It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

The End Hello and welcome to the 22nd episode

of Tooncast, brought to you by the Geekcast Radio

Network. I'm your host, GFG1Mike, and today I'm

joined by Pecan Court Michael, making his Tooncast

debut. Hello. Hey, how's it going? Hey, it's

going. We're going to be talking about the classic

Charlie Brown Halloween special, It's the Great

Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Happy Halloween, everybody.

So, what's been, this is kind of like the general

chat version of this show, so what's been going

on with you this past week? Weekend oh, yeah,

I hear the giggle there because you know exactly

Yeah, my machine suffered a fatal virus and took

it out almost completely I didn't have internet

and Was very upset about it took me about two

days to get rid of the virus and then once I

got rid of the virus I still couldn't get on

the internet Ended up being that the virus took

out my windsock the windows windsock and all

the Mac people that I know are chuckling like

ha ha ha ha you should get a Mac but Now I fixed

it myself and I'm back in back up and running

Yes, because if you weren't you wouldn't be recording

this podcast with me A little bit of a programming

go up Halloween either morning or evening. Not

sure yet, but because this is dedicated to Halloween,

this will actually go up on the day. Because

of holiday schedules and conflicts and stuff

some of the tune cast episodes will be Pre -recorded

and just uploaded on the dates that they are

scheduled to be done, but they will be pre -recorded

They won't actually be they'll probably be a

week or two ahead of like normally when I sit

down to do a tune cast it's either Saturday or

Sunday night or You know maybe Tuesday or Wednesday

whatever of the previous week that it's supposed

to be released uh... with the case of the holidays

coming up we're going to have to pre record some

shows because you know people have plans and

i understand that stuff like that so uh... yeah

some of the shows will be pre -recorded uh...

so i guess to uh... we're going to be great pumpkin

we will be right back I hope you will bring me

lots of presents. Who are you writing to, Linus?

This is the time of year to write to the Great

Pumpkin. On Halloween night, the Great Pumpkin

rises out of his pumpkin patch and flies through

the air with this bag of toys for all the children.

You must be crazy. When are you going to stop

believing in something that isn't true? When

you stop believing in that fellow with the red

suit and the white beard who goes ho, ho, ho.

We are obviously separated by denominational

differences. You must get discouraged because

more people believe in Santa Claus than in you.

Well, let's face it, Santa Claus has had more

publicity. But be number two, perhaps you'll

try harder. a letter to a stupid pumpkin? You

make me the laughing stock of the neighborhood.

All they talk about is my little brother who

always writes to the great pumpkin. You better

cut it out right now or I'll pound you. There

are three things they have learned never to discuss

with people. Religion, politics, and the great

pumpkin. You're wasting your time. The great

pumpkin is a fake. Everyone tells me you are

a fake, but I believe in you. P .S. If you really

are a fake, don't tell me. I don't want to know.

Alright, we are back and it is time for the history

lesson. For episode 22, we travel back to 1966

for It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, which

is an animated television special based on the

comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schultz. It

was the third Peanuts special, the first Halloween

special to be produced and animated by Bill Melendez.

Its initial broadcast took place on October 27th,

1966 on the CBS network, preempting My Three

Sons. CBS re -aired the special annually through

2000, with ABC picking up the rights beginning

in 2001. The program was nominated for an Emmy

Award, and it has been issued a home video several

times, including a remastered deluxe edition

of the special released by Warner Home Video

on September 2, 2008, with the bonus feature

It's Magic Charlie Brown, which was released

in 1981. To celebrate its 40th anniversary, a

retrospective book was published in 2006 entitled

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, the Making

of a Television Classic. with the entire script,

never -before -seen photographs, storyboard excerpts,

interviews with the original child actors who

provided the voices for the Peanuts Gang. That's

the history lesson and we're going to move into

general memories. About the book, I want that.

That's so cool. That does sound very cool. Yeah,

I didn't realize it was a book for some reason

I thought it was like a special edition of the

DVD or something with With all that stuff digitized,

but no the book would be very cool. It would

make a nice coffee table piece No, we're we're

not doing Kramer references in this show Was

that a Kramer reference? I never watched Seinfeld

so I don't know. Oh he can't believe I'm actually

bringing this on a freaking cartoon show, but

Kramer had the idea for a coffee table book that

actually was a miniature coffee table. So the

book would have legs underneath it that would

fold out and the book would be a miniature coffee

table and you could open it as it's sitting on

your actual coffee table. See, this is why I

never watch Seinfeld. Will be getting to the

DVD stuff a little bit later Are all I believe

all of the peanut stuff like all of the major

like most famous ones like Halloween Christmas

Thanksgiving They are all on remastered deluxe

editions I know that they released the holiday

collection And then they re then then they re

-released it as the deluxe holiday collection

when they remastered all of these and I have

That set that's actually right here next to me

Oh, the box set? Yeah. Oh, so each one of those

in the box set is remastered. Yeah. Oh, OK. Because

I have that. Yeah. I should say my wife has that

at school with her. She teaches elementary school.

