It's the Great Case Scared Stupid, Charlie Brown!

Well, we’re finally here: the season 7 finale of The Black Case Diaries. We’d like to thank every person that joined us over the last few months! We could not and would not do this without you. So, to give you an extra special treat this Halloween, we’ve decided to cover not one, but TWO Halloween classics in one episode! That’s right, it’s the first-ever BCD Double Feature!

We reached into our trick-or-treat bag and pulled out two very, very different movies. One was released in theaters, while the other was made for TV. One has a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, while the other sits at a dismal 17%. One of these films is live-action and the other is a classically animated masterpiece. However, these two pieces of spooky media hold a special place in our hearts. They are: It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie, Brown! And Ernest Scared Stupid. 

So without any further ado, let’s head to the pumpkin patch with Linus and wait for the Great Pumpkin! On the way back, we’ll swing through Briarville, MO, and help Ernest defeat an army of trolls!

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

  • Back in the winter of 1965, television audiences and critics were blown away by the massive success of A Charlie Brown Christmas. If you recall from our episode on the special, no one imagined that Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang would draw in audiences. But, it turned out to be one of the most successful Christmas specials of all time. So in 1966, executives were looking to strike gold again with another holiday classic. 

  • The Great Pumpkin first appeared in the Peanuts comic in 1959. He’s an unseen character, much like the Easter Beagle and Santa Claus, only believed in by Linus Van Pelt. There are several theories about the symbolism of The Great Pumpkin, and what Charles Shultz intended for the character. Because Shultz was known for being religious, many believe that The Great Pumpkin is a metaphor for faith and believing in something you never see. Others think that the way Linus is treated for believing in The Great Pumpkin represents how people with faith are dismissed by others. But in reality, Charles Shultz himself said that the character was actually a satire for Santa Claus. 

    • He explained to collaborators Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez that he didn’t like the fact that poor children all over the world hear about Santa Claus, but never receive gifts from him. That’s why Linus asks for gifts from The Great Pumpkin, only for him to be disappointed in the end. Shultz explained, “It shows that you can't always get what you hoped for but you can still survive...and you can still keep trying. Linus never gives up, just like Charlie Brown.”

Summary

  • It’s Halloween and Charlie Brown, Lucy, Sally, and the rest of the Peanuts are ready for a night of tricks and treats. However, Lucy’s younger brother Linus is more excited for the arrival of The Great Pumpkin. When he discovers that no one else believes that The Great Pumpkin exists, Linus sets out to prove the truth by for-going the Halloween fun and spending the night in a pumpkin patch. 

  • Charlie Brown’s younger sister Sally, who is completely infatuated with Linus, decides to spend the evening with him in support. Meanwhile, the rest of the gang goes trick-or-treating. 

Making of

  • Executive producer Lee Mendelson and animator Bill Melendez led the creative team that brought the first two Peanuts films to the small screen. After producing Charlie Brown’s All-stars, a baseball-themed special in June of 1966, Mendelson returned to the networks to pitch a third special. CBS executives told Mendelson that he could make the special about any topic, but with a catch: this special had to be a blockbuster. They made it very clear that if the next special wasn’t a hit, the networks may not produce any other Peanuts specials going forward. 

  • When Melendez, Lee, and Charles Shultz met to come up with their new idea, it was Melendez that made the suggestion to do a Halloween special. He thought the various costumes would translate well for animation. Considering that A Charlie Brown Christmas was one of the first-ever Christmas specials (after Mr. Magoo, of course) the idea of a Halloween special was almost non-existent. Once he made the suggestion, Shultz perked up and said, “The Great Pumpkin!”

  • Just like the specials that came before it, It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was done with classic cell animation by a team led by Bill Melendez. Although the Peanuts characters were not intended for animation, he and his team were able to seamlessly translate the characters to the screen. 

    • The backgrounds had to be much more detailed than in the comic, and the animators had to find new and interesting angles to use to make the special more interesting. Even though A Charlie Brown Christmas was only one year earlier, the team could now create animation that was more colorful and dynamic. 

    • Charles Shultz wanted the special to include Snoopy and his imaginings as the Flying Ace from the top of his dog house. This was difficult for two reasons. For one, the audience needed to know what was going on in the scene and Snoopy does not talk. The second reason was the question of convincing the audience that Snoopy was flying while just sitting atop the doghouse roof. They solved this by having Peter Robbins, the voice of Charlie Brown, narrate scenes of Snoopy alone. As far as the flying problem goes, Bill Melendez excitedly told Charles Shultz, “I’m an animator! I can make him fly!” And by animating Snoopy’s surroundings (like his scarf for example) Melendez convinced the audience that the dog was actually flying. 

    • Along with the classic “dog fight” sequence, The Great Pumpkin was the first time that audiences witnessed Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown in animation. The classic gag existed in the comics, but the scene in the special has become one of the most iconic in TV history, as everyone can identify with little Charlie Brown when Lucy deceives him into believing that this time she’ll let him kick the ball. 

