52 Fun Facts About Snoopy

Snoopy is what breed of dog?

Beagle: he began as an ordinary four-legged pup, and only years later did Schulz let him walk upright and dream of being a flying ace.

What does Lucy keep pulling away just as Charlie Brown tries to kick it?

A football: when Lucy once promised not to pull it away, Charlie Brown missed the ball and kicked Lucy instead.

Snoopy's brother Spike lives in the desert outside which California town?

Needles: Schulz lived there as a boy, which is why Snoopy's brother settled in that desert town.

Which Peanuts character, talked about but barely ever shown, was inspired by Donna Johnson, a woman Schulz met at Art Instruction?

The Little Red-Haired Girl: Donna Johnson turned down Schulz's marriage proposal and married another man.

Which sister of Snoopy's lives in Kansas City with her teenage son?

Belle: she later turns up in Snoopy's Flying Ace stories as a nurse, cheering the soldiers with doughnuts.

Where did the name of Snoopy's little yellow bird friend come from?

A music festival: the little bird who got that name also types Snoopy's letters and helps him lead scout hikes.

As the World War I Flying Ace, Snoopy imagines his doghouse to be which aircraft?

Sopwith Camel: the Red Baron shoots it down again and again, and 'Curse you, Red Baron!' became one of the strip's catchphrases.

Snoopy's sunglasses-wearing alter ego Joe Cool casts him as what?

Most of Snoopy's fantasies follow one formula: he pretends to be something 'world famous' and then fails at it.

Charlie Brown bought Snoopy from which establishment?

Daisy Hill Puppy Farm: when Snoopy later went back to visit it, he found it had been turned into a parking garage.

Snoopy's doghouse is said to hold a pool table and a painting by which artist?

Van Gogh: when the doghouse burned down in 1966 the painting was lost, and Snoopy replaced it with an Andrew Wyeth.

On Veterans Day in the strip, Snoopy drinks root beer in honor of which World War II cartoonist?

Bill Mauldin: Schulz, an Army veteran himself, admired Mauldin's wartime cartoons and even drew Mauldin's soldiers Willie and Joe into a 1998 strip.

In the Peanuts TV specials, what do the voices of teachers and other adults sound like?

A muffled horn: adults are almost never seen in the strip either, and Schulz liked to say there just wasn't room for them.

Apollo 10, whose lunar module carried the call sign Snoopy, was described by NASA as what?

A dress rehearsal for the Moon landing: its lander dropped to within about nine miles of the surface to scout Apollo 11's landing site.

Who commanded Apollo 10, the mission that flew the lunar module Snoopy?

Thomas Stafford: he never walked on the Moon, but his lunar module pilot, Gene Cernan, later became the last person to walk on it.

What happened to Apollo 10's Snoopy ascent stage after the crew left?

It was sent into orbit around the Sun: its location went unknown, and in 2019 astronomers said asteroid 2018 AV2 is likely the lost stage.

Apollo 10 became the first Apollo flight to carry what inside its spacecraft?

A color television camera: its broadcasts helped win the crew a special Emmy.

NASA's Silver Snoopy award is always presented personally by whom?

An astronaut: the award is the astronauts' personal thanks for flight-safety work, and no more than 1% of the workforce receives it each year.

Before any NASA Silver Snoopy pin is awarded, what must that pin already have done?

Flown in space: the award was meant to help ground workers feel part of the missions, and a letter names the flight each pin rode.

When NASA adopted Snoopy as a symbol for its workers, it wanted him as recognisable as which government mascot?

Smokey Bear: Schulz let NASA use Snoopy at no cost.

Apollo 10's command module, Charlie Brown, is on display in which city's Science Museum?

London: after touring several countries, the capsule went there on loan from the Smithsonian in 1978.

Which American insurance company used Snoopy as its corporate mascot from 1985 to 2016?

MetLife: it cut the Peanuts gang loose in 2016 while retooling its business around corporate clients, after years of Snoopy blimps.

Which animation studio produced the computer-animated 2015 film The Peanuts Movie?

Blue Sky Studios: its animators studied Schulz's original drawings so the 3D characters stayed faithful to his pen line.

Snoopy's vocal effects in The Peanuts Movie came from archival recordings of which man?

Bill Melendez: he recorded sped-up sounds as a stand-in, expecting an actor to redo them, but time ran short and he voiced Snoopy for decades.

Which young actor, later of Stranger Things, voiced Charlie Brown in The Peanuts Movie?

Noah Schnapp: Schulz's son Craig first showed his idea for the film to his screenwriter son, Bryan, and they wrote it with Cornelius Uliano.

What did the last original Peanuts strip, published the day after the cartoonist died, show?

Schulz's farewell to his readers: he had announced his retirement in December 1999, after he was diagnosed with colon cancer.

In which California city did Charles Schulz die the night before his final strip appeared?

