July 29, 2025 • 30 mins
We complete the Great Peanuts Re-read, and bid a tearful farewell to Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and Lucy. But wait, there will be more! Listen to find out what’s next for Unpacking Peanuts. Plus: How could it ever get better than this?
Transcript available at UnpackingPeanuts.com
Unpacking Peanuts is copyright Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen, Harold Buchholz, and Liz Sumner. Produced and edited by Liz Sumner. Music by Michael Cohen. Additional voiceover by Aziza Shukralla Clark.
For more from the show follow @unpackpeanuts on Instagram and Threads, and @unpackingpeanuts on Facebook, Blue Sky, and YouTube. For more about Jimmy, Michael, and Harold, visit unpackingpeanuts.com.
Thanks for listening.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
VO (00:02):
Welcome to Unpacking Peanuts, the podcast where three cartoonists take an in-depth look at the greatest comic strip of all time, Peanuts by Charles M.
Schulz.
Jimmy (00:18):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the show.
This is Unpacking Peanuts, and today we're looking at the last few strips.
We are all the way up to the year 2000, and I'll be your host for the proceedings.
My name is Jimmy Gownley.
I'm also a cartoonist who did things like Emilia Ruehl's Seventh Reasons Not to Grow Up, the Demos idea ever, and you could read my new work over there at gvilcomics.substack.com.
(00:41):
Joining me as always are my pals, co-hosts, and fellow cartoonists.
He's a playwright and a composer, both for the Van complicated people, as well as for this very podcast.
He's the original editor for Emilia Ruehl's, the co-creator of the original Comic Book Prize Guide, and the creator of such great strips as Strange Attractors, A Gathering of Spells and Tangled River.
It's Michael Cohen.
Michael (00:59):
Say hey.
Jimmy (01:00):
And he's the executive producer and writer of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a former vice president of Archie Comics, and the creator of the Instagram sensation, Sweetest Beasts.
It's Harold Buchholz.
Harold (01:11):
Hello.
Jimmy (01:12):
And making sure everything runs smooth and we stay out of trouble, it's our producer and editor, Liz Sumner.
Liz (01:17):
Howdy.
Jimmy (01:19):
Well, guys, this is it.
We made it, made it all the way to the end.
I just want to say I feel a huge sense of accomplishment and just huge gratitude that we were able to do this together and spend all these afternoons reading peanuts and talking about it.
It's just been so much fun for me.
(01:40):
So I just wanted to thank my my pals here for going on this journey with me.
Michael (01:44):
It's been a year at the end of the journey, but we're not done.
Jimmy (01:48):
Not done.
We will continue.
But for today, we are at the end of the run of strips.
It's a real melancholy feeling.
Michael (01:57):
I'm looking forward to getting my little reread t-shirt.
Jimmy (02:01):
There you go.
Yeah.
You've seven, I read all 17,897.
Harold (02:07):
Yeah.
Everybody who has come along with us celebrate with 17,897 t-shirt.
People will ask you.
Liz (02:19):
We have not announced that yet, so it's now available.
Jimmy (02:23):
We are now, yes, we have, if you finish the Great Peanuts reread with us, or you just want to brag and seem like you did, we don't care.
The money works either way.
You can get our new 17,897 t-shirt, which is up on the site now.
You can also, if you want to get an automatic for the Beagle shirt, which I know I'm the only one who wants, but you can also get one if you want.
Harold (02:45):
Cool.
Thanks for making this, Jimmy.
Jimmy (02:48):
No problem.
Liz (02:50):
I want to thank the people who listened and wrote to us and joined us in this.
It was such a pleasure, and it is, to have your enthusiasm, to have your interaction with us.
It really made it even better.
Yeah.
Harold (03:09):
You spur us on and we appreciate that.
It's been a journey.
Liz (03:14):
Yeah.
Harold (03:15):
It's been a journey.
How many episodes are out there now?
Liz (03:18):
Over 170, I think.
Harold (03:20):
This is like, what, close to about 200 hours?
That you have edited.
Liz (03:26):
Well.
Harold (03:27):
We edited down from our 780 hours.
Michael (03:31):
And then there's the Lost Peanuts recordings.
Jimmy (03:35):
Yeah, right.
Harold (03:36):
That's right.
Michael (03:37):
It's like smile in 20 years.
Harold (03:42):
Man.
But what?
Yeah, that is an amazing accomplishment to be on the other side of this.
And it was always the plan as you set it up.
And that made it, I think, possible.
We could, it just was an idea that seemed doable if you did it in little chunks.
And here we are.
Amazing.
Jimmy (04:03):
Amazing.
Liz (04:04):
And it was enough fun to want to continue.
Harold (04:08):
Yeah.
Jimmy (04:09):
Yeah, it really was.
It's, you know, it's one of the highlights of my life.
And Liz, thank you.
Like I said it before, but we would not have one episode out if Liz didn't offer to take the reins on editing and producing this.
Harold (04:22):
And if you hadn't edited, who knows what lawsuits and libel suits.
Jimmy (04:28):
That's what we should do for the Patreon.
Just an episode of all the stuff Liz cut out.
And then our Patreon numbers just plummet.
Well, I think that's as much as prelude as we can do.
I think we just have to read these final strips.
Michael (04:48):
Here we go.
Jimmy (04:49):
So let's just do it.
January 1st.
It is a snowball fight.
It's one of those panoramic panels.
And it's Charlie Brown, Linus, Peppermint Patty and Marcy all having a little snowball fight and Snoopy sitting off to the side contemplating a snowball.
And there's a caption underneath it that says, suddenly the dog realized that his dad had never taught him how to throw snowballs.
(05:17):
And this is the last appearance of Linus.
And it's the last time Charlie Brown interacts with Peppermint Patty and Marcy.
And it's another example of a comic where they had to use a computer font.
Harold (05:30):
Yeah.
Michael (05:31):
And a very rare narrative caption.
Jimmy (05:35):
Very rare.
Harold (05:36):
Which again makes me wonder, do you think this was a strip he had drawn with this caption?
As rare as those were.
Jimmy (05:44):
I do think so.
Harold (05:44):
Because that was just where he was going.
And he could have had Snoopy, I don't know, maybe not.
But then he didn't get to it.
And so we know there's at least one more drawn one, which would suggest that he didn't necessarily go all the way through a strip before he went to the next one, right?
(06:06):
If these were lying around.
Unless again, maybe this was something he opted not to use, but it was in the studio and they had an obligation to fill out a week or something and they went ahead and used something that wasn't going to be used.
