HISTORY’s Moment in Media: "It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" Debuts

So says the wisebeyondhisyears Linus in the animated special Itamp8217s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown which debuted on October 27 1966 58 years ago this month and has lived on as a television classic thatamp8217s been broadcast nearly every autumn sinceGreat Pumpkin was the third Charlie Brown special created for CBS coming after A Charlie Brown Christmas the previous December and Charlie Brownamp8217s All Stars about the adventures of the gangamp8217s Little League team And it was a surprise that the network was even interested When Peanuts creator Charles M Schulz together with producer Lee Mendelson and director and animator Bill Melendez made A Charlie Brown Christmas they were convinced it would be a failure and the network agreed But to their collective surprise it was instead a big success according to Nielsen half of all TVs in the United States tuned in When All Stars was a hit too it was clear the Peanuts creators were onto somethingAnd so CBS asked Schulz ampamp Co to come up with a new special but network executives insisted that the new one also be something they could rerun annually And so Schulz thought about holidays thought about the Great Pumpkin character in his strip and decided to turn that story into the next broadcast As Mendelson later told The Washington Post it was Schulzamp8217s favorite amp8220He liked the Christmas show but he really liked The Great Pumpkinamp8221Truth be told The Great Pumpkin was an unlikely contender to become a beloved classic To todayamp8217s eyes A Charlie Brown Christmas is an unlikely classic too cynical like The Great Pumpkin But it has a happy ending religious yes but thereamp8217s a message of hope when Charlie Brownamp8217s sad little Christmas tree turns into a beautiful one But The Great Pumpkin contrary to most holiday franchises and certainly to most holiday franchises aimed at kids is downright depressingEverything goes wrong for the kidsIn the first scene Lucy and Linus pick out a pumpkin and take it home to carve it Linus is suddenly bereft amp8220You didnamp8217t tell me you were going to kill itamp8221 Later when Chuck is thrilled to be invited to a Halloween party it turns out he only made the list by mistake And then when he goes out trickortreating while the other kids get candy and treats at house after house Charlie Brown gets only rocks His friend Linus meanwhile is convinced that if he can only find the right pumpkin patch heamp8217ll get to witness the mystical Great Pumpkin rise from the patch to deliver gifts to children The program ends on the day after the unhappy Halloween with Linus in a rage when even that blockhead Charlie Brown starts mocking him tooSo what endeared Itamp8217s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown to America Well it contained some milestones The Great Pumpkin is the first special in which we see Lucy pull the football away from Charlie Brown Itamp8217s also the first time we ever see Snoopy whose doghouse in the strip stayed firmly planted on the ground even when he fancied himself a flying ace actually take flight Animator Melendez took it as a personal challenge to make a convincing World War I air battle for the beagle Schulz would later say that viewers responded to the story because amp8220Linus represented a special quality of hope and belief against all oddsamp8221 The special reminded people that amp8220we all need a colorful generous romantic hero even if he is only makebelieveamp8221 he saidCBS rebroadcast the special around Halloween every year for decades But in 2000 the rights came up for renewal and ABC bid the most Then in 2018 Apple TV won the rights to all new Peanuts programming and within a few years took over the old shows too In 2020 for the first time in more than 50 years Itamp8217s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown wasnamp8217t available on broadcast TV only on the streaming serviceBut on the other hand now itamp8217s always available to stream And in the spirit of all the holiday seasons if not quite the version of it Charlie Brown Linus and their friends experience each year thankfully for a week or so right around Halloween it is available to everyone to stream for freeClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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HISTORY’s Moment in Media: "It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" Debuts

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HISTORY’s Moment in Media: "It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" Debuts

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