Redartz: Happy Halloween Week, everyone! In honor of said upcoming holiday, we're saluting the indisputable classic among Halloween shows. To be honest, there aren't really all that many, unlike the endless array of Christmas specials. At Halloween, many folks binge on horror and monster flicks. But in terms of animated specials, it just isn't Halloween without the Great Pumpkin
First broadcast in 1966, it was the second "Peanuts" special from the stellar team of Charles Shultz and Bill Melendez. It followed "A Charlie Brown Christmas" from the preceding December of 1965. A personal note: I've never missed either one in all my years, and truthfully, the"Great Pumpkin" is my favorite.
"It's the Great Pumpkin" is simply perfect Halloween fun. It has too many classic lines to mention; in fact many of us could probably recite the script from memory. Consider Charlie Brown and Linus discussing Santa Claus vs. the Great Pumpkin: Linus is incensed by Charlie's dismissal of his belief in the Pumpkin, to which Charlie observes "We're obviously seperated by denominational differences". As a kid I didn't really get that , but it beautifully shows Shultz' ability to gently weave adult commentary into his world of Kids.
There's the great scene with the kids going trick-or-treating; and of course Charlie Brown 'had a little trouble with the scissors'. That all takes me right back to my days going out Halloween night with friends. Incidentally, like the kids on the show, with no parents. Mom and Dad just sent us out into the night, and we were fine with that!
And on the subject of parents, one thing that strikes me as an adult- Lucy going out to get Linus from the pumpkin patch at 4:00 am!
And of course you have Snoopy vs. the Red Baron, and the cool nighttime race over no-man's-land. How much classic animated goodness can you fit in a half hour? Apparently quite a bit; one mighty full treat bag's worth.
Speaking of treats, how about Vince Guaraldi's score? Another dose of perfection. Here's a bit from the show; the "Great Pumpkin Waltz"...
Vince Guaraldi: "Great Pumpkin Waltz"
Yes, I loved the special 'back then', and even picked up the paperback version. It joined the rest of my "Peanuts" library on my bedroom shelf. More importantly, the special holds up wonderfully through the years, and is still a must-see show each October. Bet you will be watching too...
Oh, one final comment.You may be aware that I'm also a big "Simpsons" fan. Well, a few years ago their annual "Treehouse of Horror" Halloween episode included a tribute to "It's the Great Pumpkin". The episode was brilliant, and here's a shot of the actual "Great Pumpkin" meeting Milhouse/Linus...
Well worth the effort to look it up. Happy Halloween to one and all!
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27 comments:
I will confess that "A Charlie Brown Christmas" holds the place of festive priority in me own heart, it does. (And for some reason, "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" is more of a favorite for my wife-- the toast & popcorn convention seems to tickle her. . .) But we did love "Great Pumpkin" when we were growing up, no question. I am absolutely sure I/we watched it the first time it aired. And boy do I remember suffering from the unfathomable cruelty of tossing a rock into a kid's trick-or-treat bag. Who the hell gives a little kid a ROCK instead of candy??? Also, I have to confess that when (*SPOILER ALERT*!!!) Snoopy begins to rise out of the pumpkin patch as the presumed-Great Pumpkin, it scared the BEJEEPERS out of me for those few seconds-!! (I think there's a keening/howling sound in the background that did me in, iirc. . . )
I think we ourselves went trick-or-treating about half of the years as I was growing up? My Mom wasn't the most reliable of stewards when it came to prepping for something like that-- soooo we often didn't have costumes ready. Or at the last minute she would declare it "begging" and a distasteful activity and take a sudden moral stance against it. And there were a couple of years where we went, but she had bought into the conspiracies going around that there were going to be mass poisonings/razor-bladings in the candy & apples, etc, and children were going to be killed by these evil psychos-- so she wanted to examine everything we had in order to declare it safe. Well-- until she lost patience & focus, and finally gave it all a blanket approval rather than continue the tedious examination while we sat around the pile of loot. My Mom had some SERIOUS issues, no question. . . heh. . .
HB
I watched "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" on YouTube a couple of years ago but I've only seen it maybe 3 or 4 times in my entire life. The Charlie Brown specials I know best are the Christmas and Easter ones.
Charlie Brown Christmas was a "must" growing up in the 60s and 70s. And I made sure to watch it with my kids during their young and teen age years. We love it!
But as a kid I don't know I ever saw The Great Pumpkin.
Why? Some speculative thoughts:
1) There really is no tradition of cartoons for Halloween.
2) I associate pumpkins with Thanksgiving more than Halloween so the title didn't make sense.
3) Christmas cartoons were part of the Xmas season. Frosty; Hardrock, Coco, and Joe; Suzie Snowflake; Grinch; Rudolph; Drummer Boy... so this sole (?) Halloween cartoon was not part of any momentum towards watching cartoons in the evening.
