It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a 1966 American prime time animated television special based on the comic strip "Peanuts" by Charles M. Schulz. A Halloween special, it was the third "Peanuts" special (and second holiday-themed special, following "A Charlie Brown Christmas") to be produced and animated by Bill Melendez. It was also the first "Peanuts" special to use the titular pattern of a short phrase, followed by "Charlie Brown", a pattern which would remain the norm for almost all subsequent "Peanuts" specials. Its initial broadcast took place on October 27, 1966, on
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