I don't know.
Well, I mean, that font is there.
Jimmy (06:20):
Yeah, I think it's just a comic strip that just filled in the lettering.
That was it.
Harold (06:26):
Yeah, but you can see the date is also in a font form.
Yeah.
Peppermint Patty, I'm concerned.
She is a hearty soul.
She's in her flip flops in the snow.
Actually, one of the feet looks like it's kind of bandaged up like Snoopy's Revolutionary War.
No, she just found some rags.
Jimmy (06:47):
She is full hobbit out there.
No shoes necessary for Peppermint Patty.
It's fun to see them just like having fun and doing like a kid thing.
Michael (06:55):
Yeah.
This is the last daily.
Harold (06:58):
Oh, yeah.
That's why.
So I'm wondering, I'm just going to do a little quick search here and say what day of the year was January 1st, 2000.
Day of the week, excuse me, not day of the year.
(07:19):
Let's see.
It was a Saturday, so that's what I'm thinking.
They had to complete a week and this may have been somehow, in some way cobbled together.
Liz (07:30):
I see.
Harold (07:30):
Just to fulfill the obligation, but where Schulz might have felt like he needed to.
Liz (07:35):
That makes sense.
Harold (07:36):
I've got to give them a full week.
That just seems like a Schulz thing.
I don't know.
Jimmy (07:40):
This was the millennium.
What did you guys do for the millennium?
Do you remember?
Michael (07:45):
I was waiting for the world to end.
Liz (07:47):
We watched TV.
Michael (07:48):
I was very disappointed.
Harold (07:49):
Yeah.
Some people said it was 2000, some people said it was 2001, and I can't remember which one, but we were at the bridge in front of the big band in London on the bridge for one of these, and I'm trying to remember if it was the 2000 or 2000.
Jimmy (08:08):
Well, 99.9 percent of people say 2000.
Harold (08:12):
Yeah.
Jimmy (08:12):
Even though there was no year zero and correct.
But that does seem like something you'd be pedantic about.
You'd be out there one year later going, actually, this is from the late.
Harold (08:22):
Well, it was a huge celebration, so I'm assuming it must have been 2000 because if it's only pedantic, people showed up and fireworks wouldn't have been as good.
Jimmy (08:31):
January 2nd, it's a Sunday, and we start with the symbolic panel of Peppermint Patty's face on a football and she looks delighted with herself.
In the next panel, we see she's playing a little good old fashioned down in the dirt, rock and sock and football.
She's lying there amid the mud and says, a little rain, a little mud, this is what it's all about.
(08:53):
It's really raining and Peppermint Patty is calling out to the other team, hey Chuck, it's a great game, isn't it?
We're having fun, aren't we, Chuck?
It's still your ball.
Fourth down, what are you gonna do, Chuck?
You gonna run or pass?
And then Marcy comes from behind holding an umbrella and she says, everybody's gone home, sir.
(09:14):
You should go home too, it's getting dark.
And then Peppermint Patty says, we had fun, didn't we, Marcy?
And Marcy walks away saying, yes, sir, we had fun.
And then Peppermint Patty alone in the mud says, nobody shook hands and said, good game.
Harold (09:31):
Okay, so now the weeping could begin.
Michael (09:33):
This could have been the last rep.
Jimmy (09:35):
Yeah.
Harold (09:35):
Yeah.
Jimmy (09:36):
This is amazing.
Amazing.
The last, I mean, this is just amazing.
There's no other word for it.
It's beautiful.
And the coloring is beautiful and the art's beautiful.
And what a finale.
Harold (09:50):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jimmy (09:52):
And it's of course the last time we see Peppermint Patty and Marcy.
Harold (09:56):
Yeah.
This is the one where I broke down.
Jimmy (09:59):
Yeah.
Well, I'll tell you, I had this in my desk drawer at the TV station that I worked at, and it was at the bottom of it.
And, you know, I left the TV station like seven years after this, but I was cleaning everything out and I found it and I almost cried then, seeing it seven years later.
(10:21):
Just amazing.
Harold (10:24):
Yeah, yeah, he's, Chuck's already gone.
SPEAKER_2 (10:27):
Yeah.
Harold (10:29):
And for those of you following, we've mentioned this a lot before, but so we just said that the last Daily was January 1st, and then we have a series of Sundays afterward because he was working ahead for the sake of the colorists and all of that, the extra steps involved.
And so he was that much ahead on the Sundays, and that's what we're going through right now.
Michael (10:50):
So that Daily was the last thing he drew then?
Jimmy (10:52):
Yeah, probably.
Harold (10:55):
Yeah, given that they were incomplete.
SPEAKER_2 (10:57):
Yeah.
Jimmy (10:59):
And then the next day is the last Daily strip, which I'm not going to read now, but it's a letter from Schulz announcing that it is the last Daily strip.
This will be repeated on this last Sunday strip, so we'll read it then.
January 9th, Rerun is I guess the symbolic panel of Rerun throwing a giant snowflake up into a basketball hoop.
(11:26):
And he goes over to Charlie Brown's house and says, Hi, Charlie Brown.
And Charlie Brown says, Rerun, what's up?
And Rerun says to Charlie Brown, Ask your dog if he wants to come out and romp in the snow and laugh and act like we don't have the sense we were born with.
And Snoopy bolts out of the house, right?
He says right past Rerun and commences doing just that.
(11:48):
They fly into the snow, they do tumble sets in the snow, they're kicking it around and then they're laughing like idiots in the next last panel.
And then in the last panel, Rerun says, how could it ever get better than this?
And then Snoopy says, if you were a golden retriever.
Yeah, that's another great one.
Harold (12:11):
Oh, yeah.
This was, you know, you heard Schulz was not doing well.
I was visiting my in-laws in McLean, Virginia and in their sunroom, picked this up in the newspaper, was the last time up until the very last strip that I read Peanuts, you know, the day it came out and loved the strip.
(12:37):
I was like, oh my gosh, that's amazing.
So this one has a really meaningful touch to it just because of remembering it so well and being happy to see this strip of them frolicking around and seeing a strip with rerun that I really enjoyed.
(13:02):
I don't think I'd seen one until the very end.
I was like, oh, what's going on in Peanuts?
It got me curious because I hadn't seen a Peanuts in a long time.
That was new.
That grabbed my fancy the way this one did.
Jimmy (13:16):
Well, it's a very Harold strip for sure.
It's got all that joy and fun in it, which is great.
Do you guys remember?
I don't remember if people were wondering.