4) I have never been one to see Halloween as anything than a orgy of getting and eating candy for kids. Nothing wrong with that!!! But I did not think anything more about it, hence no reason to watch the movie?
So, I hope I am not "Raining on the parade" here... But I've actually wondered over the years why I never watched the show more than a few minutes.
Hiya,
I just wanted to pick up on a couple of the comments above.
Charlie Horse 47 is absolutely correct on the lack of Halloween specials. I racked my brain, no small task no matter what Humanbelly might maintain, to remember any others that I might have seen as a child only to give up and Google the subject. Some more appeared and disappeared in the Seventies and Eighties, including the worth a look "Halloween is Grinch Night, but none survived their era.
Hey HB, got a story you might like. My elder sister sounds a bit like your mom, put everything off in regards to taking my nephew around until she inevitably palm the task off on me. She would also go through the candy to 'check it' and confiscate her favorite, the Snickers bars. Well, the last year that I took my nephew out we had both had enough of this. We planned, with military precision, his costume and our designated area of operation. He was good on roller skates so he was done up as a roller derby player. We went to a large housing estate, very new, affluent, and level. I'd park on the corner and he would speed up and down several streets forming a modified 't' and drop off the collected goodies with me. We would then change locations and repeat the operation. By the time we finished we had collected a mid sized bushel basket full of evil delights.
And this is the part that I like.
Before returning to his home we stopped off at a friends place and sorted through EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF CANDY and removed every Snickers save one. Sis couldn't understand it afterwards and all I could say, or would say, is that they just weren't as popular as they used to be.
Seeya,
pfgavigan
HB and PFG- great stories! Being the oldest sibling, I had the task of leading my brother and sister on Halloween, so there was no procrastination such as you experienced. Mom did go through the candy, though.
Charlie- so did you actually go trick or treating? Surely so. But you make a good point. Halloween in the days of our youth didn't seem to be the event that it is now. Back then it was candy and Ben Cooper costumes. Now it's as big a party for adults as it is for kids...
REd - Ole Charlie definitely went trick or treating, LOL. And living on the southern end of Lake Michigan, amongst sand dunes, woods, and steel mills, I did it on rain, snow, sleet, hail, and beautiful Indian summer eves... the whole enchilada of mother nature!
As an adult, I sorted through our kids's candy, only allowing chocolate and / or sugar. No partially hydronated oils (e.g., no skittles, starburst, mars bars). They could only have stuff from nature (hershey, M&Ms, sweet tarts, etc.) Was I a meanie? My wife and kids are actually grateful to this day LOL.
Well heck, PFG-- in the medieval sense, Racking one's Brain would make it bigger, if anything, right? Or. . . taller, at least? (Tough to do w/out the rest of the body attached, of course---). So you may be even more a super-genius than you were before-rack--- !
And man, GREAT Trick-or-Treating finale for your nephew--- although yer poor sister, eh? Deprived of Snickers? TBH, since I never cultivated a taste for Snickers until I was an adult, I probably would have just given them over to her anyhoo (keeping in mind that it distract her from my other more highly preferred loot-- ha--)
CharlieH47-- Concurring on our native region's meteorological capriciousness at the end of October-- hoooo-boy! As often as not, the caliber of your costume was immaterial, because you were covered up in either your big winter coat OR one of those yellow-slicker raincoats. And it was also a drive-around affair in our sub-division, as the houses weren't densely set-- maybe 2 or 3 per 10th of a mile?
While our kids were growing up in our neighborhood here, it was a TERRIFIC and fun little evening activity with tons of folks out, lots of decorations, and it was kind of a yearly check-in with nice folks (and their dogs) in neighboring cul-de-sacs. Sadly, that has evaporated entirely over the last 8 or 9 years. Covid-19 aside, we've had less than 10 ToT-ers at our door a couple of times. One year we had exactly zero. And less than half the houses have their lights on and candy to hand out now. I believe we were the only house in our own cul-de-sac that were obviously handing anything out in the past couple of seasons. . .
Ahhhh it breaks my heart. . .
HB
I always liked the Great Pumpkin; I think it's my favorite of the Peanuts specials - followed by the Thanksgiving show. Yep, that's right, the Charlie Brown Christmas is my least favorite of those.
Yes, there were otherwise few Halloween-themed cartoon specials, which is unfortunate, but PFG mentioned the best one: "Halloween is Grinch Night." I only remember watching it maybe twice (and it kind of freaked me out the first time), but the whole thing is up on YouTube. It's well worth watching just for the animation alone, which is much better than in the How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It's really like a Suess book in motion.
