Editing Peanuts (section)

===1960s===
The 1960s is generally considered to be the "golden age" for ''Peanuts''.<ref name=":0"/> During this period, some of the strip's best-known themes and characters appeared, including Peppermint Patty,<ref>{{Cite web|title = Peanuts by Charles Schulz, August 22, 1966 Via @GoComics|url = http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1966/08/22|website = GoComics|access-date = November 14, 2015}}</ref> Snoopy as the "World War One Flying Ace",<ref>{{Cite web|title = Peanuts by Charles Schulz, October 10, 1965 Via @GoComics|url = http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1965/10/10|website = GoComics|access-date = November 14, 2015}}</ref> Frieda and her "naturally curly hair",<ref>{{Cite web|title = Peanuts by Charles Schulz, March 06, 1961 Via @GoComics|url = http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1961/03/06|website = GoComics|access-date = November 14, 2015}}</ref> and Franklin.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Peanuts by Charles Schulz, July 29, 1968 Via @GoComics|url = http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1968/07/29|website = GoComics|access-date = November 14, 2015}}</ref> ''Peanuts'' is remarkable for its deft [[social commentary]], especially compared with other strips appearing in the 1950s and early 1960s. Schulz did not explicitly address racial and gender equality issues so much as assume them to be self-evident. Peppermint Patty's athletic skill and self-confidence are simply taken for granted, for example, as is Franklin's presence in a racially integrated school and neighborhood. (Franklin's creation occurred at least in part as a result of Schulz's 1968 correspondence with a socially progressive fan.{{sfn|Gertler|2012}}<ref name=Snopes>Evon, Dan (December 24, 2015). [http://www.snopes.com/charlie-brown-racist-franklin/ "You're a Racist, Charlie Brown?: A closer look at allegations of racism in the comic strip 'Peanuts'"]. [[Snopes.com]].</ref>) The fact that Charlie Brown's baseball team had three girls on it was also at least ten years ahead of its time. The 1966 prime time television special ''[[Charlie Brown's All Stars!]]'' dealt with Charlie Brown refusing sponsorship of his team on the condition he fire the girls and Snoopy, because the league does not allow girls or dogs to play.<!--need facts for the entire paragraph-->

Schulz threw satirical barbs at any number of topics when he chose. His child and animal characters satirized the adult world.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/s/schulz.htm|title = Charles M. Schulz}}</ref> Over the years he tackled everything from the [[Vietnam War]] to school dress codes to "[[New Math]]". The May 20, 1962 strip featured an icon that stated "Defend Freedom, Buy [[U.S. Savings Bonds]]."<ref>{{Cite web|title = Peanuts by Charles Schulz, May 20, 1962 Via @GoComics|url = http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1962/05/20|website = GoComics|access-date = November 14, 2015}}</ref> In 1963 he added a little boy named "5" to the cast,<ref>{{Cite web|title = Peanuts by Charles Schulz, September 30, 1963 Via @GoComics|url = http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1963/09/30|website = GoComics|access-date = November 14, 2015}}</ref> whose sisters were named "3" and "4,"<ref>{{Cite web|title = Peanuts by Charles Schulz, October 01, 1963 Via @GoComics|url = http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1963/10/01|website = GoComics|access-date = November 14, 2015}}</ref> and whose father had changed their [[family name]] to their [[ZIP Code]], giving in to the way numbers were taking over people's identities. Also in 1963, one strip showed Sally being secretive about school prayer, in reference to the Supreme Court decisions on it that year.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Peanuts by Charles Schulz, October 20, 1963 Via @GoComics|url = https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1963/10/20|website = GoComics|access-date = November 14, 2015}}</ref> In 1958, a strip in which Snoopy tossed Linus into the air and boasted that he was the first dog ever to launch a human parodied the hype associated with Sputnik 2's launch of [[Laika]] the dog into space earlier that year. Another sequence lampooned [[Little League]]s and "organized" play when all the neighborhood kids join [[snowman]]-building leagues and criticize Charlie Brown when he insists on building his own snowmen without leagues or coaches.<!--need facts for the entire paragraph-->

''Peanuts'' touched on religious themes on many occasions, especially during the 1960s. The classic television special ''[[A Charlie Brown Christmas]]'' from 1965, features the character [[Linus van Pelt]] quoting the [[King James Version]] of the Bible (Luke 2:8–14) to explain to Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about (in personal interviews, Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side). Because of the explicit religious material in ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'', many have interpreted Schulz's work as having a distinct Christian theme, though the popular perspective has been to view the franchise through a secular lens.<ref>{{Citation |last=Lind |first=Stephen J. |title=Reading Peanuts: The Secular and the Sacred |url=http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v4_2/lind/ |access-date=August 31, 2010 |publisher=[[ImageTexT]]}}</ref>

During the week of July 29, 1968, Schulz debuted the African American character Franklin to the strip, at the urging of white Jewish Los Angeles schoolteacher Harriet Glickman. Though Schulz feared that adding a black character would be seen as patronizing to the African American community, Glickman convinced him that the addition of Black characters could help normalize the idea of friendships between children of different ethnicities. Franklin appeared in a trio of strips set at a beach, in which he first gets Charlie Brown's beach ball from the water and subsequently helps him build a sand castle, during which he mentions that his father is in Vietnam.