Come Christmas time, if you’re looking for some wholesome (but not sickeningly so), feel-good, family entertainment, you can take your pick. While A Charlie Brown Christmas is one of the best sources of that warm holiday feeling, if you didn’t want to fork over the money to buy the special from Apple TV or Prime Video, you could get a similar sensation from things like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! But at Halloween time, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown stands alone in providing that cozy feeling, which is just one of the reasons it’s become essential viewing this time of year.
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown tells the story of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts gang and their goings-on around the Halloween holiday. There’s pumpkin carving, leaf-raking, and other fall activities which all lead to the kids going out for “tricks-or-treats.” All except Linus, that is, who sits in a pumpkin patch all night long awaiting a being known as “The Great Pumpkin,” who is supposed to leave presents in only the most sincere pumpkin patch. Linus even loops Charlie Brown’s sister Sally into waiting for the Great Pumpkin with him, but Sally eventually regrets having missed out on the candy the others got — or, most of the others, as Charlie Brown only got a bunch of rocks in place of candy.
A Charlie Brown Christmas was a major success when it first aired on CBS in 1965 and it immediately led to the production of two more specials, Charlie Brown’s All Stars!, which aired during the summer of 1966, and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown which debuted 60 years ago, on Oct. 27, 1966. In the tradition of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” the Halloween special had the same crew as the Christmas special. Charles Schulz himself penned the script, Bill Melendez directed it, Vince Guaraldi provided the music, and even the same voice actors returned to play the Peanuts gang.
The Halloween special also managed to expand things a little bit by not just playing the same notes, bringing in some staple moments from the comic strip that weren’t included in the Christmas special. For example, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was the first time in animation that Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace was depicted. It was also the first time the Charlie Brown football gag was realized in animation.
Of course, the special is more charming than it is laugh-out-loud funny, although there are some genuinely funny moments in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. For example, when Snoopy is dancing to Schroeder’s music, he goes on an emotional roller coaster, marching and spinning his baton for upbeat tunes, and outright weeping for the more somber sections. Charlie Brown’s running gag joke about only getting rocks on Halloween is a funny, relatable, and incredibly memorable joke. The funniest moment though is probably when the girls ask Charlie Brown to model for them, only to find out they’re having him model for a jack-o-lantern, and they scribble on the back of his round head with a marker.
I think, though, that one of the greatest strengths of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, is the Great Pumpkin itself. I’ve watched this special all my life, yet I still have no idea what the Great Pumpkin is supposed to be, both within the context of the special itself and outside of it. Is the Great Pumpkin just a really big pumpkin? Does he talk? Is he kind of like Santa Claus but with autumn attire? I also don’t know if the Great Pumpkin was made up by Charles Schulz or if it’s something left over from the early days of Halloween, like how the kids say “tricks-or-treats” in the special instead of “trick-or-treat.” Of course, I could just Google it, but I don’t really want to know. I like the mystery of it all because it seems to give the special its own distinct lore, much like The Nightmare Before Christmas has the thing with the holidays and the different doors. The Great Pumpkin is uniquely a Peanuts thing, as far as I’m concerned.
It’s just as unique as the feeling you get from watching the special this time of year. Sure, there are other Halloween specials made for young children, but few, if any, are as universally nostalgic for adults nowadays. Maybe the Garfield Halloween special comes the closest, but even that’s considerably different in tone, it being more comedic, occasionally a little spooky, and, in keeping with Garfield’s personality, is more snarky-funny. This is completely different than the sincerity of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. The special may not be quite as good as A Charlie Brown Christmas, but it’s the only distinctly Halloween special that will give you that same sense of warmth and familiarity that is in abundance at Christmas, but kind of scarce around Halloween.
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is streaming on Apple TV Plus