The county's airport was renamed for him later that year, and his museum opened in the same city.

Schulz drew every Peanuts strip himself, with no assistants, even after developing what?

A hand tremor: it made his later lines visibly shakier, yet he swore no one else would ever draw the strip, and no one did.

Which newspaper was among the seven that carried Peanuts at its 1950 launch?

The Washington Post: Schulz drew the strip in four equal panels so editors could run it across, down or as a square.

Before Peanuts, Schulz drew a weekly panel called Li'l Folks for which newspaper?

St. Paul Pioneer Press: when the paper turned down his requests for more money and a better spot, Schulz quit the panel.

The syndicate's title Peanuts, which Schulz hated, is said to come from what?

Howdy Doody's Peanut Gallery: the syndicate had dropped Schulz's own title, Li'l Folks, as too close to an older strip, Little Folks.

Charles Schulz's lifelong nickname, given by an uncle after a horse in the strip Barney Google, was what?

The horse was Spark Plug, and the nickname stuck from infancy right through to his gravestone.

Schulz's 1996 star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame sits next to whose?

Walt Disney: in a 1955 strip, Snoopy even did an impression of Disney's Mickey Mouse.

Charles Schulz was born in 1922 in which city?

Minneapolis: his father was a barber, and Schulz gave Charlie Brown a barber for a father too.

In 1969 Schulz built and owned what facility in his adopted California hometown?

An ice arena: from 1975 it hosted a senior hockey tournament every summer, and Schulz himself played in it.

Charlie Brown's catchphrase is which two-word expression of exasperation?

Good grief: Schulz kept Charlie Brown losing on purpose, saying most of us are far more acquainted with losing than with winning.

What does Snoopy usually call his owner instead of using the name Charlie Brown?

The round-headed kid: Snoopy loves his owner, but he simply can't remember the boy's name.

How much does Lucy charge for advice at her psychiatric booth?

Five cents: in A Charlie Brown Christmas, she even flips her booth's sign to say the doctor is 'Real In'.

Linus has a crush on his schoolteacher, who is named what?

Miss Othmar: she was later fired during a teachers' strike, and Linus ended up with a new teacher.

Sally Brown pursues Linus relentlessly and calls him by what pet name?

Sally was born in the strip on May 26, 1959, and later developed a habit of talking to her school building about her worries.

Peppermint Patty's real name, almost never used in the strip, is what?

Patricia Reichardt: Schulz added the surname years after her debut, borrowing it from his secretary, Sue Reichardt.

For years, how did Peppermint Patty describe Snoopy, unaware he was a dog?

A funny looking kid with a big nose: Marcie finally set her straight in a 1974 storyline that also left Snoopy's doghouse wrecked.

Which company commissioned and sponsored A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965?

Coca-Cola: when producer Lee Mendelson suggested a laugh track, Schulz flatly refused, so the special aired without one.

In the Halloween special It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, what does Charlie Brown get while trick-or-treating?

A rock: producer Lee Mendelson called it too cruel but was outvoted, and 'I got a rock' is still quoted today.

Snoopy's stock opening line 'It was a dark and stormy night' comes from an 1830 novel by which author?

Edward Bulwer-Lytton: the line from his novel Paul Clifford later inspired a contest for the worst possible opening sentence.

In the 1972 film Snoopy, Come Home, Snoopy leaves to visit which former owner, who is in hospital?

Lila: a 'No Dogs Allowed' sign at her apartment gives Snoopy the excuse he needs to go back home to Charlie Brown.

The American Contract Bridge League made Snoopy an honorary holder of which rank?

Life Master: Schulz played bridge himself, and bridge turned up now and then in Peanuts.

Aboard NASA's uncrewed Artemis 1 mission around the Moon in 2022, a plush Snoopy served what function?

Zero-gravity indicator: it rode along under a NASA partnership with Peanuts to teach children about space.

Teenage Schulz's first published drawing ran in Ripley's in 1937 because his dog Spike ate what?

Pins, tacks and razor blades: Spike, the family's black-and-white dog, later became the inspiration for Snoopy.

In his 1968 debut, where did Franklin, the first Black character in Peanuts, meet Charlie Brown?

At the beach: Schulz created Franklin after Harriet Glickman, a Los Angeles schoolteacher, wrote to him in 1968 urging him to add a Black character.

Besides playing his toy piano, which position does Peanuts' Schroeder play on Charlie Brown's baseball team?

Catcher: off the diamond his hero is Beethoven, a composer Schulz chose because he thought the name sounded funny.

Peanuts' Pig-Pen proudly describes the cloud that follows him everywhere as what?

The dust of countless ages: Charlie Brown, the one character who accepts Pig-Pen exactly as he is, even defends his dirtiness in one strip.

In Peanuts, which character is the younger brother of Lucy and Linus?

Rerun: he got the name after Lucy grumbled that having a second baby brother was like watching a rerun of having Linus.