In recent years, more and more content has moved from broadcast TV to streaming services, but sometimes there is a special demand that can pause the process. Watching the Peanuts holiday specials on TV became a tradition over the years, and thanks to the devoted fans, the tradition will live on, for now.
The three Peanuts specials—1963’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, 1966’s It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and 1973’s A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving—ran every year on ABC. However, Apple has acquired the rights for the movies for its streaming service, Apple TV+ and pulled the animated specials off the air. The fans were not happy about it.
Fans took to do what fans do best online—campaigning and petitioning. Luckily for all, the tech giant heeded the popular petition and the hashtag created for the campaign, #AppleHatesTradition and will air the Christmas and Thanksgiving specials, commercial-free on PBS on November 22th and on PBS KIDS on December 13th.
It should be noted that in any case, Apple was planning to make the specials available for free to non-subscribers on its service. It has already happened with It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, which was available from October 30th to November 1st. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will be available from November 25th to the 27th. A Charlie Brown Christmas will stream for free from December 11th to the 13th.
