The Peanuts special “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” has delighted viewers for over 50 years, but it caused some friction behind the scenes.
Lee Mendelson, who was an animation producer and executive producer for several Peanuts animated specials, looked back on the making of the Thanksgiving episode in a 2013 celebrity.land essay. He recalled getting into a “rare, minor dispute” with Charles M. Schulz, the creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip.
Schulz “insisted” that the character Woodstock carve and eat a turkey with his pal Snoopy, but Mendelson had ethical concerns about Woodstock eating a fellow bird.
“I was bothered that Woodstock would eat a turkey. I voiced my concern, which was immediately overruled,” Mendelson wrote. He was so perturbed by the cannibalistic feast that he removed it from from a later version of the special.
“Years later, when CBS cut the show from its original 25 minutes to 22 minutes, I sneakily edited out the scene of Woodstock eating,” he recalled. “But when we moved to ABC in 2001, the network (happily) elected to restore all the holiday shows to the original 25 minutes, so I finally have given up.”
While they didn’t see eye to eye on Woodstock’s eating habits, Mendelson noted that it was a “great privilege” to work with Schulz for nearly four decades.
“Charles Schulz drew over 18,000 comic strips (unassisted!) over a half century. He wrote all the television shows as well, and one of his favorites was our Thanksgiving show,” Mendelson wrote. “He thought it would be very entertaining to see how kids would create a Thanksgiving dinner with no clue what to do. Along with a dog for good measure.”
Schulz died at age 77 in 2000, and Mendelson died at age 86 in 2019.
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“A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” premiered on CBS in November 1973. It follows Charlie Brown (Todd Barbee) as he and his friends prepare their own Thanksgiving meal. The menu includes toast, popcorn, pretzel sticks, and jelly beans.
Annual viewing for many Peanuts fans, “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” is available to stream exclusively on Apple TV. In 2020, Apple acquired the rights to all of the Peanuts holiday specials, including “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
“A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” is available to stream on Apple TV.
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