So the kids at school get to see it. But I was

unable to get the copy back here in time. This

was always, for me, it was always the annual

Halloween tradition. You would eat, you know

after you went out trick -or -treating you would

come home, and you would watch It's the Great

Pumpkin I Don't really remember any other Halloween

special back in the 80s now. I realized this

came out in 1966 But as I said in the history

lesson it you know CBS aired it through tooth

from then until 2000 every Christmas forever

well every Halloween Thanksgiving and Christmas

Oh, Halloween, yeah. This is the Halloween episode.

That's right, exactly, and that's what I meant.

Yeah, no, that's not what you meant. We'll fix

that in post. Yeah, no. You won't hear, this

part has been edited, you'll never... This part

has been edited for ignorance. Well, it just

came out as Christmas. I meant Halloween. Every

Halloween this came on and every Halloween we

watched it. Unlike the Ray Harryhausen -esque

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Christmas specials,

the Peanuts shows never got annoying. No, and

they are still classics today and while I'm very

glad that they are still showing on TV today

I think for us that grew up in the time period

when you know the late 70s early 80s because

you are significantly older than I am So, you

know I was very happy seeing it on TV then, but

I am a firm believer in stuff needing to be on

DVD, and I'm glad the... What? It's like 10 -15

years down the road it's gonna be like, you know,

if it's not on hologram, I'm not gonna watch

it. Shut up. I haven't even made the jump to

Blu -ray yet, and I seriously doubt I will unless

somebody gets me a PS3. Unless I buy one myself,

which probably won't be till after my birthday

next year. But anyway, um, you know I You know,

like I said, I always remembered this as being

the quintessential Halloween special There was

no other Halloween specials on at the time that

I remember as vividly as this yeah, I think every

you know kids show kind of had a Christmas I

did it again a Halloween episode but it's You

know it would be on in the morning or something

and you would then they never quite made the

jump to prime time Which is where you know the

peanuts rules and the good thing about these

there is and as I said I know I'm kind of jumping

ahead of myself, but on this deluxe edition DVD

version there is Let's see all new feature at

we need a blockbuster Charlie Brown, and it's

basically how The Great Pumpkin came to light.

In there, one of the producers says that basically,

Bill Melendez, the director, and Charles Schultz

just basically got together and talked about

it, worked it out. They had no studio behind

them. They would just take it to the network

and sell it to them. Bill Melendez was one of

those, hey, we don't need the studio type thing.

He was a big proponent of unionized labor and

such. So do you have any I know you're one of

the reasons why mr. Wilson here is on tune cast

on the Halloween episode is because Through recent

blog posts of his and just you know us generally

chatting off -air. He said he is a big Halloween

buff So do you have anything other any other

general memories with this that you'd like to

share? I would say that the only other Halloween

tradition in the animated sense that I can really

think of is the annual Haunted Treehouse episode

for The Simpsons. You mean that pile of crap

The Simpsons wrote? Well, even The Simpsons parodied

The Great Pumpkin. Yes, I know, but... Lately

over the last and I'm sorry to go off on a tangent

in this I'm trying to keep this show pretty much

strict on topic But I'm sorry the last five years

of tree house of horrors have sucked big metal

Devastator balls, you know, I've only seen tree

house of horrors about three times I know they

have one every year for the last 20 years, but

I've only seen about three of them. The thing

is now Over the last five years when I've looked

lie i honestly i haven't been watching the simpsons

but like faithfully like i used to back in the

nineties but uh... back when it was usually good

uh... all anyway i think uh... anyway uh... you

know my main issue with The tree house of horror

is they would show it after Halloween they would

show it like November 2nd November 3rd November

4th November 5th Well, whatever that Sunday was

after Halloween For me once a holiday passes.

Okay, we'll see you again next year. That's it.

It's done once Halloween is over. It's fucking

over And we can curse on the show. I was about

to say, all the small children who are interested

in The Great Pumpkin are now going, mommy, what

does fucking mean? As I've said before, I do

not make podcasts for children. We make podcasts

about cartoons, but not kids' cartoons. Oh, wait,

wait, this one's kind of for kids. But not this

cartoon. Now, a minute, no, this actually is

not for kids. This has been for kids since 1966.

They used actual kids as the voice actors. I

understand that, but the Peanuts characters themselves,

from the strips to the cartoons, Charles Shultz,

I either read somewhere or saw on a DVD special,

he did not write, he wrote more of phil - phil

- Christ, I can't even say the damn - Philosophy.

Yeah, there you go. Type of things, I mean -

Show and it's you know, you know, I demand restitution.

No child is gonna say that That's right, you

know, I mean there's you know, you know where

the scene, you know We're getting ahead of ourselves

We'll get to that. Going into the characters

and voice actors. As you said, Bill Melendez

wanted all child actors to play the roles of

the characters, because it was more realistic

to him than getting, say, Sue Blue is the only

one I can really think of. Tara Strong. Yeah,

Tara Strong. Tara Strong would play all the female

voices and all the male voices. We're not going

to go there. I'm just saying, there's probably

a couple anime actresses that can pull it off.

