Seasonal & Holidays

‘It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’: How To Watch Free On AppleTV+

For the last couple of years, fans of the "Peanuts" holiday classics have been able to watch them on PBS. That's no longer the case.

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The “Peanuts” gang wend through American holiday traditions from Halloween’s “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” TV special to Thanksgiving parades to “It’s the Great Window Unveiling, Charlie Brown” at Macy’s flagship store in New York City.
The “Peanuts” gang wend through American holiday traditions from Halloween’s “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” TV special to Thanksgiving parades to “It’s the Great Window Unveiling, Charlie Brown” at Macy’s flagship store in New York City. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images, File)

ACROSS AMERICA — Good grief, Charlie Brown. Watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” and other “Peanuts” holiday specials won’t be as simple as setting the DVR to your local PBS station.

Take heart, though. Apple TV+, which set off a kerfuffle among “Peanuts” fans in 2020 when it said it was moving the Charlie Brown holiday specials from network TV to its subscription service, is making them available at no charge this year.

The specials, available now to subscribers of the streaming service, will be offered free to nonsubscribers on the following dates:

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  • “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” Oct. 28-31
  • “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” Nov. 23-27
  • “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” Dec. 22-25

To watch, go to tv.apple.com or download the app. Search for the special by title.

“It’s a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” premiered on CBS in 1966, and it and other network TV showings of the animated holiday iterations of Charles M. Schulz’s beloved comic strip had been a cherished tradition among millions of American families.

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They ached with the same betrayal and despair as the hapless Charlie Brown every time fussbudget Lucy Van Pelt pulled away the football two years ago when Apple said it would charge viewers to watch the specials.

Apple acquired the rights to the holiday specials in 2018, and in 2020 announced a plan to stream them. The Halloween special was available to Americans willing to pay a subscription fee, and the Thanksgiving and Christmas specials were destined for similar exclusivity — the antithesis of all Schulz sought to accomplish with a comic strip that connected Americans in ways others couldn't.

“Peanuts” fans set up a fuss on social media. Thousands of signatures were gathered on online petitions. A bruised Apple responded, saying it had teamed with PBS for advertising-free broadcasts of the Thanksgiving and Christmas specials in 2020.

The company maintained the status quo last year, offering the holiday classics on PBS stations.

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