It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a 1966 American prime time animated television special based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.[1]

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Title card
GenreAnimated TV Special
Created byCharles M. Schulz
Written byCharles M. Schulz
Directed byBill Melendez
Voices of
Theme music composerVince Guaraldi
Lee Mendelson (closing theme only)
Opening theme"Graveyard Theme"
Ending theme"Charlie Brown Theme"
ComposersVince Guaraldi
John Scott Trotter
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producerLee Mendelson
ProducersLee Mendelson
Bill Melendez
CinematographyNick Vasu
EditorsRobert T. Gillis
Steven Melendez
Running time25:15
Production companiesLee Mendelson Productions
Bill Melendez Productions
United Feature Syndicate
Release
Original networkCBS
Picture format4:3 35mm film
Audio formatMonaural
Original releaseOctober 27, 1966 (1966-10-27)
Chronology
Preceded byCharlie Brown's All Stars! (1966)
Followed byYou're in Love, Charlie Brown (1967)

A Halloween special, it was the third Peanuts special (and second holiday-themed special, following A Charlie Brown Christmas) to be produced and animated by Bill Melendez.[2] The special features music composed by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, whose contributions include the theme song “Linus and Lucy”. It was also the first Peanuts special to use the titular pattern of a short phrase, followed by "Charlie Brown", a pattern which would remain the norm for almost all subsequent Peanuts specials.[3]

Its initial broadcast took place on October 27, 1966, on CBS, preempting My Three Sons. The original sponsors were Coca-Cola, the original sponsor of A Charlie Brown Christmas, and the Dolly Madison brand of baked snack food. Dolly Madison would go on to be a longtime co-sponsor of the Peanuts specials on CBS. CBS re-aired the special annually through 2000, with ABC picking up the rights beginning in 2001. It aired annually on ABC during the Halloween season[4] until 2019. From 2006 until 2019, ABC usually aired the special twice, once in a truncated format during a half-hour time slot and once in full during an hour-long time slot (filled out with an abridged version of the 1972 special You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown). Beginning in 2020, Apple TV+ will become the exclusive home of all Peanuts specials.[5] The special is also aired on Family Channel in Canada since 2018.[6]

The program was nominated for a 1966 Emmy Award. It has been issued on home video several times, including a Remastered Deluxe Edition of the special released by Warner Home Video on September 2, 2008, with the bonus feature It's Magic, Charlie Brown which was released in 1981.[7] To celebrate its 40th anniversary, a retrospective book was published in 2006. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The Making of a Television Classic includes the entire script, never-before-seen photographs, storyboard excerpts, and interviews with the original child actors who provided the voices of the Peanuts gang.

A history of the program and the various religious interpretations of Linus' sincere belief in the Great Pumpkin are explained in the 2015 book, A Charlie Brown Religion, published by the University Press of Mississippi.[8]

Plot

With autumn in full swing, the Peanuts gang prepares for Halloween. Linus and Lucy go out to the local pumpkin patch to find a pumpkin. Lucy selects the largest they can find, and makes Linus carry it back to the house. He becomes dismayed when it turns out Lucy is "going to kill it" to make a jack-o-lantern. After the opening credits, Snoopy helps Charlie Brown finish raking a pile of leaves. Linus jumps into the heap with a large lollipop, resulting in leaves sticking to his face and lollipop. Then Lucy entices Charlie Brown to kick a football, with the usual results.

Linus is writing his yearly letter to the Great Pumpkin, despite Charlie Brown's disbelief, Snoopy's laughter, Patty's assurance that the Great Pumpkin is a fake, and even his own sister Lucy, who threatens to "pound" him. Only Sally, Charlie Brown's younger sister, smitten with Linus, supports him. Lucy follows Linus as he goes out to mail the letter. Charlie Brown shows up to announce that he was invited to a Halloween party hosted by Violet. Neither Charlie Brown nor Lucy can believe his invitation: as he breaks out into a "happy dance," she assumes it is a mistake.

