Good grief!
It seems that these days, there’s a problem with pretty much everything. Don’t get me wrong — I love to complain as much as anyone else (and let’s be real, probably more than most people) and there’s nothing quite as much fun as criticizing television that I don’t like ( The Bachelor ? Dance Moms ? Don’t get me started!), but there comes a point when we need to all take a step back and really think about what we’re criticizing.
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Especially if that thing is a classic like A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving .
*A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving* is a holiday classic.
All of the Peanuts specials are staples of their respective holidays, whether it’s A Charlie Brown Christmas making us feel emotionally connected to a crappy Christmas tree or It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown making us keep a watchful eye on our local pumpkin patches during Halloween.
They’ve been through quite a lot this year.
First, it was announced that because Apple bought the rights to the shows from ABC, none of these specials would be airing on television this year and would only be streaming on Apple TV.
This was obviously an outrage that we couldn’t accept, and not JUST because I don’t understand how Apple TV works, but that definitely played a part in it.
Luckily, public outcry swayed the minds of the powers that be, and PBS will be airing them.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving aired on November 22nd, and A Charlie Brown Christmas will play on December 13th.
It looks like all those petitions I signed may have made a difference after all! You’re welcome, everyone. I did my job.
However, some people noticed that *A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving* had one scene that seemed a little suspect.
At the big Thanksgiving dinner, fans noticed that Franklin, who happens to be the only black child in the Peanuts friend group, was sitting by himself at the Thanksgiving table, while everyone else sat on the other side.
He’s also the only character sitting on a lawn chair instead of a real chair.
Some fans weren’t super happy about this visual.
“So much ‘problematic’ in one picture. The damn dog is being treated better than Franklin,” one fan tweeted .
Now, I’m sure this wasn’t done on purpose, but fans couldn’t help but comment that it wasn’t really a good look for the cartoon.
Fans said it had ‘racist undertones.’
Now, I don’t know about you, but I think they might be reading just a bit too much into the scene. Still, I’m sure if the movie was made today, they’d have put a few of the kids on Franklin’s side of the table, just in case!
Some fans came to the defense of the program.
After all, when the camera zooms out, we see that Marcie is sitting all by herself in a plastic chair, too! Who expects children to make a good seating chart at a Thanksgiving dinner, anyway?
What do you make of all this? Let us know how you feel in the comments below!
