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You can't watch 'A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving' on TV this year, but the holiday special will stream for free on Apple TV+.

Published on November 19, 2022

TL;DR: 

• A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will stream for free on Apple TV+ from Nov. 23 to Nov. 27. 
• Apple TV+ subscribers can watch the classic 1973 Turkey Day special anytime. 
• The special will not air on TV in 2022. 

Good grief! If you were hoping to spend your Thanksgiving with Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang, you won’t find them on regular TV. The classic 1973 animated special A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving won’t air on broadcast television in 2022. But you will be able to stream the special for free over Thanksgiving weekend. 

‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’ streams for free on Apple TV+ 

This year, Apple TV+ has the exclusive streaming rights to A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and the other Peanuts holiday specials. Subscribers to the streaming service can watch the 30-minute Thanksviging special anytime, along with It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Don’t want to fork over $4.99 per month to see Charlie Brown serve his friends a Thanksgiving meal of toast and popcorn? A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will also stream for free on Apple TV+ from Wednesday, Nov. 23 to Sunday, Nov. 27. To watch, go to tv.apple.com or download the Apple TV app. Then, search for A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and hit play.

The Peanuts special is a Thanksgiving classic 

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving premiered on Nov. 20, 1973, on CBS. It was the 10th Peanuts TV special and a particular favorite of the comic strip’s creator Charles Schulz. 

In the show, Charlie Brown gets roped into preparing Thanksgiving dinner when Peppermint Patty invites herself, Marcie, and Franklin over for the holiday meal. But when the menu turns out to be somewhat lackluster, Peppermint Patty gets upset. (“Where’s the turkey, Chuck? … Where’s the mashed potatoes?”)

“Charles Schulz drew over 18,000 comic strips (unassisted!) over a half century. He wrote all the television shows as well, and one of his favorites was our Thanksgiving show,” producer Lee Mendelson recalled in a 2014 article for The Huffington Post. “He thought it would be very entertaining to see how kids would create a Thanksgiving dinner with no clue what to do. Along with a dog for good measure.”

Lee Mendelson had concerns about including the song ‘Little Birdie’ in the special 

Fans of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will instantly recognize “Little Birdie,” a jazzy tune about Snoopy’s friend Woodstock. But initially, Mendelson wasn’t sure the song from composer Vince Guaraldi was the right fit for the special. 

“In regard to the [basketball] scene, when Vince Guaraldi told me he wanted to sing a new song he had written about Woodstock for the show, I was really concerned,” Mendelson told The Washington Post in 2014. “But he did a great job with ‘Little Birdie.’”

Mendelson was also concerned about a still-controversial scene that showed Woodstock eating turkey with Snoopy. He thought it was a bit morbid to have a bird eat another bird. But the rest of the creative team disagreed. 

“I always objected to Woodstock eating the turkey,” he said. “But I was overruled by my partners.”  

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