On Halloween night, the gang goes trick-or-treating, each with their own costume. Most dress as ghosts in simple white sheet costumes; Charlie Brown has "trouble with the scissors," leaving his costume full of holes. Pig-Pen's trademark dust cloud makes him easy to identify. Lucy dresses as a witch, saying it is the opposite of her real personality. On the way, they stop at the pumpkin patch to jeer at Linus for missing the festivities as usual. Undeterred, Linus is convinced that the Great Pumpkin will come to his sincere pumpkin patch, and persuades Sally, acting almost entirely on her infatuation with Linus, to skip trick-or-treating and join him.

During "tricks or treats," the kids get their goodies (except for Charlie Brown, who gets nothing except rocks). After going back to the pumpkin patch to tease Linus and Sally, the gang goes to Violet's Halloween party. Violet and Lucy ask Charlie Brown to serve as their model, initially to his delight, then dismay, when he learns they only want to use his bald head as a model to canvas potential jack-o'-lantern designs. Meanwhile, Snoopy, wearing his World War I flying ace costume, climbs aboard his doghouse (imagining it to be a Sopwith Camel fighter plane). After a fierce, but unsuccessful, battle with the unseen Red Baron, Snoopy makes his way across "the countryside" to crash the Halloween party. Sneaking into an apple bobbing tank, he accidentally kisses Lucy when she picks up an apple, disgusting her and sending her into a circling frenzy. Then he is entertained by Schroeder's playing of World War I tunes on his piano, though the sad songs make him cry. Embarrassed, Snoopy leaves.

Linus and Sally are still in the pumpkin patch. When Linus sees a mysterious shadowy figure (which turns out to be Snoopy) rising from the moonlit patch, he mistakes it for the Great Pumpkin and faints. When Linus wakes, Sally furiously yells at him for making her miss the Halloween festivities when Charlie Brown and the others come to get her. As they leave, Linus, still convinced that the Great Pumpkin will materialize, promises to put in a good word for them "if he comes." He then panics, since he said if instead of when. At 4 a.m., Lucy realizes that Linus is not in his bed. She finds her brother in the pumpkin patch, covered by his blanket, shivering and half asleep. She brings him home, takes off his shoes, and puts him to bed.

The next morning, Charlie Brown and Linus lean against a bridge wall and commiserate about the previous night. Charlie Brown attempts to console Linus by saying he has done stupid things in his life, too. A livid Linus vows that the Great Pumpkin will come to the pumpkin patch next year; Charlie Brown listens with an annoyed look on his face as Linus continues to rant while the program fades into the ending.

Voice actors

Viewer response

Schulz wanted Charlie Brown to get a rock at one house. Melendez suggested it happen three times, and while executive producer Lee Mendelson said no, he was overruled.[9] According to Schulz in the book and retrospective TV special Happy Birthday, Charlie Brown, after the program first aired, bags and boxes of candy came in from all over the world "just for Charlie Brown."[10]

Critical reception

Executive producer Lee Mendelson told The Washington Post that the sequence with Snoopy flying his doghouse was "one of the most memorable animated scenes ever."[9] He also said that of all the Peanuts TV specials, "I believe It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is Bill Melendez’s animation masterpiece."[9]

Production

Sponsors

Similar to the earlier A Charlie Brown Christmas and Charlie Brown's All-Stars specials, It's The Great Pumpkin was sponsored by Coca-Cola and Dolly Madison Cakes. These sponsor tags were replaced in later broadcasts and edited out of the VHS/DVD releases.

