YMMV / It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

• Adaptation Displacement: Similar to A Charlie Brown Christmas, mention the name "Charlie Brown" to many people today and it's a good bet that this special, rather than the Peanuts strip itself, is one of the the first things they'll think of. Case in point, the hole-ridden Bedsheet Ghost costume has become synonymous with Charlie Brown, despite the fact it was Linus who wore it in the comics.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Was Charlie Brown getting an invitation despite Lucy claiming that he was on the "Do Not Invite List" because of Violet changing her mind or was Lucy lying about him being on the list in the first place? And if Violet did change her mind, did she do it because she felt bad about leaving him out or did her parents force her to invite him?^note  Possibly due to them seeing the list as a type of bullying?
• Award Snub: It's the only one of the "Big Three" Peanuts holiday specials to not win an Emmy. It was nominated, but lost to Hanna-Barbera's ambitious Roger Rabbit Effect version of Jack and the Beanstalk, which also boasted the star power of Gene Kelly. Charlie Brown's All-Stars! was also nominated, and there may well have been a split in the Peanuts vote.
• Awesome Music: The score by Vince Guaraldi and John Scott Trotter is full of memorable cues, including "The Great Pumpkin Waltz" (which provides a most beautiful musical underscore for the Autumn season). Also, the reprise of "Linus and Lucy" from A Charlie Brown Christmas is even better with that little flute bit added.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Charlie Brown getting a rock instead of candy? Pretty mean. Charlie Brown receiving rocks from every house the kids go to? Okay, now it's funny.
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: You bet. Although the notion of the Great Pumpkin as a religious metaphor was apparently Jossed by Schulz himself.
• Fanfic Fuel: Where did Linus even learn about the Great Pumpkin, and why is he so stubborn in believing he (or it) exists?
• Fanon:
  • There's a theory among some fans that the Great Pumpkin really did exist, and didn't show up because it was the huge pumpkin Lucy and Linus selected to be their jack-o'-lantern at the start of the special.
  • Another fan theory is that after Halloween, Linus shared the candy Lucy got for him with Sally to make up for the fact that she missed trick-or-treating. This explains why in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving she has Halloween candy to have not finished eating when Thanksgiving arrives.
• First Installment Wins: Similar to A Charlie Brown Christmas gaining three other, lesser Christmas specials, there are a few other Peanuts animated works which reference Halloween and the Great Pumpkin (most notably You're (Not) Elected, Charlie Brown and a segment from The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show), none of which are nearly as well-known and popular as this special.
• It Was His Sled: Everyone knows that the Great Pumpkin doesn't show up.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "I Got a Rock."
  • "YOU OWE ME RESTITUTION!"
  • "You didn't tell me you were gonna kill it!"
• Narm Charm: Some of the children providing the voices were too young to understand their lines, resulting in the classic awkward delivery that later became a staple of all Peanuts specials (the lines you hear are often a composite patched together from several different takes).
• Never Live It Down: Four words: "I Got a Rock." So many kids were upset at Charlie Brown's poor treatment on Halloween that some shipped candy to Charles Schulz as a show of support for the poor kid.
• Sequel Displacement: This special is often treated like it's the follow-up to A Charlie Brown Christmas, even though it was actually the third Peanuts special. The fact that both have been an annual viewing tradition for decades, while the actual second special (Charlie Brown's All-Stars!) only had very sparse rebroadcasts, probably explains why (although the latter has gotten some home video releases over the years and is currently available for streaming on Apple TV+).
• Unintentional Period Piece: Throughout the special, the characters refer to trick-or-treating as "tricks or treats", which was used interchangeably with the singular version during the decade before falling out of use in the 1970s.
• The Woobie:
  • Linus, when he is still freezing in the pumpkin patch at 4 a.m.
  • Sally misses Halloween because she hung around with Linus, waiting for the Great Pumpkin. At least she knows better afterwards, as the Thanksgiving special showed.
  • And, as always, Charlie Brown. Apparently this child is even deeply hated by adults, so much so that they would all give him a rock as opposed to candy.
  • Schroeder plays some WWI songs for Snoopy. Snoopy dances to the music, but when Schroeder plays a couple of sad songs, poor Snoopy starts crying so hard that he leaves the party. It just makes you want to give Snoopy a hug.

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