Lucy van Pelt
Encyclopedia
Lucille "Lucy" van Pelt is a fictional character in the syndicated comic strip
:Peanuts, written and drawn by Charles Schulz. She is the main bully
and the older sister of Linus
and Rerun
. Lucy is a crabby and cynical eight-year old girl, and often bullies the other characters in the strip, particularly Linus and Charlie Brown
. She is often referred to as the world's greatest fussbudget, mostly by her mother.
Very early on, Schulz eliminated the circles around her eyes and allowed her to mature to the age of the other characters; she does have tiny half circles around her eyes (as do the other van Pelt siblings).
Lucy wears a blue dress with white and black saddle shoes for most of the strip's original run. However, in later years, towards its end, she was seen more often in T-shirts and pants, until her dress was phased out altogether.
Perhaps Lucy's most famous gimmick in her long existence as a character is the one in which she pulls the football
away from Charlie Brown right as he is about to kick it. The first occasion on which she did this was November 16, 1952 (Violet unintentionally did the same thing a year before), but unlike subsequent stunts, Lucy first pulled the ball away because she didn't want Charlie Brown to get it dirty (he took a second try in the same strip, only to trip over it at the end). Afterward, every year in the fall Lucy would somehow manipulate Charlie Brown into trying again, only to pull the ball away to trick him. The most infamous example of this is the animated special It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown
, where her actions (she pulled the ball away four times) cost the school football team a win in the Homecoming game, yet Charlie Brown is blamed even though he is clearly not at fault.
For all her crabbiness and bad temper, Lucy does have a vulnerable side: she is in love (and sometimes infatuated) with Schroeder
, but he did not return her affections. In this Lucy is seen as vulnerable, as she shows a need for assurance from either Schroeder or Charlie Brown that she is indeed pretty (often asking them their opinion of her appearance), and is known to react harshly whenever their reaction is unfavorable, or even hesitant. Indeed, for all her callousness, Lucy seems to be rather thin-skinned when she's on the receiving end of an insult. For example, when Linus countered her statement that he was a terrible brother by saying that she was not such a great sister either, Lucy burst into tears. Another time, her reaction to Charlie Brown's telling her she was not perfect was to wordlessly storm off in anger, leaving Charlie to comment, "I've never seen anyone so insulted!"
found it.
She was also notorious for destroying any aspect of Linus' creativity. Whether it be sand castles, which she's destroyed by kicking them over or running them over with her tricycle (once when she did this, he went home and got a pair of pliers and used them to dismantle the tricycle); his house of cards, which she blew over (once when she did this when he was a baby, he picked up the card deck and threw the deck at her after blowing over his house of cards, and laughing about it); a pile of blocks, which she kicked over; or his drawings, which she crumpled up, tore up, and/or threw in the trash burner, she never passed up a chance of stifling his creativity out of sheer meanness or perhaps she thought it was funny.
Whenever Linus offered to help her out on projects, such as making snow bunnies, Lucy outright rejects his help and screams at him to leave her alone and not to bother her. This usually angers Linus to the point where he would build something (a dinosaur or a cannon) which would frighten his bullying sister.
On one occasion in 1965, Linus' blanket took revenge on Lucy for her campaign against it by "jumping" her and physically attacking her. The attacks scared Lucy so badly that she was afraid to go home at night. Eventually she and the blanket made a "truce" whereby the blanket would refrain from attacking Lucy if she promised not to try to throw it into the trash burner anymore. Lucy did in fact try to throw the blanket into the trash burner a few years later (as part of a storyline in which Linus made a deal to give up his blanket if his grandmother would quit smoking
, and Lucy rationalized that after two weeks without the blanket, Linus no longer needed it), but an unusually strong-willed Linus intervened at the last second, rescued his blanket from the trash burner and screamed at Lucy to mind her own business when it came to the blanket; he told her that if their mother wanted him to get rid of the blanket, then he would do it; until then, it was no one else's business but his.
Lucy thinks that she is completely perfect, or at least acts like it, and that Linus and practically everyone else (except her friends of the same gender) is anything but. She outright told Linus that he was a terrible younger brother, but in a rare instance, where he turns something his sister said back at her, when he demanded that if she thought he was such a horrible brother, what made her to be such a terrific older sister, Lucy, realizing that he struck a nerve, erupted quietly into tears.
Another habit of Linus that drives Lucy crazy is his patting Woodstock
and Woodstock's fellow birds on the head. This seems to be a form of emotional therapy for both Linus and the birds, but Lucy is vehemently against it, mainly because she fears that she and her family will be "the laughing stock of the neighborhood" if word gets out that Linus pats birds on the head. In a Sunday strip in 1999 she was even more mortified to discover that her youngest brother, Rerun, had also picked up this habit.
Lucy annoys Linus in other ways: stealing all the crayons (except black, white, and gray), changing the channel or turning the TV off while Linus is watching it, and forcing him to shower her with lavish words of praise before she will even consider sharing anything with him ("Thank you, dear sister, greatest of all sisters, without whom I'd never survive!" is what Linus was once forced to say before receiving a piece of toast. Then, he said, "How can I eat when I feel nauseated?") Lucy also forces Linus to bring her snacks or something to drink while she watches TV. (To quote Linus in one of these examples, "She has all the patience of a boiling teakettle", after she screams, "WHERE'S MY ICE CREAM?!") Lucy once bragged that she played Linus "like a pianist plays a concert grand." and that is no idle boast. Lucy has made no secret of the fact that she wishes she were an only child, and has actually tried to throw Linus out of the house a few times; in one such incident, when Lucy got the news of Rerun
's birth in 1972, she exclaimed, "A new baby brother?! But I just got rid of the old one!"
Yet another example of Lucy's high-handedness with Linus was that she would often volunteer him to perform in holiday programs put on by the PTA
. The first example of this was in a series of Sunday strips from Christmas 1960 when Linus, with Lucy's prompting, had to memorize biblical scripture for the Christmas show (particularly Luke 2:1), which he couldn't remember. Then came the night of the program, and Lucy pushed the scared Linus onstage where he performs his piece perfectly. Determined to never do it again, Lucy hands him his piece for the New Years' program, and Linus runs off screaming. The following year, the same thing over again (only with Matthew 2:17). Then in dailies from Christmas 1963 Lucy volunteers Linus to sing, ignoring Linus' protesting that he couldn't. After surviving that program, Lucy nonchalantly revealed that she had also volunteered him to play the Baby New Year in the PTA's New Years' program, which sent Linus over the edge screaming for his life and taking sanctuary up in a tree, refusing to come down until the program was over (Charlie Brown showed his support for Linus by bringing him his blanket). In later years, Linus would continue to appear in PTA programs, but with far more confidence in himself.
