50 Fun Facts About It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

According to Linus, what does the Great Pumpkin bring for the children who believe?

He rises from the pumpkin patch on Halloween night, Linus insists, though he has never once been seen.

Linus is almost always drawn holding what?

He first appeared with it in 1954, the same year he spoke his first words in the strip.

Mendelson thought one rock was "too cruel"; how many rocks did the writers settle on?

Schulz and the director answered his objection by upping the count, and Mendelson later agreed the joke worked.

Whose Halloween party is Charlie Brown surprised to be invited to?

At the party she uses the back of his bald head as a model for drawing jack-o'-lantern faces.

Sally, who keeps Linus company in the patch, was voiced by which child actress?

She had voiced the part in A Charlie Brown Christmas a year earlier, at the age of five.

Snoopy's costume casts him as a flying ace from which war?

Schulz folded the persona into the special after realising the goggles and scarf looked like a Halloween costume.

Snoopy imagines his doghouse is which type of fighter plane?

He is "shot down" and has to sneak across the French countryside on foot to reach the party.

Which enemy pilot shoots Snoopy down in his imagined dogfight?

The sequence featured no other characters and took up roughly a quarter of the special's running time.

Into which party game does Snoopy sneak after being shot down?

The girl already playing comes up from the water nose to nose with him and is thoroughly disgusted.

Who plays wartime songs on the piano while Snoopy dances and weeps?

Snoopy's mood swings between joy and grief with the tunes until he howls by accident and slinks off in embarrassment.

Which of these songs is among the wartime tunes played on the party piano?

The others are "There's a Long, Long Trail", "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag" and "Roses of Picardy".

Who finally fetches the shivering Linus from the pumpkin patch at 4 a.m.?

It is a rare tender moment for his big sister, who tucks him into bed without a word.

What does Linus do when he spots a figure he believes is the Great Pumpkin?

The figure is only Snoopy, and Sally is furious that she wasted her Halloween on the vigil.

Linus says the Great Pumpkin rises from the pumpkin patch that is the most what?

In the comic strip he adds that it must also be entirely lacking in hypocrisy.

Linus lists three things never to discuss with people: religion, politics and what?

The line first appeared in the strip of October 25, 1961, five years before the special reused it.

Charlie Brown attributes Linus's belief in the Great Pumpkin to what?

Schulz lifted the line straight from a 1963 strip; he disliked the idea of denominations splitting religion.

In his letter, Linus concedes that the Great Pumpkin lags behind Santa Claus in what?

Schulz said his only motive for the character was the joke of a child muddling Halloween with Christmas.

In what year did the Great Pumpkin first appear in the Peanuts comic strip?

The debut storyline ran over eight days; the 1960 sequel stretched to sixteen strips.

The main Linus-and-Sally storyline was adapted from strips published in which year?

The writers started from scattered strip scenes, including the flying ace and the football, and built the Halloween plot around them.

The special first reached home video in which year?

A DVD from Paramount followed on September 12, 2000.

Which US network first broadcast the special?

It pre-empted My Three Sons and stayed on that network every October until moving in 2001.

The special's very first broadcast, a day before the US premiere, was in which country?

CBC Television showed it on October 26, 1966.

Which Western did the special tie for the No. 1 spot in its debut week's Nielsen ratings?

The same show had beaten A Charlie Brown Christmas to the top spot the previous December.

Which science-fiction series was the special up against on NBC in 1966?

ABC countered with The Dating Game; the Peanuts gang still took 49 percent of the audience.

Roughly what share of American TV viewers watched the 1966 debut?

That was 17.3 million viewers, enough to persuade the network to rerun it every year.

What was the special's production budget?

The writing went quickly, which freed up time and money for the unusually mobile camera work and painted backgrounds.

How long is the special's final running time?

Mendelson called it the director's "animation masterpiece".

Who directed the special and also supplied Snoopy's voice?

He recorded himself saying nonsense words and sped the tape up, a trick he used for Snoopy and Woodstock for decades.

The special's director, a Disney and Warner Bros. veteran, was born in which country?

He grew up in Hermosillo, Sonora, and animated Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi at Disney before Peanuts.

Who voiced Charlie Brown in the special?

He voiced the character from age nine until he was replaced at fourteen, but his "AAUGH!" scream was reused for years.

Who voiced Linus in the special?

Sally Dryer voiced his bossy big sister.

Why were Sally's lines recorded in a single rushed night?

The tooth fell out the next day and she developed a heavy lisp, just as the producers feared.

Which word did Sally's young voice actress struggle with so badly it had to be spliced?

Mendelson had her say it one syllable at a time and assembled the word in the edit.

Who composed the special's jazz score?

The session took place on October 4, 1966, at Desilu's Gower Street Studio in Hollywood.

What is the title of Linus's recurring theme, first heard as he writes his letter?

It is a jazz waltz used as Linus's theme rather than as conventional spooky music.

Which instrument's counterpoint lifts the cold-open arrangement a historian calls the best?

Derrick Bang credits Ronald Lang's playing; the same arrangement was reused in the 1969 film A Boy Named Charlie Brown.

The score was played by an ensemble of what size?

Monty Budwig on bass, Colin Bailey on drums, John Gray on guitar, Ronald Lang on woodwinds and Emmanuel Klein on trumpet joined him.

Which radio hit led Lee Mendelson to hire the pianist for Peanuts in 1963?

Mendelson heard it while driving across the Golden Gate Bridge; it had won a Grammy for Best Original Jazz Composition.

Who painted the French countryside backgrounds for Snoopy's flying-ace sequence?

He worked from memory of places he had visited in Europe, and the sequence used real linear perspective instead of flat design.

At the 19th Primetime Emmys, the special was nominated in which category?

It also picked up a nod for Special Classifications of Individual Achievements.

In 2001 the annual broadcast moved from its original network to which one?

Its 2003 airing drew 13.2 million viewers, the most successful holiday special of the decade.

Which tech company bought the rights to the Peanuts specials in 2018?

2020 was the first year since 1966 that the special was not shown on broadcast television.

A one-off 2021 licensing deal let which broadcaster air the special?

The deal was not renewed, but the streamer has since made the special free for one weekend each October.

Which studio bought the non-streaming rights to the Peanuts library in 2025?

The same year, the streaming exclusive was renewed through 2030 on the strip's 75th anniversary.

Schulz reworked the Great Pumpkin idea for a 1974 special about which springtime figure?

This time he gave Snoopy the role to steer clear of religious overtones.

Which Peanuts special preceded the Halloween one as the franchise's second special?

The baseball special aired in summer 1966 and did well, but never matched the Christmas show's fame.

What nickname did Peanuts creator Charles Schulz go by?

An uncle named him after Spark Plug, the horse in the Barney Google comic strip.

Sally Brown's pet name for Linus in the comic strip is what?

Linus usually yells her down or ducks out of sight, with no effect at all.

Which online game added a licensed Great Pumpkin Island in October 2010?

The island follows the special's plot, so the Great Pumpkin once again turns out to be Snoopy with a pumpkin on his head.

In 1998 strips, Linus launched what publication devoted to his belief?

Earlier strips had him citing official sightings in Connecticut and Texas, with Charlie Brown hearing of one in New Jersey.