make me kind of uncomfortable.

he's sitting in is different. I'd like to say the times are changing but I'm not too sure of that

the color of the chair may have more to do with visual organization than content.

half full, TY

It's strictly about one side of the table over-crowded and the other empty.

Always something to be learned about our culture and society from Charlie Brown/Schultz.

note that Franklin's chair is pink, like the desserts before him. Now, is his solitude reinforced by alluding to his "just desserts" or should we associate his chair, which is the only brightly colored chair at the table with the idea of entitlement, reinforced by the color relationship with the desserts on the table.

I think the most salient aspect of the image is that Franklin is there at all. The introduction of a black kid in one of the most wildly successful cartoon strips in 1968 is a breakthrough in itself.

I am guessing that the image in the OP is a still from one of the television shows at the time. So while we can glean perhaps a bit of content from it, it is really out of context and very difficult to do more than speculate.

more likely it's about balancing color within the composition. His pink chair does match the pink desserts, but also a darker tint of the pink color of the faces around him.

Likewise, Sallie's orange chair matches Linus's shirt and the orange shirt of the kid opposite Linus. It's also a darker tint of the light orange desserts that are in front of each kid.

Sallie's yellow hair matches the the yellow bowl of popcorn and Charlie Brown's shirt. Her blue shirt is a darker version of the light blue of popcorn and another container on the table, and is a lighter version of the darker blue teapot at the opposite end of the table.

and so on...

making a product that would be aired as widely as possible, and at that time, people still felt comfortable making public complaints about a little black kid eating with little white kids.

We can't evaluate commercial graphics the same way we evaluate fine art. I'm sure commercial concerns played a part. Just getting him at the table might have been an accomplishment.

There's some really good analysis downthread.

He's sitting on a backyard chair, they're sitting on indoor chairs.

1 chair (Marcie's) is a wicker chair, usually intended for porches. Sally is on a more ornate chair that looks designed for indoors. The child with back to us (I don't recognize her) is on a folding chair that goes with card tables. I've seen those at outdoor evens, usually under tents.

I don't think the difference in chairs relates to anything other than an assortment of different kids on different chairs, some intended for outdoor use and others dragged from inside to provide enough chairs.

I think it's all about the arrangment of the children, and I doubt it was done unconsciously. Charlie Brown was a running comment on our culture.

Do you think it was intentional, or or just an artistic move (you know, no symmetry in nature kind of thing?)

But the message comes out the same

about the state of racial relations in the country.

Charlie Brown was written as a running comment on our culture. I'd be willing to wager Schultz did it deliberately and knowingly. He was a great cartoonist, and great artists think about their work very thoroughly.

It's really bizarre and sad once you see it.

Peppermint Patty's looks like a wicker porch chair, etc.

Besides, those canvas chairs can be comfy.

or the step stool.

I have hosted functions where less than great seating had to be used, but I was always sure to sitting on one of those myself.

I would not mind sitting on a lawn chair over the card chair Marcy is sitting on.

In other words, I see the first point, but not the second.

Those metal chairs are what are provided in the majority of reception halls in the U.S.

Not horrible. A lawn chair doesn't even get you to the right level with the table.

I mounted it to a bucket caddy. It's a great shop stool.

I also have a pair of seats from an 18 wheeler which I can hook up to the compressed air and they are then bouncy and height adjustable.

crappy metal folding chair. His chair is quite nice imo.

He's separated from everyone else.

Done intentionally or not it still sends a subliminal message that the black kid is okay over there but not to close.

Sally and Charlie are siblings and sitting together. Patty is a good friend of "Chuck's". I don't know why Franklin is sitting alone on that side of the table.

Is there any evidence that Charles Schultz was racist?

I have other questions about that program. Where were Schroeder and Linus? Did they join the others in a later frame?

Another question I have is why were they eating popcorn for Thanksgiving dinner?


I don't necessarily believe we can assume Charles Schultz is racist from this one fram or TV special. I wonder how many other comic strips in the 60s featured minority characters?

Where is Pigpen? Where is Spike. Where is Woodstock? Oh wait, Woodstock did not start appearing until the 70s.

Marcy is forced to sit apart from her partner, Peppermint Patty.

The fact that Sherman was there at all was pretty unusual for the time.
Look closely at the chairs, none of them match!

Refresh my memory -- is Franklin in the classics like the Great Pumpkin and a Charlie Brown Christmas?

Loved Peanuts as a kid. Philly Inquirer is running the strips in order (not sure when they started) and they are at the Great Pumpkin part now.

