Trick or Tweet
ABC gets into the Halloween spirit with the annual airing of the animated Peanuts special It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on Halloween night, Wednesday, October 31, at 8p. This year, the network is hosting Trick or Tweet event, where fans will have the chance to take part in a special live chat with Snoopy via Twitter on Halloween night, @Snoopy, #Snoopy and follow @Snoopy. For further information check in at www.abc.com, and use the show hashtag as well as #ABCTrickorTweet.
The classic animated Halloween-themed Peanuts special, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown created by late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, will air Wed., Oct. 31 (8:00-8:30 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network. In the 1966 animated special It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, The Peanuts gang celebrates Halloween, with Linus hoping that, finally, he will be visited by The Great Pumpkin, while Charlie Brown is invited to a Halloween party. Cast members include Peter Robbins (Charlie Brown) and Christopher Shea (Linus). The cast also includes Sally Dryer as Lucy, Chris Doran as Schroeder, Bill Melendez as Snoopy, Kathy Steinberg as Sally, Tracy Stratford as Violet and Ann Altieri as Frieda.
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was executive-produced by Lee Mendelson and created and written by Charles M. Schulz. Bill Melendez is the producer and director and Vince Guaraldi is the music composer.
On October 2, 1950 the Peanuts comic strip launched in seven American newspapers. Who would have guessed the impact the brand would have around the world for decades to come. Nearly 60 years later, the comic strip appears in over 2,200 newspapers, in 75 countries and 21 languages. Peanuts animated specials have become a seasonal tradition and thousands of consumer products are available in virtually all retail channels. Charlie Brown kicking the football, Linus and his blanket and Lucy leaning over Schroeder’s piano are images to which everyone can relate. Such phrases as Security Blanket and Good Grief have become a part of the global vernacular. Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez’s association with Charles Schulz stretches back to 1965 with A Charlie Brown Christmas, which debuted on CBS in 1965 with Mendelson as executive producer and Bill Melendez as animator and director. The three men continued their long-term association until Schulz’s death, working together on 50 PEANUTS network specials and four feature films. The network specials won five Emmys, two Peabodys and 18 other Emmy nominations.
