Thoughts On A Charlie Brown Christmas Not On TV This Year

Every Christmas, I always look forward to watching Christmas movies and TV specials. This year, one of my favorite Christmas specials will not be airing. The special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, as well it’s Halloween and Thanksgiving specials, did not/will not be airing on TV.

The reason is because Apple holds all copyrights to air the Peanuts specials. For the past two years, Apple aired the specials on PBS. This year, they will not be allowing the specials to be aired on TV at all. Instead, they can be found exclusively on Apple’s streaming service, Apple TV.

To be honest, I’m not happy about this. I heard about this prior to the pandemic in 2020, but it seemed like nobody cared like I hoped they would. Even though I didn’t say much if anything online, I felt really upset about it. I was happy when Apple decided to allow the specials to air on PBS. Now that they are no longer on the air, I’m now back to feeling upset.

To me, it feels like a loss of an important American Christmas tradition. I always looked forward to the special. When I was a child, I would get upset if I missed the show or someone interrupted me watching it. As I became an older child, I didn’t feel so upset about it, but I still looked forward to it. As an adult, I began to care for the special more than before. It was a way to subtlety resist and rebel against the urge to grow up too much too fast.

Now that the show is no longer airing on TV, I am upset. Yet, as the Christmas season moves forward, I feel more at peace about it. I’m still unhappy about it, but I am a peace because I own the DVD versions of the specials. I can watch them anytime I want, not matter what the season. If I miss the show too much, I can just watch the DVD. It’s not the same, but it is better than nothing.

Well, that’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

MeTV’s Charles Shultz 100 Birthday Celebration & Two Peanuts Movies To Air

Well, it’s official. None of the best known Carlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang holiday specials will be airing on TV this year. Even though Halloween has already passed, there was no airing of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. There will be no airing of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving next week and there will be no airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas next month.

Three or so years ago, Apple acquired exclusive rights to the specials and all the Peanuts specials. For the past two years, Apple allowed the specials have aired on PBS stations. This year, they will not be airing on TV at all.

Even though this is sad for Peanuts fans, like myself, I still wanted to mention an over-the-air TV station that will air two Peanuts specials during the holiday season.

The TV station is MeTV and is an over-the-air TV station that can be view in most, if not all, parts of the United Sates. The station focuses mainly on broadcasting reruns of TV shows from the 1930’s to the 1990’s. In addition to the old, classic TV programs, they also have original shows that work well with their programing.

Recently, MeTV started advertising their holiday schedule. One of their ads caught my attention because it mentioned a Peanuts special would air on their station. After doing some research on their website, which lead me to a video announcement, I discovered it was true! They would air a Peanuts special. Except it isn’t a special. It is the first two full length films of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang.

The films and their air times are as followed…

  • A Boy Named Charlie Brown- November 20th at 8PM/7PM Central
  • Snoopy, Come Home- November 27th at 8PM/7PM Central

MeTV is airing these specials as part of their celebration of Charles Schultz’s (The creator of the Peanuts comic) 100th birthday. Even though these movies are not the holiday specials, they will fill the void left from the absence of the holiday specials.

So, if you miss the holiday specials on TV like I do, please look into watching these two movies on MeTv! If you don’t know where to watch MeTV, pease look at MeTV’s website for how and where to watch it.

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!