Yeah, we're just not going there. So you have

Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, Schroeder,

Woodstock, who is actually absent in this episode,

or this special, Sally, Charlie Brown's sister,

and then a bunch of other... I think Franklin

was in there. No, I don't remember Franklin.

Pigpen was in there. He had his own line. I wonder

if they'll recognize me. How'd you know it was

me? Yeah, Pigpen was in the Thanksgiving one.

I don't remember Franklin in this one. Oh, okay.

I was going to say, if there were any pigs watching

the show, they would have been highly offended.

Who was your favorite character from this special?

Oh, you know, my favorite character was always

Snoopy. Always Snoopy, yeah. I mean, I can kind

of relate a little bit more to some of the things

that Linus said as an adult. But you know when

I was young and even now you know Snoopy is my

favorite character. Yeah I Don't know I guess

I've you know I I I do agree with that and I

don't know for some reason I always saw myself

as kind of like a Charlie Brown type just because

when I was a kid it was like you know everybody

was always trying to you know, pretty much pull

the football over my eyes. No, seriously. I did

have a signed document that wasn't notarized.

That's right. You're painfully optimistic. Exactly.

Just because, you know, and I'm going to go a

little deep here, you know, not everybody has

met me. I'm not sure if everybody that listens

to this show has even seen a picture of me. I

was born with a mild case of cerebral palsy.

So basically, long story short, my brain didn't

send signals to my right arm and right foot,

so they turn in slightly and they are smaller

than my left side. You know, and I always got

picked on as a kid. And I kind of related to

Charlie Brown in that sense, as far as Lucy always

being mean to him and pulling the football away.

Actually, I will be bringing up, not really...

Our main focus obviously is the Great Pumpkin,

but the additional special on this remastered

DVD is It's Magic Charlie Brown, where Snoopy

actually makes Charlie Brown invisible, and he

sees Lucy in the field, and he actually kicks

the football, except he's invisible, so it doesn't

count. I think I've seen that one. Yeah. So Snoopy

and Charlie Brown were my two favorites, I would

have to say. And as we mentioned before, the

voice actors here, you had Peter Robbins as Charlie

Brown, Christopher Shea as Linus, Sally Dreier

as Lucy, who has passed away. 1995, I believe.

Kathy Steinberg as Sally. Actually, Bill Melendez

is... He's uncredited as Snoopy, and I can see

why he would be uncredited. Even though they

show his name, but in the actual show he is not

credited as Snoopy. All Snoopy does is laugh

or cry. He really doesn't have a voice. The dog

doesn't talk. No, but if you heard that particular

sound, that laugh or the cry, you would be like,

oh my god, that's Snoopy. Yes, exactly. It's

a very distinctive noise. Yes. Oh yes. I'm not

saying that, but I mean, you know... Yeah, I'm

not gonna go into the tangent. I just was gonna

go into all We'll discuss that off air I Was

going to make a transformers reference with movie

bumblebee, but we're not gonna go into that Okay,

we'll just yeah, yeah, we're gonna go into the

We're going to go into the behind the scenes

segment. Am I going to talk about Christopher

Shea? Uh, Christopher Shea, we mentioned him.

Oh yeah, he's uh, you know, what he's doing now.

Oh, real estate? Yeah! Can you believe that?

Uh, no. I mean, Charlie Brown is just floating

around out there doing real estate. No, that's

- That's crazy. No, that's lying to us. Christopher

Shea was li - What? Oh, it was? Oh, oh! You're

right. Okay, so Linus is out there. You know,

it's the same thing. No, it's not! It's the same

damn thing. He's out there. People! What? Oops.

Whatever happened to Peter Robbins, then? Two

different people. What do you think? I only know

about what happened to him. Real estate, even

in a declining economy like what we have now,

real estate is booming. So, you know, hey, more

power to him. i think he can still pull off uh...

let us if you tried really hard i don't know

about that uh... i'm not sure if melinda's could

pull off a snoopy laugh if you try to be so uh...

i think that this time did you really i i i thought

so no i was looking at some video of him and

uh... it was the uh... you know the synopsis

of it was written as if he had already passed

away hold on hold on It'd be easy to have to

find out. Did you like the Lucy character at

all? Oh, yeah. Lucy has a very particular personality,

but they never stray from that. She's always

the self -described crabby individual. I'm the

way I am and that's all there is to it and if

you don't like it, you can hit the bricks. It's

funny, there was actually a comic that they reprinted

in the Sunday paper here in Chicago, I want to

say last weekend, not too long ago, that had

Lucy saying that she wanted to sit in a pumpkin

patch waiting for the great pumpkin to come.

And she says, you know, when he comes, I'm going

to get a picture with him, and I'll be famous,

and I'll get book deals, and I'll be on TV, and

the money will come pouring in. And Linus happens

along, and she says, well, what do you think

of this pumpkin patch? Do you think the great

pumpkin will come to this one? And Linus says,

I think this is the most hypocritical pumpkin

patch I've ever seen. Yes, it's not sincere enough.

That's right. It's rife with hypocrisy. One of

my favorite, always makes me laugh lines from

this special is this. You better cut it out right

now or I'll pound you. And you are correct, sir.