I never thought of Charles Schulz to be a racist.

GMDTA

Charles Schulz: "I finally sighed and said, 'Well, Larry, let’s put it this way: Either you print it just the way I draw it or I quit. How’s that?'"

BARRIER: Have there been occasions when United Features has sent back a strip, or said, "We're really worried about this one?"

SCHULZ: Yeah. There were only two occasions. One was a long time ago; Linus's blanket suddenly took on a life [of its own] and began to attack Lucy. Larry Rutman called; this scared him to death. He thought for sure that it would frighten children, that the blanket doing this would frighten the child reader. Which was ridiculous, when you think of the things that they see in other places. I remember I finished up the little series and let it go at that. Later on, when Franklin was introduced into the strip, the little black kid—I could have put him in long before that, but for other reasons, I didn't. I didn't want to intrude upon the work of others, so I held off on that. But I finally put Franklin in, and there was one strip where Charlie Brown and Franklin had been playing on the beach, and Franklin said, "Well, it's been nice being with you, come on over to my house some time." Again, they didn't like that. Another editor protested once when Franklin was sitting in the same row of school desks with Peppermint Patty, and said, "We have enough trouble here in the South without you showing the kids together in school." But I never paid any attention to those things, and I remember telling Larry at the time about Franklin—he wanted me to change it, and we talked about it for a long while on the phone, and I finally sighed and said, "Well, Larry, let's put it this way: Either you print it just the way I draw it or I quit. How's that?" So that's the way that ended. But I've never done much with Franklin, because I don't do race things. I'm not an expert on race, I don't know what it's like to grow up as a little black boy, and I don't think you should draw things unless you really understand them, unless you're just out to stir things up or to try to teach people different things. I'm not in this business to instruct; I'm just in it to be funny. Now and then I may instruct a few things, but I'm not out to grind a lot of axes. Let somebody else do it who's an expert on that, not me.

http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Interviews/Schulz/interview_charles_schulz.htm

GMTA.

He was a very nice man.

I don't think I ever saw this one. What's the context for the gathering?

Certainly looks bad though....

First aired 1973.

At first I thought it was a birthday party scene with the types of food on the table. The black boy may have been being "honored" with a special place. I did this with my daughters for their birthday parties.

The other thing that occurred to me was that since Charlie Brown is the "popular" kid in the strip everyone wanted to sit next to him.

But neither of those scenarios apply I see.

Honestly though Charles Schultz was never known for being a racist.

Charlie Brown happened think.

Snoopy and Woodstock made popcorn and (I think) peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to save the feast.

Linus was Linus and gave speech that what was really important and the reason to be thankful was being together....and all that.

And I think she refers to him in her phone conversation with Charley as Marcy's friend, Franklin.
So I always got the impression that he was sort of a friend of a friend who tagged along, but not someone Charley himself was
close to.

There's a reason you don't see Bosco and Rastus cartoons nowadays.
Likewise "Amos and Andy" doesn't get much airtime.

Bosco/Bosko was more popular than Mickey Mouse at that time! Most people have never heard of him.............

There are four people on one side and one on the other. I mean, three people and a dog. At least one of them should be on the other side of the table for balance. Shultz doesn't seem to have been a racist, so what the heck was he thinking? Kids usually aren't - maybe the parents did that?

Maybe there is a context where Franklin was the birthday boy and got a special place, or maybe it is subconscious on the white kids' part to set him aside, or more likely that parents did that. Kids seem to me at least to be naturally not racist and you have to be older than those kids to start picking it up. Teenagers, usually.

Which would also explain why he gets the brightly colored deck chair.

I'm going to give the producers the benefit of the doubt on this one. Charles Schulz was certainly no racist.

given what Schultz heard from others, maybe he was making Franklin to stand out clearly, to show the editors he wasn't putting up with their BS - given that they did not want him shown in school with the other kids.

Not a 'very special episode' black kid, not a 'magical' black kid - a regular kid who was black. That made more of an impression on me than anything else. But I was 7 or 8 and white.

a black kid and it was part of the awakening of our multiracial culture for the 70's revolution in society.

It was a good thing as a breakthrough. I feel sad that others here seem to think that Charles Shultz was being a racist singling the kid out. I don't know what the beach chair means...but, it perhaps was Shultz's way of showing that and extra chair had to be put at the table for him to be included but, that the kids wanted him there and found that chair.

Maybe there's some hidden meaning that's racist that one can find about Schultz..but the liberal parents of that era were happy to see this as that time of "inclusiveness" when we we were all teaching children that "color of skin" did not matter...it was who one was inside. Fred Rogers was big on TV at that time and Fred was always about inclusiveness.

