Happiness is more new Charlie Brown specials. At least five new animated “Peanuts” shows are in the works, projects planned by Charles M. Schulz before his death.

        “Schulz and I in the summer (of 1999) worked out a bunch of outlines for shows for the next five or six years,” says Lee Mendelson, who has produced all 65 “Peanuts” TV specials, including A Charlie Brown Christmas.

        Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown will be the next special completed by longtime Charlie Brown animator Bill Melendez, he says. Also on the drawing board is “a new Valentine's Day show,” he says.

        It has not been determined how they will be released. “We haven't decided if they'll be home videos or on television,” he says.

        CBS' rights to three “Peanuts” specials — Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas — expire on Dec. 31, after 35 years. Those three shows move to ABC next year. The other “Peanuts” animated shows are licensed to Nickelodeon, he says.

        Mr. Schulz, 77, died Feb. 12, the day before his final original Sunday newspaper comic was published. He had written the strip for 50 years.

        The most successful (and beloved) cartoonist of the 20th century created more than 18,000 daily strips. His “Peanuts” characters appear in 2,600 newspapers, reaching an estimated 355 million readers daily in 75 countries.

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