Ever since we entered December, fans have been tracking down and revisiting countless holiday classics, with one staple of the season for decades being A Charlie Brown Christmas. Fans used to keep their eyes out for broadcasts of the special, but in the years since Apple TV+ secured the rights to the Peanuts franchise, TV broadcasts are often getting overlooked, and this year is no different. While A Charlie Brown Christmas won’t be airing on TV this year, fans will be able to watch it for free on Apple TV+ this weekend, as it’s available on Saturday, December 16th and Sunday, December 17th. For Apple TV+ subscribers, A Charlie Brown Christmas and other Peanuts holiday specials are available all year.
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Per press release, “Deck the halls with A Charlie Brown Christmas, a must-watch staple during the holiday season, exclusively on Apple TV+. Subscribers can access the special all year round and non-subscribers can enjoy a free window to stream the spirited holiday classic on Apple TV+ Saturday, December 16th and Sunday, December 17th. In this adored Peanuts special, feeling down about the commercialism of Christmas, Charlie Brown becomes the director of the gang’s holiday play. Can he overcome his friends’ preference for dancing over acting, find the ‘perfect’ tree, and discover the true meaning of Christmas?”
In addition to A Charlie Brown Christmas, subscribers can watch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and various other Peanuts originals. Despite how many years have passed, the Peanuts franchise has avoided revisiting these specific holidays and, according to franchise producer Craig Schulz, fans shouldn’t expect the series to revisit these traditions.
“In all those cases, it’s led to extensive conversations between myself, my son, our group here in Santa Rosa, which consists of over 20 people, and what we think is right or wrong,” Schulz previously shared with ComicBook.com about delivering new specials honoring Halloween or Christmas. “And we have had ideas for a Christmas special, but the three biggies — Christmas, Pumpkin, and Thanksgiving — are so sacrosanct, we just won’t touch anything near that. But we weren’t afraid to go on the edges, so we thought about that. But we like the road we’re going down right now rather than just trying to play off something like that. So we’ll see where it ends up.”
He continued, “New Year’s is a good example. We did [Snoopy Presents: For Auld Lang Syne], which is a play on New Year’s. And New Year’s had been done probably at least twice in the past, in the animation specials. So it was a different take on that, and I think it added a lot of emotion that maybe the original one didn’t necessarily have. It was a good story, but I think we tried to bring emotion to it, and that’s what my son Brian just really, really hammers home. If there’s not emotion, let’s not do it. And he just drives it on every single line, basically, which is good.”
Stay tuned for updates on the Peanuts franchise.
Will you be watching the Peanuts special this year? Let us know in the comments!
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Image Courtesy of Universal