Mr. Melendez did pass away September 2nd of last

year. I did not know because I, okay. Over the

last three weeks, I've been so engrossed in Looney

Tunes and Jetsons Flintstones and this and everything

else. He is on a majority of the Looney Tunes

DVDs because he worked with those people. So

I didn't know he passed away. I didn't know.

Hopefully Malunas doesn't listen to this show,

but if he does, I did not mean to be hypocritical

of myself because he tried to make a... When

we were going through our... Which of the three

amigos the three of us are me you and Steve He

had made a malunas made a Steve Steve Irwin joke,

and I didn't find it funny at all because I don't

I'm not a type of person that likes to speak

ill of the dead and so I Knew he died no, but

no, but I didn't know mr. Melendez had passed

away, so you know I just from what i've seen

in the last you know two or three weeks i knew

he was at that time before obviously i looked

at this article on imdb i knew that he was um

i thought he was still alive you know what's

really funny we can bring this completely home

here and mix in a little bill melendez and some

c verlin and be like oh he does the voice of

snoopy he's a main one who wants to bite me yeah

so uh that was my c verlin God yeah, you know

what his family's gonna call me and give me a

cease and desist Okay, we're gonna move into

the behind -the -scenes segment, that's it. Yeah,

there we go As far as the production goes, the

ABC telecast edits. Now this is why I tell everybody

to go out and get these DVDs because... To make

room for the longer commercial breaks during

modern airings, ABC cut two scenes, which were

later restored when aired in conjunction with

You're Not Elected Charlie Brown. Those scenes

are Lucy pleading Charlie Brown to kick the football,

and subsequently pulling it away as he tries

to do so. This is the first instance of what

becomes a staple of Peanuts specials. Snoopy

as the WWI flying ace, prompting Schroeder to

play WWI era songs. Sorry, I was gonna say I

I don't remember these ever not being in there

so I'm wondering if maybe they were cut like

sometime between 1966 and 1969 or 1970 long before

I was born Because as far as I can remember these

two scenes have always been in So when I say

later restored they mean later like 1971 Because

you know I didn't come along till 73 I'm not

really sure Because as far as I can remember

that there's always been the football gag the

football gags recurring You know, it's it's happened

hundreds of times throughout forever first time

that we actually see it Right and the Snoopy

the World War one flying ace Well, we're gonna

see him regardless, but when he's playing the

songs Schroeder playing the the World War one

era songs that I don't really know. But that's

ingrained deeply in my childhood memories. I'm

doing a little dance. As in here, commercial

breaks during the modern airing. So maybe it

was after 1990. I don't know. It doesn't really

specify. And of course, the only credits that

I have here, I know there are hundreds of other

people that worked on these things, but Bill

Melendez and Charles M. Schultz, Bill Melendez

directed this, and of course, Schultz is the

one who created the Peanuts characters. You know,

just going into the actual show here, as far

as just, I thought this was a great story. This

is actually a show that pretty much, it's peer

pressure is what it is. If you really think about

it, it's peer pressure meets a belief, because

Linus believes in the Great Pumpkin, just like

we believe in Santa Claus. Well, I guess there's

peer pressure. He's kind of being pressured to

conform. I've heard this stated in the opposite

way, where as opposed to peer pressure, it's

Linus actively pushing his beliefs on other people.

Okay, and I can buy that, but, and that's fine,

but, you know, here's this kid who has, compared

to us, who, as I said before, majority of us

believe in Santa Claus, here's this kid who believes

in this completely other thing that is like Santa

Claus, but instead of coming on Christmas, comes

on Halloween. okay so here's this kid who's writing

a letter to this fake you know thing you know

and everybody's coming up to him asking him what

he's doing and when he tells them that like you're

crazy you're nuts the great pumpkin doesn't exist

and of course he maintains faith in his beliefs

that yes the great pumpkin does exist you know

it's you people who are wrong with your believing

in the guy in the red suit and the white beard

you know You know, it can be taken so many different

ways. That's just the way that I saw it was it

was, you know, peer pressure for Linus to stop

believing in the great pumpkin. Well, you know,

Linus is clearly a paganist. Because, you know,

he's out there. He's communing with nature. He's

he's worshipping plant deities. On Christmas

of all day. Happy Samhain, Linus. You know. He's

out there trying to get other people to partake

in his clearly paganist beliefs, and they're

not having none of it. They're like, you know

what, Linus, I think maybe you should repent

a little bit. Yeah. Poor Linus, just misunderstood.

Yeah. And of course, just, you know, this has

always been a special that... Even though it

is, I don't know, what is it, a half hour special

or whatever, it seems like it's longer than that.

It's like all of 20 minutes without commercials.

