It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
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It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a critically-acclaimed and very popular 1966 Peanuts TV special. It was the third Peanuts special. In it, Linus Van Pelt, Charlie Brown's security blanket-toting best friend, sitting in the pumpkin patch on Halloween night, waiting for the Great Pumpkin, who Linus believes rises out of the pumpkin patch on Halloween night and gives toys to all the good little children, just like Santa Claus does on December 24th every year.
The first broadcast of the special took place on Thursday, October 27, 1966, at 8:30PM. From that year until 2000, it was broadcast annually on CBS. In 2001, however, ABC picked up the rights and the annual tradition on that network.
The program was nominated for an Emmy award. The special was released in 1985 on video by Media Home Entertainment, in 1990 on video by Hi-Tops Video, and in 1994 and 2000 on video and DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment.
As Linus and Charlie Brown's little sister, Sally Brown, sit in the pumpkin patch, the gang of Charlie Brown, Lucy Van Pelt, Schroeder, Pigpen, Patty and Violet go trick-or-treating. Everyone gets candy (except for Charlie Brown, who for some reason always gets a rock in his bag). Meanwhile, Snoopy, dressed up as the famous World War I flying ace, goes on his Sopwith Camel (which is his doghouse) to shoot down the infamous Red Baron. Linus, missing out on trick-or-treating, also misses out on the Halloween party at Violet's house. At the pumpkin patch, Linus thinks he finally sees his mysterious hero, but instead he sees a silhouette of Snoopy in his World War I Flying Ace outfit. Sally is shocked, and Linus is shaking on the ground late at night, covered in his blanket, and Lucy sends him into the house. Linus vows to Charlie Brown at the rock wall that the Great Pumpkin will return next year.
Quotes
- Linus: There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.
- (Lucy cuts a pumpkin open and begins "gutting" it in order to make it into a Jack-O-Lantern, causing Linus to flinch in horror) Linus: Oh, you didn't tell me you were going to kill it!!!
- Charlie Brown goes trick or treating in his ghost costume with far too many holes, and after each house, when the kids announce what they got, he utters the famous sad line, "I got a rock."