1. Who are you?
Lee Mendelson, Executive Producer, all 70 of the "Peanuts" specials and 4 animated "Peanuts"
movies. Born in San Francisco in 1933 (3rd generation San Franciscan). Second favourite city:
London. Have visited at least 25 times.
2. How did you get started with the Peanuts series, and why choose to work in cartoons?
I was a documentary film maker. I produced a network special on the greatest baseball player
of all time, Willie Mays. Then I decided to do a documentary on the world's worst baseball player,
Charlie Brown. I met Charles Schulz in 1963 to do the documentary, which eventually lead to our
37-year partnership with Bill Melendez in the animated shows.
3. Why is it called "Peanuts"?, since that's not the name of any character in the series.
Mr.Schulz never liked the title "Peanuts" but United Feature Syndicate insisted it was a good title.
We used to call little kids "little peanuts" in the old days.
4. What was it like working with Charles Schulz?
It was a wonderful 37 year relationship. We never had any disagreements. He was always a pleasure to
be with. He was at once a great artist, writer, philosopher, and comic genius.
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Lee Mendelson has been involved in the
Peanuts series since it began, and we've been lucky enough to interview him
in conjunction with the Easter 2004 DVD release,
Peanuts: It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!
