TVSquad

• At 7, CNN has Election Coverage of the Louisiana Primary.
• At 8, FOX has the Budweiser Shootout auto race.
• ABC has A Charlie Brown Valentine at 8.
• TLC has two new episodes of Flip That House at 8, then a new Trading Spaces.
• Also at 8: Nickelodeon has a new iCarly, followed by a new Naked Brothers Band.
• At 9, CBS has a new 48 Hours Mystery.
• CNBC has a new Suze Orman Show at 9.
• Lifetime has the new movie Making Mr. Right at 9.
• Cartoon Network has two new episodes of Naruto at 9, then a new One Piece.
• At 11, FOX has a new Mad TV, followed by a new Talk Show with Spike Feresten.

Check your local TV listings for more.

On a cool Thanksgiving morning old (Underdog) and new (Stewie from Family Guy) parade balloons battle it out for a inflatable bottle of Coca-Cola. As they cross the skyline of New York City fists fly and heads are butted. But, in the end, neither is the one who claims the prize. That honor goes to the honorable Charlie Brown, who seems to have finally won something in his life.

This was a cute and gentle commercial by Cola-Cola, which rarely disappoints when it comes to Super Bowl ads. I never realized that the Underdog and Stewie Thanksgiving Day balloons had such angry looks on their faces. That was an advantage in this commercial as we saw the two balloons battling it out. I enjoyed when Underdog slammed Stewie against the building. Nice job overall.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• Alex Haley's Queen - Complete Miniseries
• All Creatures Great and Small - The Complete Collection
• Allo' Allo - Series 7
• Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown - Remastered Deluxe Edition
• Criss Angel Mindfreak - Season 3
• Extras - Complete Series
• Family Guy - Blue Harvest
• The New Adventures of Old Christine - Season 1
• The Rockford Files - Season 5
• Sabrina, The Teenage Witch - Season 3

I'll say right up front that I am a huge Charles Schulz fan. I think Peanuts is one of the most important things in the history of pop culture (not just comics, but in all of pop culture - film, literature, TV, music and art). It's the type of comic that's entertaining and fun for all of the obvious reasons but something that can also show you a little bit about how to live your life too. I mean, who doesn't like Snoopy or A Charlie Brown Christmas?

So I've been a little antsy about a new biography of Schulz that is coming out next week, Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography, by David Michaelis. It's a bio that supposedly gives a fuller picture of Schulz, including the sad, unhappy parts of his life. Now I see that I'm not the only one who is a little antsy about the book and a new American Masters that will profile Schulz too.

• At 7, CBS has a new 60 Minutes, followed by the season finale of Survivor and the reunion show.
• ABC has A Charlie Brown Christmas at 7, followed by The Santa Clause 2.
• NBC has a new Football Night In America at 7, then the Chiefs vs. the Chargers.
• Also at 7: Food Network has the Nigella Bites Christmas Special, followed by Emeril's Happy Happy Holidays.
• At 7:30, The CW has a new Reba.
• At 8, FOX has a new Simpsons, followed by new epsisodes of American Dad and Family Guy, then a repeat Family Guy.
• How The Grinch Stole Christmas (the Jim Carrey version) airs on ABC Family at 8.
• TBS is showing National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation all night.
• At 9, Discovery has Holiday Mythbusters.
• Hallmark has A Boyfriend For Christmas at 9.
• At 10, Showtime has a new Dexter.

Just like last year, ABC is airing A Charlie Brown Christmas twice this year. If you missed it when it aired late last month, you can catch it again on ABC on Sunday, December 17 at 7 pm. I recorded the special when it aired in November but haven't yet gotten around to watching it. When I do finally get time to sit and watch it, I'll do my usual ritual of dousing the lights, unplugging the phone and immersing myself in the special as I've done every year since I was a kid. I could purchase the DVD, but I have no interest in that. I like keeping this special tied to the holiday season, it's like a gift I get to unwrap and enjoy at the end of every year. I only wish ABC had also re-aired It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, since my local station moved it to 3 am so they could air some insipid midterm election debate.

It's not exactly of the same caliber as A Charlie Brown Christmas or It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, but A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is not without its charm. The ever-malleable Charlie Brown finds himself hosting a Thanksgiving feast when a pushy Peppermint Patty invites herself and her friend Marcie over. Charlie Brown doesn't know a thing about preparing such a feast, so he and his pals go with what they know, serving up an unimpressive meal of toast and popcorn. The special will air on November 20 at 8 pm on NBC.

If I had to rate this special, I'd probably place it somewhere between It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown. A Charlie Brown Christmas will always be my favorite, though. That kind of magic you can never duplicate.

What a load of crap. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a tribute to helium, lip syncing, egregious product placement, and in a small way, Thanksgiving. However, don't expect to see either Kermit the Frog or Charlie the Brown floating high above with all the other balloons. Instead, they'll be replaced by Flying Ace Snoopy, Pickachu and the Energizer Bunny. Okay, I'll accept one Peanuts character replacing another, but c'mon, getting rid of an icon like Kermit the Frog for some lame incoherent cartoon character or a product mascot? If I hadn't accepted long ago that this annual parade is essentially a slow moving advertisement, I'd be much more bothered than I am right now.

Oh yeah, and if you're concerned about another balloon-related accident like the one that occurred last year, extra precautions have been taken, including wind instruments along the route to help avoid such occurrences. Now the only thing they'll have to worry about is a bolt of lightening striking the Snoopy balloon and causing it to come to life a la Frankenstein's monster, resulting in utter mayhem as he flies his doghouse over Broadway, launching sidewinder missiles at the SpongeBob balloon. When you think about it, that's really what Thanksgiving is all about ... in my head.

I am older than It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

One year older, to be exact. The classic Halloween TV special marks its 40th anniversary this year, and Fine Living Network is celebrating with several TV and web specials and features. On TV, you can watch a special one hour episode of We Live Here titled We Live Here - In Fear, which will explore three haunted cities around the country: Savannah, Georgia, St. Augustine, Florida, and Memphis, Tennessee. The special will air several times until November 1. Online, you can watch a new reading of the classic Peanuts story by Top 40 icon Rick Dees. And to make your Halloween complete, you can download a wav file of spooky Halloween sounds.

Bill Melendez was an animator for several of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, but these days he's most recognized outside animation circles as producer/director of the Peanuts animated specials. Melendez, now 89, spoke to the guys at Just My Show about It's the great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and you can download or listen to the podcast here (link is to an MP3 file). It may be hard for some to believe that Melendez was also an animator for Warner Bros, given the flatness of the Peanuts specials compared to the likes of Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, but those specials were meant to reflect the simplicity of Charles Schulz's drawing style. Melendez claims the special was original and not based on anything from the comic strip, which is actually false, the Great Pumpkin story did appear in the comic strip long before the special debuted in 1966. I'll forgive him, though, because he's pushing 90 and he helped to create the greatest Halloween special of all time.

[via Cartoon Brew]