For decades (with one exception) classic Peanuts holiday specials played on broadcast tv, and anyone with an antenna and a set could look forward to catching up with Charlie Brown and the gang each Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
That will not be the case in 2022, as Apple TV+’s partnership with PBS which allowed the public broadcaster to air the specials in 2021 has not been renewed. This will be only the second time since the Halloween special released 56 years ago that The Great Pumpkin won’t be broadcast on tv. The last time was in 2020, when Apple similarly held the exclusive rights.
Great Pumpkin premiered on CBS in 1966 and played on that network each year for decades before moving to ABC at the turn of the century. In 2018, Apple bought the rights to all of the Peanuts specials.
