The Humble Success of 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown' Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strip was a huge success in the 1960s, with specials like 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown' and 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' becoming beloved holiday traditions. Charles Schulz's Peanuts strip debuted on October 2, 1950, in seven newspapers. By the end of the decade, Peanuts could be found in hundreds of papers across the country. The comic strip went even bigger in the 1960s. Charlie Brown and company graced the cover of TIME magazine in 1965, the same year that A Charlie Brown Christmas aired. The special was a huge hit for CBS, with half of all Americans tuning in to watch its debut. Its success prompted CBS to solicit more Peanuts specials from producer Lee Mendelson.Great Pumpkin Special Changed SeriesThe first of these specials was It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. This special would change the series going forward. It's best exemplified by the quote 'I got a rock.' A Charlie Brown Christmas was its own entity, an original narrative crafted by Schulz, Mendelson, and Bill Melendez. As a result, there's a slight disconnect between it and the Peanuts comic strip, and it's best exemplified by the titular character himself. In the strip, things go wrong for Charlie Brown, sometimes of his own making but typically outside his control. In the perennial Yuletide favorite, Charlie Brown is the one responsible for his misfortune.He bought the pathetic-looking tree and earned the vitriol from his friends about it. Then, the gang all came together to spruce up the tree, bringing a smile to Charlie Brown's face. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, on the other hand, is more in line with the comics. The special pulls content from multiple newspaper strip storylines and includes the impetus behind the quote.Trick-or-treating Scene Features RockMoments before, the gang is out trick-or-treating. Charlie Brown has already made himself look like a fool by cutting too many eyeholes for his ghost costume before they get to the first house. Afterwards, they all stand around to talk about what they got for a treat: chocolate, candy, lollipops, and so on. When it gets to Charlie Brown, all he can do is pull out his treat, which is a rock, stating the obvious with 'I got a rock.' It's the first time we really see that Charlie Brown doesn't just create his own misfortune, but is actively having it thrust upon him by the world. This makes him a Job-like lightning rod for adversity, course-correcting the series to be more faithful to Schulz's work. Charlie Brown doesn't just create his own misfortune, but is actively having it thrust upon him by the world, making him a Job-like lightning rod for adversity.