By contrast, Linus' attempts to stand up to his sister typically result in a verbal or physical beatdown. However, he sometimes gets his revenge on Lucy in more subtle ways. In one strip, he suddenly responds to a rude remark from her by ceremoniously awarding her with a printed scroll and congratulates her on being "crabby" for 1,000 days in a row—to which she, completely blindsided at the sheer audacity of this creative insult, could only respond weakly, "One rarely gets a chance to see such carefully planned sarcasm." In another instance, Linus created an effigy out of snow that looked like Lucy. Lucy commented, "You're going to get great satisfaction out of building a snowman that looks just like me just so you can stand there and kick it!" To this, Linus replied, "On the contrary, that would be crude. I'm just going to stand here and watch it slowly melt away", while Lucy stood stunned at the philosophical contempt behind that statement.
On one occasion, however, Lucy was seen to acknowledge Linus' genuine affection for her. When Lucy demands to know what she has to feel thankful for, Linus replies, "Well, for one thing, you have a little brother who loves you..." Lucy immediately bursts into tears and hugs Linus, causing him to say, "Every now and then, I say the right thing." Another occasion that showed Lucy's care and concern for her brother Linus occurred in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
. When Linus does not return home from the pumpkin patch by 4:00 am, Lucy gets out of bed, puts her coat on, walks out to the pumpkin patch, leads her sleeping brother home and puts him to bed, all quite wordlessly and even angrily walking out of his room once he's asleep. Also, while Linus was waiting for the Great Pumpkin in the pumpkin patch with Sally and the others were trick or treating, she requested an extra piece of candy for her brother exclaiming, "It's so embarrassing to have to ask for something extra for that blockhead Linus." The book adaptation says she requested an extra apple, but this has yet to be confirmed.
, by getting him involved in directing the Christmas play. She also sometimes tries to give him what she thinks is good advice, however such advice is usually of little practical value.
In the earlier years, Lucy came up with odd theories (e.g. "Snow comes up out of the ground") and laughed at Charlie Brown's efforts to tell her otherwise. When Charlie Brown finally proves that Lucy's theory is false, Lucy makes an insensitive remark about the way he looks. A similar thing happens when Lucy laughs at Charlie Brown's assertion that birds fly south for the winter
; upon learning the truth from her teacher, she wonders if she can change to a different teacher.
Lucy delivers mean remarks with the greatest of ease, usually showing no emotion whatsoever, then moving on with whatever she was doing. She has a tendency to go off on loud and rambling tangents when she is with Charlie Brown, such as a strip where he asked if she ever regretted anything she said. Her reply is that she always says what she means, but she becomes repetitive and progressively louder, which gives Charlie Brown a headache. The first time she pulled this on him was when he asked her if she was going to make any New Years resolutions. She completely went off on him screaming that she was all right the way she was: this loud rant so sickened Charlie Brown that he walked off holding his stomach.
When Charlie Brown fails at something, Lucy is quick to point it out, as illustrated by the series of strips in early 1964 (later adapted into the script of A Boy Named Charlie Brown
) in which she put together a slide presentation of all of Charlie Brown's faults, and subsequently demanded that he pay her a sum of $143 for her services. Lucy will often trivialize Charlie Brown by saying something completely inane and off topic while he is pouring his heart out to her about something important to him, or, Lucy will think in literal terms, while Charlie Brown is speaking figuratively. Once Charlie Brown told Lucy he would have to build a mental fence to keep unpleasant news out of his mind; Lucy responded in all sincerity and with no apparent sarcasm, by saying "Don't make it a picket fence, Charlie Brown. They're awfully hard to paint".
Lucy sometimes tends to be a victim of Charlie Brown's wit or sarcasm. In one strip when Charlie Brown is at the psychiatric booth, she tells him that the insecurities people have can lead to colds and other illnesses, to which Charlie Brown responds by sarcastically sneezing loudly, knocking Lucy to the floor. Also, in an early strip, she pestered Charlie Brown for a glass of water and when asking what took so long, he dumped the water over her head. Similar incidents have occurred, but they are very rare.
It could be suggested that Lucy has some kind of hidden 'longing', or soft spot for Charlie Brown. First in an April 2, 1965 strip, then in the film A Boy Named Charlie Brown
, she suggests that Charlie Brown looks 'kinda cute' among the flowers on his pitchers mound which actually infuriates him. However, it is also likely she said it just to make him angry. Secondly in the same film, she is extremely angry when he loses the spelling bee. She then turns the T.V off to walk away, only to turn the T.V. back on to utter the words "Charlie Brown, you—you make me mad!" It could also be because she was his "hardworking agent."or she has some feelings for him in her heart. Also in You're in Love, Charlie Brown
, when referring to the little red-haired girl, Charlie Brown remarks that pretty faces make him nervous. This causes Lucy to rant that she has a pretty face. She asks why he does not get nervous around her and begins to follow him when he walks off, continuing her tirade. (This could still be because of her insecurities.) And in A Charlie Brown Christmas
and later an episode of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show
she asks if Charlie Brown thinks she is beautiful, to which of course he does not reply, leading her to say "I know when I've been insulted! I know when I've been insulted!" Also early on in the strip, in her first years, she asked Charlie Brown if he thought that they would ever get married. Charlie Brown said no, leaving her visibly upset. Also in a series of strips when Charlie Brown is sick and in the hospital (later animated for the special A Charlie Brown Celebration
), Lucy is the person who shows the most distress by this, even crying at one point. She then promises not to ever pull the football away again, if Charlie Brown gets better. She even keeps this promise until Charlie Brown kicks her hand.
Also while she will point out his shortcomings, unlike the other girls, Violet and Patty
in particular, Lucy is sometimes willing to try to help make Charlie Brown a better person by offering advice, whether he wants it or not.
Lucy and Snoopy have also occasionally found themselves in not-so-friendly competition—the two faced off in an arm-wrestling tournament once (the competition ended abruptly after Snoopy kissed Lucy on the nose and she recoiled in horror), and more than once in the course of the strip have actually come to fighting (again, Snoopy often wins by default by trying to kiss or lick Lucy's face).
One classic example was where Snoopy climbed on his doghouse roof to evade an angry Lucy, but she climbed it herself and had him trapped, where he couldn't go to the end of the roof. He kissed her on the nose yet again, and forgetting that she was on top of the doghouse roof, Lucy ran off screaming and fell to the ground. Another situation saw Lucy and Snoopy having a fight under the mistletoe one Christmas. Lucy was waiting for Schroeder under the mistletoe, so he could kiss her; but Snoopy wanted to kiss her. Lucy kicked Snoopy, he kicked her, and the two were fighting yet again. Eventually, Schroeder walked by, completely unruffled and nonchalant, saying that fighting under the mistletoe was unfeminine, unromantic, and gauche. Snoopy won that fight by kissing her on the cheek anyway, while Lucy sat on the ground, depressed.
On several occasions, Charlie Brown has had Snoopy stay at Lucy's house while he and his family went on vacation, and Lucy usually treats her canine house guest inhospitably (i.e. forcing him to sleep outside in one of her old doll beds). Still, as it turns out, Snoopy is perhaps one of the few characters in the strip who sometimes winds up successfully irking Lucy.