A Song from that time...I KID YOU NOT.. in the protestant churches of the 70's Awakening:

"JESUS LOVES THE LITTLE CHILDREN...ALL THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD"

RED AND YELLOW BLACK AND WHITE THEY ARE PERFECT IN HIS SIGHT...JESUS LOVES THE LITTLE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD..

There's an interview posted in this thread a few times now where he states that he held firm in keeping Franklin in public school scenes.

Franklin was just a kid, doing normal kid stuff. If I knew nothing about Schultz, that alone would be enough for me to know he wasn't racist.

at vacation bible school. It was also used as the introduction to the Ray Stevens song "Everything is Beautiful" that was released in 1970.

Is it observational? Defensive? Oblivious?

IIRC when this came out there was some kerfuffle over an AA character, I can't recall his name though.

Thanks for making me think a moment.

It is indeed the Thanksgiving special. I'm surprised so few can identify it. I can't say why Franklin is sitting alone on one side. I've noticed it myself before this thread and thought how visually unbalanced it looked. But I honestly don't think it has anything to do with racism. It's hard for me to explain why though. Just a familiarity with these shows. If this scene looks strange, I think it has more to do with a rather loose or haphazard style these shows had; I just don't think anyone planned it out that precisely.

of WHY! You'd have to know that TV at that time showed few blacks anywhere. It's not like today. It was the beginning of awareness and I believe that Schultz was trying to point that out...that kids would notice it. The beginning of Awareness of of the 70's time.

Flip Wilson has his own variety show, Redd Foxx was riding the waves with Sanford and Son, Diahann Carroll had just had a 3-year-run as Julia, Peggy was superb as Mannix's supersharp secretary, and George Jefferson was making his debut as Archie Bunker's equally obnoxious neighbor. And that's just off the top of my head.

Charlie Brown and Sallie were supposed to be going to their grandmother's house for Thanksgiving but Peppermint Pattie invited herself over for Thanksgiving dinner. Then she invited Marcie. Then she invited Franklin, who the other kids were just meeting because he went to a different school. The whole thing is that the are eating popcorn etc. because it was all thrown together. I think that is why the seating arrangement is kind of odd, no one new Franklin was coming until Peppermint Patty showed up with him and the had to add a lawn chair.

as far as the choice of chair for Franklin, I note that the character at the end across from Linus (Lucy?) is in a different chair and for that matter, there appears to be a total of 6 or 7 different chairs. Charlie Brown's sister is seated in a chair with padding, Charlie Brown's chair may be similar to Linus's and Peppermint Patty is in yet another different chair.

People of color notice.

Charles Schulz was actually doing a bit of anti-racist commentary with bringing Franklin on as just a normal kid, and I found an article that compared "Peanuts" with a "Dennis the Menace" cartoon 2 years later (in 1970!). I'm still kind of stunned:



http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/edgeofthewest/2008/11/27/black-people-cant-swim-c/

1920....yes.

Apparently, a few papers pulled it. Many claimed it was too late to do anything about it. Which is ridiculous.

This was 1973 and so subtle that I didn't even notice it until today when a friend posted it on FB.

Not even fit to sit next to a dog.

One thing that stands out to me to this day and it occurs still is how only attractive white females are covered in kidnapping cases. Children go missing everyday!

believe it or not:

They created the condition of slavery in the New World. It was THEIR invention.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6185756.stm

I must admit to being completely wrapped up in the Charlie Brown specials when my kids were small. Wonderful little stories about being a child. We never noticed this obviously unbalance frame in the context of the story.

My kids watched every single special every single year and in fact have VCR copies of some of them. We used to make a special night when they were on. I think there were other specials where one of the other characters were by themselves - Charlie Brown for one. Wasn't he off by himself at one point in the Christmas special? And what about pigpen? What would you read into that - the fact that he was white trash and filthy and stunk so he had to be off by himself?

I don't think either of my kids ever noticed this.

Furthermore, Franklin's father was a soldier in Vietnam.

If there is subtext in that image, it is unlikely to be malicious in it's intent.

Peppermint Patty is forced to sit next to a dog.

Of course, of the three main holiday specials, this is by far the weakest.

However, we have noticed Franklin's placement.
Also, he's given the only chair that fought with Snoopy while setting up the table. Hmm...

