Amahl and the Night Visitor on DVD Rankin Bass Christmas Specials on DVD The King Family Christmas Shows on DVD Carol Burnett Show on DVD Spirit of Christmas on DVD “Suicide “The
Christmas Specials on DVD
TimeLife.comad
TV Shows on DVD/ / / / / TV Blog/ / / / / Punk Book/ / / Holiday Specials on DVD / / / / / / Classic Commercials

Halloween on TV in the 60s & 70s

Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

Television sure knows how to celebrate the holidays! Halloween is no exception and it all started with 'It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown' back in 1966, the first primetime animated Halloween special. Here's the soundtrack to enjoy before a little history...

 

Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown'It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown' came about because of the phenomenal success of 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' airing the year before. This was the third Peanuts special, the second with a holiday theme and first to end its title with the name 'Charlie Brown.'

Like the Christmas show and 'Charlie Brown's All-Stars' before it, 'Great Pumpkin' was a rousing success not only critically but ratings-wise. More importantly the kids loved it, assuring the world that many more Peanuts specials would follow - so many they ran out of holidays to use as a theme.

Here's the original promo for 'It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown' in 1966:

 

Great Pumpkin Charlie BrownDuring the 1980s and 1990s, CBS trimmed the "trick-or-treat" sequence - after the gang knock on the first door and say "trick-or-treat" it cuts to them after they finished trick-or-treating and comparing what they got at the last house. That scene was also missing from early DVD releases.

More cuts came with later airings on ABC where the Lucy / Charlie Brown football scene and Snoopy's battle with the Red Baron were excised. The very scenes that were featured so prominently in the original commercial for the special!

Here's the very first opening with original sponsor tags (Coke and Dolly Madison Cakes) from 1966.

 

This is a very weird film promo that theaters used to advertise whatever monster movie mashup they had planned for Halloween, an opportunity for folks to see classic films from years or even decades earlier.

The Universal monster movies are still the Gold Standard of the 1930s & 1940s era, they began to get play on television in the 1960s. The big studios were against releasing their movies for TV in hopes the medium would die out. Smaller studios like Republic and Hal Roach made a fortune as a result with ancient westerns and short films starring the Little Rascals, Laurel & Hardy, and Bowery Boys. By the mid-sixties more mainstream product flooded the market as everyone wanted into the game.

Here are promos for Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy and Son of Frankenstein - four of the most popular of the Universal films.

"The castle lights are growing dim. There's no one left but me--and him. When next we meet in Frankenstone...don't come alone." - Vincent Price

In 1971 a Canadian syndicated series caught on with the hip kids called 'Hilarious House of Frightenstein.' It starred Billy Van ('Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour') with Fishka Rais, Guy Big, Mitch Markowitz, Vincent Price, and Julius Sumner Miller.

 

One of the most spectacular (and bizarre) TV celebrations of the 1970s was 'The Paul Lynde Halloween Special' with special guests KISS and Margaret Hamilton (Wicked Witch of the West).

 

More Classic TV
ChristmasCommercials

1970s & 80s TV Christmas Shows

Christmas with the TV Families

1960s Christmas Variety Shows & Specials

1970's Christmas Commercials

Christmas on TV in 1988

Christmas Jukebox

Best Selling Christmas DVDs

Obscure 1950s Christmas TV Moments

The Lost Lucy/Desi
Holiday Special

Amahl and the
Night Visitors

Amos 'n' Andy
Christmas Show

Christmas TV
Commercials

Christmas on TV in 2007

Brawling for Scarce Christmas Toys

1994 Christmas on TV

1999 Christmas Eve

1999 Christmas Memories

Ozzie & Harriet Christmas Episodes

Baby It's Cold Outside

BONUS: Halloween 1969 Memories

Halloween TV of the 60s & 70s

Halloween Clips & Commercials 1970s-2000s

Halloween Clips & Commercials 1970s-2000s

Wizard of Oz
Holiday Broadcasts

1980s Holiday Commercials

Untraditional 1978 Christmas Movie: The Silent Partner

Thanksgiving Day Specials

Thanksgiving on TV in the 1950s

Thanksgiving TV 1960s

Thanksgiving Day Parades

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 1994

The Yule Log

Classic TV Christmas

1950's Christmas
Show Moments

Bill Melendez

Christmas DVDs

Unique Christmas
Gift Ideas!

A Christmas Carol
- The Movie

 

 

New TV

“The

 

 

Book About Greensboro
New Book * Old Greensboro!

 

TVparty / Classic TV
Classic TV

 

 

 

 

 

Lost Kid Shows / Movie Stars on TV / Saturday Morning Shows / Video Vault / Classic Christmas Specials / Fabulous Fifties / Unseen Scenes / Game Shows / Requested Forgotten TV Shows / The Super Sixties / More Modern TV Shows / The New * * Shows / 1980's Wrestling / TV Blog

TVparty is Classic TV on the internet!
Classic TV on the Internet!

TV's Embarrassing Moments / Action Shows of the Sixties / TVparty Mysteries and Scandals / Variety Shows of the 1970s / The Eighties / The Laugh Track / 1970's Hit Shows / Response to TVparty / Search the Site / Add Your Comments
Fractured Fairy Tales on DVD New TV Kid's TV Commercials Route 66 season 1 on DVD Lancelot Link Secret Chimp on DVD cartoons on DVD Good Times Season 5 on DVD Soupy Sales DVD
Looking for classic TV DVDs?/See below:
TV Commercials on DVD Wrestling DVDs Classic TV Books