However, one of the most famous Peanuts strips of all time shows a rare moment of Lucy showing affection towards Snoopy by hugging him and then saying one of the most famous quotes in the strip's history, "Happiness is a warm puppy." Lucy herself acknowledged in another strip that although there were times when Snoopy drove her crazy, there were also times when she felt like hugging him, which she then proceeded to do.
At the end of the animated film It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown
, Lucy ends up being kissed by Snoopy (after she originally wanted to fight him for taking her eggs to give to the neighborhood kids) and responds "Aah, the Easter Beagle!" with a dreamy look in her eyes. Most of the time she would just call him a stupid beagle.
, who constantly rejects her advances. Her love of Schroeder begins in the Peanuts strip from January 27, 1953. When she asks Schroeder what song he is playing, he responds saying the Nutcracker Suite, which Lucy erroneously interprets as "Nutcracker, Sweet". She spends much of her time leaning against his toy piano as he plays, striving to gain the attention Schroeder gives to his music. Schroeder often responds to her flirting with a sarcastic quote.
Lucy constantly sees herself as being in competition with the piano, which she has even tried to steal and destroy, and sometimes succeeding, earning her none of Schroeder's love or affection, but instead more of his wrath. To an extent, she also believes she is competing with Schroeder's favorite composer, Beethoven
, and often makes a point to make rude comments about Beethoven to Schroeder's face (which angers Schroeder immensely). At various points, she would also remove the bust of Beethoven to replace it with her picture; or to the extreme, she took a ball bat and smashed it; only to be horrified to see that he had a closet full of extra busts of Beethoven, one of which he replaced the broken one with. Her response to this is, "I'll probably never get married!" In one strip, Lucy tossed Schroeder's piano up into the Kite-Eating Tree
which always eats Charlie Brown's kites, and in another strip, she threw his piano down a sewer. Schroeder, for his part, has on occasion exacted revenge by yanking his piano out from under Lucy, causing her head to strike the floor. Schroeder is also annoyed by Lucy's repeated hinting about gifts, such as when she says that Beethoven's birthday is an ideal day to buy girls gifts.
On occasion during the 1960s and 1970s, Lucy and naturally-curly-haired Frieda
were shown as rivals for Schroeder's affections; Lucy once spotted Frieda taking her (Lucy's) place at Schroeder's piano, and Snoopy taught her how to jump up into the air and look vicious. Frieda was then beaten up. Another time both Frieda and Lucy are leaning on Schroeder's piano, when Lucy informed her that "you need to like Beethoven to hang around here," to which Frieda ignorantly replied, "Sure, but I'll just have a small glass," prompting Schroeder to yank the piano out from beneath both of them. In another instance in the strip, Frieda wondered what would happen if she gave Schroeder a kiss. Lucy says "Why don't you find out." By then Schroeder had walked away for a minute, but Snoopy came in and, what usually happens to Lucy, kisses Frieda, with her saying "Bleah!"
booth, parodying the lemonade stand
operated by many young children in the United States. Here, she gives advice for five cents
(except in the early 80s when the rising cost of hot chocolate one winter caused Lucy to increase her fee to seven cents) to the other characters in the strip, most frequently an anxious Charlie Brown. Lucy asks for "5 cents please" in return for her advice. "Five cents please" is a reference to the line spoken by the Greek philosopher Apollonius of Tyana (played by Tony Randall) in the 1964 film "The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao", whose curse was to always tell the absolute truth. A sign on the front of the booth declares that "The Doctor is" in or out, depending on which side of the "In/Out" placard is displayed. In A Charlie Brown Christmas
, Lucy reverses the placard from displaying its "Out" side to reveal the words "Real In". Another time, on the title panel of a Sunday strip, it showed Lucy chewing gum, and the sign read "The Doctor is Preoccupied.". In It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown
the sign on her booth got changed to "The judge is in. court of legal aid 7 cents" in an attempt to help Sally and Snoopy in a claim that Snoopy stole Sally's science project (Woodstock's nest) and Sally stole Woodstocks nest.
In many strips, and probably her most famous baseball habit, she gets hit on the head with the fly ball, and shows her getting "Bonked." Once, in a 1983 Sunday strip, the ball hits every outfielder's head and most of the infield, and Schroeder says to Charlie Brown, "You're right, I think six bonks is a new record." In a series of strips that later became part of the 2003 TV special Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown
, Charlie Brown traded Lucy to Peppermint Patty's baseball team for Marcie (and a pizza), but once Patty discovered what a terrible player Lucy really was, she traded her back. Even on the diamond, Lucy flirts with Schroeder, who plays catcher on Charlie Brown's team: once she called for a "squeeze play...I'll squeeze the catcher!"and walks away happily while Schroeder and Charlie Brown look on.
Only once has Lucy ever produced on the baseball diamond: in one game, Lucy (using a bat signed not by a ballplayer, but by actress Liv Ullmann
) slammed a home run, after Schroeder jokingly suggested that he would kiss her if she hit a four-bagger. (Lucy let him off the hook: "If that's the only way I'll get you to kiss me, forget it! Another victory for women's lib!")
(from 1972 to 1973) and Melanie Kohn (from 1974 to 1977) have voiced her. Actress Sally Dryer
provided Lucy's voice from 1966–1968. Pamelyn Ferdin
also provided a voice to Lucy in Play It Again, Charlie Brown
. Sydney Penny
voiced her in It's Magic, Charlie Brown
. 1980s child actress Angela Lee voiced her in 1982 and 1983. Heather Stoneman voiced her in 1984 and 1985. Jessica Lee Smith voiced her in the animated version, of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
. Erica Gayle and Punky Brewster
's Ami Foster
both voiced her in "This Is America, Charlie Brown (1988–1989).
In the stage musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
, Lucy was portrayed by Reva Rose
in the original off-Broadway cast in 1967, and by Ilana Levine
in the 1999 Broadway revival.
She was portrayed by Lucille Ball
on a 1971 Christmas episode of The Flip Wilson Show
in which Charlie Brown was portrayed by Wilson and Linus was portrayed by Donny Osmond
.
She was impersonated by Mary Scheer
on an Invader Zim
episode "Mysterious Mysteries" where she said "What's with this big head?" which shows that Lucy still has her mean attitude even she also vent voiced by Grey DeLisle
on Pucca
.
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
:Peanuts, written and drawn by Charles Schulz. She is the main bully
Bully
Bullying is a form of aggressive behavior manifested by the use of force or coercion to affect others, particularly when the behavior is habitual and involves an imbalance of power...
and the older sister of Linus
Linus van Pelt
Linus van Pelt is a character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. The best friend of Charlie Brown, Linus is also the younger brother of Lucy van Pelt and older brother of Rerun van Pelt. He first appeared on September 19, 1952; however, he was not mentioned by name until three days later....
and Rerun
Rerun van Pelt
Rerun van Pelt is Linus and Lucy's younger brother in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts.-Introduction:Rerun started as a minor character in the Peanuts universe, only becoming a main character in the last decade of the comic strip...