I guess we knew there wasn't going to be a finale, that the strips were just going to be printed from what he'd finished drawing and that was it.
(13:37):
Because I don't remember people saying, what's the last one going to be?
Harold (13:40):
I think there was something out there, that there was going to be some sort of a goodbye.
Jimmy (13:49):
January 16th.
It's Snoopy as the Revolutionary War Patriot, and he says off panel, me, and then he's walking with his big musket, and he goes up to a log cabin, which turns out to of course be General Washington's cabin.
And Snoopy says, yes, sir, we'll do it.
(14:09):
And then a Snoopy and Woodstock are sitting there warming themselves at the fire.
And Snoopy says, General Washington wants to know if we can chop up some firewood for his cabin.
And then they both go out, Woodstock with an appropriate sized axe for himself.
And they walk up to a gigantic oak looking tree.
It's just huge.
And then they see another one.
(14:29):
And Woodstock says something to Snoopy.
And then they both walk back to the cabin and says, Yes, sir.
Woodstock thinks maybe you should just turn up the thermostat.
And that's the final appearance of Woodstock.
And the last time we see Snoopy is an alter ego.
Harold (14:53):
And again, really simple, beautiful colors, colors that we would not have seen, old school.
You get some nice grayish blue sky.
Jimmy (15:02):
Yeah, you would never get that kind of cool gray out of the old 64 color system.
Harold (15:10):
It looks really nice.
Jimmy (15:12):
And like little touches, the person who's coloring them is thinking like the way the red of peanuts matches the red of the ax and stuff.
Yeah.
You know, and the little trim.
Nicely done.
Harold (15:24):
Yeah.
Jimmy (15:26):
We talked about spotting black many times, to balance the page where you put the black and where you put the white areas.
When you're working in color, you have to do the same thing.
And what's strange is that oftentimes if you use a lot of colors, it actually washes out to almost like a gray to the eye.
And if you want to get something that has more mood, you actually have to use more limited colors.
(15:52):
And this is a great example of that.
Harold (15:55):
Yeah.
It's again, really beautifully drawn.
You know, we didn't talk in the last episode all about the tremor in his hand, which has been a theme for so many years as we've gone through these.
And I do feel like the color, the richness of the color is yet another way that it really complements the roughness of the line.
(16:17):
It works.
It works super well.
It's not really at the forefront of looking at these.
It's not as if what he was struggling with was what led to his death.
So he was just dealing with what he always was dealing with.
And, you know, and at this point, I am a fan of this version of Peanuts artistically.
Jimmy (16:41):
That's awesome.
Harold (16:41):
I can't say it was the truth before, but I do see it now.
I see the artistry that goes into the artistry as a cartoonist.
And I see, I know the limitations he's dealing with.
And just admiration is the best word I can come up with for what he's wound up here at the very last.
(17:03):
The look of the strip is quite beautiful.
Jimmy (17:06):
Yeah.
You know, it's one of the reasons I wanted to do it is that, you know, everybody just by default when they're listing the great cartoonists, Liz Charles Schultz, but how many people have read all of it?
Especially when it's all together and available for us.
Like, you know, it's impossible to try to do that with Jack Kirby.
It's impossible to try to do that with, you know, a lot of different cartoonists.
(17:32):
But with him, you know, thanks to Fandagraphics and Print and, you know, thanks to the Syndicate for keeping them online and stuff.
But you're able to do it.
And it gives you such a different experience.
It gives you a richer experience.
And hopefully, if it did anything, it really put Schulz himself in the foreground, you know?
(17:54):
And it's wonderful to be a fan of these characters.
That's what he wants.
And, you know, he created beautiful, amazing, fun characters that are cute and interesting.
And they talk to some of the deepest parts of us.
But it's really important to remember that one human being made all this, you know?
Harold (18:14):
Yeah.
Jimmy (18:15):
It all came out of one person.
And that's miraculous.
And we should be really grateful for it.
Harold (18:23):
Yeah.
Jimmy (18:25):
Other than that, I don't care for it.
January 23rd, it's a symbolic panel.
Snoopy is lying atop a gift certificate.
And then we see him taking what we assume is the gift certificate to Charlie Brown's house.
And then Charlie Brown's on the back porch and he says, What's this?
(18:48):
A gift certificate.
And then he continues reading it and says, I'm sorry, sir.
This is a gift certificate for pizza.
We don't serve pizza here.
So Snoopy walks back to the dog house.
And then we see him sort of scribble something on the gift certificate and then walk back and Charlie Brown says, What's this?
A gift certificate for dog food?
Why, certainly, sir.
(19:09):
We'll take care of this right away.
And he goes in and then brings out a bowl of dog food for Snoopy saying, here you go.
And then Snoopy walks back to his house saying, I can't believe it took me three years to think of that.
I want, I was tempted to read that as, I can't believe it took me 50 years to think of that.
Harold (19:31):
I'm just happy for Snoopy.
He got it in at the very end, slipped it in.
Jimmy (19:38):
Yeah, it's great to know Snoopy got one bonus supper.
Harold (19:44):
And Charlie Brown's a good sport.
Jimmy (19:46):
Absolutely.
Liz (19:47):
But he is treating him with such respect.
Jimmy (19:50):
Yes, I know.
Harold (19:51):
I love that he calls him sir.
Michael (19:52):
I do too.
Jimmy (19:53):
Yeah, I love the panel of Snoopy with his hands out receiving the dog dish.
It's just so cute.
Well, I also just want to savor just a little branch coming out of the corner of the last panel in the second tier.
All of this stuff, it's the last one.
Michael (20:12):
There's never been a tree by the dog house.
Harold (20:15):
Yeah, it's finally grown to that space.
It's been 50 years growing in that little suburban neighborhood that just been built.
Well, Michael, what do you think of that drawing of Snoopy in the last panel of tier two?
Michael (20:28):
It's a little odd.
Jimmy (20:30):
Yeah, the chin or whatever.
Harold (20:33):
It's like an elongated neck so he can tilt his head down and be in the middle of his gift certificate.
Very interesting look.
Jimmy (20:41):
Yeah.
January 30th.
We start with...
I guess it's, is it the Pequod from Moby-Duck with Ahab going over the side?
Whatever it is, it's a big old pirate ship with a pirate with a peg leg going off the deck.
(21:03):
And then we cut to see what's really happening and Rerun is making some art in class.
And he says, more action, more color.
And we can actually see the mess he's making on his paper, which looks great.
And the little pig-tailed girl is there and she says, we're supposed to be painting flowers today.
And Rerun says, I don't do flowers.
