‘Welcome Home, Franklin’ Peanuts Special Addresses Controversial Scene From Thanksgiving Special

Apple TV+ dropped a brand new Peanuts particular titled Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin, specializing in the sketch’s first Black character, Franklin Armstrong.

When the trailer was unveiled, one second obtained social media buzzing because it referenced the 1973 particular A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. The controversial scene is the place Franklin is seen sitting on one aspect of the dinner desk whereas the remaining sit on the alternative aspect.

The new particular, which is already streaming on Apple TV+, fixes that scene displaying all of the Peanuts characters rallying round Franklin.

Craig Schulz, son of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, lately addressed the controversy in an interview, revealing that his son Bryan advised him in regards to the problem with the scene.

“It was very important to my son Bryan,” Schulz advised The Daily Beast. “He said, ‘This is our chance to kind of rectify the whole thing.’”

Director Raymond S. Persi defined how they made the emotional scene occur, including, “To make it have the most impact, [I suggested that we] match the shot exactly to what it was in the Thanksgiving special. So, we looked at the original frame. You’ll see [in the special] it’s even that same weird, wonky perspective of the table. We put it in there just so that it would immediately get people to connect to that moment.”

Franklin was launched in 1968, and Schulz recalled that “newspapers refused to run those comics with Franklin in them” initially. In 2024, Schulz stated, “The time in 1968 is similar to the time we have right now,” as “there’s a lot of divisiveness and a lot of anger in the world.” Schulz hopes the particular reveals how “two people can come together if you just take it down to a basic level.”