Great Pumpkin Makes for Great Halloween Entertainment

As the remaining days of October begin to dwindle, the ground is a blaze of crunchy color as the Peanuts gang shuffles off to school. Against this beautiful autumn backdrop, Charlie Brown and his friends prepare to celebrate Halloween. While Charlie Brown unsuccessfully attempts to make a ghost costume that doesn't wind up looking like Swiss cheese, his little sister is dizzy with anticipation for her very first trick-or-treating escapade. When she realizes that her "Sweet Baboo," Linus, will not be joining in the festivities, Sally is torn between celebrating Halloween with the rest of the kids or spending the evening with Linus in his much more unconventional observance.

Linus, you see, is determined to seek out the most "sincere" pumpkin patch and wait there for the Great Pumpkin to arrive. The Great Pumpkin is a Halloween entity similar to the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus who brings treats to children who wait for him in an appropriate pumpkin patch. Unlike Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, he does not have a very wide following. Linus is ridiculed by everyone who hears of his plan. No one else believes the Great Pumpkin exists. Sally, however, decides to take Linus' word for it. After a cold night in the pumpkin patch while their friends are collecting candy and bobbing for apples, will Sally and Linus' loyalty be rewarded? Or have they just wasted one of the most awaited holidays of the year?

Charles Schultz' endearing characters first came to life in A Charlie Brown Christmas, and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown has been a classic for nearly that long. It's a half-hour packed with Peanuts' wit and all the innocence of young children experiencing Halloween. For the first time since it first aired, it will be presented on ABC instead of CBS. So tune your TVs in and take thirty minutes to relive the youthful joys and disappointments of Halloween.