Apple TV+ unveiled their kids and family summer slate stacked with all-new Peanuts programming, alongside beloved and acclaimed returning series. The beloved Peanut content includes new special Snoopy Presents: One-of-a-Kind Marcie, premiering 18 August and the third season of The Snoopy Show premiering 9 June.
Apple will also expand its partnership with WildBrain, welcoming two new originals including new series Camp Snoopy, featuring Snoopy and the Beagle Scouts along with Charlie Brown and friends as they enjoy an adventure-filled summer outdoors. The slate also has the charming new Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin special uncovering the origin story of one of Peanuts’ most beloved characters and how he ultimately makes friends with Charlie Brown and the gang. Plus, even more classic Peanuts titles will be made available to fans, many for the first time in decades.
This summer, families can also look forward to the return of their favourite animal friends, with new seasons of the BAFTA Award-winning live-action animated hybrid series Lovely Little Farm premiering 16 June and Duck & Goose, the preschool animated series inspired by the New York Times bestselling books by Tad Hills, premiering 7 July. Ahead of its second season, a new Duck & Goose special titled When Duck Met Goose will also debut on 9 June.
Additionally, the platform marks International Owl Awareness Day on 4 August with four new Eva the Owlet shorts coming on that same day.
Here are the details of new Peanuts programming from Wildbrain:
The Snoopy Show season three: The world-famous beagle is back! Dig into new adventures with Snoopy, along with his best pal, Woodstock, and the rest of the Peanuts gang.
Snoopy Presents: One-of-a-Kind Marcie: One-of-a-Kind Marcie follows Marcie, an introvert who loves her solitude but also enjoys helping her friends. As they train for the school golf championship, Marcie assists Peppermint Patty as her caddie, offering thoughtful and deliberate advice to help her win. Meanwhile, after coming up with brilliant solutions to her classmates’ problems — from hallway traffic jams to lunchtime pizza shortages — Marcie is unexpectedly elected as class president … a role she never wanted.
Suddenly thrust into the spotlight, Marcie struggles to cope with the expectations of her new job and retreats as far from the public eye as possible. As the golf championship begins, Marcie is still in hiding and Peppermint Patty is forced to tee off with Charlie Brown filling in as her caddie. But after some wise advice and a little introspection, Marcie realises she can still make a difference for her friends and the school — she’ll just have to buck other people’s expectations and do it her own unique way.
Camp Snoopy (new series, 2024 premiere date to be announced): After discovering their troop is in danger of disbanding, Snoopy and the Beagle Scouts set off to the Great Outdoors to earn their performance badges, with the Beagle Scout Manual as their guide. Meanwhile, Charlie Brown and friends enjoy their summer at Camp Spring Lake, crossing paths with Snoopy as they experience everything camp and the outdoors have to offer.
Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin (new special, 2024 premiere date to be announced): The origin story for one of Peanuts’ most beloved characters, Franklin, follows how he approaches making new friends. Franklin’s family is always on the move with his dad’s military job, and everywhere he goes Franklin finds support in a notebook filled with his grandfather’s advice on friendship. But when Franklin tries his usual strategies with the Peanuts gang, he has trouble fitting in.
That’s until he learns about the neighbourhood Soap Box Derby race, according to his grandfather, everyone loves a winner! He’s sure that winning the race will also mean winning over some new friends. All he needs is a partner, which he finds in Charlie Brown. Franklin and Charlie Brown work together to build a car and in the process become good buddies. But as the race nears, the pressure mounts, can their car and their newfound friendship make it to the finish line?
More returning fan favourites:
Duck & Goose: Prior to the launch of the new season of Duck & Goose, watch the new special, When Duck Met Goose. When Thistle gets upset with her new neighbour, Bluebird recalls the bumpy days of Duck and Goose’s early friendship.
Lovely Little Farm: BAFTA Award-winning live-action animated hybrid kids and family series Lovely Little Farm follows sisters Jill and Jacky as they love and nurture all the animals on their farm nestled in lavender fields. Being a young farmer isn’t easy, but every day brings these sisters adventure and a chance to grow. Return to the farm with season two where Jill and Jacky continue to nurture Quackety Duck Duck, Al Alpaca Pickle Pony and meet some new friends along the way.
Lovely Little Farm is created by Maddy Darrall (Teletubbies) and Billy Macqueen (Topsy and Tim), along with Catherine Williams (Waffle the Wonder Dog). Darrall and Macqueen serve as executive producers alongside Tony Cooke (PJ Masks) who is also head writer.
