need to get Genevieve into a show like you're at a show that is Snoopy's wedding and you kind of watched all that. You watch her, you know, walk out on him and then show back up with a new guy. And then Snoopy gets mad and the peanuts have to hold him back. She shows up with Spike. Yeah, let's just make it Spike.

Yeah, let's go further than the special. Yeah, I'd love that. She's kind of like, you you know she shows up playfully twirling his mustache around the biggest insult snoopy could have at his own wedding i mean if you went to a show at knott's berry farm called snoopy's wedding and then it had genuine drama in it it was a little more of a of a uh an immersive theater piece where your guests maybe you're even handed a backstory and you could help Snoopy, calm him down,

get him a drink, give him a number of a more suitable mate. Yeah, I think that they should lean a little bit. All the Snoopy and Peanuts stuff is just so strictly for kids. I mean, except maybe for Woodstock, which gets a little more of like an adult reference. And I think here and there in the show, obviously you said Snoopy's got back. That's a little bit, a little more adult. So I think lean into that a little. It's extremely offensive, yes.

Very, yeah. It upsets me. Lean into that a little bit more for what you're saying and give us some of these stories that people might not be as familiar with well you know the perfect place to do it is at the um uh scary farm like at the halloween events you know that doesn't mean these don't have to be literal horror shows but just you know if it's all adults let's just you know let's let's have there be real drama i got it it. So when Jason and I were at Knott's, they also have, you know, like how they have in the animation part of California Adventure, there's a spot where they teach you how to draw Peanuts characters. And I believe we drew Sally.

Is that right, Jason? We did draw Sally. Yes. And both of our, they both turned out very different. Yeah, I'm sure I have a picture of it somewhere. I probably have the actual drawing somewhere. But they should take that building at night and they should use a Pepper's ghost effect

and have Charlie Brown dance with Emily, his imaginary girlfriend. Oh, yeah. So you get like a little spooky like dance show with a ghost essentially the ghost of emily the projection in charlie's mind his ideal woman and you get to see his fantasy and then of course she's going to disappear and then we'll get to watch him sob for a couple of minutes and then he storms out at the end like that's his exit from the show and you think it's over but then she comes back right then and

like where did he go like if he had just waited it out she would have been back right and now she's now she's a practical character now she's like just a suited up like in a suit oh she's human she's a human well not well oh yeah maybe it's just a human woman she's not a character oh that's interesting yeah sure and then but and then she goes looking for him but she uses the name what was it brownie brownie charles yes yes brownie charles she's like i'm looking for brownie charles and then we all have to play along and say that what who are you talking about there's no such person in this theme park we all say that doesn't even sound familiar so it'll be one thing so whoever's like running the show before we'll be like so we you're going to be a very important part of the show there's going

to be a line you have to say at a very important part of the show now we're going to practice it along together can you say nobody with that name is here at this theme park and then we all practice it together and then we say that to emily and we prevent charlie from having love in his life and it's the most haunting theme park show ever achieved yeah scarier than any maze yeah because it's it's real fears it's the fear of being alone that's right especially at like age nine yeah being alone for your entire long life well that is you you survived Funcasts Around. On the darkest note.

On the darkest note. Yeah, I mean, check out Camp Snoopy if you're at Knott's or Planet Snoopy if you're at one of the other parks. They had some, real quick, they had a couple little touches, dark, not dark touches, but stuff I wanted to point out. They do make a kite eating tree for peanut

celebration that's very good and there is a standee uh child to teacher translator that you can speak into and it'll make the mwah mwah sound and then oh cool whoa yeah and then uh i those those super seven figures you can find on the hot topic website and if you type peanuts into hot topics website they have a lot of cool peanuts t-shirts and i might have to get some oh give yourself a little treat of course there's a lot of cool shirts it's like you don't know what hot topic is i know uh the uh i will say like there there is still so much peanut stuff i mean i don't let's not let's say like there's probably maybe in a year or two when we go to not see all the peanut shows and do a second gate because i'd love to dig into a few of these a little more

eventually um but there's too much there's just too much peanuts meat on the bone is what i'm I'd love to dig into a few of these a little more eventually. But there's just too much peanut meat on the bone is what I'm saying. Sure. So we'll get – I'm sure there's more characters, though, also that we've never – we don't remember. Well, and this episode is a lot of nonsense, but to bring it back to the theme park, and I do really like that camp Snoopy area. I think I'm walking around there.

