Charlie Brown Thanksgiving scene labelled as 'racist' over Franklin's seating at dinner table: 'They did him dirty'
A Peanuts cartoon special, shown in the United States on Thursday night on the occasion of Thanksgiving, has sparked concern among viewers who slammed a particular scene in the show as being racist.
'A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving' first aired in 1973. The viewers, however, have only started noticing and calling out the particular episode over the recent years.
The episode shows Charlie attempting to put together a last-minute dinner after his friends invite themselves over.
Charlie, admitting that he cannot cook, eventually ends up serving toast, popcorn, and jelly beans and his friends, particularly Peppermint Patty, are not happy about it.
However, it was not the food presented for Thanksgiving which made the viewers unhappy, it was the seating arrangement around the dinner table.
Charlie, Sally, Snoopy, Patty and a couple of other characters are shown sitting at one side of the table, while Franklin—the only person of color at the dinner table—is shown sitting on his own on the other side of the table. Not just that, while other characters are seen sitting on proper chairs, Franklin is seated on a deckchair.
The particular scene from Charles M. Schulz’s iconic cartoon may not have raised eyebrows when it was first aired, however, current viewers of the episode promptly called out the controversial scene on Twitter.
One Twitter user wrote: "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is on. Never forget how they did Franklin dirty." While another wrote: "Don’t watch Charlie Brown Thanksgiving anymore!! Nobody wants to sit on the same side of the table as brother Franklin!! Not even the damn dog???? #justiceforFranlkin."
The creator of the cartoon, Schulz, had reportedly demanded that a black character was added to Peanuts in 1968 after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, which led to the introduction of Franklin in the popular series, according to the Washington Post. Schulz was reportedly inspired to introduce the character after receiving a letter from a teacher named Harriet Glickman requesting a black character.
The series also has other festive episodes including 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' which aired in 1965 and 'Happy New Year, Charlie Brown' that aired in 1986. 'A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving' first aired on Nov. 20, 1973 on CBS, and continued to air every year on the network until 2000. It eventually moved over with the Peanuts special to ABC.