  • One thing that made A Charlie Brown Christmas stand out from other animation of the era was that the production hired actual children to voice the characters, giving them a more authentic sound. Bill Melendez was adamant that children should play children, and so nearly all of the kids that voiced the characters in the first Charlie Brown special returned for this one (with the exception of Lucy). Melendez of course reposed his role as Snoopy!

    • One of the most pivotal roles in this particular special is that of Sally Brown, played by Cathy Steinberg. At the end of the special, Sally yells at Linus for making her miss out on the holiday. One night before Cathy had finished delivering her lines, her mother called the producers and told them that she was about to lose a tooth. Concerned that she would have a lisp, they called the recording studio and rushed Cathy in to finish her lines. Right as she finished, her tooth came out! 

Music

  • Vince Guaraldi returned to compose music for The Great Pumpkin. The composer was responsible for Charlie Brown’s signature sound, and he would go on to compose 17 specials featuring The Peanuts Gang. 

  • Working from Melendez’s storyboards, Guaraldi created numerous pieces that matched the jazzy sound from the first Charlie Brown special. The Great Pumpkin has a more somber score, with eerie music to match the spookiness of Halloween. 

  • At the end of the special, after all the kids have gone to bed, Lucy wakes up in the middle of the night to make sure that Linus found his way home. Without saying a word, she heads out to the pumpkin patch where she finds her shivering younger brother. She carries him home to the “Linus and Lucy” theme. It’s a rare tender moment between the characters. This piece of music first appeared in A Charlie Brown Christmas and has become synonymous with The Peanuts in such a way, some people consider it to be THE Charlie Brown theme. 

Reception

  • This, along with other Charlie Brown specials. Is beloved by many. It currently has very high scores on rotten tomatoes. 95% from critics, and 81% from audience reviews. 

  • Two years ago, Apple announced it had acquired the rights to three Charlie Brown holiday specials. "A Charlie Brown Christmas," "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" and "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" PBS was still able to air Charlie Brown specials in 2020 and 2021, but as of 2022, the only place to watch the special is Apple TV+.

Fun Facts

  • The running gag where Charlie Brown says, "I got a rock" multiple times, was not something Shultz wanted. He would have liked it to be a one-time joke. It would be Melendez who would suggest it happen three times. According to Schulz in the retrospective TV special "Happy Birthday, Charlie Brown", after the Great Pumpkin aired, bags and boxes of candy came in from all over the world, labeled “just for Charlie Brown."

  • After Linus writes his letter to the Great Pumpkin, he walks by Lucy who is sitting in front of the TV. She's reading a copy of TV Guide that features a photo of herself on the cover.

  • For the first part of the special, Snoopy walked on all fours, but this changed halfway through the episode in order to make him more cartoony.

  • Actress Kathy Steinberg had a loose front tooth partway through the voice recording. The six-year-old was rushed to the studio that night to complete her lines due to fear of a lisp developing. Her tooth fell out the next day.

Ernest Scared Stupid

  • For the second half of this double feature, we’re focusing on a childhood favorite for 90s kids everywhere: Ernest Scared Stupid. The Ernest series of films starred Jim Varney as Ernest P Worrell, a lovable goofball in a blue jean vest whose stupidity and apparent lack of balance got him into some pretty ridiculous situations. 

  • Before Jim Varney became a national icon, he was a Shakespearean-trained actor and successful stand-up comedian. Varney created several characters for his act and was gifted with the ability to alter his voice and contort his face to play several different people. Varney’s career changed when he met John Cherry, an advertising executive for Carden and Cherry Advertising Agency in Nashville. Cherry began using Varney and his characters for different ad campaigns. When the agency needed a new character for an ad promoting the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders in a Kentucky amusement park, the know-it-all Ernest P Worrell was born. 

  • Ernest was a hit with local companies in the Nashville area, and soon businesses from all over the country wanted to use the character to promote their products. The most popular commercials featured Ernest as an annoying neighbor, arriving unannounced to promote whatever product was the focus of the ad. For a while, Ernest only appeared in ads in select states. But when Coca-Cola contracted Jim Varney to promote their products, Ernest P Worrell became a household name. The character was such a hit, Carden and Cherry decided to bring Ernest to Hollywood. 

  • John Cherry directed the first official Ernest film: Ernest Goes to Camp. But it wasn’t the first time Cherry directed a film starring Jim Varney that included Ernest. They were the direct-to-video release: Hey Vern, it’s my Family Album, and Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam. 

  • Ernest Goes to Camp was indeed a success, followed by an Emmy-winning children’s show and several more theatrical releases. The final Ernest film to be released theatrically was Ernest Scared Stupid in 1991. The film wasn’t very successful, despite its cult status today. The movies that came later were all independently produced and went straight to video.

Summary

  • In the small town of Briarville, waste engineer Ernest P Worrell accidentally awakens an evil troll while helping some local kids build a treehouse. The troll, Trantor, terrorized the same town many years earlier and is now back to turn children into wooden dolls and grow his disgusting troll army. It’s up to Ernest to save his young friends and the town from the Trantor’s family of trolls! 

