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Holiday Classic Shows Not Available for Streaming on CBS

G

genius

This seems to be coming up every year now where Frosty, Frosty Returns, and Rudolph are not available for streaming on various services (i.e. YouTube TV, Fubo etc) due to CBS not having the streaming rights since Disney does.
I suspect they will be available to stream again next month when they air on Freeform.

Not a big loss though as CBS has definitely hacked these specials to pieces due to commercial airtime. Probably best to watch them on VHS/DVD format.
 
Since Disney owns ABC, could the over the air broadcast-TV rights to these specials end up on that network once CBS's network TV rights end?

Or will these specials even vanish entirely from broadcast-TV and end up exclusively on the Disney Plus streaming service once the over the air TV deals for these specials end?
 
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Joseph_Gallant said:
Since Disney owns ABC, could the over the air broadcast-TV rights to these specials end up on that network once CBS's network TV rights end?

Or will these specials even vanish entirely from broadcast-TV and end up exclusively on the Disney Plus streaming service once the over the air TV deals for these specials end?
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Given that the Charlie Brown/Peanuts specials have essentially disappeared off the air on to Apple TV, not to mention the other countless Christmas specials that have disappeared as well (Remember when CBS aired Garfield’s Thanksgiving and Christmas for years and years before dropping them?) it’s pretty much a question when not if.
 
CBS has only 3 classics right now, Frosty the Snowman, Frosty Returns and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Frostys Wonderland no longer airs on broadcast TV but airs on Freeform.

ABC has none now that Charlie Brown is gone. The Oldest Christmas special they have now is the toy story special from 2014.

NBC only has How The Grinch Stole Christmas while everything else is newer Christmas specials.

The Oldest CW Christmas special is from 2000 with Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer.

Fox has no classic Christmas specials.
 
genius said:
Given that the Charlie Brown/Peanuts specials have essentially disappeared off the air on to Apple TV,
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My wife and I have been enjoying all the Classic Peanuts specials on Apple TV. They have all been beautifully restored and look sharp, bright, and fresh. Best thing is each show is complete, not hacked up for more commercials as was the case in more recent airings on network TV.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
My wife and I have been enjoying all the Classic Peanuts specials on Apple TV. They have all been beautifully restored and look sharp, bright, and fresh. Best thing is each show is complete, not hacked up for more commercials as was the case in more recent airings on network TV.
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In addition, the Charlie Brown specials have been dubbed into numerous other languages, including French, Portuguese, and Spanish. The dubs can be accessed by clicking on the gear icon on the bottom-right corner of the screen. Subtitles in various languages, including closed captioning in English, can be accessed by clicking on the speech balloon icon on the same bottom-right corner.
 
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Mediafrog+ said:
My wife and I have been enjoying all the Classic Peanuts specials on Apple TV. They have all been beautifully restored and look sharp, bright, and fresh. Best thing is each show is complete, not hacked up for more commercials as was the case in more recent airings on network TV.
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No doubt about that! I had checked out The Great Pumpkin last month for the sake of tradition and was impressed by the quality.

Not to mention in the case of Rudolph some
songs have been been cut out of the CBS broadcast for several years now due to additional commercial airtime padded in. One year CBS replaced the closing credits with some trashy Bratz dolls musical number with them singing Rudolph.
 
I have the Peanuts specials on DVD and I've been able to find other older specials that are no longer on the networks or streaming on You Tube or Archive.org like Garfield and even the Grinch and can see them that way. :)

In the case of Rudolph and Frosty I don't doubt that they will end up on streaming somewhere after CBS's rights to carry them end.
 
In 2019, Apple TV Plus gained exclusive rights to the "Peanuts" animated specials, including quite a few holiday themed ones. That year, those shows vanished from broadcast-TV, where they had been shown annually since they were produced (in the case of some of these specials, they had been shown on broadcast-TV every year since the 1960's!).

In 2020, Apple TV Plus made a deal to air "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas" with PBS (I think the deal was actually made between Apple TV Plus and Boston PBS member station WGBH-2, with WGBH in turn offering the shows to PBS and the PBS Kids networks). Last year, the deal was expanded to include the Halloween special "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!".

But this year, these specials weren't on broadcast-TV, supposedly because talks broke down.