Music
Main article: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: Music from the Soundtrack
A soundtrack album was released in 2018, consisting of all music cues minus dialogue but with sound effects remaining intact

The score was performed by the Vince Guaraldi Sextet, featuring Guaraldi on piano, Monty Budwig on bass, Colin Bailey on drums, John Gray on guitar, Ronald Lang on woodwinds and Emmanuel Klein on trumpet. It was orchestrated by John Scott Trotter, arranged by Guaraldi and Robert G. Hartley. All the music was recorded on October 4, 1966, at Desilu's Gower Street Studio in Hollywood.[11]

The Peanuts franchise signature tune, "Linus and Lucy", is used at the beginning as Linus and Lucy prepare a pumpkin to be a jack-o-lantern, as Linus mails his letter to the Great Pumpkin, and when Lucy wakes up at 4 AM to take Linus home from the pumpkin patch. Guaraldi's theme for the special, "Great Pumpkin Waltz," is first heard when Linus is writing the Great Pumpkin at the beginning and plays throughout. Other songs composed by Guaraldi for this special include "Breathless", "Graveyard Theme", "Trick Or Treat", "The Red Baron", and "Fanfare". The World War I songs played by Schroeder while Snoopy dances are: "It's a Long Way to Tipperary", "There's a Long, Long Trail", "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag", and "Roses of Picardy."

Craft Recordings released the complete soundtrack album from the special on October 12, 2018. Previously, only "Great Pumpkin Waltz" was released on the 1998 posthumous compilation album, Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits, as well as Guaraldi's subsequent cover version released on the Warner Bros. Records release, Oh Good Grief!.[12]

Home media

The special was released on RCA's SelectaVision CED format in 1982 along with the specials You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown, It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown, and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was first released on VHS by Media Home Entertainment in 1985 and Hi-Tops Video in 1988, as part of the "Snoopy's Home Video Library" set. This version included editing of the "trick-or-treat" scene to limit the scene to just the first house, and also removed the entire sequence of Schroeder playing World War I-era songs. Paramount Home Video later released the special in its entirety on VHS on August 17, 1994. It was re-released by the studio on October 1, 1996 and on October 7, 1997. It was released on DVD on September 12, 2000, with You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown as a bonus special.

After Warner Home Video had obtained the off-air rights to the Charlie Brown library of TV specials, they released a new DVD release under the new "Remastered Deluxe Edition" line on September 2, 2008. On this DVD, the bonus special was It's Magic, Charlie Brown (You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown was released on its own DVD later that year), and it included a new featurette, "We Need a Blockbuster, Charlie Brown". A Blu-ray/DVD combo pack was released on September 7, 2011, with the same features as the Warner DVD. The feature was later released on 4K UHD on October 10, 2017.[13]

References
  1. Pallotta, Frank (October 30, 2014). "'Charlie Brown' Halloween is still hot TV". CNN. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  2. Woolery, George W. (1989). Animated TV Specials: The Complete Directory to the First Twenty-Five Years, 1962-1987. Scarecrow Press. pp. 218–219. ISBN 0-8108-2198-2. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  3. Solomon, Charles (2012). The Art and Making of Peanuts Animation: Celebrating Fifty Years of Television Specials. Chronicle Books. pp. 66–77. ISBN 978-1452110912.
  4. Cohn, Gabe (October 31, 2017). "What's on TV Tuesday: 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown' and 'Major Crimes'". The New York Times. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  5. Adalian, Josef (October 19, 2020). "Apple TV+ Says: Welcome, Great Pumpkin". Vulture. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  6. https://twitter.com/Family_Channel/status/1057014447221424129?s=20
  7. Bonanno, Luke. "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: Remastered Deluxe Edition DVD Review". DVDizzy.com. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  8. Lind, Stephen (2015). A Charlie Brown Religion (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi).
  9. Cavna, Michael (October 19, 2016). "Why It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is the greatest 'Peanuts' visual achievement". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  10. "Peanuts Documentary (1985) (5 of 5) - It's Your 20th Television Anniversary, Charlie Brown" (Documentary video). YouTube. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  11. "Vince Guaraldi – It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: Music From The Soundtrack (2018, CD) Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  12. "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown - Music from the Soundtrack". Varèse Sarabande. Retrieved September 24, 2018.
  13. "Peanuts: Holiday Collection - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Ultra HD Review | High Def Digest". ultrahd.highdefdigest.com. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
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