View source for Rerun Van Pelt

{{short description|Peanuts comic strip character}}
{{Infobox character
| name = Rerun Van Pelt
| series = [[Peanuts]]
| image = RerunVanPelt.jpg
| caption = Rerun on the back of his mother's bicycle in ''[[It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown]]'' (1976)
| first = May 23, 1972 (birth and first mention)<br />March 26, 1973 (official debut)
| last = January 30, 2000 (comic strip)
| gender = Male
| family = [[Linus Van Pelt]] (older brother)<br>[[Lucy Van Pelt]] (older sister)<br>Unnamed parents<br>Unnamed blanket-hating grandmother<br>Marian (aunt)<br>Felix Van Pelt (paternal grandfather)
| nationality = American
| voice = Vinnie Dow (1976)<br/>Jason Muller (1983 and 1985)<br/>Tim Deters (2002) (as Timmy Deters)<br/>[[Jimmy Bennett]] (2003 and 2006) (credited as James Bennett)<br/>Finn Carr (2016)<br/>Daniel Thornton (2016, as a baby)<br/>Milo Toriel-McGibbon (2019)
}}

'''Rerun Van Pelt''' is [[Linus Van Pelt|Linus]] and [[Lucy Van Pelt|Lucy]]'s younger brother in [[Charles M. Schulz]]'s [[comic strip]] ''[[Peanuts]]''. Lucy, who had wanted a sister, disparagingly called the situation a "rerun" of the birth of her brother [[Linus Van Pelt|Linus]], so Linus nicknames the child "Rerun".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1972/05/31|title=May 31, 1972 strip|last=Schulz|first=Charles|date=1972-05-31|website=GoComics|language=en|access-date=2019-02-22}}</ref> Despite Lucy's initial disappointment, she becomes a warm and protective older sister.<ref name="Album">{{cite book |last1=Farago |first1=Andrew |title=The Complete Peanuts Family Album: The Ultimate Guide to Charles M. Schulz's Classic Characters |date=2017 |publisher=Weldon Owen |isbn=978-1681882925 |page=241}}</ref>

Rerun was a minor character in the strip when he was introduced in 1972. In the 1980s, he mostly appeared in sequences riding on the back of his mother's bicycle. However, in the late 1990s (the final years of the strip) he became a major presence, as Schulz felt that his main cast was "too old" for some of the themes he wanted to explore. In a 1997 interview in ''Comics Journal'', Schulz admitted, "Lately, Rerun has almost taken over the strip."<ref name="Groth">{{cite book |last1=Groth |first1=Gary |editor1-last=Inge |editor1-first=M. Thomas |title=Charles M. Schulz: Conversations |date=2000 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=9781578063055 |page=218 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bMlJTPWp6O0C&q=rerun |access-date=25 May 2020 |chapter=Schulz at 3 O'Clock in the Morning}}</ref>

Rerun made his first appearance in animation in the 1976 special ''[[It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown]]'', voiced by Vinnie Dow.<ref name=Woolery>{{cite book |last1=Woolery |first1=George W. |title=Animated TV Specials: The Complete Directory to the First Twenty-Five Years, 1962-1987 |date=1989 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=0-8108-2198-2 |access-date=9 April 2020 |url=https://archive.org/details/animatedtvspecia0000wool/page/214/mode/2up |pages=214–215}}</ref> He returned in the 1983–1985 series ''[[The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show]]'', voiced by Jason Mendelson, the four-year-old son of producer Bill Mendelson.<ref name=Animation>{{cite book |last1=Solomon |first1=Charles |title=The Art and Making of Peanuts Animation: Celebrating Fifty Years of Television Specials |date=2012 |publisher=Chronicle Books |isbn=978-1452110912 |pages=20, 41, 180}}</ref> Rerun was the main character in the 2003 special ''[[I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown]]'', with a storyline drawn from the strip's Rerun-heavy final years.<ref name=Animation/> He also has an important role in the 2006 special ''[[He's a Bully, Charlie Brown]]''.<ref name=Animation/>

