I have pleasant memories of Charlie Brown as a kid. You could buy Charlie Brown books at the local thrift store for $.15 each, which fit comfortably into my budget back then. Plus Charlie Brown is a complete nerd. Bad at sports, shy with girls, and generally abused by the local "cool kids". Odds are today he has his own software company and Lucy is cleaning his toilets. Here is an old CalArts film that I find really funny called Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown.

I also loved Snoopy, and never more so than when he was a WWI fighter pilot getting shot down by the Red Baron.  I think it an interesting exorcize in psychology that he was living in his own fantasy world and getting shot down by his fantasy nemesis.  No repression there. 

Actually, when you think about it, Peanuts could be kind of dark.  Snoopy gets literally shot at by machine guns and lives in multiple fantasy worlds, Charlie Brown is an abused loser nerd, there is a giant, kite eating tree (paging Dr. Freud), Lucy is a sadistic bitch who wants to be a psychologist, Linus sucks his thumb and carries a blanket (without which he goes into massive anxiety attacks), Schroeder is obviously autistic, Sally has massive attachment issues, Peppermint Patty and Marcie are spiraling in the closet with gender identity issues, Frieda is way too into her own looks, and Pig Pen takes pride in his filthy and disheveled appearance.  The whole crowd is screaming for years of therapy, or at least a reality TV show.

Dave
updated October 13th, 2011