Well, that's what a majority of half hour television

is, is all of 20, 22 minutes. If you actually

peel back the layers of this special, it is actually

three different stories. It's the story of them

dressing up going to the trick -or -treats and

Halloween party story of lioness believing in

what he believes in and being in the pumpkin

patch and then you have mr. World War one flying

ace, you know downed in the behind enemy lines

and in mock -up, right? The French exactly the

French cut that so I mean, you know telling three

stories in one special That's I really like that,

but it doesn't feel like it's three separate

Well, you got to understand that this was kind

of the the script itself the screenplay let's

say was cobbled together from a number of comic

strips, right and You know, it's kind of like

saying Wow, that was a great SNL skit But you

can't stress that out in an hour and a half of

comedy that people will pay money to see Which

is why a lot of the SNL inspired movies are crap

You know, but you've got several, you know three,

four panel comic strips that are cobbled together

in 20 minutes for this TV show. So yeah, it's

going to seem a little scattered. To me, it didn't

though. I mean, even though I was able to look,

because I've watched it like, I don't know, four

times since last Thursday. So I mean, you know,

it didn't to me. But I was able to look at it

in that way that it is three separate stories.

What were a couple of your favorite scenes from

this? My favorite scene I think everybody loves

the I got a rock line Yeah, and we'll talk about

the I got a rock line here in a little bit. Yeah

to the reception and stuff I think we'll leave

it at that. Yeah, because I mean there's a Well

now let's bring out the football again. I don't

know if you're gonna bring that up again, but

as far as as far as Charlie Brown not being able

to kick that football to save his own life And

that Charles Schultz had stated that Charlie

Brown would never kick that foot and that's why

in its magic Charlie Brown He was invisible and

it didn't count Well, it didn't count, but the

gag here was not so much about Lucy being mean.

Granted, she was mean, but the gag is not about

her being mean. The gag is about Charlie Brown

in this misguided, unending optimism always going

back for it. Every time he thinks he can do it,

he knows he can do it, and he's going to do it

this time, and he runs off, and he doesn't do

it. But it never deters him from trying again.

And I love the effects that they used for that.

I don't actually have them to where I can actually

put them in this episode, like as we're talking,

but like the running feet gag. They use that

rubbing feet for everything. I know. But the

running feet gag and then of course. The scream.

And of course, his famous last words, you just

want me to run up and try to kick that football

so you can pull it away and, you know, watch

me land on my back and kill myself. And this

is something I'm going to bring up on every Peanuts

thing that I do on TikTokcast, whether it's this

episode, the Thanksgiving episode, the Christmas

episode, the Valentine's Day episode, whatever.

Understand these are supposed to be kids slash

adults because they they have a lot of adult

humor in these I mean not like adult as in triple

X type of deal But I mean like stuff like adults

said like I don't know if I said it to you on

air or off air about you know Sally saying you

know what what kind of kid says I demand restitution

When he figures out lioness is just you know

used her to have her sit by him all night Long

in a pumpkin pad, you know, this is sounding

more and more adult actually. Well, whatever

shut up But you know What kind of kid would say

that and where? The way they depict these these

characters in their homes like it's their home

Like they own it and yeah, the parents are like

whoa. Whoa, what whatever, you know noise in

the back They don't introduce adults until later

on. Yeah, I understand that, but I'm just saying

the way that these cartoons make you look at

these characters is that they're living in these

houses all by themselves, and yeah, there is

a couple of specials where, you know... And they're

all in the same house, for some reason. Well,

there's a scene where Linus is riding to the

Great Pumpkin, and... you know, Snoopy wanders

over and Lucy wanders, well Lucy's a sister,

she lives there, but Snoopy wanders over, Charlie

Brown wanders over, and Freda wanders over, Sally

wanders over, and it's just this endless parade

of people who just kind of walk over to mock

him a little bit, you know, get under his skin.

But I'm thinking, why are all these people in

Linus' house? Are they just hanging out there?

This is where the beer is. I think I'm gonna

hang out with Linus today. I can see Charlie

Brown and Sally and Snoopy being there because

Charlie Brown and Linus are best friends. And

I don't really know if Sally and Lucy are best

friends, but I would assume that they have some

sort of friendship. If anything, I think Sally

would be there to hang out with Linus. Well,

true. Freda and Lucy might have been friends.

Yeah. But, you know, again, well, Charlie Brown

would have been there to hang out with Linus,

I suppose. But Snoopy, hey, someone let the dog

in so he can come ridicule me. Doesn't make any

sense. But no, to digress, I do understand what

you meant about everybody sounding a lot more

adult. There was a line out of Linus where he

actually says, you know, three things I've learned

ever to discuss in public, which is religion,

politics, and the great public. Yeah, exactly.

You know, that's a very adult lie. It's deep,

deep. I actually have to bring up two... One

of the flubs is in the information here, but

the other one I actually found myself while I

was watching it tonight as we record this before

Halloween, but you know, whatever. The first

flub is in the beginning when... they when they

go when he and Linus and Lucy go out to the pumpkin

patch and You know, he's picking up pumpkins.

