Editing Peanuts (section)

===2000: End of ''Peanuts''===
{{More citations needed|section|date=September 2021}}
[[File:Last peanuts comic.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Final [[Sunday strip]], which came out February 13, 2000: a day after the death of Charles M. Schulz]]

The last three ''Peanuts'' strips were run from Saturday, January 1, 2000, through Monday, January 3, 2000. The Saturday strip showed a snowball fight between Peppermint Patty and Marcie and Charlie Brown and Linus, with Snoopy sitting behind the fight trying to figure out how to throw a snowball. The strip was notable because, in addition to it being the last daily strip with a story, Schulz's health had deteriorated to the point where the lettering in the strip had to be done by computer.

The Sunday strip featured the last appearances of Peppermint Patty and Marcie, with Peppermint Patty playing a game of football in the rain by herself. Marcie comes up, carrying an umbrella and remarking that everyone has gone home. Peppermint Patty laments that they never shook hands and said "good game".<ref>{{Cite web | title=Peanuts by Charles Schulz for January 02, 2000 - GoComics | url=https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/2000/01/02 | access-date=2025-03-22 | website=www.gocomics.com}}</ref>

The January 3 strip consisted of a drawing of Snoopy sitting atop his doghouse with his typewriter, as he had done many times over the course of the strip's lifespan. The drawing was accompanied by a printed note from Schulz which officially announced his retirement from drawing and thanking his readers for their support.

Although a series of reruns of older strips would begin on January 4, 2000, there were still six unpublished Sunday strips that Schulz had completed. The first of these ran on January 9, featuring Rerun and Snoopy playing in the snow.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Peanuts by Charles Schulz for January 09, 2000 - GoComics | url=https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/2000/01/09 | access-date=2025-03-22 | website=www.gocomics.com}}</ref> The second featured the last appearance of Woodstock, as he and Snoopy in one last fantasy sequence are called upon by George Washington to chop firewood.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Peanuts by Charles Schulz for January 16, 2000 - GoComics | url=https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/2000/01/16 | access-date=2025-03-22 | website=www.gocomics.com}}</ref> Rerun makes his final appearance in the fourth, trying to paint something other than flowers in art class, and Sally makes her last appearance in the fifth conversing with Charlie Brown about love letters.

The final ''Peanuts'' strip, as shown here, ran on February 13, 2000, the night after Schulz died from a heart attack. It consisted of two small panels across the top and a large panel at the bottom. The title panel shows Charlie Brown talking to someone on the telephone, who is apparently asking to speak to Snoopy. Charlie Brown responds by telling the caller "No, I think he's writing". The second panel shows Snoopy sitting atop his doghouse typing on his typewriter as he had many times before, while the words "Dear Friends…" appeared above his head.

The larger panel at the bottom consisted of a larger scale drawing of the final daily strip, with Snoopy against a blue sky background. Above his head, several panels from past strips were overlaid. Underneath these panels, the full note that Schulz had written to his fans was printed (part of it had been omitted in the final daily strip). It read as follows:

{{blockquote|Dear Friends,<br />
I have been fortunate to draw Charlie Brown and his friends for almost fifty years. It has been the fulfillment of my childhood ambition.<br />
Unfortunately, I am no longer able to maintain the schedule demanded by a daily comic strip. My family does not wish "Peanuts" to be [[Zombie strip|continued by anyone else]], therefore I am announcing my retirement.<br />
I have been grateful over the years for the loyalty of our editors and the wonderful support and love expressed to me by fans of the comic strip.<br />
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, …how can I ever forget them… | Charles M. Schulz}}

Many other cartoonists paid tribute to ''Peanuts'' and Schulz by homages in their own strips, appearing on February 13, 2000, or in the week beforehand.<ref>{{cite news | date=May 28, 2000 | author=[[Associated Press|AP]]|title=Comic strips hail spark of 'Peanuts' creator | newspaper= [[Deseret News]] | url= https://www.deseret.com/2000/5/28/19509368/comic-strips-hail-spark-of-peanuts-creator | access-date=June 2, 2023}}</ref> The comic was reprinted the day after that, but only had the farewell letter. After ''Peanuts'' ended, United Feature Syndicate began offering the newspapers that ran it a package of reprinted strips under the title ''Classic Peanuts''. The syndicate limited the choices to either strips from the 1960s or from the 1990s, although a newspaper was also given the option to carry both reprint packages if it desired. All Sunday strips in the package, however, come from the 1960s.

''Peanuts'' continues to be prevalent in multiple media through widespread syndication, the publication of ''The Complete Peanuts'', the release of several new television specials (all of which Schulz had worked on, but had not finished, before his death), and ''[[Peanuts Motion Comics]]''. Additionally, [[BOOM! Studios]] has published a series of comic books that feature new material by new writers and artists, although some of it is based on classic Schulz stories from decades past, as well as including some classic strips by Schulz, mostly Sunday color strips. One graphic novel, ''Scotland Bound, Charlie Brown'' adapts a cancelled Schulz and Melendez script.

In early 2011, [[United Media]] (the parent of United Feature Syndicate) struck a distribution deal with Universal Uclick (now known as [[Andrews McMeel Syndication]]) for syndication of the company's 150 comic strip and news features, including ''Peanuts''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/universal-uclick-to-provide-syndicate-services-for-united-media-116811443.html|title=Universal Uclick to Provide Syndicate Services for United Media|website=PR Newswire|date=February 24, 2011}}<!--accessed February 24, 2011--></ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Magazine/united-media-outsources-content-to-universal-uclick-64912-.aspx|title=United Media Outsources Content to Universal Uclick|work=[[Editor & Publisher]]|date=April 29, 2011}}{{Dead link|date=June 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>{{dead link|date=September 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}<!--accessed April 29, 2011-->{{cbignore|bot=medic}} On January 5, 2015, Universal Uclick's website, [[GoComics]], announced on that it would be launching "Peanuts Begins", a feature rerunning the entire history of the strip from the beginning in colorized form. This was done to honor the 65th anniversary of the strip's debut.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://blogs.gocomics.com/2015/01/new-comic-alert-peanuts-begins-by-charles-schulz-.html|title=New Comic Alert! Peanuts Begins by Charles Schulz|access-date=December 30, 2016|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161220054129/http://blogs.gocomics.com/2015/01/new-comic-alert-peanuts-begins-by-charles-schulz-.html|archive-date=December 20, 2016|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all|website=GoComics|date=Jan 5, 2015}}</ref>