'Peanuts' holiday specials will be available only via streaming

After returning to broadcast TV last year, three "Peanuts" holidays specials are now back to paid streaming only, though with windows for free viewing.

The streaming service Apple TV+, which in 2020 acquired the rights to "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" (1966), "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" (1973) and "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965), marking the first time since their original airings that they did not play on a broadcast network, had responded to public outcry and allowed them to air on PBS in 2021.

But, tweeted sister network PBS Kids on Sept. 29, "Regretfully, PBS does not have the rights to distribute the Peanuts specials this year. We’ll all have to watch for the Great Pumpkin in a different pumpkin patch this Halloween."

Apple TV+ subsequently announced the specials would be exclusive to that streaming service, with free viewing windows as it had provided previously. “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” will be openly available from Oct. 28 to 31, "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” from Nov. 23 to 27, and “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” the first TV special based on the late Charles M. Schulz's classic comic strip "Peanuts," from Dec. 22 to 25.

To access the Halloween special for free, Apple TV+ said, "Go to tv.apple.com or download the Apple TV app. Search for 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown' and hit Play to stream for free" on the aforementioned dates. "Or, available anytime with an Apple TV+ subscription."

Unlike in 2020, when a pandemic-weary public expressed outrage on social media for the end of a national communal viewing experience, and an online petition got more than 267,000 signatures, no similar such outcry has been apparent this year. The 2020 hashtag #BringBackCharlieBrown turns up no current tweets. Only one critical tweet readily turns up, with a commenter posting Tuesday, evidently unaware of the free windows, "AppleTV is the devil. Depriving millions of children of all ages from watching It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown because the streaming service owns the rights."

Neither the official "Peanuts" social media nor that of Apple TV+ carried any mention of the streaming service's exclusivity of the three specials.

Apple TV+ also announced that two other "Peanuts" cartoons would debut on the service on Dec. 2. In the 43-minute “I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown" (ABC, 2003), Linus and Lucy's mother refuses little brother Rerun a dog. The tyke instead plays with Charlie Brown's beagle Snoopy and eventually Snoopy's brother Spike. The 18-minute “Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales” (ABC, 2002), consisting of five short pieces, had originally aired to fill an hourlong slot also containing the unedited version of "A Charlie Brown Christmas," which had been trimmed to fit additional commercials over the years.