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50 free It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown went out on CBS on October 27, 1966, pre-empting My Three Sons, and pulled 49 percent of everyone watching television that night. Charles Schulz, Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson wrote it in a hurry after the network demanded a "blockbuster" follow-up to A Charlie Brown Christmas, and it became the first real Halloween special and, for many people, the best Peanuts special of all. These 50 questions cover the plot (the letter, the sincere pumpkin patch, the party at Violet's, the 4 a.m. rescue), the production (a $76,000 budget, a five-year-old Sally with a loose tooth, the argument over whether one rock was too cruel), Vince Guaraldi's sextet and "The Great Pumpkin Waltz", the World War I songs Schroeder plays, the ratings battle with Star Trek and Bonanza, and the 2020 move to Apple TV+ that took it off broadcast television for the first time in 54 years. Easy questions cover the characters and the rocks; harder ones ask about voice actors, background painters and Nielsen numbers. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a Halloween round.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01According to Linus, what does the Great Pumpkin bring for the children who believe?
A bag of toys
He rises from the pumpkin patch on Halloween night, Linus insists, though he has never once been seen.
Q 02Linus is almost always drawn holding what?
A security blanket
He first appeared with it in 1954, the same year he spoke his first words in the strip.
Q 03Mendelson thought one rock was "too cruel"; how many rocks did the writers settle on?
Three
Schulz and the director answered his objection by upping the count, and Mendelson later agreed the joke worked.
Q 04Whose Halloween party is Charlie Brown surprised to be invited to?
Violet
At the party she uses the back of his bald head as a model for drawing jack-o'-lantern faces.
Q 05Sally, who keeps Linus company in the patch, was voiced by which child actress?
Cathy Steinberg
She had voiced the part in A Charlie Brown Christmas a year earlier, at the age of five.
Q 06Snoopy's costume casts him as a flying ace from which war?
World War I
Schulz folded the persona into the special after realising the goggles and scarf looked like a Halloween costume.
Q 07Snoopy imagines his doghouse is which type of fighter plane?
Sopwith Camel
He is "shot down" and has to sneak across the French countryside on foot to reach the party.
Q 08Which enemy pilot shoots Snoopy down in his imagined dogfight?
The Red Baron
The sequence featured no other characters and took up roughly a quarter of the special's running time.
Q 09Into which party game does Snoopy sneak after being shot down?
Apple bobbing
The girl already playing comes up from the water nose to nose with him and is thoroughly disgusted.
Q 10Who plays wartime songs on the piano while Snoopy dances and weeps?
Schroeder
Snoopy's mood swings between joy and grief with the tunes until he howls by accident and slinks off in embarrassment.
Q 11Which of these songs is among the wartime tunes played on the party piano?
It's a Long Way to Tipperary
The others are "There's a Long, Long Trail", "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag" and "Roses of Picardy".
Q 12Who finally fetches the shivering Linus from the pumpkin patch at 4 a.m.?
Lucy
It is a rare tender moment for his big sister, who tucks him into bed without a word.
Q 13What does Linus do when he spots a figure he believes is the Great Pumpkin?
He faints
The figure is only Snoopy, and Sally is furious that she wasted her Halloween on the vigil.
Q 21Which US network first broadcast the special?
CBS
It pre-empted My Three Sons and stayed on that network every October until moving in 2001.
Q 22The special's very first broadcast, a day before the US premiere, was in which country?
Canada
CBC Television showed it on October 26, 1966.
Q 23Which Western did the special tie for the No. 1 spot in its debut week's Nielsen ratings?
Bonanza
The same show had beaten A Charlie Brown Christmas to the top spot the previous December.
Q 24Which science-fiction series was the special up against on NBC in 1966?
Q 14Linus says the Great Pumpkin rises from the pumpkin patch that is the most what?
Sincere
In the comic strip he adds that it must also be entirely lacking in hypocrisy.
Q 15Linus lists three things never to discuss with people: religion, politics and what?
The Great Pumpkin
The line first appeared in the strip of October 25, 1961, five years before the special reused it.
Q 16Charlie Brown attributes Linus's belief in the Great Pumpkin to what?
Denominational differences
Schulz lifted the line straight from a 1963 strip; he disliked the idea of denominations splitting religion.
Q 17In his letter, Linus concedes that the Great Pumpkin lags behind Santa Claus in what?
Publicity
Schulz said his only motive for the character was the joke of a child muddling Halloween with Christmas.
Q 18In what year did the Great Pumpkin first appear in the Peanuts comic strip?
1959
The debut storyline ran over eight days; the 1960 sequel stretched to sixteen strips.
Q 19The main Linus-and-Sally storyline was adapted from strips published in which year?
1962
The writers started from scattered strip scenes, including the flying ace and the football, and built the Halloween plot around them.
Q 20The special first reached home video in which year?
1985
A DVD from Paramount followed on September 12, 2000.
Star Trek
ABC countered with The Dating Game; the Peanuts gang still took 49 percent of the audience.
Q 25Roughly what share of American TV viewers watched the 1966 debut?
49%
That was 17.3 million viewers, enough to persuade the network to rerun it every year.
Q 26What was the special's production budget?
$76,000
The writing went quickly, which freed up time and money for the unusually mobile camera work and painted backgrounds.
Q 27How long is the special's final running time?
25 minutes
Mendelson called it the director's "animation masterpiece".
Q 28Who directed the special and also supplied Snoopy's voice?
Bill Melendez
He recorded himself saying nonsense words and sped the tape up, a trick he used for Snoopy and Woodstock for decades.
Q 29The special's director, a Disney and Warner Bros. veteran, was born in which country?
Mexico
He grew up in Hermosillo, Sonora, and animated Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi at Disney before Peanuts.
Q 30Who voiced Charlie Brown in the special?
Peter Robbins
He voiced the character from age nine until he was replaced at fourteen, but his "AAUGH!" scream was reused for years.