. Lucy is a crabby and cynical eight-year old girl, and often bullies the other characters in the strip, particularly Linus and Charlie Brown
Charlie Brown
Charles "Charlie" Brown is the protagonist in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Charlie Brown and his creator have a common connection in that they are both the sons of barbers, but whereas Schulz's work is described as the "most shining example of the American success story", Charlie...
. She is often referred to as the world's greatest fussbudget, mostly by her mother.
History
Lucy was introduced into the strip on March 3, 1952, as a wide-eyed baby who constantly tormented her parents. She soon grew into her familiar persona of a bossy, crabby, manipulative and selfish girl.Very early on, Schulz eliminated the circles around her eyes and allowed her to mature to the age of the other characters; she does have tiny half circles around her eyes (as do the other van Pelt siblings).
Lucy wears a blue dress with white and black saddle shoes for most of the strip's original run. However, in later years, towards its end, she was seen more often in T-shirts and pants, until her dress was phased out altogether.
Perhaps Lucy's most famous gimmick in her long existence as a character is the one in which she pulls the football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
away from Charlie Brown right as he is about to kick it. The first occasion on which she did this was November 16, 1952 (Violet unintentionally did the same thing a year before), but unlike subsequent stunts, Lucy first pulled the ball away because she didn't want Charlie Brown to get it dirty (he took a second try in the same strip, only to trip over it at the end). Afterward, every year in the fall Lucy would somehow manipulate Charlie Brown into trying again, only to pull the ball away to trick him. The most infamous example of this is the animated special It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown
It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown
It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown is the 16th prime-time animated TV specials based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz...
, where her actions (she pulled the ball away four times) cost the school football team a win in the Homecoming game, yet Charlie Brown is blamed even though he is clearly not at fault.
For all her crabbiness and bad temper, Lucy does have a vulnerable side: she is in love (and sometimes infatuated) with Schroeder
Schroeder (Peanuts)
Schroeder is a fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. He is distinguished by his precocious skill at playing the toy piano, as well as by his love of classical music and the composer Ludwig van Beethoven in particular...
, but he did not return her affections. In this Lucy is seen as vulnerable, as she shows a need for assurance from either Schroeder or Charlie Brown that she is indeed pretty (often asking them their opinion of her appearance), and is known to react harshly whenever their reaction is unfavorable, or even hesitant. Indeed, for all her callousness, Lucy seems to be rather thin-skinned when she's on the receiving end of an insult. For example, when Linus countered her statement that he was a terrible brother by saying that she was not such a great sister either, Lucy burst into tears. Another time, her reaction to Charlie Brown's telling her she was not perfect was to wordlessly storm off in anger, leaving Charlie to comment, "I've never seen anyone so insulted!"
Lucy and Linus
Lucy is frequently irked by her younger and more passive brother, Linus. In particular, she wants Linus to stop his attachment to his security blanket, and has even gone so far as to cut it up (to make shapes for a "flannelgraph" and later to make squares for Linus to clean his glasses with) and to steal and hide it. She once made a kite out of it and "accidentally" let go of it. The blanket flew around the country and people wrote to Linus to let him know they saw it. It was rescued by the Air Force when it flew out over the Pacific Ocean. Another time Lucy buried the blanket, causing a frantic Linus to dig up almost the entire neighborhood before SnoopySnoopy
Snoopy is an fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. He is Charlie Brown's pet beagle. Snoopy began his life in the strip as a fairly conventional dog, but eventually evolved into perhaps the strip's most dynamic character—and among the most recognizable...
found it.
She was also notorious for destroying any aspect of Linus' creativity. Whether it be sand castles, which she's destroyed by kicking them over or running them over with her tricycle (once when she did this, he went home and got a pair of pliers and used them to dismantle the tricycle); his house of cards, which she blew over (once when she did this when he was a baby, he picked up the card deck and threw the deck at her after blowing over his house of cards, and laughing about it); a pile of blocks, which she kicked over; or his drawings, which she crumpled up, tore up, and/or threw in the trash burner, she never passed up a chance of stifling his creativity out of sheer meanness or perhaps she thought it was funny.
Whenever Linus offered to help her out on projects, such as making snow bunnies, Lucy outright rejects his help and screams at him to leave her alone and not to bother her. This usually angers Linus to the point where he would build something (a dinosaur or a cannon) which would frighten his bullying sister.
On one occasion in 1965, Linus' blanket took revenge on Lucy for her campaign against it by "jumping" her and physically attacking her. The attacks scared Lucy so badly that she was afraid to go home at night. Eventually she and the blanket made a "truce" whereby the blanket would refrain from attacking Lucy if she promised not to try to throw it into the trash burner anymore. Lucy did in fact try to throw the blanket into the trash burner a few years later (as part of a storyline in which Linus made a deal to give up his blanket if his grandmother would quit smoking
Tobacco smoking
Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...
, and Lucy rationalized that after two weeks without the blanket, Linus no longer needed it), but an unusually strong-willed Linus intervened at the last second, rescued his blanket from the trash burner and screamed at Lucy to mind her own business when it came to the blanket; he told her that if their mother wanted him to get rid of the blanket, then he would do it; until then, it was no one else's business but his.
Lucy thinks that she is completely perfect, or at least acts like it, and that Linus and practically everyone else (except her friends of the same gender) is anything but. She outright told Linus that he was a terrible younger brother, but in a rare instance, where he turns something his sister said back at her, when he demanded that if she thought he was such a horrible brother, what made her to be such a terrific older sister, Lucy, realizing that he struck a nerve, erupted quietly into tears.
Another habit of Linus that drives Lucy crazy is his patting Woodstock
Woodstock (Peanuts)
Woodstock is a fictional character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. He is Snoopy's closest friend and, after Snoopy, the most recognized non-human in the strip.-History:...
and Woodstock's fellow birds on the head. This seems to be a form of emotional therapy for both Linus and the birds, but Lucy is vehemently against it, mainly because she fears that she and her family will be "the laughing stock of the neighborhood" if word gets out that Linus pats birds on the head. In a Sunday strip in 1999 she was even more mortified to discover that her youngest brother, Rerun, had also picked up this habit.
Lucy annoys Linus in other ways: stealing all the crayons (except black, white, and gray), changing the channel or turning the TV off while Linus is watching it, and forcing him to shower her with lavish words of praise before she will even consider sharing anything with him ("Thank you, dear sister, greatest of all sisters, without whom I'd never survive!" is what Linus was once forced to say before receiving a piece of toast. Then, he said, "How can I eat when I feel nauseated?") Lucy also forces Linus to bring her snacks or something to drink while she watches TV. (To quote Linus in one of these examples, "She has all the patience of a boiling teakettle", after she screams, "WHERE'S MY ICE CREAM?!") Lucy once bragged that she played Linus "like a pianist plays a concert grand." and that is no idle boast. Lucy has made no secret of the fact that she wishes she were an only child, and has actually tried to throw Linus out of the house a few times; in one such incident, when Lucy got the news of Rerun
Rerun van Pelt
Rerun van Pelt is Linus and Lucy's younger brother in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts.-Introduction:Rerun started as a minor character in the Peanuts universe, only becoming a main character in the last decade of the comic strip...