After hearing of the breakdown in talks to air these classic "Peanuts" specials, I purchased a DVD set of "Peanuts" holiday specials, including not only the three specials listed above, but also the "Peanuts" Election Day, Valentine's Day, and Easter specials.

This way, my girlfriend and I aren't held hostage to the whims of a streaming service.

(Besides, my girlfriend loves Snoopy!)
 
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Cool_guy81 said:
CBS has only 3 classics right now, Frosty the Snowman, Frosty Returns and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Frostys Wonderland no longer airs on broadcast TV but airs on Freeform.

ABC has none now that Charlie Brown is gone. The Oldest Christmas special they have now is the toy story special from 2014.

NBC only has How The Grinch Stole Christmas while everything else is newer Christmas specials.

The Oldest CW Christmas special is from 2000 with Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer.

Fox has no classic Christmas specials.
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And something tells me Paramount is going to KEEP Frosty & Rudolph & probably (If not likely) reserve them (And "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" & "The Little Drummer Boy" (The latter which hasn't been on TV in SO LONG, few people even KNEW there WAS such a special on TV after NBC caved in to the religious wackos of the time back around the 1980s) & axed it) for Paramount+
 
I've seen ads indicating Rudolph and the Frosty specials are on 'CBS and Paramount Plus'. If Disney/Freeform has anything, it's probably the 70s 'Rudolph's Shiny New Year' and 'Christmas in July' shows.
 
I
onairb2014 said:
If Disney/Freeform has anything, it's probably the 70s 'Rudolph's Shiny New Year' and 'Christmas in July' shows.
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Actually AMC has those rights, both of those aired on AMC just this past Sunday night.
 
They still sell those Christmas Rankin Bass holiday specail box sets. I saw them at my local Walmart. I was looking for a different Chritsmas DVD they didn't have.
 
onairb2014 said:
I've seen ads indicating Rudolph and the Frosty specials are on 'CBS and Paramount Plus'. If Disney/Freeform has anything, it's probably the 70s 'Rudolph's Shiny New Year' and 'Christmas in July' shows.
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I know nothing about "Christmas In July" but "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" was actually aired on ABC (In fact if I remermber right, it replaced "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" once it left television for awhile)

Either way, it was ALWAYS buried in the Monday 8/7 PM EP tine slot (Which during football season was ABC's GRAVEYARD time slot in the Mountain Time Zone as that meant having to air it sometime over THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND (On KUSA 9, this was ususally Sundays @ 3:30 PM before "World News Sunday" since KCNC 4 (Then an NBC O&O) & KMGH 7 (Then a CBS affiliate) were carrying football)

In some places, it probaby didn't air at all
 
FYI: The first of the "classic" animated Christmas specials was "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol", first broadcast in 1962 on NBC-TV.

In later years, the opening scenes (with Magoo, as voiced by Jim Backus, singing "It's Great To Be Back, Back, Back On Broadway!") were deleted from rebroadcasts to make way for more commercials.

I believe it was last broadcast in 2013 or 2014, and I think the last time it was broadcast in it's entirety was in 2012, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the special's original broadcast.

I don't think it will be shown on TV this year, but it is available on DVD, and my girlfriend and I will be watching it sometime over the next couple of weeks.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
FYI: The first of the "classic" animated Christmas specials was "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol", first broadcast in 1962 on NBC-TV.

In later years, the opening scenes (with Magoo, as voiced by Jim Backus, singing "It's Great To Be Back, Back, Back On Broadway!") were deleted from rebroadcasts to make way for more commercials.

I believe it was last broadcast in 2013 or 2014, and I think the last time it was broadcast in it's entirety was in 2012, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the special's original broadcast.

I don't think it will be shown on TV this year, but it is available on DVD, and my girlfriend and I will be watching it sometime over the next couple of weeks.
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In doing a search on Roku and Fire TV there are several streaming channel where it is available, including You Tube and Local Now for free.
 
Glad I have a 1988 CBS Rudolph broadcast on VHS that has a few more scenes and classic 7Up/McDonald's commercials. Even as Freeform brought back the peppermint mine scene from the end of the special (with Yukon Cornelius), the "Fame and Fortune" song remains missing from TV, the song that Rudolph and Hermey sang together. Surprised the current CBS broadcast isn't sped up a bunch to the point Rudolph sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Besides, classic Xmas specials look nostalgic when they aren't "digitally remastered"!
 
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