Now that Schulz is gone, what happens to the `Peanuts' franchise?

Wednesday, March 1st 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) -- Charles Schulz left strict instructions that nobody else could draw the "Peanuts" strip. And one of his daughters says that days before he died, he told her
that animated shows featuring Charlie Brown and the gang must end, too.

Still, the cartoonist's children are worried that the company that owns the "Peanuts" franchise will turn out new programs that
stray too far from Schulz's legacy.

"They'll end up being like `South Park' or something like that," said Schulz's son Monte.

The problem for the family is that, although Schulz earned more than $30 million a year from his creations, he didn't actually own
the copyright to the "Peanuts" characters.

That remains firmly in the hands of United Media, which got 61 percent of its $84.9 million in 1998 revenue from the comics, TV
shows and licensing deals that put the strip's characters on everything from lunch boxes to life insurance ads.

When Schulz began drawing Peanuts in 1950, comics distributors often demanded the copyrights to protect their investments. Schulz
was never able to get his copyright back.

United Media hasn't met with the family or Schulz's collaborators to discuss making more shows, and wouldn't elaborate about its plans. Spokeswoman Diane Iselin said: "At the
appropriate time, we will discuss business issues with the Schulz family, and that will include animation."

Schulz had two more TV shows in the works at the time of his death last month, including a Snoopy-as-Pied Piper story to be released on home video later this year. He also had outlined a third show, but plans for that remain uncertain.

His five children have no problem with continued merchandising of Peanuts goods, as long as they can reject products they don't
like.

But they feel that creating new "Peanuts" material without his input is unacceptable -- especially after Schulz told his daughter
Jill Transki that he expected the shows to end with his death.

"A lot of people were asking about the animated shows; I thought get it directly from him," she recalled. "He looked at me just incredulously ... He was like, `You've got to be crazy."'

It was the children who insisted that Schulz's contract stipulate no one else would draw the strip after his death. The contract also said he had to approve all "creative projects," a
right that now belongs to his widow, Jean, and his children, according to the family's lawyer, Barbara Gallagher.

Gallagher said that she believes creative projects includes animated shows -- and she trusts United Media to heed the family's
wishes. "I don't believe that they're going to try to pursue anything that the family doesn't want," she said.

Nonetheless, Monte Schulz got worried after a United Media representative hinted that the company will want to create new shows to help maintain the franchise's value.

"But forget it," he said. "At the expense of the integrity of the strip? The characters themselves? Dad's legacy? Not a chance.
We'll have to live with fewer dollars in our pockets," he said.

The only way the family might accept new shows is if the story line and dialogue were pulled directly from existing strips, said
Monte Schulz, who doesn't favor the idea.

Schulz's two closest collaborators on the TV shows, producer Lee Mendelson, 66, and animator Bill Melendez, 84, haven't ruled out
creating more if asked.

Amy Johnson, one of Schulz's daughters, thinks her father's legacy -- which includes 62 animated shows and four feature-length
movies in United Media's library -- should be left to stand on its own.

"Certainly we can look at those things over and over," she said. "You read great books over and over. You look at great paintings over and over. And that's what you want to pass down to your children."