Shortly after the April 4, 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., a California school teacher named Harriet Glickman sent a letter to Peanuts creator Charles. M. Schulz. In it, she asked him to introduce a Black character to Charlie Brown’s world, in hopes of helping ease the racial tensions roiling the country at the time. While Schulz admitted it was a great idea, his original response was one of concern that such a move might appear condescending.
Nevertheless, Glickman persisted and today we have Franklin Armstrong, who is finally getting his origin story explored in Apple TV+‘s Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin. “The flack [my dad] got from that was tremendous,” recalls Craig Schulz of the character’s debut on July 31, 1968. “A lot of backlash, a lot of nasty letters, editors threatening to pull the comic strip from their newspapers and so forth… For him, it had been quite the dilemma to not only take the risk of doing that but [thinking], ‘How am I going to present this to the world and not offend the Black community?’” he continues. “We felt the same thing in writing this story.”
Schulz realized early on that he already knew the perfect scribe for the job in Robb Armstrong, who both has his own comic cred with Jump Start and a direct tie to Franklin. “[He] carries my last name, and it was at the behest of my friend ‘Sparky’ Schulz,” recalls Armstrong. “Charles Schulz went by the nickname ‘Sparky’—all his friends called him ‘Sparky’—and he contacted me in 1994 and requested my permission to use Armstrong for Franklin’s last name.”
Apple TV+
In the above chat with Armstrong, Craig Schulz, who also executive produced the special, and Emmy-winning director Raymond S. Persi, the fellas share the evolution of the character and why telling Franklin’s story is so important, even today.
In addition, they preview special, which is a lovely, lively romp filled with details about the beloved kid, including his early life moving around for his dad’s military job, his notebook filled with his grandfather’s advice on how to make friends and, of course, his first meetings with Chuck, Lucy and the world’s greatest beagle. Plus, watch an exclusive clip below.
Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin, Friday, February 16, Apple TV+