==Description==
Rerun bears a strong physical resemblance to Linus. In appearances from the 1970s and 1980s, Rerun is virtually identical to Linus, though he is smaller, wore a plain T-shirt (it appears that he got many hand-me-downs from Linus, as he wore a long-sleeved shirt with Linus's shirt design), and his hair sprang up. Rerun's appearance evolved in the 1990s, as he aged beyond infancy. Rerun was mostly shown wearing overalls, and his hair was shown as shorter and flatter. While he continued to share Linus' facial features, Rerun's head also grew rounder and larger in proportion to his body. In his early TV appearances, he wears a green or white shirt with black shorts and saddle shoes. In ''I Want A Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown'', he wears an orange striped shirt under light blue overalls.

==Development==
Rerun started as a minor character in the ''Peanuts'' universe, only becoming a main character in the last decade of the comic strip. Rerun was first mentioned in the strip on May 23, 1972, during a storyline in which Lucy throws her younger brother [[Linus Van Pelt|Linus]] out of the house, only to relent when she learns that yet another little brother had just been born.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1972/05/23|title=May 23, 1972 strip|last=Schulz|first=Charles|date=1972-05-23|website=GoComics|language=en|access-date=2019-02-22}}</ref><ref name=Meuther>{{cite book |last1=Meuther |first1=Olaf |editor1-last=Lee |editor1-first=Peter W.Y. |title=Peanuts and American Culture: Essays on Charles M. Schulz's Iconic Comic Strip |date=2019 |publisher=McFarland & Co |isbn=9781476671444 |pages=36–37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cTOXDwAAQBAJ&q=rerun |access-date=25 May 2020 |chapter=Two Different Worlds: Adults, Children and Their Relationship}}</ref>

Initially, toddler Rerun was shown playing cards with an equally confused Snoopy,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1998/06/30|title=June 30, 1998 strip|last=Schulz|first=Charles|date=1998-06-30|website=GoComics|language=en|access-date=2019-02-22}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1993/05/06|title=May 06, 1993 strip|last=Schulz|first=Charles|date=1993-05-06|website=GoComics|language=en|access-date=2019-02-22}}</ref> and learning to tie his shoes from Lucy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1995/10/26|title=October 26, 1995 strip|last=Schulz|first=Charles|date=1995-10-26|website=GoComics|language=en|access-date=2019-02-22}}</ref>

For many years, Rerun was only seen perched in a seat on the back of his mother's bicycle, wryly commenting on his mother's riding skills and habits. Schulz, a careful observer of ordinary life, was inspired by the sight of young children strapped down for transport. "You look at these little kids hanging on to their elders..." he said, "and you wonder what goes through their minds." Rerun was "a kind of interpreter to those silent thoughts and impressions.<ref name=Woolery/> The absence of parents and adults in the comic strip means that Rerun must face his trials alone. One critic writes, "Mrs. Van Pelt exposes Rerun to the harsher truths of the outside world. He has to fend for himself in fighting off dogs, handle burdens like her purchases, and deal with setbacks in life, such as potholes. Perhaps she wants to prepare Rerun for the cruelties and failures that Charlie Brown's gang frequently encounters. After all, his older brother, Linus, basically hides under a blanket."<ref name=Meuther/>

In 1976, Rerun made his first animated appearance in the special ''It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown'', in a sequence on the back of his mother's bicycle.<ref name=Woolery/> He was rarely used in the 1980s; by that time, Schulz had run out of ideas about how to use him. "Rerun is still around," Schulz said in a 1984 interview promoting ''[[It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown]]''. "He rides on the back of his mom's bicycle now and then, and we're going to use him on some of the Saturday morning television shows but I just... run out of ideas on certain subjects, and lately I haven't been able to think of anything where he is on the back of his mom's bicycle. But he's still around."<ref name=Album/><ref>{{cite video |people = Charles M. Schulz promoting ''[[It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown]]'' |date= 1984 |title    = People are Talking |url      = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjKhCk4jqKs |format   = [[SWF]] |publisher  = [[YouTube]] |medium   = Television production  |time= 3:35 |location= San Francisco |access-date = 2009-08-12}}</ref>

