‘Snoopy in Space’ Is Returning to Apple TV+ to Search for Life on Other Planets
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It looks like one of the first animated kids’ shows to debut on Apple’s streaming video service back in 2019 will be making its return for a second season.
A new trailer for Snoopy in Space landed this week, revealing that a dozen new episodes are coming to Apple TV+ on Friday, November 12.
Although Apple has branched into a variety of entertainment for kids on Apple TV+, its partnership with the Peanuts franchise remains one of its most significant deals, and Snoopy in Space was the series that started it all.
In fact, Snoopy headlined the very first Apple TV+ Original, Peanuts in Space: Secrets of Apollo 10, which arrived in May 2019, six months before the streaming service opened its doors, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 10 reconnaissance mission to the moon.
This was later followed by the announcement that Snoopy would be gaining his own spaceflight series, Snoopy in Space, in a landmark partnership with NASA and DHX Media, which holds the rights to the Peanuts gang.
The first season of Snoopy in Space was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award and picked up a Parent’s Choice Gold Award in 2020. The original special that kicked it all off, Peanuts in Space: Secrets of Apollo 10, also won a Daytime Emmy for outstanding single-camera editing.
What’s interesting is that the original partnership was focused exclusively on STEM topics, hence the partnership with NASA and the focus on making a show that would educate kids about space travel and hopefully inspire a few to pursue a related career in the process. A year later, however, Apple expanded the partnership with DHX subsidiary WildBrain to become “the home for all things Peanuts.”
As a result of this deal, Apple gained the rights to all the Charlie Brown Holiday Specials, which became an Apple TV+ exclusive, much to the chagrin of fans who had grown up with seasonal favourites like A Charlie Brown Christmas. While Apple promised to stream the older content for free on Apple TV+, it was ultimately forced to strike a deal with PBS to continue offering them on broadcast television.
Meanwhile, Apple created a new original Peanuts series, The Snoopy Show to continue telling the everyday stories of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the gang, while preserving the spirit of the Charles M. Schulz’s original comic strip and the made-for-TV specials that had followed in its footsteps.
Further, Apple is also bringing the Peanuts gang back for a new holiday special for the first time in nearly twenty years, which should be welcome news for fans who otherwise feared the franchise had been abandoned follows Schulz’s death back in 2000.
In the midst of all this, however, it appears that Apple hasn’t forgotten the roots of how its partnership with everyone’s favourite beagle began, as a STEM project to help educate kids as much as entertain them.
This continues to be the goal of Snoopy in Space. The first season featuring an outing that took Snoopy to the International Space Station and the moon, and season 2 will go even further into the final frontier, with the gang setting out to search for extra-terrestrial life.
After exploring the moon and visiting the International Space Station in season one, Snoopy and the Gang are ready for their next big adventure, an epic journey across the universe to discover if there really is life outside of Earth.
Apple
It’s not just science fiction, however, as the new season, which is titled The Search for Life, will highlight the actual “scientific processes and technology behind space exploration,” through the lens of the Peanuts gang in a way that’s accessible and informative for younger viewers.
Snoopy and his friends bring NASA’s most exciting current research to life, from searching for traces of ice and ancient fossils on Mars, to drilling into oceans hidden inside of distant moons, and even seeking out exoplanets far beyond our own solar system.
Apple
Snoopy in Space: The Search for Life will premiere on Apple TV+ on Friday, November 12, with all 12 episodes available on launch day.