She said no, no, no, she points to look she points

to something We don't actually see what it is

until he picks it up It's like this gigantic

like three times hit the size of him. How the

hell he can live I mean, he must be some sort

of body, you know a mini me bodybuilder because

I mean it looks like it weighs like 50 friggin

tons Yeah, exactly. Well, he figures out he has

to roll it because he can't get it through the

fence. If you look at that scene after he tries

to get it through the fence, you don't actually

see him in the hole in the fence walking around,

but you see him at the edge of the fence walking

around in the front of the fence. Well, the only

reason why I noticed it is because they pointed

it out in the information that I have. The other

one I noticed is in the Halloween party. when

you've got Snoopy making his way across the French

countryside into the upper window of the house

of the Halloween party. And he's like behind

a curtain. The next time you see Snoopy, he is

in the apple -bobbing water, and Snoopy's like,

NINJA, DISAPPEAR! ninja vanish yeah so my question

is how the hell did Snoopy get from behind the

curtain to in the apple bobbing water without

being seen by everybody he swam through the intake

tubes the water had to come from somewhere there

was a huge tube that came from behind the curtain

oh yeah they just didn't show it it was there

Going into some trivia here for this show, actress

Kathy Steinberg had almost finished recording

all her lines of dialogue as Sally when the producers

received a phone call from Steinberg's mother

informing them that one of Kathy's teeth was

loose, fearing that the sudden lisp would ruin

the continuity dialogue. The producers rushed

the young actress into the studio to finish her

recording her lines. Just as Steinberg was speaking

her last line, the tooth came flying out of her

mouth. Yeah Yeah That would suck I mean how old

do you think they were when they when they When

they film these because I know a lot of them

couldn't read yet. Yeah, they were probably maybe

Especially with their baby teeth coming out like

five or six gotta be four five or six something

like that Can you imagine the little kids who

can't even read their own lines reciting? As

far as an answer to our cutting of the scenes,

when the show ran briefly on NBC, the scene of

Snoopy and Schroeder was cut out. That's when

it was cut, when it was shown on NBC. Oh, so

NBC got greedy and said, we need more commercials.

Next thing you know, the key elements of the

entire show are cut. But it says up here ABC

telecast edits in the in the production part

that I got so I don't know I'll have to get in

the DeLorean and go back to 1666 Set the way

back. Oh fuck the way back machine. I want the

DeLorean That takes too much road to pick up

the way back machine, you know, it's got a very

small footprint we're going we don't need Just

Mr. Fusion. Yes, exactly. So heading into the

music. Actually, it's funny. I never knew what

the main title theme of Peanuts is. You know,

just a general theme. It's actually called Lioness

and Lucy. Yeah, it's by Vince Garaldi. Well,

all of the music was done by Vince Garaldi. The

Vince Garaldi sucks Ted at that point. I've actually

got a couple CDs of the Vince Garaldi Trio. And

everything he did back then was very jazzy. I

kind of had a nice beat to it, but it sounds

great. I love Vince Grohl. Actually, with this

Deluxe Edition holiday collection with these

three films, I was surprised to see a little

insert. How to get your digital music download.

It allows you to get two songs from each special.

two songs from Great Pumpkin, two songs from

Thanksgiving, and then the Christmas episode,

or the Christmas DVD actually includes a, oops,

it's kind of open, it includes the same thing

with the insert, but it also includes a six song

CD sampler. With, whoa, look at that DVD in the

nose. That would not be good, because it's a

two disc condition DVD thing, and the first disc

thing. uh... my little drum minus lucy heart

the herald angels saying uh... for elise uh...

christmas is coming and green sleeves is what's

on the six cd sample so i think it's really nice

that they're including the music as well as the

actual specials in these dvd sets i think that's

a great great and actually i have all of them

in itunes yeah there's uh... uh... This is a

song they sing when they're all on the ice skating

rink in the Oh in the Christmas special I forget

Christmas I think it's Christmastime is here,

but it's a that's a really nice song and Then

I think Linus sings Otan and Balm. Oh Which was

really good too. I've got the DV or the CD upstairs.

Well, we play it every year All as we said all

music was performed by the Vince Garaldi sextet

World War I songs played by Schroeder on his

piano while Snoopy dances off these songs. It's

a long way to Tipperary. Pack up your troubles

in your own kitbag. What the hell's a kitbag?

Is that like a fanny pack? No, they probably,

even though this wasn't out then, they probably

just put the Knight 2000 into different pieces

and put it in a bag. The sad songs is there's

a long long trail and roses of Picardy Now I'm

assuming that you know World War one was much

fresher in people's minds back in 1965 or 66

Because I don't recognize those songs now You

know I I can't quite relate. The only way I can

really understand what's going on is by Snoopy's

reaction to the song. Oh, yeah. He's like, I'm

leading the parade. And then he's like, oh, I'm

crying now. It's like, is this a sad song? I'm

not sure, because I've never really heard it.

And I don't really know. Is there lyrics to this?

Are there words? My dog just died, and my wife

left me, and my pickup truck just broke down.

Wow, that sounds like a really, really bad, sad

country song. Any random country song, yes, exactly.

But I cry when I have to listen to those two.

So I can kind of relate to Snoop there. Just

overall, for this show, you always recognize

whether you hear it, whether you see it on TV,

you always recognize that main Linus and Lucy

theme. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. It's a classic.