The lead director is two-time directors Guild Award winner Jack Jameson (When You Wish Upon a Pickle). The live-action animated hybrid uses the latest computer-generated technology, working with Industrial Light and Magic, to bring the series to life. For Lovely Little Farm, Apple TV+ partnered with changemaker Dr. Gail Melson, a leader in the field of human-animal interaction and former professor emerita in the department of human development and family studies at Purdue University. Dr. Melson worked with the executive producers to develop the show based on her research on children’s relationships with animals, nature and emerging technologies.
Newcomer Levi Howden stars as Jill, with Kassidi Roberts joining as Jacky, and the series also features the voice talents of BAFTA Award nominee Shirley Henderson (Harry Potter franchise) as Quackety Duck Duck, Dominique Moore (Thomas & Friends) as Pickle Pony, SAG Award nominee Joel Fry (Cruella) as Al Alpaca, and Canan Yildiz-Husbands as Bif & Bop.
Duck & Goose season two: Inspired by the New York Times bestselling books by Tad Hills, Duck & Goose is a preschool series that celebrates the unique camaraderie of Duck and Goose, two best feathered friends that don’t always see beak to beak. That is until they discover that embracing and appreciating each other’s differences can help them think up entirely new ideas to help solve everyday challenges, both big and small.
Duck & Goose is directed by Brian Muelhaupt (Sesame Street) with Jane Startz (Ella Enchanted), Douglas Wood (Bob the Builder), Chris Prynoski (Harriet the Spy), Shannon Prynoski (Harriet the Spy), Ben Kalina (Harriet the Spy), Antonio Canobbio (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) and Hills executive producing. Peabody Award winner Wood also serves as showrunner.
Cathy Davidson, Ph.D., founding director of the Futures Initiative and a distinguished professor in the Ph.D. program in English at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and Christina Katopodis, Ph.D., executive director and postdoctoral associate at Transformative Learning in the Humanities, serve as the transformative learning experts on the series through Apple TV+’s changemakers initiative.
Eva the Owlet (new shorts): Apple TV brings four new Eva the Owlet shorts, based on the New York Times bestselling Scholastic book series Owl Diaries by award-winning author Rebecca Elliott. Diary, Cheer Me Up, Up, Up! follows Eva when she goes on a fly with Baxter to cheer herself up after breaking a pinecone she crafted. In All About Baby Mo, Eva tells her diary all about Baby Mo after he covers one of her pages in scribbles, but she realises how many things she loves about him.
Diary Doodles follows Eva as she doodles how she feels while waiting for the rain to stop. In Diary, Cheer Lucy Up, Up, Up!, Eva helps Lucy write her own cheer-up list when Lucy feels sad after her favourite stuffed animal gets a hole in it.
The shorts are produced by award-winning Scholastic Entertainment with production services and 4K animation by 9 Story Media Group’s Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated studio Brown Bag Films in Dublin and Bali. Iole Lucchese, Caitlin Friedman and Jef Kaminsky serve as executive producers.
Head series writers Annabeth Bondor-Stone and Connor White serve as co-executive producers, and Damien O’Connor serves as supervising director. The late writing clinician, Duke Integrative Medicine National Board Certified health & wellness coach and the Wellness & Writing Connections founder & executive director Dr. John F. Evans served as the expressive writing expert on the series through Apple TV+’s changemakers initiative.
Peanuts Anthology III and IV (new to Apple TV+, 22 September 2023): Fans of the beloved Peanuts gang will have more classics available to watch from Mendelson/ Melendez Productions and Peanuts Worldwide in the Peanuts Classics collection on Apple TV+.
These classics include It’s an Adventure, Charlie Brown; It’s Spring Training, Charlie Brown; Emmy Award winner Life is a Circus, Charlie Brown; Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown; Emmy Award-nominated Play it Again, Charlie Brown; Emmy Award-nominated Snoopy’s Getting Married, Charlie Brown; Emmy Award winner You’re a Good Sport, Charlie Brown; It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown; What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown; Emmy Award-nominated It’s Magic, Charlie Brown; Emmy Award-nominated Someday You’ll Find Her, Charlie Brown; Emmy Award-nominated Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown?; You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown; Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown and Emmy Award-nominated Charlie Brown Celebration.