This Legendary 'Peanuts' Movie Quote Changed the Series
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Charles Schulz's Peanuts strip debuted on October 2, 1950, appearing in only seven newspapers. But by the end of the decade, Peanuts could be found in hundreds of papers across the country. Peanuts went even bigger in the 1960s, with Charlie Brown and company gracing the cover of TIME magazine in 1965, the same year that A Charlie Brown Christmas aired. Despite a troubled production, 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, the first of which would be It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. That's the special that changed the series going forward, summed up in one quote: "I got a rock."
How "I Got a Rock" Course-Corrected the 'Peanuts' Specials
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 — things always go wrong — for Charlie Brown, sometimes of his own making but typically outside his control. In the perennial Yuletide favorite, it is Charlie Brown alone who is responsible for his misfortune. He's the one that bought the pathetic-looking tree, earning the vitriol from his friends about it. Then, in an uncharacteristic but decidedly heartwarming moment, the gang all comes together to spruce up the spruce, 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, pulling content from multiple newspaper strip storylines, and that includes the impetus behind the quote. Moments before, the gang (sans Linus (Christopher Shea) and Sally (Cathy Steinberg), who await the Great Pumpkin) are out trick-or-treating. Charlie Brown (Peter Robbins) has already made himself look like a fool by cutting too many eyeholes for his ghost costume before they even 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, making him a Job-like lightning rod for adversity — and course-correcting the series to be more faithful to Schulz's work. It's one thing that Lucy (Sally Dryer) pulls the football away when he runs to kick it (one of those recurring print gags and the first time it appears in the specials), but it's quite another for a stranger in the neighborhood to drop a rock in his sack. Not just once, mind you, but thrice, which Schulz thought would be funnier, while Mendelson thought even once was pretty cruel (per Washington Post). Schulz was right, but it didn't stop children from mailing candy to Charlie Brown for years after the show aired.
Another Quote From ‘It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’ Rings Differently in Today’s World
What It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown does share with A Charlie Brown Christmas is its reflection of Schulz's own mental health struggles. Schulz suffered from depression, even finding it more inspirational than his happiness — so not feeling happy about Christmas, having the ball taken away, and, yes, being given a rock at Halloween are karmic assurances that the negative self-worth exhibited by Charlie Brown, and Schulz by extension, are correct. That said, both specials are hopeful, too: Charlie Brown doesn't give up trick-or-treating after the first rock, and doesn't give up running for the ball after Lucy consistently pulls it away, while Linus will be back in the pumpkin patch next year, because there's always a chance the next time will be different. Thematically, it's an optimistic viewpoint that most recently was exemplified, on and off-screen, by Coyote vs. Acme.
But it's a different quote from the special that has an almost eerie relevance in today's world, as spoken by Linus:
"There are three things I've learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin."
Society has arguably never been more divided across the lines of religion and politics, with people cutting both friends and family out of their lives over differences. Meanwhile, the "Great Pumpkin" serves as a metaphor for almost anything else creating divisions betwixt kith and kin. But if a kid can get three rocks for treats while another waits in vain for a benevolent vegetable and still go back the next Halloween to do it all again, then maybe there's hope for us all.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.