I always feel the 80s-ness of it, that brown and pine green. It's just so charming. It gives me the same kind of theme park-y feels as parts of Frontierland or the Redwood Creek area of California Adventure. I just think they did such a great job with it, landscaping-wise. I really like it there. And the last time we were all there together, I realized, oh, this is maybe sort of the in for me to take my new son to theme parks because I think early theme park visits are

tough because there are a lot of things they can't go on. But Camp Snoopy is full of little rides that, as jason you just said now uh parents and kids can go on together so i'm really psyched to uh get to get to take my kid on uh somebody's cute little rides and hopefully this is kind of the planting the seed for bigger theme park fandom to come there is a ride and i'm i'm blanking on the name of it it's a mini drop it's a mini giant drop jason you remember what i'm talking about it's like there's a postcard on it is that called the kite because there is a kite eating tree ride that might just be called the kite eating i'll look it up right now but yes it's it's basically like a kid's version of tower of terror okay so you start

getting him accustomed to it start him early so he doesn't end up like me see if that's look we we all want for our children we want them to be better than us we want them to not have to do the same have the same fears so let's see if i don't think there's any sort of launch ride, child launch ride in the Snoopy area. Yeah, because I don't want him to end up being a no launch princess. Okay. Step it younger. Mini Queen.

Yes. I like Mini Queen more. Mini Queen is good uh the ride i'm referencing is called woodstock's airmail oh great yes yeah yeah the little i know we haven't talked about the rides they all seem very there's something called huff and puff where you you have to push it yourself you're like going up and down a little lever and you have to move the mechanism and that seems like that seems good like the little mini version of davy crockett's canoes and the one i really i remember going on this as a kid and i think it's in the other camp snoopies it's not just at nots

berry farm it's just the most basic name and most basic ride and it's called camp bus and you're just on a bus and the the peanuts characters are in the window and the bus is on an arm and it goes, uh, goes in a big circle up and down. I really want to be on camp bus with my little boy. Uh, you have to be 36 inches to be on this Woodstock's air mail. Oh no, that's right. Oh,

there's still, Oh, I haven't had to think about height requirements until, uh, this whole thing. Uh, boy, how big does he have to be for camp bus?

Oh, let me look, let me look for campus this is why i'm saying we'll get back we'll get back to peanuts just because there's so much stuff i mean we gotta cover lucy's tugboat joe cool's driving school uh camp bus is 36 inches wait but it seems like if you're accompanied you could be under oh yes i see that i see that yeah and he will be accompanied by a dad who's psyched to be on camp bus i mean a little stressed out about the movement but in general sight yeah mostly i put my fears aside i gotta be strong for him yeah and we didn't even talk about my mother

playing lucy in a high school production of you're a good man charlie brown i think my mom was in one as well i'm pretty sure i think so you gotta know what she was did she play lucy you gotta find that out i don't remember that i'm not totally sure i don't think there's any might have been a girl's school where she was playing a male role i I think. Oh, interesting. Yeah, not sure. So she could have been Charlie Brown. We'll do that on Peanuts, too. Yeah, yeah. I'll say that for Peanuts, too.

Hey, but for now, this is such a fun world to cover. I learned a lot, and Charles Schultz is the best. And, yeah, hey, more fun to come, as always. If you follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and be sure to check out The second gate for three bonus episodes every month at patreon.com slash podcast ride. Yes. And I would just like to say that all clear on the ice cam. Oh, thank you.

Okay. Okay. No murders. No, no bodies being dropped. Not a single murder has happened. Okay, okay. No murders. No bodies being dropped. Not a single murder has happened. Great, great. Not even like a pipe burst or a septic tank problem. The ice didn't turn brown.

Not that I can see, though. I will say I've been staring at it so long now that I start to think I see things. Maybe like you're seeing, I don't know, a ghost girl? A ghost girl. I see the ghost of Charles Schultz dancing with the ghost of Emily. That's bizarre. Yeah, I don't know. It's weird.

That's what I'm seeing, though. I think it's I'm hallucinating, though. I understand. Well, we're all going mad. But thinking about it makes us feel better uh well uh i guess that'll do it sir peanuts you waited to to wrap it up i could do the boy i could do the voice yeah sure yes yes say say goodbye let's have an adult say goodbye dj run that back i dropped i dropped my phone uh it's a little too far from me, so I will just add it in in post. You blockhead!

Hey! There we go. Now I don't have to do it. Now I don't have to do it because that was good. Yeah, that's the end. Alright, hey, bye all you blockheads at home. Bye. Bye blockheads. Bye. Forever Dog. This has been

a Forever Dog production. Executive produced by Mike Carlson, Jason Sheridan, Scott Gairdner, Brett Boehm, Joe Cilio, and Alex Ramsey. For more original podcasts, please visit foreverdogpodcasts.com and subscribe to our shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Keep up with the latest Forever Dog news by following us on Twitter and Instagram at Forever Dog Team and liking our page on Facebook.