It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Star Anne Altieri Recalls Throwing Up After Every Recording Session

Historically, most animated cartoons have cast adult voice-over actors to play children. Shows like "Rugrats" and "Big Mouth" thrive on performers with distinctive, confident voices playing characters decades younger.

What made the "Peanuts" animated specials, based on Charles Schulz's comics, so unconventional wasn't just the jazz score, or the themes of depression and failure. These episodes also featured actual children as the voices of Charlie Brown, Linus, and Lucy.

Producer Lee Mendelson wanted non-actors in these roles so they would feel more authentic to viewing audiences. Sally Dryer, who voiced Violet in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and Lucy in later "Peanuts" specials, said, "Lee didn't want to use Hollywood kids. He wanted the sound of kids who didn't have training" (via USA Today).

However, this wasn't always easy for the children performing in these episodes. Here's what Anne Altieri, who voiced Frieda and Violet for "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," had to say about her recording experience.

Anne Altieri played multiple characters in the Halloween special "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," including vain and curly-haired Frieda. But she had a strange experience hearing herself on the show years later.

"It's funny, when I listen to the show now, I don't recognize my voice at all ... but I remember every feeling I had about every line I delivered 39 years ago," Altieri said (via The Washington Post). The performance came with a price too. Altieri also remembers throwing up after every session.

Still, Altieri appeared as either Violet or Frieda in later "Peanuts" specials, such as "You're in Love, Charlie Brown" and "A Boy Named Charlie Brown," until 1969 (via IMDb). Like many of the child actors cast in the "Peanuts" specials, she appears to have retired from voice acting afterward. Maybe it's enough that her voice has been heard on broadcast television for decades when "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" airs every Halloween.