A couple of times a year, the major networks will air a classic Peanuts movie around a major holiday. For a short time, we are filled with nostalgia for the Charles Schulz-created series, and then that feeling goes away for the other 300+ days of the year. Now, however, fans of the comic strip should be pleased to learn that Peanuts is coming back to television for a brand new series of vignettes that will air on cable TV.
The new series is headed to Time Warner’s Boomerang Network. Boomerang, as fans well know, has been a great home for classic cartoons, including the likes of Scooby-Doo and more of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons. More recently, the channel has kind-of become known for remaking classics and giving them a modern spin. Bugs Bunny, for instance, has gotten a new spin on the channel, as has the aforementioned Scooby-Doo.
Variety is noting that the original Peanuts animation company is not behind the series. Instead France’s Normaal Animation is actually putting together the cartoon shorts thanks to a license through Peanuts Worldwide LLC. The company also put out cartoons ahead of The Peanuts Movie that hit theaters last year. Although it’s a new company that is doing the cartoons, the style of the cartoons will be a mashup of crowdpleasers like A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and new coloring. If that's not your thing, you can always wait for ABC or another network to air a special next fall.
If you are more of a Cartoon Network watcher than a Boomerang Network watcher, the new Peanuts cartoons will also premiere there on May 9 at 10:30 a.m. ET An hour later, the new cartoon lineup will unfurl on Boomerang Network, hitting the schedule at 11:30 a.m. ET. So, there are multiple way to check the new Peanuts out.
The fact that these cartoons ran in advance of The Peanuts Movie actually makes a lot of sense. While the movie earned good reviews when it was in theaters and headed to Blu-ray, it didn't receive a ton of notice by U.S. audiences and only made a little money on its reported $99 million budget after factoring in the overseas box office. With that in mind, I'm not sure if the new Peanuts shorts will be a hit on Boomerang, but they certainly fit in with the rest of the network's programming. Now, we just need to hope that they are as good and family-friendly as the TV specials that we remember.
While we wait for the Peanuts to hit US TV on May 9, you can check out what else TV has coming up with our TV premiere schedule.
