It's the Great Pumpkin: The Making of a Television Classic

Category: Books,Humor & Entertainment,Movies

It's the Great Pumpkin: The Making of a Television Classic Details

From the Back Cover The Great Pumpkin is coming!Join, Linus, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Sally, and Snoopy for their Halloween night, when the Peanuts gang puts on their costumes to trick-or-treat while Linus waits dutifully in his pumpkin patch for the arrival of the Great Pumpkin. Nearly five decades after It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown first aired in 1966, the television special is still drawing in audiences. This past Halloween, seven million viewers tuned in to watch Lucy steal the football from Charlie Brown, Snoopy fight the Red Baron, and Linus be ever hopeful for the Great Pumpkin.In It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The Making of a Television Classic, executive producer Lee Mendelson reminisces with original Peanuts animator Bill Melendez about working with Charles M. Schulz, "Sparky," as he was known to his friends. Mendelson also writes about how Great Pumpkin was sold to the network, the hesitation to have Charlie Brown receive a rock in his bag (for fear children all over the U.S. would get rocks for Halloween), the decision to animate the Flying Ace (Snoopy's WWI alter ego) for the first time, and other fantastic tidbits of insider information. He also visits with original young cast members who lovingly recall their memories of doing the show.This commemorative edition features more than 150 pieces of original animation art and photos, story board excerpts, production and bar sheets, and a full script illustrated with screen art from the television special. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The Making of a Television Classic is a delightful look at the making of the beloved Halloween special that is the ultimate treat for fans of all ages. Read more About the Author Charles M. Schulz, the most popular cartoonist in history, published comic strips in 2,600 newspapers worldwide and won several prestigious awards, including the Congressional Medal of Honor. Mr. Schulz died on February 12, 2000, the night before his farewell Peanuts comic strip was published. Read more

Reviews

I love the TV special and wanted to see more examples of the original art, especially the backgrounds. Unfortunately, most of the original work was lost in a fire long ago. What we have left is very little. I suppose that's why this book, though nicely designed, consists mostly of frames from the show and the original script. The script takes up almost half of the book! That's disappointing but not all that surprising.Do yourself a favor and buy the original show on Blu ray instead. You'll get a nice making of featurette and an amazingly clean copy of the show, and for less than the price of this book.

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