The good news: ABC arranged to show A Charlie Brown Christmas twice this year!

The bad news: Only one of the showings was scheduled to be the unedited version, the other to the version edited to fit into a modern half-hour slot.

The further bad news: One of the showings was scheduled for tonight, but with Barack Obama addressing the nation, its getting bumped (even in the places where address doesn’t overlap with the scheduled address time.)

The good news: it’s just getting bumped a week, not bumped off the schedule completely. So the edited version is now scheduled to air on Tuesday, December 8, pared with the new Disney special Prep & Landing. The full-length version will be aired on Tuesday, December 15th, all the closer to Christmas.

The further good news: You can still, of course, get the full version on DVD, even on Blu-ray (with a spare DVD copy), or as part of a boxed set of DVD specials. That way, you can watch it on Christmas Eve, if you so desire.

(But of course all this bumping just reminds us that it’s a good idea to have a little extra TV content on hand, for when everything turns to reruns or stuff we don’t want to watch. Today only, Amazon is having a deal on my favorite current sitcom not in its first year, How I Met Your Mother – four seasons for $60, which is 62% off list price.)

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