The Peanuts special “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” has delighted viewers for over 50 years, but it caused some friction behind the scenes.

Lee Mendelson, who was an animation producer and executive producer for several Peanuts animated specials, looked back on the making of the Thanksgiving episode in a 2013 HuffPost essay. He recalled getting into a “rare, minor dispute” with Charles M. Schulz, the creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip.

Schulz “insisted” that the character Woodstock carve and eat a turkey with his pal Snoopy, but Mendelson had ethical concerns about Woodstock eating a fellow bird.

“I was bothered that Woodstock would eat a turkey. I voiced my concern, which was immediately overruled,” Mendelson wrote. He was so perturbed by the cannibalistic feast that he removed it f

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