Happy Anniversary Charlie Brown and Lucy!

If you are thinking that the title is alluding to some secret relationship between the two classic Peanuts characters for shame! I may use pics of scantily clad women all the time in my posts, but here at FatManWriting classics such as the Peanuts characters that the late, great Charles Schultz premiered back on October 2, 1950, are celebrated, not used for cheap thrills.

With close to 18,000 strips created that have been featured in newspapers all over the world (along with the cartoon specials that millions look forward to every holiday season) Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Snoopy, Violet, Pig Pen, and the rest of the game have to be some of the most well-known and beloved characters in history.

One of the most well-known jokes in the incredible run of the strip involved Lucy tricking Charlie Brown into trying to kick a football. Year in and year out she would try to get the gullible Charlie Brown to take a swipe at the ball, Charlie would convince himself that this year would be the year, and just like the year before he would end up flat on his back, his foot never touching the ball.

Why do I bring all this up? Because this iconic strip celebrated its 60th Anniversary on Friday. The first time Lucy ever convinced  of the first strip that Lucy tried to get Charlie Brown to take a kick at a football while she held it was on November 16, 1952.

Along with the strip, the joke was featured in television specials as well:



Many thanks to the good people at NBC Sports for recognizing this important piece of Americana.