Hiya,
Hey HB,
Last year was the first time in nearly thirty years that I didn't hand out treats at my mom's place. I was ready to go up, but a six inch snowfall the night before stopped me in my tracks. This year I just don't want to take the risk and my younger sister will be there so I'm sending up candy.
Two boxes of King Sized Snickers.
My elder sister won't be there either.
We used to average between a hundred and a hundred and twenty kids per Halloween. But only because it's a smaller town, a village really, so if the trick and treaters want to really get a stash they have to hit as many places as possible in two hours.
The fact that I've been handing out comic books for that time span probably helps.
Seeya,
pfg
THE GREAT PUMPKIN was most assuredly watched yearly from my childhood up to my late teens, then sporadically until I had my own kids. After that, another yearly streak until they were grown.
And because it was the only animated Halloween show it made it that much more special!
What about those seemingly Halloween only candies from back in the day?
Candy Corn (hated them), Smarties/Sweetarts, Squirrel's/Mary Jane's(was there any difference in these?), Sugar Babies, those styrofoam like saucers with tiny candy balls in them, etc. etc.
Oh man Killraven-- that's a tangent TOTALLY worth running away with on this post-- yeah!
Candy corn, of course, hasn't gone anywhere. I'm sure kids today are throwing it away on Nov 1st by heaping truck-loads. . . just like we did, yup. It's always the first thing out on grocery store shelves-- sometimes shortly after the 4th-of-July clearance gets wrapped up. Often before Back-to-School gets well underway. . . (I'm not sure it actually has a real shelf-life. . . )
Circus Peanuts were something that only showed up for us on Halloween as well. Bleggh.
There was a little square, wrapped toffee-like candy called Chocolate Milk Shake that was deee-LICIOUS (possibly a local company for us in Michigan?) that only seemed to show up as a trick-or-treat item. We loved those.
The Brach's candy company started in Chicago, and was a huge player in the mid-west markets in the 60's/70's, and their little rolled-toffee Royals were a premium candy for us kids at the time. They were pretty, and rich, and had several extremely tasty flavors. They were a candy cadillac version of a Tootsie-Roll. . .
Homemade popcorn balls were also a staple in our area-- and it's funny how much I liked those, in retrospect. And rather miss them, as I think of it. CLEARLY, like homemade baked goods, not something you could get away with handing out to Treaters anymore. That's definitely too bad---
HB
Hiya,
Did anybody else do the 'Trick or Treat for UNICEF'? with a rinsed out individual milk carton from school lunch? Later the sponsors provided boxes that weren't nearly so much fun but somewhat larger.
We didn't have so many popcorn balls as rice crispy treats wrapped in wax paper and there were usually more than a few apples included in my bag. As I said before, everybody knew everybody in my town and the paranoia wasn't so high then.
I still have a fondness for apples and have several local orchards that I would like to visit more often than I do. However, one of the local supermarket's liquor store carrys Laird's Apple Jack and I've got a bottle of that in the pantry.
Maybe it's time to get into the proper Halloween 'spirits'.
Seeya,
pfgavigan
Killraven- you mentioned Smarties. Gotta admit, I still indulge on those occasionally.
PFG- extremely cool that you give away comics! Bet your place would be a popular stop. A great thing to do, and helping introduce another generation of potential readers...
HB- Are you perhaps referring to the candy bar "Milk Shake"? From the makers of Clark Bars, if I recall accurately. Kind of like Three Musketeers, only better. Haven't seen one in eons. But that might be something entirely different from you are referencing.
As for Halloween candy- how about JuJubes, Lemonheads, and the ubiquitous DumDum pops? Always liked the Cream Soda flavor. But finding Tootsie Pops were even better...
OK Chaps, if we are talking candy....
1) I think those small penny candies (Mary Janes, Smarties) were usually sold in bulk bags year round. But we hada "penny candy" store and a Ben Franklin's which sold them for a penny each year round.
2) Brachs candy - HB! Yes their little toffee rolls put Tootsies to shame. Mrs. Brach's body (the heiress) has still never been found. Kidnapping for ransom I think?
3) Never heard of the Milk Shake (Milk Duds for sure!) Odd b/c I am on a linear route (Hwy I-65) between HB's and Red's home turf. You figure we'd a got it too, in Gary, IN?
I confess to raiding my kids' haul over the years. I'd sneak out the Pay Days, Zag Nuts, and M&M Peanuts. I once had a job at M&Ms in quality control. My job was to throw out all the ones mislabeled as W&W.
Hiya,
You couldn't leave my dad alone next to the Brachs stand. Remember how back in the day it was open so that you could make your own mix? Well, dad would help himself to several pieces to savor while mom shopped. She would tell the cashier who would usually add a nickle to the tab.
