Lifestyle
‘It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’ Turns 60. How Charlie Brown Ended Up With a Bag of Rocks
By Curtis Jones · October 22, 2026
Sixty years ago next Tuesday, on Oct. 27, 1966, CBS aired a 25-minute cartoon about a boy who skips trick-or-treating to wait all night in a pumpkin patch. “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” reached roughly half the nation’s TV screens that night, Michael Cavna wrote in a Washington Post history of the special, and the line “I got a rock” entered everyday speech.
It was the third Peanuts special, and it exists because the first one was a hit. Producer Lee Mendelson told the Post that after “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” CBS called and said, “We need another holiday blockbuster.” Charles Schulz, known to friends as Sparky, had an answer ready. “We’ve got to go with the most obvious holiday, and it’s not Thanksgiving,” Mendelson recalled him saying. “Why don’t we do the Great Pumpkin?” Schulz had introduced Linus’s Great Pumpkin in the comic strip in 1959, according to the Wikipedia entry on the special, which cites published Peanuts histories.
The rocks were Schulz’s idea, and Mendelson fought it. “Sparky said that maybe we ought to have Charlie Brown get a rock,” Mendelson told the Post. “I said, ‘Oh, come on, that’s a little too harsh and cruel.’ But the more I protested, the more he wanted it.” Schulz’s final word: “Okay, he’ll get three rocks!”
Viewers took Charlie Brown’s side. After the first broadcast, people felt so sorry for him that they mailed candy to Schulz’s studio in Northern California, addressed to the character, and Mendelson told the Post the packages kept coming for years.
A few more pieces of the special’s history are less well known.
Snoopy’s first flight. The special was the first time Snoopy flew his doghouse as a World War I flying ace. When Schulz said he wished Snoopy could fly, director Bill Melendez answered, “I can make him fly,” Mendelson recalled. “I’m an animator! That’s what I do!” The chase after the Red Baron runs about five minutes.
A race against a loose tooth. Kathy Steinberg, the young voice of Sally, was about to lose a front tooth halfway through recording. Mendelson said she was rushed to the San Francisco studio that night to finish, and after the tooth came out the next day, “you couldn’t understand her at all.”
One word, spliced. Sally’s famous shout in the pumpkin patch, “I demand restitution!”, was too hard for her to say in one go. Mendelson said they recorded it a syllable at a time and pieced it together.
The music. Jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi scored the special, including “Linus and Lucy” and “The Great Pumpkin Waltz,” according to the Wikipedia entry. Schulz, Melendez and Mendelson all received Emmy nominations for it, the Post reported.
For decades, watching it on network TV was an October ritual. The special aired on broadcast television every year from 1966 until 2020, moving from CBS to ABC in 2001, according to Wikipedia. Apple has held the streaming rights to the classic Peanuts specials since 2020 and extended that deal through 2030, the company announced last year.
This year’s free viewing weekend on Apple TV was Oct. 17 and 18, USA Today reported. Outside those windows it requires an Apple TV subscription, which USA Today said comes with a seven-day free trial. The same report said “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” will be free to stream Nov. 14 and 15 and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” Dec. 12 and 13.
This article is for general information. Streaming dates and prices can change, so check Apple TV for current availability. This article was produced with the assistance of AI and fact-checked against the sources cited by LightWave Reports.