Break out the popcorn, jelly beans and toast: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving - 11/26/09

[DJLinus]

all about A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

ABC Television Network will celebrate the start of the holiday season with the classic half-hour animated Thanksgiving-themed PEANUTS special, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, created by late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network. A special bonus cartoon from Charles M. Schulz, This Is America, Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers, will air with the PEANUTS classic. In it, history comes to animated screen life in a captivating and informative program about the Mayflower voyagers.

Starring an unlikely round-headed hero and a unique cast of young characters wiser and wittier than their years, Charles Schulz's PEANUTS is not just the best-known, most-loved comic strip ever created, but a true global phenomenon. The PEANUTS characters are featured in 2200 newspapers, in classic television specials and on re-mastered DVDs, on stage, in hundreds of books and across the Internet. They have inspired every kind of consumer product from T-shirts to toothbrushes. And while translated into 25 languages, PEANUTS has introduced a vocabulary all its own: "Good grief!," "security blanket," "Happiness is...," "You blockhead!" As PEANUTS approaches its 60th anniversary in 2010, "Good ol' Charlie Brown" and his inseparable gang remain as fresh and vital as ever.

Over the past four decades, the library of PEANUTS animation has received five Emmy and two Peabody Awards. It has also received one Academy Award nomination, three Grammy nominations and fifteen additional Emmy nominations.

In the 1973 special, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown wants to do something special for the gang. However the dinner he arranges is a disaster when the caterers, Snoopy and Woodstock, prepare toast and popcorn as the main dish. Humiliated, it will take all of Marcie's persuasive powers to salvage the holiday for Charlie Brown.

The cast includes Todd Barbee as Charlie Brown, Robin Kohn as Lucy, Stephen Shea as Linus, Hilary Momberger as Sally, Kip DeFaria as Peppermint Patty, Jimmy Ahrens as Marcie and Robin Reed as Franklin.

In This is America, Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers, the year is 1620. After 65 grueling, sea-tossed days, the Pilgrims are in view of America's shores - and Charlie Brown and the Peanuts crew are with them as they experience firsthand the lifestyle of the early settlers and celebrate the first Thanksgiving.

The specials were executive-produced by Lee Mendelson and created and written by Charles M. Schulz. Bill Melendez is the producer and director and Vince Guaraldi is the music composer.

http://abc.go.com/shows/a-charlie-brown-thanksgiving

Since the video on the linked paged won't load for me, here's hoping that ABC got a lot of crap after "The Great Pumpkin" and nixed the hip-hoppin' Charlie Brown promos. Those were a travesty.