In the 1990s, Schulz began using Rerun as an opportunity to explore the grandparent/grandchild relationship.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Braddock |editor1-first=Paige |editor2-last=Fajardo |editor2-first=Alexis E. |title=Celebrating Peanuts: 60 Years |date=2009 |publisher=Lionheart Books Ltd. |isbn=9780740785481 |page=206 }}</ref> Rerun attends his first day of school on September 11, 1996, having spent the previous week hiding under the bed.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Braddock |editor1-first=Paige |editor2-last=Fajardo |editor2-first=Alexis E. |title=Celebrating Peanuts: 60 Years |date=2009 |publisher=Lionheart Books Ltd. |isbn=9780740785481 |page=428 }}</ref> Rerun ages to 5 years old at this point, still younger than most of the strip's other characters. In a 1997 interview, Schulz said, "We had a few grandchildren who had to start preschool and kindergarten, and I see little kids at the arena, too. I began to get some ideas and so he was the perfect one to have start kindergarten. He's different from Lucy and Linus. He's a little more outspoken. And I think he's going to be a little on the strange side... [laughs] the way he is already. I just had him expelled from school for another day recently, just because he spoke up... He's perfect for that. The other kids are too old for this, really."<ref name=Groth/>

One of Rerun's major concerns at this time is his desire for a dog; he sees Snoopy as an ideal companion, but the dog has no particular regard for him.<ref name=Meuther/>

Rerun's real name is never revealed. In the September 11, 1996 strip when he first starts school, it is suggested that even he himself doesn't know what it is—he tells his (off-screen) teacher "Yes ma'am, my name is 'Rerun'...I don't know...That's what they all call me."{{cn|date=August 2025}}

In the final years of the strip — also the final years of Schulz's life — Schulz used Rerun as a way to express his ambivalence about his own talents and limitations.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Michaelis |first1=David |title=Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography |date=2007 |publisher=Harper |isbn=978-0066213934 |page=554}}</ref> In a sequence in January 1999, the ''Peanuts'' characters visit an art museum. In one single-panel wordless strip, the other children gaze at a large oil painting of a landscape, while Rerun, alone at the far right, looks at a small line drawing of the dog from [[Patrick McDonnell|Patrick McDonnell's]] comic strip ''[[Mutts (comic strip)|Mutts]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1999/01/28|title=January 28, 1999 strip|last=Schulz|first=Charles|date=1999-01-28|website=GoComics|language=en|access-date=2020-05-25}}</ref> Despite this symbolic assertion that comic strips are equivalent to other forms of art, the next day's strip finds Rerun back in school, struggling with his own watercolor. "I think I learned something very important," he tells his classmate. "I'll never be [[Andrew Wyeth]]."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1999/01/29|title=January 29, 1999 strip|last=Schulz|first=Charles|date=1999-01-29|website=GoComics|language=en|access-date=2020-05-25}}</ref> One critic says that "here, Rerun is parroting Schulz's own self-deprecating attitude toward his own medium, comic art."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Clarke |first1=M.J. |editor1-last=Gardner |editor1-first=Jared |editor2-last=Gordon |editor2-first=Ian |chapter=Charles Schulz, Comic Art, and Personal Value |title=The Comics of Charles Schulz: The Good Grief of Modern Life |date=2017 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1496812896 |page=165 }}</ref>