's birth in 1972, she exclaimed, "A new baby brother?! But I just got rid of the old one!"
Yet another example of Lucy's high-handedness with Linus was that she would often volunteer him to perform in holiday programs put on by the PTA
Parent-Teacher Association
In the U.S. a parent-teacher association or Parent-Teacher-Student Association is a formal organization composed of parents, teachers and staff that is intended to facilitate parental participation in a public or private school. Most public and private K-8 schools in the U.S. have a PTA, a...
. The first example of this was in a series of Sunday strips from Christmas 1960 when Linus, with Lucy's prompting, had to memorize biblical scripture for the Christmas show (particularly Luke 2:1), which he couldn't remember. Then came the night of the program, and Lucy pushed the scared Linus onstage where he performs his piece perfectly. Determined to never do it again, Lucy hands him his piece for the New Years' program, and Linus runs off screaming. The following year, the same thing over again (only with Matthew 2:17). Then in dailies from Christmas 1963 Lucy volunteers Linus to sing, ignoring Linus' protesting that he couldn't. After surviving that program, Lucy nonchalantly revealed that she had also volunteered him to play the Baby New Year in the PTA's New Years' program, which sent Linus over the edge screaming for his life and taking sanctuary up in a tree, refusing to come down until the program was over (Charlie Brown showed his support for Linus by bringing him his blanket). In later years, Linus would continue to appear in PTA programs, but with far more confidence in himself.
By contrast, Linus' attempts to stand up to his sister typically result in a verbal or physical beatdown. However, he sometimes gets his revenge on Lucy in more subtle ways. In one strip, he suddenly responds to a rude remark from her by ceremoniously awarding her with a printed scroll and congratulates her on being "crabby" for 1,000 days in a row—to which she, completely blindsided at the sheer audacity of this creative insult, could only respond weakly, "One rarely gets a chance to see such carefully planned sarcasm." In another instance, Linus created an effigy out of snow that looked like Lucy. Lucy commented, "You're going to get great satisfaction out of building a snowman that looks just like me just so you can stand there and kick it!" To this, Linus replied, "On the contrary, that would be crude. I'm just going to stand here and watch it slowly melt away", while Lucy stood stunned at the philosophical contempt behind that statement.
On one occasion, however, Lucy was seen to acknowledge Linus' genuine affection for her. When Lucy demands to know what she has to feel thankful for, Linus replies, "Well, for one thing, you have a little brother who loves you..." Lucy immediately bursts into tears and hugs Linus, causing him to say, "Every now and then, I say the right thing." Another occasion that showed Lucy's care and concern for her brother Linus occurred in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a 1966 American prime time animated television special based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz....
. When Linus does not return home from the pumpkin patch by 4:00 am, Lucy gets out of bed, puts her coat on, walks out to the pumpkin patch, leads her sleeping brother home and puts him to bed, all quite wordlessly and even angrily walking out of his room once he's asleep. Also, while Linus was waiting for the Great Pumpkin in the pumpkin patch with Sally and the others were trick or treating, she requested an extra piece of candy for her brother exclaiming, "It's so embarrassing to have to ask for something extra for that blockhead Linus." The book adaptation says she requested an extra apple, but this has yet to be confirmed.
Lucy and Charlie Brown
Her treatment of Charlie Brown is just as bad, although in the very early days of the strip, such as 1952, she seemed to look up to him, probably because he was older. Aside from her infamous football trick, she gives "psychiatric advice" by insulting and belittling him, but on rare occasions, she does try sincerely to help Charlie Brown, such as in A Charlie Brown ChristmasA Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
, by getting him involved in directing the Christmas play. She also sometimes tries to give him what she thinks is good advice, however such advice is usually of little practical value.
In the earlier years, Lucy came up with odd theories (e.g. "Snow comes up out of the ground") and laughed at Charlie Brown's efforts to tell her otherwise. When Charlie Brown finally proves that Lucy's theory is false, Lucy makes an insensitive remark about the way he looks. A similar thing happens when Lucy laughs at Charlie Brown's assertion that birds fly south for the winter
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...
; upon learning the truth from her teacher, she wonders if she can change to a different teacher.
Lucy delivers mean remarks with the greatest of ease, usually showing no emotion whatsoever, then moving on with whatever she was doing. She has a tendency to go off on loud and rambling tangents when she is with Charlie Brown, such as a strip where he asked if she ever regretted anything she said. Her reply is that she always says what she means, but she becomes repetitive and progressively louder, which gives Charlie Brown a headache. The first time she pulled this on him was when he asked her if she was going to make any New Years resolutions. She completely went off on him screaming that she was all right the way she was: this loud rant so sickened Charlie Brown that he walked off holding his stomach.
When Charlie Brown fails at something, Lucy is quick to point it out, as illustrated by the series of strips in early 1964 (later adapted into the script of A Boy Named Charlie Brown
A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969 film)
A Boy Named Charlie Brown is a 1969 animated film, produced by Cinema Center Films, distributed by National General Pictures, and directed by Bill Meléndez, it is the first feature film based on the Peanuts comic strip...
) in which she put together a slide presentation of all of Charlie Brown's faults, and subsequently demanded that he pay her a sum of $143 for her services. Lucy will often trivialize Charlie Brown by saying something completely inane and off topic while he is pouring his heart out to her about something important to him, or, Lucy will think in literal terms, while Charlie Brown is speaking figuratively. Once Charlie Brown told Lucy he would have to build a mental fence to keep unpleasant news out of his mind; Lucy responded in all sincerity and with no apparent sarcasm, by saying "Don't make it a picket fence, Charlie Brown. They're awfully hard to paint".
Lucy sometimes tends to be a victim of Charlie Brown's wit or sarcasm. In one strip when Charlie Brown is at the psychiatric booth, she tells him that the insecurities people have can lead to colds and other illnesses, to which Charlie Brown responds by sarcastically sneezing loudly, knocking Lucy to the floor. Also, in an early strip, she pestered Charlie Brown for a glass of water and when asking what took so long, he dumped the water over her head. Similar incidents have occurred, but they are very rare.
It could be suggested that Lucy has some kind of hidden 'longing', or soft spot for Charlie Brown. First in an April 2, 1965 strip, then in the film A Boy Named Charlie Brown
A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969 film)
A Boy Named Charlie Brown is a 1969 animated film, produced by Cinema Center Films, distributed by National General Pictures, and directed by Bill Meléndez, it is the first feature film based on the Peanuts comic strip...
