For many, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is as much a part of the holiday as turkey and all the trimmings. The beloved special has been a part of the American holiday entertainment landscape for more than 50 years, with the animated special following the adventures of Charlie Brown and his friends when holiday plans go a bit awry thanks to Peppermint Patty simply inviting herself and others to Charlie and Sally’s house for a feast without considering they may have other plans. It’s an iconic program, but in recent years, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving has been the center of controversy — and we’re not talking about Woodstock’s choice of food. The special has been the topic of conversation for another controversial moment and this year, we’re breaking it down.
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The scene in question in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving involves Franklin, the one and only member of the Peanuts crew who happens to be Black. In the special, after Charlie Brown and Sally end up going along with Peppermint Patty’s self-invitation and host an impromptu dinner, the group shows up and takes seats at a table set up outside for the group. However, while everyone else is seated in proper chairs, Franklin ends up sitting in a lawn chair on his own side of the table alone. The moment is where the controversy comes in. Because Franklin is the only person of color in the group and he is sat separately and in the only piece of “non-proper” furniture at the meal, some viewers feel there are undertones of racial bias. In recent years, this has sparked conversation and discourse on social media.
However, while that one scene in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving has been the source of much discussion and controversy leading some viewers to dismiss the entire special as being racist, it’s not actually something that creator Charles Schulz intended. Schulz’s family has long insisted that there was no racial intent with the seating arrangements from Schulz’s perspective — and in 2020, his widow Jean even noted that it was a choice made by the animators and directors.
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“The scene would not have anything to do with [Charles] because it was purely the animators and the directors working on it,” she explained at the time. “The director parcels out the scenes to the animators, and the animators who drew that scene aren’t alive anymore or we don’t know how to find them. The [controversy] first popped up a couple of years ago. I’ve probably watched the special a dozen times, and I hadn’t noticed it. But I wouldn’t notice it: It’s to be noticed now.”
While there may not be any ill intent in the scene, it is worth noting that Peanuts has addressed the controversy as well as rectified the situation with a newer special. Earlier this year, Apple TV+ debuted Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin, a special that offers an origin story for Franklin and how he ended up friends with the Peanuts gang. The special also features a scene in which the gang invites Franklin to sit next them at a pizza parlor rather than have a seat to himself separate from them. The scene is set to be a replication of the Thanksgiving scene, this time with Franklin being more included with his friends.
“It was very important to my son Bryan,” producer Craig Schulz, Charles Schulz’s son said. “He said, ‘This is our chance to kind of rectify the whole thing.’”
“To make it have the most impact, [I suggested that we] match the shot exactly to what it was in the Thanksgiving special,” director Raymond S. Persi said. “So, we looked at the original frame. You’ll see [in the special] it’s even that same, weird, wonky perspective of the table. We put it in there just so that it would immediately get people connected to that moment.”
As for A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, even with the controversy, it remains a beloved classic — and for some, it’s something you can watch year-round. All of the Peanuts specials are available to stream on Apple TV+ for subscribers. And now that Thanksgiving is here, there is of course another Peanuts special that is just as beloved as the Thanksgiving one to stream: A Charlie Brown Christmas.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is streaming on Apple TV+. You can also catch Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin on the platform as well.