Franklin Armstrong is a character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. Introduced on July 31, 1968, Franklin was the first African-American character in the strip. He goes to school with Peppermint Patty and Marcie. In his first story arc, he met Charlie Brown when they were both at the beach. Franklin's father was a soldier fighting in Vietnam, to which Charlie Brown replied "My dad's a barber...he was in a war too, but I don't know which one." Franklin later paid Charlie Brown a visit and found some of Charlie Brown's other friends to be quite odd. His last appearance was in 1999, the year before Schulz's death.

of his time on.

and i was a kid in the 80s and i believe these were made earlier on when what he did would have been viewed controversial.

Guy and I don't see anything rafist about his shows.

Last edited Sat Oct 26, 2013, 10:42 AM - Edit history (1)

where slowly, other-than-white images were trickling into the cartoons.

I remember Franklin and also Bill Cosby's "Fat Albert" on CBS (1972 - 1980) -



NBC's animated Star Trek (1973 - 1974) -



Edit to add one of my faves - CBS's "Josie and the Pussycats" (1970 - 1971 + reruns later)



And even CBS's "Multiplication Rock", specifically the one for "Number 5" -



There was little or no imagery of black adults or children on television in a children's series (outside of Sesame Street) - particularly in the cartoon world, let alone in a somewhat positive, not-as-stereotypical role. Case in point "Tom and Jerry" and the constantly-shown bottom of the black maid running around after the characters -



About the only thing around outside of the above handful was the virulent "Our Gang" shown on many independent stations in the big cities like mine (the "Buckwheat" character which Eddie Murphy effectively mocked in SNL) -

And as to the Cosby Fat Albert...Al Roker had a cringe worthy story of seeing it on a Saturday and thinking why did the Fat Kid have to be named Albert?

Go to school Monday...maybe no one else seen it? No comments. So far so good. Then after lunch...someone goes "Hey! HeY Hey!"

The story was funny and heartbreaking at the same time.

Fat Albert supposedly took place here in my city - Philadelphia (where Cosby was born and raised) and some of the archetype characters were somewhat identifiable in the community as a "type", however exaggerated.

But back during the same early-mid '70s, you had shows (many of which are re-run on TV One) like "Sanford and Son", "Good Times", and "The Jeffersons" - all showing some form of "urban" America, and some of these cartoons were reflecting the "urbanization" of television down to even the children's cartoons. In film, you had of course the "Shaft" series and what became the "blaxploitation" films like "Super Fly", "Cleopatra Jones", "Coffy", etc.

It's been a long and winding road to say the least, in terms of the imagery. The '70s was just... a weird transitional era.

Cosby eventually "made up for it" with the 1984 "Cosby Show" series - something that showed a family and their neighbors coming from the entire other end of the economic spectrum, which IMHO, did a great deal to help America be able to accept the concept of a successful (and not as a freak accident or a one-off "unusual&quot black family. And this, again IMHO, eventually lead to the acceptance of the election of our nation's first black President (where his family is not unlike that of the fictional Huxtables).

As a sortof positive bookend to this - I literally just read this morning that NBC is talking about re-booting the old CBS show "Murder She Wrote" - replacing the Angela Lansbury character (and her backstory) with a new character (with a slightly different backstory) - with the primary role to be filled by Octavia Spencer - http://www.today.com/entertainment/octavia-spencer-star-murder-she-wrote-reboot-8C11469350

I think if they have a good cadre of writers, then it may do well given alot of folks are still enamored with old-fashioned "whodunits" where the main character solves the crime using common sense and probably in this case, "mother wit" (my now-83 year old mom was a fan of "Murder She Wrote&quot .

Hint....not Oprah.

but am thinking my girl Queen Latifah. Wish they had her on later.

I was shocked too.

I didn't even know he was still on the air. LOL

Apparently as of 2012, Wendy Williams had the honor (% wise) - http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/steve-harvey-jerry-springer-daytime-379492



From what I have read, Queen Latifah's debut was strong and continues to lead among the new shows. She'll definitely be the one to watch in terms of monitoring ratings as the year progresses, considering she has had many professional relationships with folks in the entertainment and fashion community over the years (including music, film, television, fashion, cosmetics), as well as strong ties to the activist community.

Had no idea he still had a show.

Hate these type of shows but if you're are going to do one...?

Gotta admire Jerry for full frontal Sleaze.

If you watch the episode you'll notice that they were not that interested in continuity. When Snoopy sets the table there are chairs all around the table.


When everyone is sitting for dinner chairs come and go. Franklin is in the middle and sometimes at the end of that side of the table next to Linus.

