Peanuts TV specials broadcast schedule for Thanksgiving 2012 and the following week

The Peanuts gang is going to be showing up on television quite a few times this week and next; here's a complete list. All times below are for the Eastern and Pacific time zones.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will be broadcast both Wednesday, November 21 (the day before Thanksgiving) and Thursday, November 22 (Thanksgiving day itself). The special will air from 8 - 9 PM on ABC both evenings. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will be shown uncut, together with an abbreviated version of "This is America, Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers."

The "Charlie Brown and the Elusive Football" balloon will be making a return appearance in the Macy's Parade on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 22. The parade will be shown on NBC from 9 AM - Noon.  (The Snoopy balloon is not being retired, as some news reports might have you believe - Snoopy's just letting Charlie Brown have a turn this year, as he has in some previous years.)

On Friday, November 23 (the day after Thanksgiving), FOX will broadcast Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown, the most recent Peanuts animated special, from 8 - 9 PM .

Then the cable channel ABC Family will be showing A Boy Named Charlie Brown and Snoopy Come Home, the first two Peanuts theatrical movies, on Monday, November 26. Snoopy Come Home airs from 5 - 7 PM, and A Boy Named Charlie Brown airs from 7 - 9 PM (all times Eastern/Pacific).

Finally, A Charlie Brown Christmas will receive its first broadcast of the year on Wednesday, November 28. It will air from 8 - 9 PM on ABC. The special will be unedited, and accompanied by a shortened version of Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales and the non-Peanuts short Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa.

(Don't worry, if you prefer to see A Charlie Brown Christmas closer to the actual holiday, it will air again on December 18.)

Happy viewing!