, she suggests that Charlie Brown looks 'kinda cute' among the flowers on his pitchers mound which actually infuriates him. However, it is also likely she said it just to make him angry. Secondly in the same film, she is extremely angry when he loses the spelling bee. She then turns the T.V off to walk away, only to turn the T.V. back on to utter the words "Charlie Brown, you—you make me mad!" It could also be because she was his "hardworking agent."or she has some feelings for him in her heart. Also in You're in Love, Charlie Brown
You're in Love, Charlie Brown
You're in Love, Charlie Brown is the fourth prime-time animated TV specials based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It originally aired on CBS on June 12, 1967...
, when referring to the little red-haired girl, Charlie Brown remarks that pretty faces make him nervous. This causes Lucy to rant that she has a pretty face. She asks why he does not get nervous around her and begins to follow him when he walks off, continuing her tirade. (This could still be because of her insecurities.) And in A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
and later an episode of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show is an animated television series featuring characters and storylines from the Charles M. Schulz comic strip Peanuts. It aired Saturday mornings on the CBS network from 1983 to 1985. It re-aired on The Disney Channel and Nickelodeon in the 1990s...
she asks if Charlie Brown thinks she is beautiful, to which of course he does not reply, leading her to say "I know when I've been insulted! I know when I've been insulted!" Also early on in the strip, in her first years, she asked Charlie Brown if he thought that they would ever get married. Charlie Brown said no, leaving her visibly upset. Also in a series of strips when Charlie Brown is sick and in the hospital (later animated for the special A Charlie Brown Celebration
A Charlie Brown Celebration
A Charlie Brown Celebration is the 23rd prime-time animated TV special based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz, who introduced the hour-long special...
), Lucy is the person who shows the most distress by this, even crying at one point. She then promises not to ever pull the football away again, if Charlie Brown gets better. She even keeps this promise until Charlie Brown kicks her hand.
Also while she will point out his shortcomings, unlike the other girls, Violet and Patty
Patty (Peanuts)
Patty is a character in the comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz . Her closest friend is Violet...
in particular, Lucy is sometimes willing to try to help make Charlie Brown a better person by offering advice, whether he wants it or not.
Lucy and Rerun
By contrast, Lucy's relationship with her youngest brother, Rerun, who entered the strip as a baby in the early 1970s but didn't become a major character until the late 1990s, is much less turbulent. Despite her initial dismay over his birth (lamenting that she was experiencing a "rerun" with another baby brother, thus giving him his name), Lucy in fact took on something of a mentor role for Rerun, teaching him important things he needs to survive in life, such as how to tie his shoes—in contrast to the outrageous misinformation she has been known to tell Linus (e.g. telling him that leaves falling off trees in autumn were "flying south for the winter"). As a result, Lucy's personality seemed to mellow a bit in the final years of the strip, though she never did become totally "nice." Rerun often shows a knack for getting around Lucy and weakening her defenses, whereas Linus is apt to give up and just let Lucy dominate him.(e.g. Charlie Brown tells Linus he should stand up to his sister. He mentions this to Lucy, who gives no reply. He then says, "I have stupid friends.") In one strip, Lucy walked up to Rerun building a sand castle in a sandbox, and asked him what he would do if she kicked it down. Rerun responded; "Oh, nothing I guess. But years from now, when You and Your Husband come over to My house, and ask Me to co-sign for a loan for You, I might remember it". Lucy appeared to think this over for a moment, and then walked away grinding her teeth in frustration, while Rerun smugly continued building his sand castle. There is an almost identical strip with Linus where he is building a tower with wooden bricks. Lucy asks him what he would do if she knocked it over. Linus says "Probably nothing at the moment....But years from now when you and your husband want me to co-sign a note so you can buy a new house, I'll refuse!" Lucy walks away, frustrated, and Linus remarks "Younger brothers learn to think fast."Lucy and Snoopy
Lucy is terrified of being licked or kissed by Snoopy, and usually runs off screaming whenever he does kiss her. Snoopy is naturally infatuated with her and likes to tease her about it. On several occasions, her flirting with Schroeder has inadvertently resulted in a kiss from Snoopy—Schroeder walks away as soon as Lucy begins flirting, but then Snoopy appears, hears Lucy talking about a kiss, and kisses her, which inevitably results in Lucy running off in hysterics. Schroeder also once had Snoopy kiss Lucy to get out of kissing her himself, by having Snoopy act as his "representative" to deliver a kiss on Beethoven's birthday. In fact, in a strip from 1994 Schroeder actually kissed Lucy on the cheek for giving him a cupcake for Beethoven's birthday. Her eyes were closed during the kiss because when she opened them, Snoopy was standing where Schroeder was and she assumed Snoopy was the one that kissed him.Lucy and Snoopy have also occasionally found themselves in not-so-friendly competition—the two faced off in an arm-wrestling tournament once (the competition ended abruptly after Snoopy kissed Lucy on the nose and she recoiled in horror), and more than once in the course of the strip have actually come to fighting (again, Snoopy often wins by default by trying to kiss or lick Lucy's face).
One classic example was where Snoopy climbed on his doghouse roof to evade an angry Lucy, but she climbed it herself and had him trapped, where he couldn't go to the end of the roof. He kissed her on the nose yet again, and forgetting that she was on top of the doghouse roof, Lucy ran off screaming and fell to the ground. Another situation saw Lucy and Snoopy having a fight under the mistletoe one Christmas. Lucy was waiting for Schroeder under the mistletoe, so he could kiss her; but Snoopy wanted to kiss her. Lucy kicked Snoopy, he kicked her, and the two were fighting yet again. Eventually, Schroeder walked by, completely unruffled and nonchalant, saying that fighting under the mistletoe was unfeminine, unromantic, and gauche. Snoopy won that fight by kissing her on the cheek anyway, while Lucy sat on the ground, depressed.
On several occasions, Charlie Brown has had Snoopy stay at Lucy's house while he and his family went on vacation, and Lucy usually treats her canine house guest inhospitably (i.e. forcing him to sleep outside in one of her old doll beds). Still, as it turns out, Snoopy is perhaps one of the few characters in the strip who sometimes winds up successfully irking Lucy.
However, one of the most famous Peanuts strips of all time shows a rare moment of Lucy showing affection towards Snoopy by hugging him and then saying one of the most famous quotes in the strip's history, "Happiness is a warm puppy." Lucy herself acknowledged in another strip that although there were times when Snoopy drove her crazy, there were also times when she felt like hugging him, which she then proceeded to do.
At the end of the animated film It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown
It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown
It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown is the 12th prime-time animated TV special based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz...
, Lucy ends up being kissed by Snoopy (after she originally wanted to fight him for taking her eggs to give to the neighborhood kids) and responds "Aah, the Easter Beagle!" with a dreamy look in her eyes. Most of the time she would just call him a stupid beagle.
