“You Act Like We Never Have Met,” is a feature about one-time cast members of popular comic series that have fallen by the wayside in the years since. Some of these are characters who would appear in comics routinely read by hundreds of thousands of people but are now effectively mysteries. Today, we look at Snoopy’s cast of tennis rivals who came and went when Snoopy stopped playing tennis.
Charles Schulz was a longtime fan of sports, and he enjoyed playing them, as well. The interesting thing about his interest in sports is that you could often tell what sport he was particularly into at the time by how much he featured that sport in Peanuts. Well, during the 1970s, Schulz got really into tennis, playing frequently with his wife, Jean.
Therefore, during the 1970s, Schulz leaned into the idea of Snoopy as a tennis player, and as a result, Schulz needed to create a supporting cast for Snoopy’s newfound love of tennis, and what followed were a number of interesting, but often bizarre, tennis characters who were all out of the strip entirely within a dozen years (or so) of their debuts. So let’s take a look at Snoopy’s bizarre group of tennis rivals!
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Snoopy’s tennis player persona debuted in 1970, but for the first six years of the decade, Snoopy just played tennis against the garage door at Charlie Brown’s house. By this point in time, Schulz had really gotten into tennis, and had even befriended some notable tennis players, including Billie Jean King. So I suppose Schulz felt it was time to try to expand the cast for these tennis strips. Note that Schulz was always willing to expand the cast of the series when need be, and he would be just as quick to drop a character if he didn’t think they were working out (even if he would hilariously guilt-trip the fans who complained about certain characters).
So while May 1977 opened with a generic tennis strip with Snoopy and Woodstock…
Snoopy would soon meet a new tennis partner. Later that month, we met Molly Volley, Snoopy’s mixed doubles partner, but first, her reputation very much preceded her…
And sure enough, when Snoopy finally meets Molly, she is every bit of the piece of work that she was suggested to be…
Throughout the rest of the month, Schulz had a lot of fun with Molly’s intense behavior. Some sample quotes from her during this first month included stuff like, “Out!” “You heard me!! I said it was out!! You want me to spell it for ya?! Every ball you guys have hit has been out! Every ball we’ve hit has been in!”
She also told Charlie Brown that her way was the way to become great at tennis, “You know where champions are made? Well, they’re not made at Wimbledon or Forest Hills, I’ll tell you that! They’re made right here on these dirty, bumpy, miserable courts where you call your own lines and keep your own score! You get what you go for, kid!”
The problem for her was that Snoopy was not actually that good of a tennis player, and not only that, but he was an honest player, so when he got to make a call that would have decided their match, he called it like he saw it, and they lost…
In a 1980 TV Guide interview, Schulz described the character as, “Molly Volley is at once an off-shoot of my own recent involvement in tennis and a caricature of human behavior on the court. She is one tough cookie who embodies the widely held American belief that the only thing that matters is winning.”
Now that we had Snoopy and Molly as partners, though, Schulz needed someone for them to play against! Enter…the Crybaby!
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In July 1978, Snoopy and Molly were paired up against Cybaby Boobie and her brother, Bobby. Crybaby got her nickname from the fact that, well, you know, she cries about everything…
For almost her entire time appearing in the strip, Schulz drew Crybaby Boobie with her mouth open wide as she cried, so we never actually saw her face for YEARS!
Sadly for Molly, Snoopy still wasn’t exactly a great tennis player, and so they lost to Crybaby…
In 1982, Schulz decided to give Crybaby a partner, as well, besides her never-shown brother, Bobby.
First, though, Schulz had this odd bit where Molly gained a lot of weight for…I have no idea why, really…
We then met Bad Call Benny, who insults Molly right off of the bat, and Molly, naturally, flies right off of the handle in return, punching him in the mouth…
The match came down to a tiebreaker, but Molly had been feeding Snoopy chocolate chip cookies all throughout the match, and he was too sick to continue after a while, so once again, Molly and Snoopy lost…
It’s kind of fascinating to see the loyalty that Molly had to Snoopy for the fact that they constantly lost.
Badcall Benny never appeared again, but Molly made it all the way until 1990 before disappearing from the strip. Schulz had become less invested in tennis by that point in time, so the strip reflected that disinterest. Amusingly, Crybaby Boobie lasted until 1997, now serving as Snoopy’s opponent in a singles match.
She defeated him in the match, and in her final appearance on March 10, 1997, we finally saw her full face….
Okay, that’s it for this installment of You Act Like We Never Have Met! Feel free to write in to brianc@cbr.com if you have suggestions for future installments!