It's much like the Touch, which is also a classic.

Ha! Dang! The Transformers reference. Moving

into the legacy segment here for the reception.

Charlie Brown's for the viewer response Charlie

Brown's repeated line of I got a rock caused

some stir among many viewers of the show according

to Charles Schultz in the book And retrospective

TV special happy birthday Charlie Brown Schultz

said that after the program first air bags and

boxes of candy Came in from all over the world

just for Charlie Brown Who actually ate that

candy can sing is how it is a fictional character

Christopher Shay No Peter Robbins Chris He was

Linus right, but I think if anyone deserves it,

it's Linus because he spent the entire night

in the pumpkin patch Yeah, but all right if you're

go, okay If you're going along and you have like

what is it five or six of them kids Lucy No,

Lucy Sally the the two other nameless kids Pigpen

and Charlie Brown they all get something but

he gets a rock Yeah, yeah, I think people the

entire neighborhood they have to have conspired

on this Yeah, it's like we're gonna give that

round hit and get a rock. Why don't you go get

a rock? Can you give him a rock too? It's like

they stockpile rocks every year specifically

to make this poor kid feel bad about himself.

That's kind of horrible I know and you know,

he's dragging this heavy -ass bag around behind

him. Haha. Yeah He's like why my shoulders hurt

a little bit more trivia when lioness is going

to send his letter to the great pumpkin Lucy

is reading a TV guide Lucy is on the TV guides

cover It makes you wonder if the TV guide being

read by the Lucy in the cover of the TV guide

was also a TV guide with Lucy on it Okay, uh,

you're not getting me into a brain tease on this

episode. Thank you very much I try not to think

about some of the stuff that you comes out of

your mouth It'd be like Infinite Lucy. It's straight

into the TV guide. As far as the toys, comics,

DVD releases, stuff like that, I actually, I

believe, I'm trying to think. I know McDonald's

had Muppets glasses. Was it Burger King that

had the Peanuts glasses? I forget. Way back in

the 80s when McDonald's... Started doing like

their whole happy meal thing and and you know

these novelty things There were peanuts glasses,

and I believe I got those from my mom last year

for Christmas or birthday or something I don't

know I know I got her Muppets glasses But anyway,

that's a completely different topic there are

DVDs for as I've said you can either get them

For these three you can get the deluxe editions

separately or you can get them in the deluxe

holiday collection There is the Peanuts 1960s

collection which either is on its way coming

out next month in November or is already out

now. I know that they're also releasing the Peanuts

1970s collection which is all of the specials

and cartoons from each era on a two disc set

each I believe. I'm really glad I have this.

Because like I said for me watching it on TV

Being an almost 30 year old man. It's not the

same But and I honestly I don't know why it's

not the same I honestly don't but just for some

other reason being able to Say hey, I want to

watch the world war one flying ace and being

able to go to my DVD shelf and pull out It's

a great pumpkin and pop it in whether it's Halloween

or not for the next Halloween episode. Exactly.

I highly recommend that people get the Deluxe

Holiday Collection. It's very, very cool. Have

you ever seen the annual Halloween and or Christmas

stuff they have at Hallmark stores? No. I very

rarely shop at Hallmark. They're too expensive.

Well, unless you go like the day after Christmas

or the day after Halloween, then everything's

half off. Which is what we do. But yeah, every

year they have Halloween stuff for Snoopy. They

must have the rights to all the cards and stuffed

animals or something. Because every year there's

stuffed Snoopy and a stuffed Woodstock. And this

year we went and found a whole bunch of Halloween...

I should say grape pumpkin inspired ornaments.

And I don't know if these are supposed to be

Christmas ornaments because they're Halloween

looking. Or if they're supposed to be for some

strange Halloween Christmas tree that I've never

heard of before. It's funny. We're not going

to go into the actual closing, but before we

do the closing on this show, we always do final

thoughts on the topic that we discussed. So we're

going to go into that now. It's funny that you

mentioned that because it's a very weird thing

when I was watching this this past week. For

some really odd reason, I know we've done a ton

of really wacky references in this episode, like,

you know, the Knight Rider episode or the Knight

Rider reference. For some odd reason, when I

was watching this this past week, Chrismica always

came up, which is a... But I don't know if you

know what chrismaka is I don't know if you've

ever watched the OC but for those people out

there who listen to the show and watch the show

the OC which is now canceled was a holiday that

one of the characters created because he is Jewish

and they have an American kid living with He

wanted to combine Hanukkah and Christmas so you

get double the presents and they called it chrismaka

and For some odd reason the mix -up for lioness

of the great pumpkin versus Santa Claus, you

know That's always you know, you know, basically

mixing Christmas with Halloween You know, maybe

there's a great pumpkin tree or something. I

don't know for for those Well, technically Snoopy

is the great pumpkin. Well, sometimes it's Snoopy

and sometimes it's been other people. Over the

years, every year, well in print actually, not

so much the cartoon, but every year Linus goes

back to that pumpkin patch or some other pumpkin

patch and every year something else comes out

of the pumpkin patch that isn't quite the great

pumpkin. One year it was a bowling ball. that

Charlie Brown accidentally flung, you know, because

he can't bolt, apparently. One year it was Spike,

Snoopy's cousin, who had his pet cactus there,

and they mistook the pet cactus for the great

pumpkin. I want to say one year it was Snoopy

driving a Zamboni. Oh my god! Yeah, there's just

all these weird things like, oh, it's the Great

Pumpkin! And no, it's not, it's something weird.

