It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

***It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown*** is a critically-acclaimed animated television special, based on the comic strip *Peanuts* by Charles M. Schulz.

It was the 3rd Peanuts special (and first Halloween special) to be produced and animated by Bill Melendez. The program was nominated for two Emmy Awards- Outstanding Children's Program (as was *Charlie Brown's All-Stars*) and Special Classification of Individual Achievement.

To celebrate its 40th Anniversary, a retrospective book was published in 2006 entitled *It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown; The Making of a Television Classic*, with the entire script, never-before-seen photographs, storyboard excerpts, and interviews with the original child actors who provided the voices of the Peanuts gang.

## Plot

The story opens with Linus and Lucy going out to a nearby pumpkin patch to find a pumpkin to use as a jack-o-lantern. After rejecting a couple of smaller choices by Linus, Lucy points to the biggest pumpkin in the patch, which Linus clumsily rolls back home. When they get home, Lucy takes a big knife and slices into the pumpkin to gut it, at which point a horrified Linus says, "Ohhhh, you didn't tell me you were going to kill it!", and starts crying.

Next is a preview sequence in which trick-or-treaters dressed as Mr. Hyde, a witch, and three ghosts get pursued by sinister-looking phantoms representing Halloween. The trick-or-treaters are forced to hide in a nearby pumpkin patch until the coast is clear, followed by an owl hooting as it flies off a tree branch.

With autumn already in full swing, Charlie Brown is busy raking leaves with Snoopy's help. Linus sees the pile and jumps right in the middle of it, forgetting that he is holding a wet lollipop he was licking. Moments later Lucy comes with a football for Charlie Brown to kick. He initially refuses, but Lucy shows him a contract which promises that she will not pull the ball away. Charlie Brown relents, but when he is about to kick the ball, she does pull it away, which sends him landing flat on his back, like always. Lucy then points out that the contract had not been notarized.

Later, Linus writes a letter to the Great Pumpkin, to Charlie Brown's disbelief, Snoopy's laughter, Patty's assertion that the Great Pumpkin is a fake, and even to Lucy's violent threat to make Linus stop: "You better cut it out right now or I'll pound you!" Linus laments in the letter that "more people believe in Santa Claus than in you, but let's face it, Santa Claus has had more publicity. But being number two, perhaps you try harder", a tongue-in-cheek reference to Avis Rent-A-Car's popular slogan of the time. Only Sally, Charlie Brown's younger sister, who is in love with Linus, supports him before Charlie Brown takes her away.

After Linus mails his letter to the Great Pumpkin, using his blanket to open the mailbox after Lucy refuses to help, Charlie Brown dances gleefully when he receives an invitation to go to Violet's Halloween party. His bubble is quickly burst by Lucy, who explains that there were two lists: people to invite and people not to invite. Lucy is certain Charlie Brown's name got on the wrong list.

On Halloween night, the gang gets their costumes ready. Lucy, touting that a costume should reflect the exact opposite of one's own personality, dresses as a witch, while the other kids dress up as ghosts. "Pig-Pen" is easily recognized by his trademark cloud of dust, while Charlie Brown has eyeholes cut out all over his sheet, matter-of-factly stating he had a little trouble with the scissors. Sally asks if she can join the gang trick-or-treating. Lucy explains how to trick-or-treat and Sally asks if it is legal.

Before going trick-or-treating, the gang stops off at the pumpkin patch to make fun of Linus's missing out on all the fun, just as he did the year before. Linus asks if they came to sing "pumpkin carols". Linus remains convinced that the Great Pumpkin will indeed come because he thinks the patch he is in is the paragon of sincerity, and he even persuades Sally to stick around and wait with him. The rest of the gang go off, leaving Sally and Linus behind.

During trick-or-treating, everyone else gets assorted candy, gum, apples, cookies, popcorn balls, and even money; however, at every house, Charlie Brown gets the same thing — a rock. After tricks-or-treats, and another quick stop at the pumpkin patch to rib Linus and Sally again, the gang all go off to Violet's Halloween party.

Meanwhile, Snoopy, wearing his World War I Flying Ace gear, climbs aboard his Sopwith Camel (in reality, his doghouse) to do battle with the Red Baron. After being shot down, Snoopy makes his way across the countryside, before briefly crashing the Halloween party. He then makes his way to the pumpkin patch where Linus and Sally are still waiting for the Great Pumpkin to show up. Linus hears Snoopy's rustling, and believes it is the Great Pumpkin. When Snoopy, still hidden in the shadows, rises above the pumpkins, Linus promptly faints. When Sally sees it is only Snoopy, she becomes outraged over missing tricks-or-treats and the Halloween party, and threatens to sue Linus. She storms out of the pumpkin patch as the other children arrive in time to witness her tirade, leaving Linus by himself, still convinced the Great Pumpkin will come. When promising to put in a good word for the others as they abandon him, he accidentally says "If the Great Pumpkin comes", instead of "when". After he realizes his mistake, he declares that he is doomed and that "one little slip like that can cause the Great Pumpkin to pass you by." Now all alone in the pumpkin patch, he calls out, "Oh, Great Pumpkin, where are you?"