(21:23):
I do underground comics.
And then he's explaining his work to the pig-tailed girl.
He says, see, here's Billie Jean King and Daffy Duck throwing Long John Silver.
Oh, there you go.
Throwing Long John Silver off the pirate ship.
And he continues, I have big plans for my work.
He brings it to the teacher and says, yes, ma'am, these will be consecutively numbered limited edition prints.
(21:45):
Each print will be signed and accompanied by a certificate of authentication.
And then Rerun says, yes, ma'am, I understand.
And then he's back at the desk and a little pig tail girl says, what did she say?
And Rerun says, he said, today we're painting flowers.
Michael (22:02):
Once again, the artist is crushed by the man.
Jimmy (22:07):
The colorist makes an editorial decision.
Because we see Rerun actually drawing a flower.
So he, at least in this instinct, gives in to the man.
Harold (22:21):
But he's still got his, maybe it's on the other side.
Jimmy (22:24):
That's right.
Harold (22:25):
You can still do that limited edition print once he gets home.
Jimmy (22:28):
Or it could be an explosion.
Michael (22:30):
That's true, yes.
Harold (22:33):
That's pretty wily.
Jimmy (22:35):
I love, whenever you see someone drawing, I always wanted to see them drawing.
Like even if it was on a TV show, and you'd see them, and they'd always show the back of the canvas.
When someone's painting, they'd never show what he's doing.
I always wanted to see it.
Harold (22:47):
Ted Knight in Too Close for Comfort, was drawing Cosmic Cow with a Cosmic Cow puppet and a gigantic Matt Margit marker.
I always wanted to see what that looks like.
Those are some very bold comics.
Jimmy (23:01):
This is, I like that.
That looks really cool.
Harold (23:04):
Yeah, boy.
Well, and what a great way to see Rerun Go working on his future career in comics and working toward the limited edition print with certificate of authentication.
That's-
Jimmy (23:20):
I think this, in one of the interviews, I think it was the Groth one.
Schulz talks about doing a limited edition series like this, where he drew a bunch of drawings of the characters and they printed them on watercolor paper and then he put, as he put it, he said, I sloshed watercolor around on them and I numbered them and he really didn't like doing it and he regretted that it was a part of it.
(23:43):
And I was wondering if he was still thinking about these.
Probably saw one frame somewhere and was like, probably.
Harold (23:51):
Yeah.
Long John Silver is great in that little throwaway panel.
I did not realize Long John Silver was in the Peanuts Canon.
Jimmy (23:59):
No, it's like you're shot out of a Peanuts Canon.
Do you know what I love?
And I'm not ashamed of this.
I love Long John Silver's, the fast food joint, you know, that no one eats that.
You know what I love about it?
You can order the fish or you can order the chicken and you might be halfway through before you know which one they actually gave you.
Harold (24:22):
That's true.
Jimmy (24:25):
February 6th, we're just delaying the fact that we're getting to the end here.
February 6th and we start with Charlie Brown inside the mailbox and we see some dust and stuff getting thrown out.
His feet are just sticking out of it.
And then we see him on top of the mailbox really polishing it.
And then when Sally comes up and says, he says to her, the inside of a mailbox should always be kept clean in case you get a love letter and then it starts raining on them and then it starts raining even harder and Sally and Charlie Brown run inside.
(24:57):
And now they're in the, Charlie Brown's in the chair and Sally's in her new favorite position of leaning on the armrest.
And Sally says, aren't you going out to get the mail?
And Charlie Brown says, not while it's raining.
When it's raining, the only letters you get are those that say, I never want to see you again.
And then Sally lays down on the ground, leans up against the chair and says, you seem to know a lot about love letters.
(25:20):
And then Charlie Brown says, if I ever got one, I don't know what I'd do.
Harold (25:25):
I want to see you again, Charlie Brown.
Jimmy (25:27):
Yep.
And one of the things they talk about in the old Charles Schulz documentary that Lee Mendelson did is how many love letters Charlie Brown does get.
Every Valentine's Day, Snoopy Place would be flooded with people sending valentines to Charlie Brown, so he would get something.
(25:48):
Which just goes to show you what these characters meant to people.
Harold (25:52):
Yeah.
It reminds me of the story about how he accidentally put his phone number in one of the strips.
Liz (25:59):
Accidentally?
Jimmy (26:00):
Yeah.
Harold (26:01):
They were constantly getting phone calls and various family members would play along talking with whoever it was.
Acting like they were the Peanuts characters.
I thought that was really sweet.
Yeah.
But yeah, that does seem like a strange accidentally, but he should have known.
(26:23):
I think it was not with an area code.
So think of all the other 100 people who were getting phone calls for Peanuts characters that weekend.
Jimmy (26:35):
867-5309, keep laughing for Jenny.
Harold (26:38):
Yeah.
And the poor kids with their short arms, they're trying to run into the house covering their heads in the rain.
They're not tall enough to cover their heads.
And I'm not sure what happened to Charlie Brown's rag that he was using to clean the mailbox either.
He doesn't seem to have it to cover himself.
Jimmy (26:57):
Elmer's looks like Linus' blanket except for the white.
Harold (27:01):
Yeah.
Good thing the colors didn't make it blue.
We have a whole other conspiracy theory to deal with.
But yeah, I mean, come on.
Got to strip here with Charlie Brown and Love Letters and saying, I never want to see you again and this is it.
Jimmy (27:17):
Yeah.
I mean, the dramatic ironies that keep popping up when it couldn't have been known that this was the end, it's quite something.
Harold (27:30):
Yeah, the melancholy that was always in this strip just really comes to the fore as you're winding it down.
Michael (27:37):
Yeah.
Jimmy (27:38):
Which unfortunately, guys, brings us to the very last strip, February 13th, 2000.
Now, we know that what happened was Charles Schulz went to sleep around nine o'clock, then February 12th, and he passed away.
(28:01):
So Charles Schulz exited the world at the exact same time his comic strip did, which is something I'll be thinking about, I think, for the rest of my life.
It really is as if he took his whole life and just turned it into this comic strip for us.
And then we woke up February 13th, and the Sunday page was this.
(28:26):
We started off with a picture of Charlie Brown on the phone, and he says, No, I think he's writing.
And then it cuts to Snoopy atop the doghouse, typing away in his typewriter for the last time, Dear Friends.
And then over a montage of shots from previous comic strips of all our favorite characters, there's a letter from Charles Schulz that reads, Dear Friends, I have been fortunate to draw Charlie Brown and his friends for almost 50 years.
