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Jake Rosen<\/b> and Mental_Floss<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>present Aaugh! 10 Facts About It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Here are three of my favorites<\/span>…<\/p>\n 1. THE FUTURE OF ANIMATED PEANUTS<\/em> SPECIALS DEPENDED ON IT.<\/span><\/strong> Instead, CBS told them they needed a special that could run every year, like A Charlie Brown Christmas<\/em>. If Mendelson couldn\u2019t provide it, they told him they might not pick up an option for a fourth show. Despite Schulz and his collaborators being annoyed by the network’s abrasive attitude, they hammered out a story with a seasonal clothesline that could be rerun in perpetuity.<\/p>\n 3. IT WAS THE FIRST TIME LUCY SNATCHED THE FOOTBALL FROM CHARLIE BROWN.<\/span><\/strong> 8. THE ORIGINAL AIRINGS WERE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n
Mendelson and animator Bill Melendez had very high aspirations for A Charlie Brown Christmas<\/em>. When they screened it prior to its premiere, however, they felt it didn\u2019t live up to its potential\u2014and CBS agreed. The network said it was the last Peanuts<\/em> special they would buy. But after it delivered huge ratings, CBS changed their mind and asked for more. When the two delivered another hit\u2014the baseball-themed Charlie Brown All-Stars<\/em>\u2014they thought they had earned the network\u2019s confidence.<\/p>\n
In animated form, anyway. When Schulz, Mendelson, and Melendez were brainstorming scene ideas for the special, talk turned to the fact that Lucy\u2019s habit of pulling the football away from Charlie Brown had never been seen in animation. They also decided it would be a good time to introduce Snoopy\u2019s World War I Flying Ace. The joke had appeared in the strip, but Mendelson thought it would work even better in motion. He was right: the sequence with Snoopy in a doghouse dogfight is one of the most memorable in the Peanuts<\/em> animated canon.<\/p>\n