When 4:00 a.m. rolls around the next morning, Lucy awakens to see the time then gets up to check on Linus. Seeing his bed empty, she puts her coat, scarf, and winter hat on then goes out to the pumpkin patch to find him sleeping on the ground shivering, covered in his security blanket. She grudgingly walks him home and to his room, taking off his shoes and socks. He falls on his back in his own bed then she puts the covers on him before grumpily walking out of his room.

Later that day, Linus and Charlie Brown are at the wall commiserating over the previous night's events. When Charlie Brown tries to console Linus by saying "I've done a lot of stupid things in my life, too", Linus blows a fuse and angrily vows to Charlie Brown that the Great Pumpkin will come next year, his ranting continuing as the end credits roll.

## Trivia

* For some unknown reason, many people believe that the first time this special aired on TV, and only the first time, there was an added scene included, in which the Great Pumpkin was actually revealed. However, as the rumor goes, the scene was deleted. There is no truth in the rumor.
* When Linus walks into the living room after writing a letter to the Great Pumpkin, Lucy is sitting in front of the TV reading a *TV Guide*. The picture on the cover of the magazine is a picture of Lucy.
* In the book adaptation, Lucy asks for an extra apple for Linus, but in the special itself, she asks for an extra piece of candy. Either way, she gets the extra treat.
* When Snoopy pretends to cross wartime France as a downed pilot, he passes signs pointing to two real places in the Champagne country northeast of Paris: Châlons-sur-Marne and Pont-à-Mousson.
* The songs that Schroeder plays on his piano with Snoopy dancing and weeping to the tunes are:
	1. "It's a Long Way to Tipperary"
	2. "There's a Long, Long Trail A-winding"
	3. "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag"
	4. "Roses of Picardy"

* After this special originally aired, children all over the United States sent candy to Charlie Brown out of sympathy.
* Kathy Steinberg had almost finished recording all her lines of dialogue as Sally when the producers received a phone call from her mother informing them that one of Kathy's teeth was loose. Fearing that a sudden lisp would ruin the continuity of her dialogue, the producers rushed the young actress into the studio to finish recording her lines. Just as Kathy was speaking her last line, the tooth came flying out of her mouth.
* The special was originally jointly sponsored by Coca-Cola and Dolly Madison cakes.
* Charlie Brown's costume has too many holes because he had trouble with the scissors. This is inspired by a 1956 Halloween strip where Linus is the one who cut too many holes in his sheet.
* Three music cues from this special would be reused in the educational short *Clean the Air*.
* The flying doghouse sequence seen during the opening credits of *The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show* is taken from this special.
* This is the first special to feature the Football gag.
* Snoopy gives three toothy grins while Schroeder is playing "Pack Up Your Troubles" and sings the lyrics "smile, smile, smile."
* Pig Pen is wearing glasses in this special, and is the only one showing him wearing them. They are seen when he is bobbing for apples.
* In the special, Sally says, "Welcome to the 20th century", but in the strip, she says, "Welcome to 1962."
* The only child actor who did not return for this special was the actress who voiced Lucy, and her voice is not noticeably different in this special.
* Charlie Brown is still treated generally well by the others in this special despite his trick-or-treating problems, was asked to "model" for a jack-o-lantern design, and the football gag. The "blockhead" was saved for Linus.
* Linus ended up with more candy in this special than Charlie Brown due to the fact that Lucy saved a piece of candy for him, even though he did not go trick-or-treating.
* After this special stopped airing on PBS in 2020, people sent complaints over the removal of the special, and it was re-aired on PBS in 2021.
* Writer Ray Bradbury and his daughters tuned into the special in 1966, but they were so disappointed with the special in which there was no Great Pumpkin, his girls got up and kicked their TV set. This inspired him to write "The Halloween Tree", a novel about eight children who travel back in time to discover the origins of their Halloween costumes. To his surprise, the book became a children's book, even though it is for everyone.
* Charles Schulz wanted Peppermint Patty, not Sally, with Linus in the pumpkin patch before the special aired in 1966.
* Even though Patty was seen at the beginning of the special, she is not at the Halloween party. Also, a male character who resembles a later cast member is seen next to Pig Pen when they are bobbing for apples.