Ever the enigma, Rerun draws a curtain over ''Peanuts''' final installment of the annual ritual of Lucy pulling the football away just as Charlie Brown tries to place-kick it. In the 1999 Sunday strip, Rerun tells Lucy that their mother wants her to come home for lunch, and she leaves him to hold the football. Charlie Brown rushes toward the ball — but the audience never sees whether he successfully kicks it or not. Lucy returns and asks Rerun what happened, and he replies, "You'll never know." As one critic remarks, "Rerun's presence disrupts the repetitive force of the gag," replacing certainty in this climactic strip with "inexhaustible possibility."<ref name="McCarthy">{{cite book |last1=McCarthy |first1=Anne C. |title=The Comics of Charles Schulz: The Good Grief of Modern Life |date=2017 |editor1-last=Gardner |editor1-first=Jared |editor2-last=Gordon |editor2-first=Ian |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1496812896 |pages=38–39 |chapter="There Has to be Something Deeply Symbolic in That": Peanuts and the Sublime}}</ref>

==In adaptations==
===Television===
Rerun's animated debut is in the [[animation|animated]] [[television special]] ''[[It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown]]'', and his first major appearance in the strip was adapted in the first produced episode of ''[[The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show]]''.<ref name="imdbchar">[https://www.imdb.com/character/ch0039545/ Rerun Van Pelt (Character)] from [[Internet Movie Database]]</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=March 2018}} Rerun only made one other appearance in a [[television special]] before 2000, ''[[Happy New Year, Charlie Brown!]]'' from 1986, where his attempts to blow up balloons for the New Year's party ended in failure, as he blew them up as cubes rather than spheres (a scenario adapted from a comic strip story involving Linus from December 1954, when Linus was roughly the same age).<ref>Schulz, Charles M., ''The Complete Peanuts 1953 to 1954'', Fantagraphics Books</ref> Rerun was mentioned, but not seen, in the 1985 special ''[[Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown]]'' when Charlie Brown informed Snoopy that he could not back out of his wedding, because Rerun had already been chosen as ring-bearer.

Rerun was given a speaking role in the 2002 special ''[[Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales]]''. He was the main character in the 2003 special ''[[I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown]]'', with a storyline drawn from the strip's Rerun-heavy final years.<ref name=Animation/> He also has an important role in the 2006 special ''[[He's a Bully, Charlie Brown]]''.<ref name=Animation/>

He was not seen or mentioned in the 2015 film ''[[The Peanuts Movie]]'', although a drawing of him can be seen during the credits.

Various actors have voiced the animated Rerun since 1976, including Vinny Dow, Jason Mendelson, Timmy Deters, and [[Jimmy Bennett]].<ref name="imdbchar"/>

===Voiced by===
*Vinnie Dow (1976)
*Jason Mendelson (1983–1986) (as Jason Muller)
*Tim Deters (2002) (as Timmy Deters)
*[[Jimmy Bennett]] (2003, 2006) (as James Bennett)
*Finn Carr (2016)
*Milo Toriel-McGibbon (2019)

===Stage===

Neither of the Broadway productions of ''[[You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown]]'' and ''[[Snoopy! The Musical]]'' (aside from a cameo in the [[Snoopy! The Musical (TV special)|animated adaptation]]) featured Rerun.<ref>[http://www.ibdb.com/show.php?id=9537 You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown] from the [[Internet Broadway Database]]</ref> However, various local and regional productions have included Rerun as a character.<ref>[http://www.allabouttheatre.org/yagmcb.php You're A Good Man Charlie Brown], All About Theatre</ref><ref>[http://www.howardcc.edu/Visitors/studentarts/productions/charliebrown/charliebrowncast.html Charlie Brown Cast]</ref><ref>[http://www.sandiegoplaybill.com/reviews/reviews_charliebrown_sdjt.html You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown by San Diego Junior Theatre]</ref><ref>[http://www.westchicago.org/07.22.09_PR_parks.html Community Theater Takes Center Stage], West Chicago Community News</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1973/03/26 The first appearance of Rerun Van Pelt in the ''Peanuts'' comic strip from March 26, 1973.]

{{Peanuts}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Pelt, Rerun}}
[[Category:Peanuts characters]]
[[Category:Fictional cartoonists]]
[[Category:Child characters in comics]]
[[Category:Comics characters introduced in 1973]]
[[Category:Male characters in animation]]
[[Category:Male characters in comics]]
[[Category:Child characters in television]]