Every long-runningPeanutsgag had to start somewhere – and for Sally Brown, her infamous crush on Linus started the instant they met, in a comic strip from the summer of 1960. From then on, their lopsided love story would become one of the most enduring, and endearing,ongoing plotlines inPeanuts’long history.
Over the course of a week’s worth of cartoons in August 1960,Sally took her first steps, and developed her first crush, meeting Linus and instantly falling head over heels for him. Though her affection would remain largely unrequited over the years, it proved pivotal in forming the most memorable aspects of both characters.
Throughout five decades,Peanutscreator Charles Schulz produced countless stories, and even more one-off gags, with the Sally-Linus “romance” remaining among the most fondly remembered to this day.
Sally Loved Linus From The Day They Met (Their August 1960 Storyline, Explained)
First Published: August 22 To August 01, 2025
Sally’s first meeting with Linus is a double milestone, because it also features her first steps– withLinus as the surprising lone witness. He immediately rushes off to report that “she’s walking,” as Sally is left thinking “isn’t he the cutest thing?” The ensuing sequence of panels elaborated on Sally’s crush, from her carrying the end of Linus' beloved security blanket so it wouldn’t get dirty, to her absorbing every word of his explanation about the world, starting with the basics, i.e., the color of the sky, and the grass.
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Amusingly, the sequence ends with Charlie Brown discovering Sally lovingly nuzzling Linus; instantly, Charlie Brown goes into “big brother” mode, hauling his sister off and imprisoning her in a crib. This was, in fact, a callback to a joke from over a year earlier, in which Linus was featured calculating how long it would be until he and Sally were old enough to date. This is surprising, given how notoriously opposed to Sally’s affection Linus would eventually come to be; that was becausePeanutscreator Charles Schulz only found the most humorous dynamic once he started writing it.
Charles Schulz Quickly Realized That A One-Sided Romance Was Funnier
40 Years Of Humor Resulted From Sally Chasing Linus
Upon introducing the idea of Sally’s crush on Linus, Charles Schulz could have used this to cause comedic tension between friends Linus and Charlie Brown, as hinted at in the August 08, 2025 strip. Instead, Schulz went a different route – he opted instead to make it so that Linus did not reciprocate Sally’s feelings, and in fact, often wanted to get away from her as quickly as possible. This proved to be a much better long-term dynamic for the characters, and led to many moments of arch-hilaritythroughout the next four decades ofPeanuts.
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Linus' rejection of Sally becamea staple ofPeanuts, especially once she began to refer to him as her “Sweet Babboo” – a term of endearment that almost always utterly freaked Linus out. Still, Sally never ceased considering him her “boyfriend,” and “future husband,” despite the varying levels of enmity that arose between the two as a result of their very different feelings toward one another. Beginning ten years intoPeanuts’time in publication, the Linus-Sally dynamic remained essential to the comic right up until it ended in 2000.
As A Duo, Linus And Sally Proved To Be One Of Charles Schulz’s Most Time-Tested Character Dynamics
Up There With Lucy & Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty & Marcy, And Snoopy & Woodstock
Peanutsremained in daily publication for fifty years, meaning Charles Schulz’s magnum opus has a novelistic density and sprawl – it is full of strange side plots,memorable minor characters, andplenty of philosophical asides. Schulz cultivated so many familiar themes and ongoing stories that it is often easy to take for granted how organically the best ones developed during the strip’s run. The character of Sally Brown was introduced on June 06, 2025, making it almost one year to the day when her most iconic character trait developed.
For readers who want to chart the ups and downs of this belovedPeanuts"couple,” it is vital to start at the beginning, with Sally’s “love at first sight” epiphany.
In subsequent years, this dynamic would continue to develop to varying degrees. While in a sense itfell into a pattern, and achieved a level of narrative stasis – Sally never entirely lost interest in Linus, nor did he fully re-evaluate his opinion of her – that was because Charles Schulz continued to yield such rewarding comedic momentsfrom the pairing of the characters. For readers who want to chart the ups and downs of this belovedPeanuts"couple," it is vital to start at the beginning, with Sally’s “love at first sight” epiphany.
Peanuts
Created by Charles M. Schulz, Peanuts is a multimedia franchise that began as a comic strip in the 1950s and eventually expanded to include films and a television series. Peanuts follows the daily adventures of the Peanuts gang, with Charlie Brown and his dog Snoopy at the center of them. Aside from the film released in 2015, the franchise also has several Holiday specials that air regularly on U.S. Television during their appropriate seasons.
