A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Guide Note

The Emmy Award-winning A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving television special airs on ABC around the Thanksgiving holiday each year. It first premiered on CBS in 1973 and features everyone's favorite characters from Charles M. Schulz's beloved comic strip Peanuts.

Fast Facts

1. Network: ABC
2. Starring: Todd Barbee as Charlie Brown, Bill Melendez as Snoopy and Woodstock
3. First Aired: November 20, 1973
4. Writer: Charles M. Schulz
5. Directors: Bill Melendez and Phil Roman
6. Begins with a classic Charlie Brown and Lucy football-pulling sequence
7. Ends with Snoopy and Woodstock gorging themselves with a proper feast
8. Features the Vince Guaraldi-sung "Little Birdie"
9. Run time: 30 minutes

Charlie Brown begins this animated Peanuts entry falling for Lucy's famous "pull the football away at the last second before you can kick it" trick, and as usual things go from bad to worse for one of the world's most lovable losers.

Peppermint Patty decides that she and the gang will have Thanksgiving dinner at Charlie Brown's house, and suddenly the heat is on for "Chuck" to deliver a feast—when all he knows how to make, he admits, is "cold cereal and maybe toast." Ultimately all is made right in the end, of course, and the true meaning of the holiday is preserved.