(29:01):
It has been the fulfillment of my childhood ambition.
Unfortunately, I am no longer able to maintain the schedule demanded by a daily comic strip.
My family does not wish Peanuts to be continued by anyone else.
Therefore, I am announcing my retirement.
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.
(29:28):
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, how can I ever forget them?
And then it signed Charles M.
Schulz.
We'll be back next week.
Welcome to Unpacking Peanuts, the podcast where three cartoonists take an in-depth look at the greatest comic strip of all time, Peanuts by Charles M.
Schulz.
Jimmy (00:18):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the show.
This is Unpacking Peanuts, and today we're looking at the last few strips.
We are all the way up to the year 2000, and I'll be your host for the proceedings.
My name is Jimmy Gownley.
I'm also a cartoonist who did things like Emilia Ruehl's Seventh Reasons Not to Grow Up, the Demos idea ever, and you could read my new work over there at gvilcomics.substack.com.
(00:41):
Joining me as always are my pals, co-hosts, and fellow cartoonists.
He's a playwright and a composer, both for the Van complicated people, as well as for this very podcast.
He's the original editor for Emilia Ruehl's, the co-creator of the original Comic Book Prize Guide, and the creator of such great strips as Strange Attractors, A Gathering of Spells and Tangled River.
It's Michael Cohen.
Michael (00:59):
Say hey.
Jimmy (01:00):
And he's the executive producer and writer of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a former vice president of Archie Comics, and the creator of the Instagram sensation, Sweetest Beasts.
It's Harold Buchholz.
Harold (01:11):
Hello.
Jimmy (01:12):
And making sure everything runs smooth and we stay out of trouble, it's our producer and editor, Liz Sumner.
Liz (01:17):
Howdy.
Jimmy (01:19):
Well, guys, this is it.
We made it, made it all the way to the end.
I just want to say I feel a huge sense of accomplishment and just huge gratitude that we were able to do this together and spend all these afternoons reading peanuts and talking about it.
It's just been so much fun for me.
(01:40):
So I just wanted to thank my my pals here for going on this journey with me.
Michael (01:44):
It's been a year at the end of the journey, but we're not done.
Jimmy (01:48):
Not done.
We will continue.
But for today, we are at the end of the run of strips.
It's a real melancholy feeling.
Michael (01:57):
I'm looking forward to getting my little reread t-shirt.
Jimmy (02:01):
There you go.
Yeah.
You've seven, I read all 17,897.
Harold (02:07):
Yeah.
Everybody who has come along with us celebrate with 17,897 t-shirt.
People will ask you.
Liz (02:19):
We have not announced that yet, so it's now available.
Jimmy (02:23):
We are now, yes, we have, if you finish the Great Peanuts reread with us, or you just want to brag and seem like you did, we don't care.
The money works either way.
You can get our new 17,897 t-shirt, which is up on the site now.
You can also, if you want to get an automatic for the Beagle shirt, which I know I'm the only one who wants, but you can also get one if you want.
Harold (02:45):
Cool.
Thanks for making this, Jimmy.
Jimmy (02:48):
No problem.
Liz (02:50):
I want to thank the people who listened and wrote to us and joined us in this.
It was such a pleasure, and it is, to have your enthusiasm, to have your interaction with us.
It really made it even better.
Yeah.
Harold (03:09):
You spur us on and we appreciate that.
It's been a journey.
Liz (03:14):
Yeah.
Harold (03:15):
It's been a journey.
How many episodes are out there now?
Liz (03:18):
Over 170, I think.
Harold (03:20):
This is like, what, close to about 200 hours?
That you have edited.
Liz (03:26):
Well.
Harold (03:27):
We edited down from our 780 hours.
Michael (03:31):
And then there's the Lost Peanuts recordings.
Jimmy (03:35):
Yeah, right.
Harold (03:36):
That's right.
Michael (03:37):
It's like smile in 20 years.
Harold (03:42):
Man.
But what?
Yeah, that is an amazing accomplishment to be on the other side of this.
And it was always the plan as you set it up.
And that made it, I think, possible.
We could, it just was an idea that seemed doable if you did it in little chunks.
And here we are.
Amazing.
Jimmy (04:03):
Amazing.
Liz (04:04):
And it was enough fun to want to continue.
Harold (04:08):
Yeah.
Jimmy (04:09):
Yeah, it really was.
It's, you know, it's one of the highlights of my life.
And Liz, thank you.
Like I said it before, but we would not have one episode out if Liz didn't offer to take the reins on editing and producing this.
Harold (04:22):
And if you hadn't edited, who knows what lawsuits and libel suits.
Jimmy (04:28):
That's what we should do for the Patreon.
Just an episode of all the stuff Liz cut out.
And then our Patreon numbers just plummet.
Well, I think that's as much as prelude as we can do.
I think we just have to read these final strips.
Michael (04:48):
Here we go.
Jimmy (04:49):
So let's just do it.
January 1st.
It is a snowball fight.
It's one of those panoramic panels.
And it's Charlie Brown, Linus, Peppermint Patty and Marcy all having a little snowball fight and Snoopy sitting off to the side contemplating a snowball.
And there's a caption underneath it that says, suddenly the dog realized that his dad had never taught him how to throw snowballs.
(05:17):
And this is the last appearance of Linus.
And it's the last time Charlie Brown interacts with Peppermint Patty and Marcy.
And it's another example of a comic where they had to use a computer font.
Harold (05:30):
Yeah.
Michael (05:31):
And a very rare narrative caption.
Jimmy (05:35):
Very rare.
Harold (05:36):
Which again makes me wonder, do you think this was a strip he had drawn with this caption?
As rare as those were.
Jimmy (05:44):
I do think so.
Harold (05:44):
Because that was just where he was going.
And he could have had Snoopy, I don't know, maybe not.
But then he didn't get to it.
And so we know there's at least one more drawn one, which would suggest that he didn't necessarily go all the way through a strip before he went to the next one, right?
(06:06):
If these were lying around.
Unless again, maybe this was something he opted not to use, but it was in the studio and they had an obligation to fill out a week or something and they went ahead and used something that wasn't going to be used.
I don't know.
Well, I mean, that font is there.
Jimmy (06:20):
Yeah, I think it's just a comic strip that just filled in the lettering.
That was it.
Harold (06:26):
Yeah, but you can see the date is also in a font form.
Yeah.
Peppermint Patty, I'm concerned.
She is a hearty soul.
She's in her flip flops in the snow.