Franklin sits in the folding deckchair which falls apart which is a continuation of a gag in which Snoopy fights with the chair and loses. Later when Snoopy tosses Franklin his plate you can tell how bad his chair is because he is nose level to the table.

At one point Snoopy is making popcorn over a grill where Franklin had been during Grace.

when it came to those chairs. Both Marcie and Peppermint Patty sit in what appears to be the wicker (sp) chair with the heart shaped back. That folding chair is missing in some scenes and on the other side of the table.

Is Peppermint Patti a communist??? She does have the red phone or does the red phone mean she is the one to call in times of crisis as she can stay calm in the middle of a crisis? I think sometimes too much can be read into something that is not even there. Just my opinion.

And yes, Patti did invite herself as well as Marcie and Franklin. The Browns were not even celebrating the holiday in their own home.

Edited to add the last two sentences in the second paragraph.

Thank you for sharing the show.

Schultz was never a racist.

Its weird how many people on this thread claim to have seen the show but dont mention the shifting chairs and people placed around the table. The OP picked one frame out of a shifting group of kids having a party snd labelled it racist without context.

Just a way to smear a great cartoonist I guess.

in the same shot, so the extras went elsewhere?

a cartoon is just a goddamned cartoon.


Maybe Franklin WANTED to sit by himself. No bumping elbows at the overcrowded side of the table. I would probably do the same if I could at the family gatherings my oldest stepdaughter puts on. The table is always way too crowded for my liking.

Oh, and look...he's in the place of honor to the right of Linus.

Down near the bottom of the table is another piece of pie that isn't in front of the person sitting with her back to us, like the other slices of pie in front of the other kids and Snoopy. That looks to me like they might have expected someone else to show up but that person never made it.

Pig Pen? Schroeder? Violet?

Where are they, anyway? Did Pig Pen not get invited because he's homeless and the Peanuts gang don't really like homeless people?

What about Schoeder? He's always playing his little piano, sort of like a mini Liberace. Is he not there because he's....GAY???

OMG, and the little Red Haired Girl!!! Who the hell likes red hair anyway? Maybe Lucy had a say in that one and decided she didn't want Charlie Brown's little red-haired Jezebel there.

Really, I wish Charles Schultz were still alive today so people could question him on this. I would laugh like hell if he were to look at some of the comments here and say WTF????

Unfortunately, he's dead, which makes it possible for people to assume they know what was in his mind.

sigh...

Seating etiquette says that the guest of honor sits to the right of the host.

Third paragraph under heading "Where To Sit"

http://www.etiquettescholar.com/dining_etiquette/table_manners/seating_etiquette.html

Linus appears to be the host here, so Franklin could very well BE the guest of honor.


I don't see any name cards, but even if there were, Snoopy is seated below where one would typically place a salt cellar. "Below the salt".

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_origin_of_the_expression_sit_below_the_salt

Sorry, but white dog does NOT trump black kid...

Did Schultz or whoever made the cartoon think it through to that degree? Most people do consider table rankings and I doubt they did in 1970 or whenever that film was made.

that nobody thought it through to that degree, but the concept is no more foolish than the assumptions being lobbed around in this thread, either.

Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon, without some deeper meaning. But it seems like people want to read things into whatever they see, no matter what it is.

If I post an extreme close up photo of a frog in my pond, no doubt there would be a crew going on about all sorts of existentialist things when, in reality, my sole intent was to take an awesome photo of a fucking frog in my pond.

But anyway, even if nobody thought of the rules of etiquette when that cartoon was drawn, it's ridiculous to suggest that the white dog gets better treatment than the black kid.

It is deeply engrained in American thinking, even if people believe themselves to be free of it. It is possible or even likely that someone writing this decided they need to have a care about white Southern audiences, which contained people who were sore about desegregation. Putting them all at the same table may have been as progressive as they wanted to get.

sitting at the same table as the white kids. at least when we think about when it was made.

so it's actually a positive. but i found the OP really interesting because it does show that people's views of the past and future are often based on how things are at the moment.

of being a RACIST...!

I though...FGS..why should Charles Schultz be "Thrown Under Bus" without context of the time he wrote his cartoons and how he made a point to show the children of that era what changes were about.

Same thing about "Mr. Rogers" TV SHOW.

I think any day now someone is going to say that Fred Rogers "didn't go far enough" and his puppets were all anti-Minorities and promoting the KuKluxClan or something.

Really...it's amazing to see this kind of stuff. At least they could do a quick WIKI Search before they start this stuff..

Oh thank you massa thank YOU!

This was 1973.

Check your time line.

and i know race relations weren't so great in 73.