Peanuts/Heartwarming

Comics

• The genius of Charles Schulz is encapsulated in one brilliant daily strip where Lucy asks Linus why people teach children to wave "Goodbye", while she is teaching their brother, Rerun, just that. Linus answers, "Because for the rest of his life, people will be leaving him." At this dispiriting observation, Rerun looks to the reader and says with defiant hopefulness, "Hello there!"
• There's a cute little strip where Linus and Snoopy are sleeping together with Linus's Security Blanket. Say it with me. D'awwwww.

Linus: I don't remember inviting you to share this blanket with me... But I do admit, you are kinda warm and fuzzy...
Snoopy: Everyone brings something to the party...

• A similar one had Woodstock thrown into the mix, making Linus's hair into a nest to sleep in. If that doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will.
• Also, the early strip where Sally - then still a toddler - falls happily asleep on Snoopy's back, effectively immobilising him, as Charlie Brown repeatedly calls him for dinner. Snoopy's longing for grub is clear in his expression, as is his concern in not rudely awakening the peacefully-slumbering Sally. Charlie Brown eventually irritably gives up. Snoopy remains in place. Sally remains gently dozing, with a big smile on her face. Gradually, with a small sigh, a rueful-yet-pleased smile spreads across Snoopy's...
• The last strip. If you had ever been alive and seen a comics page before the year 2000, it should have been enough to bring a tear to your eye. If you had grown up as a fan of the series... Let's just say that five generations of American comic readers all wept from the sheer emotion of it all the day this was published.
• In a series of strips in May 1966, Linus and Lucy's father was transferred, and they moved away. Thinking that she'll never see Charlie Brown again, Lucy shook his hand and said: "So long, you ol' blockhead... It's been nice knowing you." letting down her constant crabbiness and showing that deep down, she truly likes Charlie Brown.
  • And Linus gave his blanket to Charlie Brown.
  • Also from that series, after Charlie Brown told him that Lucy and Linus really did move and told him off for not caring about Lucy or her feelings, Schroeder is shown sitting in front of his piano not playing it, a memory of Lucy talking about if they got married over his head. He remarks "I never even said goodbye", showing that he really does like Lucy.
• There was another strip where Lucy was complaining how "horrible" her life is. Linus tells her that at least she has a brother who loves her, then she bursts into tears and hugs him. The strip is heartwarming in two ways, one is that Linus finally "triumphed" over Lucy, and the other is that well, she hugged him and all.
• Charlie Brown's reaction to getting a fourth ball in the ninth inning, walking someone home and winning his first game. "I think I'm going to cry..."
• This one doubles as a Moment of Awesome. In a Father's Day Sunday strip, Violet is telling Charlie Brown about how her Dad is richer, smarter, and just plain better than his Dad. Curiously, Charlie agrees with everything she says. However, before Violet can go on about how much more awesome her Dad is than Charlie's, he interrupts her, and tells her to follow him. Cut to the front of Charlie's Dad's barber shop. Charlie proceeds to tell Violet about how his Dad spends most of his day on his feet, and has to deal with surly people. However, Charlie knows that he can go into his Dad's barber shop at any time, and his Dad will stop whatever he is doing, and give him a big smile. "And do you know why? Because he likes me, that's why!" Becomes a Moment of Awesome in the last panel, when a defeated Violet turns and walks away, saying "Happy Father's Day, Charlie Brown." To which he replies "Thank you. Please greet your dad for me."
• This post-Halloween strip, after the Great Pumpkin has once again failed to appear.
• One sequence of strips was about Woodstock billing Snoopy six dollars for breaking something. It transpired that Snoopy had monopolized Woodstock's crush for an entire party, and the item in question was Woodstock's heart. Snoopy's reaction is to hug his friend and say/think:

Oh, Woodstock, my little friend of friends...don't you realize your heart is worth much much more than six dollars?

• The strip where Peppermint Patty's father gives her a dozen red roses for her birthday. Why? Because someday Patty will be a beautiful young lady and all the boys will be calling her up and taking her on dates and giving her things, so Patty's dad wanted to be the first one to give her roses. For added sweetness, she mentions that he calls her a "rare gem". It's even sweeter when you realize that Charles Schultz gave his oldest daughter roses for her birthday, for the same reason.
• This early strip is extremely sweet.
• Charlie Brown is in the hospital and Peppermint Patty and Marcie aren't allowed to see him, so they sit on a bench outside shouting up toward his window:

Peppermint Patty: We miss you, Chuck!
Marcie: We love you, Chuck!
Peppermint Patty: (Turning towards Marcie) We do?
Marcie: (hands around mouth for better volume) We do, Chuck!

