So when Garry Trudeau mentioned that “the last time a Doonesbury strip featured four near-identical drawings of the White House was in 1988” my OCD kicked and I had to find it.
But first let me agree with the Joseph Nebus reply to the Trudeau comment: The four panel White House strips early on became iconic, and I never viewed them as anything other than the cartoonist’s artistic judgement for the subject at hand.
That said by 1988 the White House wallpaper strips, but not the White House, had became rarities.
Through the archives at GoComics we find the White House is commonly viewed from a variety of angles in 1988.
The first 1988 multi-panel White House shows up in the Spring, on Sunday April 3 and Tuesday April 5.
The White House appears in all panels but from different angles, which had become the norm by then. And with only two exceptions whenever Trudeau drew the White House in 1988 – in April, May, June, July, October, November, and December – it was seen from various angles.
The first exception was the April 24, 1988 Sunday.
And the final four panel Doonesbury White House wallpaper daily strip was July 11, 1988. But that is a curiosity as it leads into the July 12 daily which plays with the previous day’s set up.
Next day edit
An even later daily strip with White House wallpaper has been discovered (see Robert’s mention in the comments).
I don’t think these are the “last.” Maybe the “last in 1998.”
Pretty sure he did them during Clinton’s terms.
(“A quiet night in the family quarters.
***Real*** quiet.”
This would have been shortly after the Lewinski incident dropped.)
You are right Robert – February 3, 1998 https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1998/02/03