'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown' Now Features an Interesting Change From Its Original TV Version

Beloved Halloween film It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown features an edit from its original broadcasting. The Peanuts special first premiered in 1966 and follows the gang celebrating the spooky holiday. However, Linus decides to wait in the pumpkin patch for the mythical Great Pumpkin. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is still a beloved special and Halloween staple today. Even so, it includes one interesting change, and it's not the first time it's happened.

DinosaurDracula on Twitter shared that the original broadcast for the special included sponsorship signs for Coca-Cola and Dolly Madison cakes. The signs showed up at the beginning of the special during the opening credits but no longer do. The same thing happened to A Charlie Brown Christmas, reportedly because it was getting too expensive for one specific sponsor to sponsor the entire show. So, instead of having just Coke and/or Dolly Madison, numerous brands sponsor it and can be seen during the commercial break. A clip of the original broadcast opening is on YouTube, though.

Instead of including the sponsorship signs, the opening for It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown now just ends with the owl flying off. It's not really too much of a difference and doesn't actually change anything about the overall story since it's only the opening. It is interesting to see how much has changed since the special first premiered in the '60s. There's also the fact that this is not the only Peanuts special this has happened to. But it definitely makes sense why they had to cut it out. The special only grew in popularity over the years, and things have drastically changed in terms of finance.

Fans can still watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown in all its glory (aside from the Coke and Dolly Madison ads). The film is streaming on Apple TV+, along with a whole host of other Peanuts specials, movies, and shows. It will be enough to get fans into the Halloween spirit because it will never get old. While it is a bummer that the film is only available on Apple TV+, it's definitely better than nothing. Perhaps one year, it will come back to TV, but for now, fans may want to sign up for a subscription because that streamer seems to be the only place to get all of your Peanuts fix at the same time.