• • The next strip is on Sunday, where Marcie confesses that she'd marry Charlie Brown if he asked.

Animated Specials

• A Charlie Brown Christmas has one of the great TV moments in history when Charlie Brown is convinced that he killed that forlorn Christmas tree. He returns to see the whole gang singing, after saving the little tree and making it beautiful and strong. Then the whole gang wishes him Merry Christmas and we have the pleasure of seeing Charlie Brown happy at his quest for a deeper meaning of the holiday being fulfilled.
  • "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."
• It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: Lucy, who has mocked Linus' belief in the Great Pumpkin for the entire show, wakes up in the middle of the night to find her brother is not in his bed. She goes out, finds him freezing in the pumpkin patch, still waiting. Without saying a singly mocking word, she brings him inside, take off his shoes, and kindly tucks him into bed, showing that for all her fuss-budget ways, she does care deeply about her brother.
• "There's No Time For Love, Charlie Brown" contains what may be the sweetest example of I Want My Beloved to Be Happy in the history of media. Charlie Brown walks Marcie home after working on their science reports at Peppermint Patty's house, where Patty invited him in the first place after accidentally hurting his feelings when Marcie called her on being in love with him. When they reach her door, Marcie thanks Charlie Brown for walking her home and gives him a kiss on the cheek. As he stands there smiling and blushing like crazy, Marcie happily tells him, "If you don't want that to be from me, Chuck, think of it as being a good-night kiss from Peppermint Patty because I think she likes you."
• Lucy worrying and crying over Charlie brown being in the hospital in "A Charlie Brown Celebration." This culminates in her standing outside at night, saying, "Charlie Brown, I know you can't hear me, but I want to make you a promise. Charlie Brown, if you get well, I promise to never pull the football away again!"
• The ending of "You're In Love, Charlie Brown": Charlie Brown tries to catch the Little Red Haired Girl on her way to the bus on the last day of school, but the crowd gets in his way, and he misses what he thinks is his last chance to tell her he likes her. Then he notices that someone in the crowd slipped a note into his hand. What does it say?

I like you, Charlie Brown. Signed, Little Red Haired Girl

• The Climax of "She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown." Arguably one of the most beautiful moments in the history of animation.
• "Why, Charlie Brown, Why?": Linus's friend gets leukemia and is in the hospital. Linus is saddened, but has two very distinct Moments of Awesome. He stands up to Lucy, and tells her that leukemia isn't contagious. He also stands up to a schoolyard bully who laughs at the girl for not having any hair.

Theatrical Plays

• The song "Happiness" from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. All of it, really, but especially

Happiness is singing together when day is through,
And happiness is those who sing with you.

• "If Just One Person Believes In You" from Snoopy! the Musical.
• "Poor Sweet Baby", in which Peppermint Patty sings to the Oblivious to Love Charlie Brown:

If you need a shoulder, come and try mine on for size,
I'm real good at holding hands and really great at drying eyes
Just try me, cry me all your tears
Why deny me the pleasure of drying 'em, stopping you crying 'em...?

• "Just One Person" from "Snoopy The Musical." This song, about believing in yourself, is the closing number of the animated special, and the animation that goes with it makes it both Crowning Musical Moment of BOTH Awesome and Heartwarming. It starts with Snoopy singing with Woodstock, then Lucy joins in for a verse, and Sally for part of a line. "And if three whole people, why not four?" has Linus join, and "And if four whole people, why not more...and more...and more?" has Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty, and Schroder help anchor what is a human chain. By the end, the entire cast has joined the song.
  • When Jim Henson died, Robin, Kermit's nephew, uses this SAME SONG for "The Muppets Tribute to Jim Henson" (Robin's version starts at 3:04).

Tributes from other comics

• When Charles Schulz died, another comic showed how he fared in the afterlife. Snoopy is pawing at the gates of Heaven, which has a "No Dogs Allowed" sign on it. St. Peter looks down at the man standing before him and says, "I think we can make an exception in your case, Mr. Schulz."
• Close to Home's tribute strip after Charles Schulz died.
• Mutts did a reprise of the famous first strip, but with Earl and Mooch watching Charlie go by instead of Shermy and Patty. After he's gone, they exclaim, "How we love him!"
• Pearls Before Swine has done a number of tributes to Peanuts. In one, Pig complains that the Christmas storyline they're doing is too dark, so Stephen Pastis writes Linus in to explain what Christmas is all about.

Other

• Once, when Charles Schulz was in a hospital, he left a cartoon showing Snoopy doing one of the exercises prescribed for patients with lung ailments.

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