The View
by Beverly Garland

"He wrote the way a child skips rope and a mouse waltzes." This is what E.B. White said about humorist James Thurber, and when Charles Schulz read this, he too wanted to be remembered this way. I cannot think of a better way, it says it so perfectly. For some reason, I cannot get the man out of my mindset. He keeps reminding me of my co-star Fred MacMurray. They were both millionaires but you never thought of them that way.

They both had real American core values, like mom, apple pie, God and country. MacMurray loved the outdoors, his ranch and his fishing pole. The trappings of Hollywood were not important to him. What was important were his home, his ranch, his kids and his wife, June. He loved My Three Sons and would have gone on with the show for many more years if possible. Schulz was also a homebody. They say he struggled with depression, agoraphobia, and loved to sit home in his favorite blue leather chair with his dog on his lap, eating fish and chips while watching Jeopardy. I do not know how MacMurray spent his time at home or if he did indeed have a favorite TV program. I just know that, like Schulz, he was a simple man with simple tastes, a regular guy who happened to be a very big star -both such good men.

It was interesting that the paper said that Schulz never changed. Everything around him changed. I remember the wardrobe man coming up to MacMurray and telling him he would like to buy some new dress shirts for the show. Fred looked at him and said, “Can’t you just turn the collars around?” (what wives used to do in the Depression when shirts got frayed) As far as MacMurray was concerned, that was still the way to go.

The Los Angeles Times said that Schulz got many of his ideas for his strip from his children. Let me quote the paper, "In the mid-'50s, inspired by the sight of his first three kids dragging blankets round the house, Schulz dreamed up what he later would say was the best idea he ever had, a “security blanket” for Linus. Once when he hushed his daughter Amy at the breakfast table, she picked up a slice of bread and said, “Am I buttering too loud for you?" The line made it into the strip. It was the same on the set of My Three Sons. The writers grew up with the twins that the MacMurray's adopted and used many family experiences in writing the show. MacMurray would tell me he didn't see how he could have raised his kids without the show. “The writers always know just the right things to say in tight situations,” he used to say, “they have helped me a lot.”

Both men had wonderful humor - sophisticated men yet down to earth. Charles Schulz has impressed me. Fred MacMurray has made my life a little richer. They seem to parallel each other. Thank goodness they both left something tangible. I don't ever want to forget them.