It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown is the sixth prime-time animated TV specials based upon the popular comic strip "Peanuts," created by Charles M. Schulz. It was directed by Bill Meléndez and originally aired on CBS on 27 September 1969. This was also the first "Peanuts" special not to feature the majority of the original voice cast from the inaugural "A Charlie Brown Christmas", except for Ann Altieri, Bill Melendez, Peter Robbins, and Sally Dryer. Among the notable additions to the cast for this special was Pamelyn Ferdin, Robbins's co-star on "Blondie".
What a Cartoon! company to pay for the whole program. In addition to the eventual spin-offs, the "What a Cartoon!" short "Larry and Steve" by Seth MacFarlane featured prototypes of characters that would later go on to become MacFarlane's massively successful "Family Guy". The "What a Cartoon!" project and its assorted spin-offs brought Cartoon Network more commercial and critical success, and the network became an animation industry leader as the 1990s drew to a close. In 2001, coinciding with the death of William Hanna, Hanna-Barbera Productions merged with Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network opened its own production arm, Cartoon Network Studios, in