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You've Been Kidnapped, Charlie Brown!
ABC has put the kibosh on CBS' 35-year Peanuts tradition by quietly scooping up network broadcasting rights to three of the most beloved Charles Schulz holiday classics.
The deal gives the Alphabet Net rights to It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and the first-ever Peanuts TV special, 1965's A Charlie Brown Christmas, beginning next year.
ABC quietly went about purchasing the half-hour toon specials following the death of Schulz in January, and was planning to announce the news after CBS' final broadcast of A Charlie Brown Christmas in December.
"We're very thrilled to have these shows," said Andrea Wong, senior vice president of alternative series and specials. "These specials are classics and when they became available we indicated our interest in them and began negotiations."
Wong also indicated that ABC is talking with Peanuts executive producer Lee Mendelson about possibly broadcasting new specials featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Woodstock, Linus, Lucy, Peppermint Patty and the rest of the gang.
"There are some episodes made by the company and we're taking a look at them," Wong added. "But our deal is specifically for the three [holiday specials], so I can't really comment beyond that."
Needless to say, CBS' reaction to the coup was something akin to what the block-headed star would say: Good grief!
"I don't think this would've happened if Charles Schulz was alive because loyalty was important to him," said a CBS spokesman. "We did two specials last year, Here's to You, Charlie Brown, celebrating the 50th anniversary, [and] a tribute to Schulz in February."
CBS is still smarting over the loss, especially since it put so much effort into restoring the Christmas special a couple years ago.
The network digitally remastered the episode and added more than two minutes of footage that had been cut out in the years following its premiere on December 9, 1965.
Word of the network switcheroo comes just two weeks after Paramount Home Video, CBS' corporate sibling in the Viacom family, released the three holiday specials on DVD.
While CBS consistently scored solid Nielsens with the holiday specials, it wasn't exactly a ratings bonanza for the network. And over the past few years, CBS didn't broadcast the Halloween and Thanksgiving specials with any regularity.
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