Eventually the store put an honor box on the stand and dad would happily overpay for his toffee rolls and hard mints.
Seeya,
pfgavigan
PFG-
Ohhhh yes-- our own Goldblatt's Dept Store (Mishawaka, IN) had a huge, HUGE Brach's concession smack in the middle of the store. Easily 300 sq.ft-- enclosed in loosed bins and display cases. I know Whoppers are what most folks think of when it comes to Chocolate Malt Balls--- but they were a pale shadow of the Brach's product. The milk-chocolate covered peanuts were fantastic. . . and I didn't even like peanuts! My Mom could eat about a half-pound of those chocolate Stars at a time if she wasn't careful-- tho I found them a bit too sickly sweet as I got older. And wow-- their big "break-up" brick chocolate. . . I'm practically gettin' misty-eyed, here. . .
HB
I've never heard of candy corn so I just googled it.
Every year I look for some Halloween-themed confectionary and this year I've bought a pack of Jaffa Cakes bars which feature a design inspired by the Mexican Day Of The Dead which is sort of like Halloween. November 5th is Guy Fawkes Night here in the UK so I've also bought a pack of "Bonfire Logs" which are just little chocolate rolls with a caramel~flavoured filling. My local supermarket is also selling toffee apples.
I've just been to YouTube hoping to re~watch the Charlie Brown Halloween special and I read that Apple has acquired the rights to all the Charlie Brown specials so you need a subscription to Apple TV to watch any more Charlie Brown. Are you aware of this bombshell, Red, HB, Charlie etc?? It's the end of an American tradition, isn't it??
Colin - One needs to simply understand that "the business of america is business."
Thank god "It's a Wonderful Life" lapsed into the "public domain" b/c this most cherished gem of a xmas show would otherwise be locked up and under "pay per view" by one of the networks.
In all seriousness though, Charlie Brown is basically unknown to those under 40 (?) at this point? HB's, my kids, et al. know of it b/c we made a point of watching it with them.
By way of example, the VInce Giraldi Trio's "Charlie Brown Christmas" Jazz Album is played to oblivion every xmas.
But me being me, I asked all (!) my kids' friends if they knew who Charlie Brown was and they had zero / zip / nada idea. Charlie Brown is culturally dead at this point, joining Flash Gordon, Laurel and Hardy, Abott and Costello, The Rolling Stones Who Led Zepp, THe Honey Mooners, Jack Benny... on and on.
Hiya,
From what I understand, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown can be streamed for free for a couple of days. Here's a link to an article about how to do it.
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-watch-its-the-great-pumpkin-charlie-brown-online-for-free/
Give it a shot. I already have a decent copy on my computer. As to how I got the video, I've always considered it a challenge when some mega corporation tells me I've got to pay outrageously for something that is over fifty years old.
Now I hope you will excuse me, I have to get back to working on some launch codes.
I mean, lunch codes.
Seeya . . . maybe.
pfgavigan
Well.. I never saw The Great Pumpkin but I just watched a sizeable hunk of "The Flinstones meet Count Rockula and Frankenstone" from 1979.
Wow!
Charlie- How was that Flintstones show? I saw that it was on but didn't watch it. We will, however, be watching the Great Pumpkin on dvd tonight...
Happy Halloween everyone!
Charlie, I'm amazed that Charlie Brown is unknown among the young ~ I'd assumed that the Charlie Brown specials were cultural classics beloved across the generations!
But I'm still reeling from your revelation that only old men watch football in America! The BBC should hire you to inform us clueless Brits about what America is really like!
By the way, Charlie ~ your comment above was meant for Steve Does Comics surely?
Colin - I got that SDC comment over to the right blog.
Yes, the average viewing age of the football playoffs is in the late 50s now and the average age of folks watching baseball playoffs is in the late 60s. Baseketball is late 20s - early 30s?
I think the challenges Charlie Brown, and the rest of the pre-internet material, face are numerous:
- Too much new material created since the mid 60s
- Infinite segmentation of viewing options due to cable, then internet (kids don't watch TV channels anymore
- Just the relative "oldness" of the shows for kids who now live in a world of razzle-daze. My kids' friends won't even watch shows in B&W. Mine do... because we did at home.
Same issues like Beano and Dandy dying off in the UK apply here.
Red! The Flintones meet Rockula and Frankenstein was good for about 45 minutes or so...
I loved the caricatures like Peter Lorre's voice as a bellhop.
I really enjoyed the word play between english and german and the thick german accents. "My name is not Frankenstone, it's Frankenstein!" And, "Quit calling me Fred Feurstein, it's Flintstone." (I speak a far bit of German so it was amusing to me.)
I recommend it but I admit to not finishing it. Novelty wore off after a while.
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