Halloween is behind us. The Christmas holidays already are making an appearance, seemingly earlier than ever. But up first in the United States? Thanksgiving. And that means one thing. Food. It also means Black Friday deals. And football. OK it means a lot of things — and one of those also is A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
But how to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving given the ever-changing landscape of streaming services and content? The answer is easy.
You can watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on Apple TV Plus right now.
Like the other Peanuts holiday specials (It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Christmas), A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is one part history lesson, one part feel-good morality and a good dose of old-fashioned fun. The cartoon special made its premiere on Nov. 20, 1973, and won an Emmy the following year. It's a short watch — just 25 minutes — but it's also manage to stand the test of time.
Before you say "good grief" that you'll have to subscribe to yet another paid service just to watch Snoopy and the gang, Apple TV Plus isn't the only way that'll you be able to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving this year. Here's what you need to know to watch A Charlie Brown Thanskgiving.
How to watch 'A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving' on Apple TV Plus
Apple TV Plus is the streaming home for Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang. In addition to brand new originals like Snoopy in Space, this includes all of the Peanuts holiday classics, including a new one coming out for New Year's called For Auld Lang Syne.
But specifically for A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, the special is available to stream right now on the service. Apple TV Plus costs $4.99 a month after a free seven-day trial. (You'll get a free three-month subscription, however, with the purchase of a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch.) Apple TV Plus, in addition to being available on all Apple devices, also is on Roku and Amazon Fire TV, select smart TVs from LG, Sony, Vizio and Samsung and is available on the web.
In 2020, Apple TV Plus made all of the Charlie Brown holiday specials available to stream to anyone for free for a limited time. Apple has not said whether or not that would be the case again this year, though if it is, the window would likely be Nov. 24-26.
How to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving for free on PBS
Fans of the Charlie Brown specials did not take the news to well in 2020 that with the move to Apple TV Plus these TV holiday traditions would no longer be shown on broadcast TV. So Apple TV Plus made a pivot, and announced that all of the Charlie Brown holiday specials would air on PBS.
That deal continues this year, with A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving set to air on local PBS and PBS Kids channels on Nov. 21 at 7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. CT. In the event that your local PBS station typically offers live streams of its programming, then you'll also be able to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on the PBS website.
PBS stations are available for viewers who still subscribe to a traditional cable/satellite pay-TV service or have a TV antenna that they can pick up their local PBS station signal with. Currently, the only live TV streaming service to offer local PBS stations is YouTube TV.
Michael Balderston is a D.C.-based entertainment writer and content producer for What to Watch. He previously has written for TV Technology and Awards Circuit.
