This morning I’m sharing my Happy Thanksgiving 2020 Wishes to each of you. In writing today’s post I ended up watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (again!). Seeing all of them eating outside at the picnic table for their Thanksgiving Day meal has me smiling! It is so perfect for 2020!

Before beginning, you’ll notice the email format changes for email blog subscribers.

Not to get ahead of things,  reading this year is the first time in nearly SIX DECADES that A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will not be airing on broadcast tv has me thinking of it as an example of another change of many changes in 2020. It can still be viewed from November 25 to 27 (for free)- however one will be viewing it over at Apple TV+. I did enjoy re-watching it this morning on demand and without any commercials!

There are two traditional items I have made it a tradition here to include with my Thanksgiving wishes blog post each year. The first is how much I enjoy Linus’ Thanksgiving prayer in the TV animated special 1973, ‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’. And of course, Charlie Brown going to the mailbox hoping for the mail!  And the second item is the movie from 1987 Planes, Trains and Automobiles with Steve Martin and John Candy.

Happy Thanksgiving 2020

Earlier this month I read with interest seeing Emily Lee has an article over at iHeartRadio “‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’ Won’t Air On Broadcast TV This Year”, November 2, 2020. 

“The holiday classics, such as A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and A Charlie Brown Christmas, will be available to stream for free on specific dates this fall and winter. Even non-subscribers will be able to tune in on those dates.

Here’s when you can watch each holiday special even if you don’t subscribe to AppleTV+: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will be avaialble from November 25 to 27, and the Christmas special from December 11 to 13.” …

This morning I’ve gone over to AppleTV+ and am including this screenshot. Note it does require an Apple Id, and if you do not have one, it is easy to create. I dusted off my account id and entered the password. It was immediately recognized and the episode available for viewing.

On an aside, I find myself with mixed sentiments – while I applaud AppleTV+ for making it available for free during a window – I do miss the days of broadcast tv simply using rabbit ears and watching. In retrospect, no one was tracking our viewing – unless it was as a household participating in the Nielsen Ratings Sweeps. In fact, I was reading even that has changed! “Nielsen retired the diary methodology in July 2018, and all Nielsen local markets are now measured year round...”‘ However, it is really fantastic the on-demand aspect of being able to just select it and view, not waiting for one day the entire year to watch it air on the special calendar day promoted along with commercials.