Actually, one of the feet looks like it's kind of bandaged up like Snoopy's Revolutionary War.
No, she just found some rags.
Jimmy (06:47):
She is full hobbit out there.
No shoes necessary for Peppermint Patty.
It's fun to see them just like having fun and doing like a kid thing.
Michael (06:55):
Yeah.
This is the last daily.
Harold (06:58):
Oh, yeah.
That's why.
So I'm wondering, I'm just going to do a little quick search here and say what day of the year was January 1st, 2000.
Day of the week, excuse me, not day of the year.
(07:19):
Let's see.
It was a Saturday, so that's what I'm thinking.
They had to complete a week and this may have been somehow, in some way cobbled together.
Liz (07:30):
I see.
Harold (07:30):
Just to fulfill the obligation, but where Schulz might have felt like he needed to.
Liz (07:35):
That makes sense.
Harold (07:36):
I've got to give them a full week.
That just seems like a Schulz thing.
I don't know.
Jimmy (07:40):
This was the millennium.
What did you guys do for the millennium?
Do you remember?
Michael (07:45):
I was waiting for the world to end.
Liz (07:47):
We watched TV.
Michael (07:48):
I was very disappointed.
Harold (07:49):
Yeah.
Some people said it was 2000, some people said it was 2001, and I can't remember which one, but we were at the bridge in front of the big band in London on the bridge for one of these, and I'm trying to remember if it was the 2000 or 2000.
Jimmy (08:08):
Well, 99.9 percent of people say 2000.
Harold (08:12):
Yeah.
Jimmy (08:12):
Even though there was no year zero and correct.
But that does seem like something you'd be pedantic about.
You'd be out there one year later going, actually, this is from the late.
Harold (08:22):
Well, it was a huge celebration, so I'm assuming it must have been 2000 because if it's only pedantic, people showed up and fireworks wouldn't have been as good.
Jimmy (08:31):
January 2nd, it's a Sunday, and we start with the symbolic panel of Peppermint Patty's face on a football and she looks delighted with herself.
In the next panel, we see she's playing a little good old fashioned down in the dirt, rock and sock and football.
She's lying there amid the mud and says, a little rain, a little mud, this is what it's all about.
(08:53):
It's really raining and Peppermint Patty is calling out to the other team, hey Chuck, it's a great game, isn't it?
We're having fun, aren't we, Chuck?
It's still your ball.
Fourth down, what are you gonna do, Chuck?
You gonna run or pass?
And then Marcy comes from behind holding an umbrella and she says, everybody's gone home, sir.
(09:14):
You should go home too, it's getting dark.
And then Peppermint Patty says, we had fun, didn't we, Marcy?
And Marcy walks away saying, yes, sir, we had fun.
And then Peppermint Patty alone in the mud says, nobody shook hands and said, good game.
Harold (09:31):
Okay, so now the weeping could begin.
Michael (09:33):
This could have been the last rep.
Jimmy (09:35):
Yeah.
Harold (09:35):
Yeah.
Jimmy (09:36):
This is amazing.
Amazing.
The last, I mean, this is just amazing.
There's no other word for it.
It's beautiful.
And the coloring is beautiful and the art's beautiful.
And what a finale.
Harold (09:50):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jimmy (09:52):
And it's of course the last time we see Peppermint Patty and Marcy.
Harold (09:56):
Yeah.
This is the one where I broke down.
Jimmy (09:59):
Yeah.
Well, I'll tell you, I had this in my desk drawer at the TV station that I worked at, and it was at the bottom of it.
And, you know, I left the TV station like seven years after this, but I was cleaning everything out and I found it and I almost cried then, seeing it seven years later.
(10:21):
Just amazing.
Harold (10:24):
Yeah, yeah, he's, Chuck's already gone.
SPEAKER_2 (10:27):
Yeah.
Harold (10:29):
And for those of you following, we've mentioned this a lot before, but so we just said that the last Daily was January 1st, and then we have a series of Sundays afterward because he was working ahead for the sake of the colorists and all of that, the extra steps involved.
And so he was that much ahead on the Sundays, and that's what we're going through right now.
Michael (10:50):
So that Daily was the last thing he drew then?
Jimmy (10:52):
Yeah, probably.
Harold (10:55):
Yeah, given that they were incomplete.
SPEAKER_2 (10:57):
Yeah.
Jimmy (10:59):
And then the next day is the last Daily strip, which I'm not going to read now, but it's a letter from Schulz announcing that it is the last Daily strip.
This will be repeated on this last Sunday strip, so we'll read it then.
January 9th, Rerun is I guess the symbolic panel of Rerun throwing a giant snowflake up into a basketball hoop.
(11:26):
And he goes over to Charlie Brown's house and says, Hi, Charlie Brown.
And Charlie Brown says, Rerun, what's up?
And Rerun says to Charlie Brown, Ask your dog if he wants to come out and romp in the snow and laugh and act like we don't have the sense we were born with.
And Snoopy bolts out of the house, right?
He says right past Rerun and commences doing just that.
(11:48):
They fly into the snow, they do tumble sets in the snow, they're kicking it around and then they're laughing like idiots in the next last panel.
And then in the last panel, Rerun says, how could it ever get better than this?
And then Snoopy says, if you were a golden retriever.
Yeah, that's another great one.
Harold (12:11):
Oh, yeah.
This was, you know, you heard Schulz was not doing well.
I was visiting my in-laws in McLean, Virginia and in their sunroom, picked this up in the newspaper, was the last time up until the very last strip that I read Peanuts, you know, the day it came out and loved the strip.
(12:37):
I was like, oh my gosh, that's amazing.
So this one has a really meaningful touch to it just because of remembering it so well and being happy to see this strip of them frolicking around and seeing a strip with rerun that I really enjoyed.
(13:02):
I don't think I'd seen one until the very end.
I was like, oh, what's going on in Peanuts?
It got me curious because I hadn't seen a Peanuts in a long time.
That was new.
That grabbed my fancy the way this one did.
Jimmy (13:16):
Well, it's a very Harold strip for sure.
It's got all that joy and fun in it, which is great.
Do you guys remember?
I don't remember if people were wondering.
I guess we knew there wasn't going to be a finale, that the strips were just going to be printed from what he'd finished drawing and that was it.
(13:37):
Because I don't remember people saying, what's the last one going to be?
Harold (13:40):
I think there was something out there, that there was going to be some sort of a goodbye.
Jimmy (13:49):
January 16th.
It's Snoopy as the Revolutionary War Patriot, and he says off panel, me, and then he's walking with his big musket, and he goes up to a log cabin, which turns out to of course be General Washington's cabin.
