It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a 1966 American animated television special based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. A Halloween special, it was the third Peanuts special, and the second holiday-themed special, to be created. It was written by Schulz along with director/animator Bill Melendez and producer Lee Mendelson. The cast included Peter Robbins as Charlie Brown, Christopher Shea as Linus Van Pelt, Sally Dryer as Lucy Van Pelt, and Melendez as Snoopy. The special features music composed by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, whose contributions include the theme song "Linus and Lucy". It aired on broadcast television every year from its debut in 1966 until 2020.
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown follows the children of the Peanuts comics as they celebrate Halloween, while Linus forgoes celebrations to wait in a pumpkin patch for the mythical Great Pumpkin. The sequence following Snoopy as a World War I flying ace and its depiction of Lucy pulling a football away from Charlie Brown have both become widely recognized in pop culture. The program was highly successful, watched by 49% of American television viewers in its debut broadcast. It received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for its artistic style and music score, and it is often regarded as the best of the Peanuts television specials. The success of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown led to the development of the Halloween special as a television genre.