Lucy and Schroeder
Lucy is in love with SchroederSchroeder (Peanuts)
Schroeder is a fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. He is distinguished by his precocious skill at playing the toy piano, as well as by his love of classical music and the composer Ludwig van Beethoven in particular...
, who constantly rejects her advances. Her love of Schroeder begins in the Peanuts strip from January 27, 1953. When she asks Schroeder what song he is playing, he responds saying the Nutcracker Suite, which Lucy erroneously interprets as "Nutcracker, Sweet". She spends much of her time leaning against his toy piano as he plays, striving to gain the attention Schroeder gives to his music. Schroeder often responds to her flirting with a sarcastic quote.
Lucy constantly sees herself as being in competition with the piano, which she has even tried to steal and destroy, and sometimes succeeding, earning her none of Schroeder's love or affection, but instead more of his wrath. To an extent, she also believes she is competing with Schroeder's favorite composer, Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, and often makes a point to make rude comments about Beethoven to Schroeder's face (which angers Schroeder immensely). At various points, she would also remove the bust of Beethoven to replace it with her picture; or to the extreme, she took a ball bat and smashed it; only to be horrified to see that he had a closet full of extra busts of Beethoven, one of which he replaced the broken one with. Her response to this is, "I'll probably never get married!" In one strip, Lucy tossed Schroeder's piano up into the Kite-Eating Tree
Kite-Eating Tree
The Kite-Eating Tree is a fictional tree featured in the comic strip Peanuts created by Charles M. Schulz.A Kite-Eating Tree is a deciduous tree of indeterminate type, once referred to as a "Kiteus Eatemupus". According to Charlie Brown, it is impossible to tell a kite-eating tree from...
which always eats Charlie Brown's kites, and in another strip, she threw his piano down a sewer. Schroeder, for his part, has on occasion exacted revenge by yanking his piano out from under Lucy, causing her head to strike the floor. Schroeder is also annoyed by Lucy's repeated hinting about gifts, such as when she says that Beethoven's birthday is an ideal day to buy girls gifts.
On occasion during the 1960s and 1970s, Lucy and naturally-curly-haired Frieda
Frieda (Peanuts)
Frieda is a character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz. According to Schulz, Frieda's character was inspired by his longtime friend Frieda Rich, a local artist whom he met while taking classes at the Art Instruction Schools in Minneapolis, Minnesota...
were shown as rivals for Schroeder's affections; Lucy once spotted Frieda taking her (Lucy's) place at Schroeder's piano, and Snoopy taught her how to jump up into the air and look vicious. Frieda was then beaten up. Another time both Frieda and Lucy are leaning on Schroeder's piano, when Lucy informed her that "you need to like Beethoven to hang around here," to which Frieda ignorantly replied, "Sure, but I'll just have a small glass," prompting Schroeder to yank the piano out from beneath both of them. In another instance in the strip, Frieda wondered what would happen if she gave Schroeder a kiss. Lucy says "Why don't you find out." By then Schroeder had walked away for a minute, but Snoopy came in and, what usually happens to Lucy, kisses Frieda, with her saying "Bleah!"
Psychiatric booth
Lucy is also the manager of a psychiatricPsychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
booth, parodying the lemonade stand
Lemonade Stand (business)
A lemonade stand is a business that is commonly owned and operated by a child or children, to sell lemonade.The archetypical version is made out of plywood or cardboard boxes; a paper sign on front advertises the lemonade stand....
operated by many young children in the United States. Here, she gives advice for five cents
Cent (currency)
In many national currencies, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1⁄100 of the basic monetary unit. Etymologically, the word cent derives from the Latin word "centum" meaning hundred. Cent also refers to a coin which is worth one cent....
(except in the early 80s when the rising cost of hot chocolate one winter caused Lucy to increase her fee to seven cents) to the other characters in the strip, most frequently an anxious Charlie Brown. Lucy asks for "5 cents please" in return for her advice. "Five cents please" is a reference to the line spoken by the Greek philosopher Apollonius of Tyana (played by Tony Randall) in the 1964 film "The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao", whose curse was to always tell the absolute truth. A sign on the front of the booth declares that "The Doctor is" in or out, depending on which side of the "In/Out" placard is displayed. In A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
, Lucy reverses the placard from displaying its "Out" side to reveal the words "Real In". Another time, on the title panel of a Sunday strip, it showed Lucy chewing gum, and the sign read "The Doctor is Preoccupied.". In It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown
It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown
It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown is the 11th prime-time animated TV specials based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was originally aired on the CBS network on February 1, 1974...
the sign on her booth got changed to "The judge is in. court of legal aid 7 cents" in an attempt to help Sally and Snoopy in a claim that Snoopy stole Sally's science project (Woodstock's nest) and Sally stole Woodstocks nest.
Baseball
On Charlie Brown's baseball team Lucy plays right field (or occasionally center field), and is characterized as a bad player, who, when temporarily kicked off the team, turns to heckling the games. Lucy has a knack for coming up with a novel excuse for every fly ball she misses (for example: "The moons of Saturn got in my eyes", or "I think there were toxic substances coming from my glove, and they made me dizzy", or "I was having my quiet time."). Other times, she finds an excuse to have one-sided conversations with Charlie Brown at the pitcher's mound, often over some trivial thing she noticed, which usually result in Charlie Brown blowing his top and yelling at her to "Get back in center field where you belong!". Once, Charlie Brown berated her for letting fly ball drops, and telling her he would not brook any more excuses such as the grass getting in her eyes; Lucy caught the ball cleanly, and tossed it back to him on the mound silently, after which he admitted he was actually looking forward to her next excuse.In many strips, and probably her most famous baseball habit, she gets hit on the head with the fly ball, and shows her getting "Bonked." Once, in a 1983 Sunday strip, the ball hits every outfielder's head and most of the infield, and Schroeder says to Charlie Brown, "You're right, I think six bonks is a new record." In a series of strips that later became part of the 2003 TV special Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown
Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown
Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown is a Peanuts special. It originally aired on the ABC network on August 29, 2003. It was released to DVD on March 2, 2004.-Plot:...
, Charlie Brown traded Lucy to Peppermint Patty's baseball team for Marcie (and a pizza), but once Patty discovered what a terrible player Lucy really was, she traded her back. Even on the diamond, Lucy flirts with Schroeder, who plays catcher on Charlie Brown's team: once she called for a "squeeze play...I'll squeeze the catcher!"and walks away happily while Schroeder and Charlie Brown look on.
Only once has Lucy ever produced on the baseball diamond: in one game, Lucy (using a bat signed not by a ballplayer, but by actress Liv Ullmann
Liv Ullmann
Liv Johanne Ullmann is a Norwegian actress and film director, as well as one of the "muses" of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman...
) slammed a home run, after Schroeder jokingly suggested that he would kiss her if she hit a four-bagger. (Lucy let him off the hook: "If that's the only way I'll get you to kiss me, forget it! Another victory for women's lib!")