And Snoopy says, yes, sir, we'll do it.
(14:09):
And then a Snoopy and Woodstock are sitting there warming themselves at the fire.
And Snoopy says, General Washington wants to know if we can chop up some firewood for his cabin.
And then they both go out, Woodstock with an appropriate sized axe for himself.
And they walk up to a gigantic oak looking tree.
It's just huge.
And then they see another one.
(14:29):
And Woodstock says something to Snoopy.
And then they both walk back to the cabin and says, Yes, sir.
Woodstock thinks maybe you should just turn up the thermostat.
And that's the final appearance of Woodstock.
And the last time we see Snoopy is an alter ego.
Harold (14:53):
And again, really simple, beautiful colors, colors that we would not have seen, old school.
You get some nice grayish blue sky.
Jimmy (15:02):
Yeah, you would never get that kind of cool gray out of the old 64 color system.
Harold (15:10):
It looks really nice.
Jimmy (15:12):
And like little touches, the person who's coloring them is thinking like the way the red of peanuts matches the red of the ax and stuff.
Yeah.
You know, and the little trim.
Nicely done.
Harold (15:24):
Yeah.
Jimmy (15:26):
We talked about spotting black many times, to balance the page where you put the black and where you put the white areas.
When you're working in color, you have to do the same thing.
And what's strange is that oftentimes if you use a lot of colors, it actually washes out to almost like a gray to the eye.
And if you want to get something that has more mood, you actually have to use more limited colors.
(15:52):
And this is a great example of that.
Harold (15:55):
Yeah.
It's again, really beautifully drawn.
You know, we didn't talk in the last episode all about the tremor in his hand, which has been a theme for so many years as we've gone through these.
And I do feel like the color, the richness of the color is yet another way that it really complements the roughness of the line.
(16:17):
It works.
It works super well.
It's not really at the forefront of looking at these.
It's not as if what he was struggling with was what led to his death.
So he was just dealing with what he always was dealing with.
And, you know, and at this point, I am a fan of this version of Peanuts artistically.
Jimmy (16:41):
That's awesome.
Harold (16:41):
I can't say it was the truth before, but I do see it now.
I see the artistry that goes into the artistry as a cartoonist.
And I see, I know the limitations he's dealing with.
And just admiration is the best word I can come up with for what he's wound up here at the very last.
(17:03):
The look of the strip is quite beautiful.
Jimmy (17:06):
Yeah.
You know, it's one of the reasons I wanted to do it is that, you know, everybody just by default when they're listing the great cartoonists, Liz Charles Schultz, but how many people have read all of it?
Especially when it's all together and available for us.
Like, you know, it's impossible to try to do that with Jack Kirby.
It's impossible to try to do that with, you know, a lot of different cartoonists.
(17:32):
But with him, you know, thanks to Fandagraphics and Print and, you know, thanks to the Syndicate for keeping them online and stuff.
But you're able to do it.
And it gives you such a different experience.
It gives you a richer experience.
And hopefully, if it did anything, it really put Schulz himself in the foreground, you know?
(17:54):
And it's wonderful to be a fan of these characters.
That's what he wants.
And, you know, he created beautiful, amazing, fun characters that are cute and interesting.
And they talk to some of the deepest parts of us.
But it's really important to remember that one human being made all this, you know?
Harold (18:14):
Yeah.
Jimmy (18:15):
It all came out of one person.
And that's miraculous.
And we should be really grateful for it.
Harold (18:23):
Yeah.
Jimmy (18:25):
Other than that, I don't care for it.
January 23rd, it's a symbolic panel.
Snoopy is lying atop a gift certificate.
And then we see him taking what we assume is the gift certificate to Charlie Brown's house.
And then Charlie Brown's on the back porch and he says, What's this?
(18:48):
A gift certificate.
And then he continues reading it and says, I'm sorry, sir.
This is a gift certificate for pizza.
We don't serve pizza here.
So Snoopy walks back to the dog house.
And then we see him sort of scribble something on the gift certificate and then walk back and Charlie Brown says, What's this?
A gift certificate for dog food?
Why, certainly, sir.
(19:09):
We'll take care of this right away.
And he goes in and then brings out a bowl of dog food for Snoopy saying, here you go.
And then Snoopy walks back to his house saying, I can't believe it took me three years to think of that.
I want, I was tempted to read that as, I can't believe it took me 50 years to think of that.
Harold (19:31):
I'm just happy for Snoopy.
He got it in at the very end, slipped it in.
Jimmy (19:38):
Yeah, it's great to know Snoopy got one bonus supper.
Harold (19:44):
And Charlie Brown's a good sport.
Jimmy (19:46):
Absolutely.
Liz (19:47):
But he is treating him with such respect.
Jimmy (19:50):
Yes, I know.
Harold (19:51):
I love that he calls him sir.
Michael (19:52):
I do too.
Jimmy (19:53):
Yeah, I love the panel of Snoopy with his hands out receiving the dog dish.
It's just so cute.
Well, I also just want to savor just a little branch coming out of the corner of the last panel in the second tier.
All of this stuff, it's the last one.
Michael (20:12):
There's never been a tree by the dog house.
Harold (20:15):
Yeah, it's finally grown to that space.
It's been 50 years growing in that little suburban neighborhood that just been built.
Well, Michael, what do you think of that drawing of Snoopy in the last panel of tier two?
Michael (20:28):
It's a little odd.
Jimmy (20:30):
Yeah, the chin or whatever.
Harold (20:33):
It's like an elongated neck so he can tilt his head down and be in the middle of his gift certificate.
Very interesting look.
Jimmy (20:41):
Yeah.
January 30th.
We start with...
I guess it's, is it the Pequod from Moby-Duck with Ahab going over the side?
Whatever it is, it's a big old pirate ship with a pirate with a peg leg going off the deck.
(21:03):
And then we cut to see what's really happening and Rerun is making some art in class.
And he says, more action, more color.
And we can actually see the mess he's making on his paper, which looks great.
And the little pig-tailed girl is there and she says, we're supposed to be painting flowers today.
And Rerun says, I don't do flowers.
(21:23):
I do underground comics.
And then he's explaining his work to the pig-tailed girl.
He says, see, here's Billie Jean King and Daffy Duck throwing Long John Silver.
Oh, there you go.
Throwing Long John Silver off the pirate ship.
And he continues, I have big plans for my work.
He brings it to the teacher and says, yes, ma'am, these will be consecutively numbered limited edition prints.