Something completely off the wall. So, what are

your final thoughts on It's the Great Pumpkin,

Charlie Brown? I had a few, to be honest. You

should have mentioned them earlier. I should

have, but you know, you did mention, you owe

me restitution and I'll sue and that type of

thing. I was thinking, you know, Charles Schultz

must have been sued a lot. Because legalities

seem to be a running theme You know in the beginning

you've got Sally saying are you sure this is

legal? You know and then Lucy says oh well this

document wasn't notarized Yeah, you know you

haven't crossed all your t's and doubted all

your eyes yet And then at the end of Sally is

like I'll sue and you owe me restitution It's

like wow, you know you do expect the lawyers

to come in you know at the end If you hold my

hand I'll slug you Overall it's a timeless timeless

classic any obviously I'm not a parent have to

get a wife that first but anyway i'm not a parent

but you know any parent should show this to their

kids even though it is kinda like we said pretty

much for adults but you know kids aren't going

to get the the legality stuff you're just like

and like they just want to see snoopy yeah exactly

so we are do you have any fun any other thoughts

before i go into the closing here I had something

I wanted to ask. At what point did all costumes

consist of ruined bedsheets? Is that just like

a 1960s thing? I honestly, no, I wasn't born

in the 60s, but thank God. But, you know, I always,

when my mom and stuff, when we would go for Halloween,

we always used, when I was the ghost, we would

always use a old white bedsheet. You were a ghost

out of an actual bed sheet? Yeah. What? Damn!

What? You know what? I have to say I've never

had white bed sheets. And I wasn't about to put

holes in my 1978 Star Wars bed sheets. Well,

I couldn't very well put holes in my 1986 Transformers

bed sheets. I mean, Jesus, man! What kind of

a ghost would I be? Oh, there's Megatron on that

ghost. Maybe my mom used an old white tablecloth.

I don't know. I know it was a giant piece of

cloth that was white, whether it was a bedsheet

or a tablecloth or a fucking doily for a couch.

How do you get the eyes to line up exactly with

your eyes? Because wouldn't they kind of slide

over on your head? Wouldn't that be hard to see?

That's a traffic hazard right there. You can

walk right in front of a car. You're just trying

to prolong this conversation so I lose the bet.

That's all that that is. There's a bet? Yeah,

there's a bet. If this conversation clip doesn't

go over one hour of time, I get your Leap of

the Last Megatron. Oh, you lost that bet already.

No, I didn't. We're at 50 minutes, 38 seconds,

39. So thank you for joining us here on ToonCat.

several ways to get in contact with us and leave

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You're not getting Megatron as you wish. Go to

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a voicemail line. Call us and leave us your thoughts

on each episode. Be sure to say which show you're

leaving the message for and your name. The number

is 502 -526 -5821. Quick interjection. What?

Is that the same number that you wanted people

to leave the one -minute blurbs for? Yes. Did

you want to mention something about that now?

No, because you're trying to ruin the bet here.

No, there is no bet. I never agree to any bet,

so feel free to expound upon that thought if

you think it's important. I did that. It's on

the Toycast feed. I recorded an update last night

and sent it to Steve this morning, so update

your podcast, sir. Oh, no, it's only the six

-minute one. It's on my iPod. I just haven't

listened to it yet, but in case you wanted to

expound... No. You can also follow us on Twitter.

The show name there is GC RN Tunecast. Mine is

TFG1Mike, and what is your Twitter? What are

y 'all's Twitter names? Well, that's for when

we have more than one guest. Y 'all... My Twitter

name is PConcordMichael, P -E -C -A -N -C -T

-M -I -C -H -A -E -L - We thank you for joining

us on Tooncast. We'll join you next time when

we're reminiscing on Tom and Jerry. For now,

I am TF2 and Mike with Michael Wilson. Say the

moral words of Optimus Prime, transform, and

roll out, and thank you for listening. Ha! 52

minutes, 41 seconds. Well, another Halloween

is come and gone. Yes, Charlie Brown. I don't

understand it. I went trick -or -treating and

all I got was a bag full of rocks. I suppose

you spend all night in the pumpkin patch. And

the great pumpkin never showed up? Nope. Well,

don't take it too hard, Linus. I've done a lot

of stupid things in my life, too. Stupid? What

do you mean, stupid? Just wait till next year,

Charlie Brown. You'll see. Next year at the same

time, I'll find a pumpkin patch that is real

sincere, and I'll sit in that pumpkin patch until

the great pumpkin appears. He'll rise out of

that pumpkin patch and he'll fly through the

air with his bag of toys. The great pumpkin will

appear, and I'll be waiting for him. I'll be

there. I'll be sitting there.