Portrayals
1960s child actress Tracy Stratford first voiced Lucy in 1965 and since then many actresses including sisters RobinRobin Kohn
Robin Kohn is a former a child actress noted for providing the voice of Lucy van Pelt in various Peanuts animation films during the early 1970s. Later on, her sister Melanie Kohn would inherit the role from her...
(from 1972 to 1973) and Melanie Kohn (from 1974 to 1977) have voiced her. Actress Sally Dryer
Sally Dryer
Sally Dryer is a former child actor best known for her voice-over work in the 1960s.-Career:...
provided Lucy's voice from 1966–1968. Pamelyn Ferdin
Pamelyn Ferdin
Pamelyn Ferdin is a former American television and film child actor, active both in live action and as a voice actress in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s and has since appeared in several voice acting roles as late as 2009...
also provided a voice to Lucy in Play It Again, Charlie Brown
Play It Again, Charlie Brown
Play It Again, Charlie Brown is the seventh prime-time animated TV specials based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was originally aired on the CBS network on March 28, 1971. It was the first Peanuts TV special of the 1970s...
. Sydney Penny
Sydney Penny
Sydney Penny is an American Daytime Emmy-nominated actress best known for the roles of Julia Santos Keefer on the soap opera All My Children and Samantha "Sam" Kelly on the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.She is of part Cherokee descent and raised in Chatsworth, California, the daughter...
voiced her in It's Magic, Charlie Brown
It's Magic, Charlie Brown
It's Magic, Charlie Brown is the 21st prime-time animated TV special based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It originally aired on April 28, 1981...
. 1980s child actress Angela Lee voiced her in 1982 and 1983. Heather Stoneman voiced her in 1984 and 1985. Jessica Lee Smith voiced her in the animated version, of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (TV special)
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown is the 29th prime-time animated TV special based upon the popular comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz...
. Erica Gayle and Punky Brewster
Punky Brewster
Punky Brewster was an American sitcom about a girl named Punky Brewster being raised by her foster parent...
's Ami Foster
Ami Foster
Ami Foster is a former American child actress. Foster is best remembered for playing Margeaux Kramer on the American television program Punky Brewster.-Biography:...
both voiced her in "This Is America, Charlie Brown (1988–1989).
In the stage musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown is a 1967 musical comedy with music and lyrics by Clark Gesner, based on the characters created by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz in his comic strip Peanuts...
, Lucy was portrayed by Reva Rose
Reva Rose
Reva Rose is an American actress of stage and screen, best known for playing Lucy van Pelt in the Off-Broadway production of Clark Gesner's You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.- Stage :...
in the original off-Broadway cast in 1967, and by Ilana Levine
Ilana Levine
Ilana Levine is an American actress. She played the role of Lucy van Pelt in the 1999 revival of the Broadway play You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown. She is married to actor Dominic Fumusa...
in the 1999 Broadway revival.
She was portrayed by Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
on a 1971 Christmas episode of The Flip Wilson Show
The Flip Wilson Show
The Flip Wilson Show is a variety show that aired in the U.S. on NBC from September 17, 1970 to June 27, 1974. The show starred American comedian Flip Wilson; the program was one of the first American television programs starring a black person in the title role to become highly successful with a...
in which Charlie Brown was portrayed by Wilson and Linus was portrayed by Donny Osmond
Donny Osmond
Donald Clark "Donny" Osmond is an American singer, musician, actor, dancer, radio personality, and former teen idol. Osmond has also been a talk and game show host, record producer and author. In the mid 1960s, he and four of his elder brothers gained fame as the Osmond Brothers on the long...
.
She was impersonated by Mary Scheer
Mary Scheer
Mary Scheer is an American actress and comedian. She is best known as one of the original cast members of the sketch comedy series MADtv and for playing Freddie's mother, Marissa Benson, on iCarly...
on an Invader Zim
Invader Zim
Invader Zim is an American animated television series created by Jhonen Vasquez. It was produced by and subsequently aired on Nickelodeon. The series revolves around an extraterrestrial named Zim from the planet Irk, and his ongoing mission to conquer and destroy Earth...
episode "Mysterious Mysteries" where she said "What's with this big head?" which shows that Lucy still has her mean attitude even she also vent voiced by Grey DeLisle
Grey DeLisle
Grey DeLisle is an American voice actress, singer-songwriter, and comedienne. To date, she has released four solo albums and has featured on the tribute album Anchored in Love: A Tribute to June Carter Cash and film soundtrack of Loggerheads...
on Pucca
Pucca (TV series)
Pucca is a South Korean animated television series based on a series of shorts created by Vooz Character System. The series revolves around 11-year-old Pucca, a young girl who's in love and obsessed with a 12-year-old ninja named Garu. It also airs currently on Champ Vision and MBC in Korea...
.
In Popular Culture
- Lucy appeared in an episode of Robot ChickenRobot ChickenRobot Chicken is an American stop motion animated television series created and executive produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. Green provides many voices for the show...
voiced by Katelin Peterson. In the segment she appears in, she is first seen trying to trick Charlie BrownCharlie BrownCharles "Charlie" Brown is the protagonist in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Charlie Brown and his creator have a common connection in that they are both the sons of barbers, but whereas Schulz's work is described as the "most shining example of the American success story", Charlie...
to kick a football, but Charlie instead kicks Lucy for years of humiliation. After she is kicked, she lands in the pumpkin patch and discover Linus van PeltLinus van PeltLinus van Pelt is a character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. The best friend of Charlie Brown, Linus is also the younger brother of Lucy van Pelt and older brother of Rerun van Pelt. He first appeared on September 19, 1952; however, he was not mentioned by name until three days later....
's body. She is later seen at Linus' funeral. She and Charlie Brown were the only ones alive, and when Charlie talked to her at her booth, she is gasping in fear when she sees The Great Pumpkin's shadow and is killed by the Great Pumpkin when it eats the booth.
- She also made an appearance in Family GuyFamily GuyFamily Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
. When Charlie Brown fails to kick the football, Peter GriffinPeter GriffinPeter Griffin is a fictional character and the protagonist of the animated comedy series Family Guy and the patriarch of the Griffin family. He is voiced by cartoonist Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family in the 15-minute short on December 20, 1998....
comes in and says he is tired of Charlie being humiliated. He repeatedly kicks Lucy until she promises she will make Charlie kick the ball. He finally kicks it and Peter kicks her one more time because she isn't a legal psychiatrist.
- Lucy and the rest of the Peanuts gang make an appearance in MAD, having a series of strips called "Final Episode of Peanuts that You Never Saw". In one of the strips Lucy comments on Schroeder, saying that she could listen to him play all day, and gets a kiss from Schroeder. After this Lucy walks away, saying that one rufie can make all the difference in a girl's life. In another strip Lucy convinces Charlie Brown to kick the football, but instead Charlie Brown kicks her.
- Lucy also appeared in GTCC Stories In S3EP11, Making Her More Annoying Than The Original Versions.