(21:45):
Each print will be signed and accompanied by a certificate of authentication.
And then Rerun says, yes, ma'am, I understand.
And then he's back at the desk and a little pig tail girl says, what did she say?
And Rerun says, he said, today we're painting flowers.
Michael (22:02):
Once again, the artist is crushed by the man.
Jimmy (22:07):
The colorist makes an editorial decision.
Because we see Rerun actually drawing a flower.
So he, at least in this instinct, gives in to the man.
Harold (22:21):
But he's still got his, maybe it's on the other side.
Jimmy (22:24):
That's right.
Harold (22:25):
You can still do that limited edition print once he gets home.
Jimmy (22:28):
Or it could be an explosion.
Michael (22:30):
That's true, yes.
Harold (22:33):
That's pretty wily.
Jimmy (22:35):
I love, whenever you see someone drawing, I always wanted to see them drawing.
Like even if it was on a TV show, and you'd see them, and they'd always show the back of the canvas.
When someone's painting, they'd never show what he's doing.
I always wanted to see it.
Harold (22:47):
Ted Knight in Too Close for Comfort, was drawing Cosmic Cow with a Cosmic Cow puppet and a gigantic Matt Margit marker.
I always wanted to see what that looks like.
Those are some very bold comics.
Jimmy (23:01):
This is, I like that.
That looks really cool.
Harold (23:04):
Yeah, boy.
Well, and what a great way to see Rerun Go working on his future career in comics and working toward the limited edition print with certificate of authentication.
That's-
Jimmy (23:20):
I think this, in one of the interviews, I think it was the Groth one.
Schulz talks about doing a limited edition series like this, where he drew a bunch of drawings of the characters and they printed them on watercolor paper and then he put, as he put it, he said, I sloshed watercolor around on them and I numbered them and he really didn't like doing it and he regretted that it was a part of it.
(23:43):
And I was wondering if he was still thinking about these.
Probably saw one frame somewhere and was like, probably.
Harold (23:51):
Yeah.
Long John Silver is great in that little throwaway panel.
I did not realize Long John Silver was in the Peanuts Canon.
Jimmy (23:59):
No, it's like you're shot out of a Peanuts Canon.
Do you know what I love?
And I'm not ashamed of this.
I love Long John Silver's, the fast food joint, you know, that no one eats that.
You know what I love about it?
You can order the fish or you can order the chicken and you might be halfway through before you know which one they actually gave you.
Harold (24:22):
That's true.
Jimmy (24:25):
February 6th, we're just delaying the fact that we're getting to the end here.
February 6th and we start with Charlie Brown inside the mailbox and we see some dust and stuff getting thrown out.
His feet are just sticking out of it.
And then we see him on top of the mailbox really polishing it.
And then when Sally comes up and says, he says to her, the inside of a mailbox should always be kept clean in case you get a love letter and then it starts raining on them and then it starts raining even harder and Sally and Charlie Brown run inside.
(24:57):
And now they're in the, Charlie Brown's in the chair and Sally's in her new favorite position of leaning on the armrest.
And Sally says, aren't you going out to get the mail?
And Charlie Brown says, not while it's raining.
When it's raining, the only letters you get are those that say, I never want to see you again.
And then Sally lays down on the ground, leans up against the chair and says, you seem to know a lot about love letters.
(25:20):
And then Charlie Brown says, if I ever got one, I don't know what I'd do.
Harold (25:25):
I want to see you again, Charlie Brown.
Jimmy (25:27):
Yep.
And one of the things they talk about in the old Charles Schulz documentary that Lee Mendelson did is how many love letters Charlie Brown does get.
Every Valentine's Day, Snoopy Place would be flooded with people sending valentines to Charlie Brown, so he would get something.
(25:48):
Which just goes to show you what these characters meant to people.
Harold (25:52):
Yeah.
It reminds me of the story about how he accidentally put his phone number in one of the strips.
Liz (25:59):
Accidentally?
Jimmy (26:00):
Yeah.
Harold (26:01):
They were constantly getting phone calls and various family members would play along talking with whoever it was.
Acting like they were the Peanuts characters.
I thought that was really sweet.
Yeah.
But yeah, that does seem like a strange accidentally, but he should have known.
(26:23):
I think it was not with an area code.
So think of all the other 100 people who were getting phone calls for Peanuts characters that weekend.
Jimmy (26:35):
867-5309, keep laughing for Jenny.
Harold (26:38):
Yeah.
And the poor kids with their short arms, they're trying to run into the house covering their heads in the rain.
They're not tall enough to cover their heads.
And I'm not sure what happened to Charlie Brown's rag that he was using to clean the mailbox either.
He doesn't seem to have it to cover himself.
Jimmy (26:57):
Elmer's looks like Linus' blanket except for the white.
Harold (27:01):
Yeah.
Good thing the colors didn't make it blue.
We have a whole other conspiracy theory to deal with.
But yeah, I mean, come on.
Got to strip here with Charlie Brown and Love Letters and saying, I never want to see you again and this is it.
Jimmy (27:17):
Yeah.
I mean, the dramatic ironies that keep popping up when it couldn't have been known that this was the end, it's quite something.
Harold (27:30):
Yeah, the melancholy that was always in this strip just really comes to the fore as you're winding it down.
Michael (27:37):
Yeah.
Jimmy (27:38):
Which unfortunately, guys, brings us to the very last strip, February 13th, 2000.
Now, we know that what happened was Charles Schulz went to sleep around nine o'clock, then February 12th, and he passed away.
(28:01):
So Charles Schulz exited the world at the exact same time his comic strip did, which is something I'll be thinking about, I think, for the rest of my life.
It really is as if he took his whole life and just turned it into this comic strip for us.
And then we woke up February 13th, and the Sunday page was this.
(28:26):
We started off with a picture of Charlie Brown on the phone, and he says, No, I think he's writing.
And then it cuts to Snoopy atop the doghouse, typing away in his typewriter for the last time, Dear Friends.
And then over a montage of shots from previous comic strips of all our favorite characters, there's a letter from Charles Schulz that reads, Dear Friends, I have been fortunate to draw Charlie Brown and his friends for almost 50 years.
(29:01):
It has been the fulfillment of my childhood ambition.
Unfortunately, I am no longer able to maintain the schedule demanded by a daily comic strip.
My family does not wish Peanuts to be continued by anyone else.
Therefore, I am announcing my retirement.
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.
(29:28):
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, how can I ever forget them?
And then it signed Charles M.
Schulz.
We'll be back next week.
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