Making of

  • The original idea for the plot was going to be centered around Ernest inheriting a haunted house. Instead, another character, Old Lady Hackmore, owns a scary house along the land where the troll is buried.

  • The beginning of the movie intercuts clips of a scared Ernest with classic film footage including Nosferatu (1922), White Zombie (1932), Phantom from Space (1953), The Brain from Planet Arous (1957), The Screaming Skull (1958), Missile to the Moon (1958), The Hideous Sun Demon (1959), The Giant Gila Monster (1959), The Killer Shrews (1959), Battle Beyond the Sun, and the original The Little Shop of Horrors (1960). 

    • The intro features the theme music by Bruce Arntson and Kirby Shelstad. It’s a fantastic intersection of classic horror knowledge and the silliness of Jim Varney. 

    • The Main Title Designer, Barbara Garner, used existing fonts for the credits but livened them up by adding special effects. She accomplished this by panning a shower glass over the letters to obtain a ripple effect. Hand-drawn animation was added, such as the blood drips and splatters. 

  • Bart Mixon was the special makeup effects artist: troll effects shop supervisor. He is also known for doing the make-up for Tim Curry in “It.” 

    • The Chiodo brothers is an independent production company made up of three brothers. They specialize in live-action puppetry, special effects make-up, stop-motion, and more. They created the monster body parts used in this film’s intro. They are also responsible for the monstrous trolls that terrorize the children of Briarsville. 

  • Ernest’s faithful companion, Rimshot, steals the show as possibly the smartest character in the film. He was played by a Terrier named Barkley. 

    • No dogs were harmed in the making of this movie, much to Adam’s relief.

    • In this film, Ernest is the local garbage man. Early on in the film, he gets stuck in a trash compactor. In this scene, Rimshot is trying to save him from being crushed. It was done with the trainer hiding on the floor of the truck while moving the levers to make it look like the doggy was doing it. The various sounds that result were put in during editing. 

    • Later in the movie, Rimshot takes the wheel of Ernest’s truck. The vehicle was not even moving during the shoot and Barkley (as Rimshot) was trained to jump down and step on the gas and brake pedals. 

    • When little Rimshot first sees a troll, his ears stand up in fear. This was done by using a thin filament attached with eyelash glue to the end of the ear. This was then pulled up by the trainer to have them stand up.

    • When Trantor is chasing down Ernest and Rimshot, he stabs the top of his truck with a sword. The weapon was made of plastic to ensure that no man or beast would be harmed. 

    • The production coordinator failed to notify the American Humane Association of the production. So unfortunately for her, she was terminated from the job. 

  • We already know that Jim Varney plays Ernest, but let’s talk about some of the other actors in the film!

    • Veteran film and TV actress Eartha Kitt plays Old Lady Hackmore. Kitt is known for her roles as Catwoman in the 1960s Batman TV series, Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove, and Madame Zeroni in Holes. She was also a popular musician and performer and we all hear her rendition of “Santa Baby” every holiday season. 

    • John Cadenhead and Bill Byrge played Tom and Bobby Tulip, the opportunistic salesmen that sell Ernest all the troll-fighting equipment he could possibly need. 

Reception

  • This movie is not treated very kindly by critics and many viewers. With only 6 critic reviews, the film has a rotten tomatoes score of 17%. And 50% from the audience. 

  • In 1991 Frank Gabrenya from our local newspaper The Columbus Dispatch did not have much good to say about the movie. He says, “Other novelty characters who have made it into movies, from Pee-wee Herman and Elvira to those large turtles, are equipped with histories and purposes. But Ernest has nothing more than an unfunny dog and a mind like kelp.”

  • Similarly to Hocus Pocus, the film also received a poor box office showing but has since been cemented as a cult classic. 

Fun Facts

  • The Troll Face meme is believed to be inspired by a face Ernest makes after delivering the line, “How about a bumper sandwich, booger lips!”

  • The Chiodo Brothers have special effects credits on this film and Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988). The brothers repurposed some of the Killer Klowns as trolls in Ernest Scared Stupid. The masks were repainted and the noses were changed, but side by side they are quite recognizable.

  • In addition to the troll, the pizza props that were launched at the bullies, were also used in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Secret of the Ooz

  • A kickstarter was started for a Jim Varney documentary which they were supposed to start in 2020 but it couldn’t start filming until this year due to Covid. 

It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Ernest Scared Stupid are undoubtedly two very different features. But, they both capture the Halloween spirit in their own way. These are the kind of movies that serve a particular holiday need. They get us into the spirit of Halloween, remind us of our childhood, make us laugh, and they become an annual part of our lives. 

So whether you’re a Charlie Brown or an Ernest Worrell, we hope you’re Halloween is great…and maybe even a little stupid. 

So that wraps up our spooktacular Halloween extravaganza. And that I think is another SEASON closed. *clap* 

Animation, Film History, Nostalgia, Podcast, SpookyBlack C. DiariesErnest Scared Stupid, Ernest Worrell, Charlie Brown, The Great Pumpkin, Charles Schulz, Commercial, Trolls, Eartha Kitt