Peanuts The strip's humor (at least during its '60s peak) is psychologically complex, and the characters' interactions formed a tangle of relationships that drove the strip. "Peanuts" achieved considerable success with its television specials, several of which, including "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", won or were nominated for Emmy Awards. The "Peanuts" holiday specials remain popular and are broadcast on ABC in the U.S. during the appropriate seasons. The Peanuts franchise also had success in theatre, with the stage musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" an oft-performed production. In 2013, "TV Guide" ranked the
What a Cartoon! company to pay for the whole program. In addition to the eventual spin-offs, the "What a Cartoon!" short "Larry and Steve" by Seth MacFarlane featured prototypes of characters that would later go on to become MacFarlane's massively successful "Family Guy". The "What a Cartoon!" project and its assorted spin-offs brought Cartoon Network more commercial and critical success, and the network became an animation industry leader as the 1990s drew to a close. In 2001, coinciding with the death of William Hanna, Hanna-Barbera Productions merged with Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network opened its own production arm, Cartoon Network Studios, in