When was the first Peanuts comic strip printed?
Twin Cities Pioneer Press
From 1947 to 1949, the newspaper printed the comic strip "Li'l Folks", by Twin Cities native Charles M. Schulz. This comic introduced a number of characters who would later return in 1950 in the syndicated comic strip "Peanuts", including Charlie Brown and a dog strongly resembling Snoopy.
Peanuts
In addition to the strip and numerous books, the "Peanuts" characters have appeared in animated form on television numerous times. This started when the Ford Motor Company licensed the characters in early 1959 for a series of color television commercials for its automobiles and intros for "The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show" which they sponsored. While the show ended in 1961, the deal lasted another three years. The ads were animated by Bill Meléndez for Playhouse Pictures, a cartoon studio that had Ford as a client. Schulz and Meléndez became friends, and when producer Lee Mendelson decided to make a two-minute animated sequence for a TV documentary called "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" in 1963, he brought on Meléndez for the project.