Animation Congregation: Ultimate Halloween- Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin...

 

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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Off the Bookshelf: "Peanuts" paperbacks

Redartz:  Hello all, and pardon me while I dust off the bookshelf a bit. Doubtlessly everyone here is familiar with Charles Shulz' "Peanuts" newspaper comics. The strip was a daily highlight for countless millions of fans , over a span of decades. Some of us, however, missed out on that daily dose of Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Our local newspaper, for some reason, failed to carry "Peanuts". So, what to do, sit back and wait for the next holiday tv special?

 Why, no need to worry. All I had to do was head for the local drug store. There (conveniently located near the comic spinner rack) was a rack of paperbacks. Among said paperbacks  were usually found Fawcett Books' collections of "Peanuts" comic strips. Those most commonly found contained the collected strips from half of a year ( at the bookstore downtown, though, one could find the larger volumes reprinting an entire years' worth of comics).

Notice the fifty cent price tag on these books. About the price of two comic books at the time, which made for a challenge at the checkout. Of course, the larger books had a bigger price: a whopping dollar and a quarter, in the mid 70's! Certainly a bargain; you got a lot of Lucy and Linus, plenty of Patty, and volumes of Violet. And there was the benefit of seeing all the strips presented in original order, so if you missed a day here and there in your paper, you could still catch the entire story run (frequently Schulz would follow a theme over days, even a week or more).

By the time I was in high school and working part-time, I could better afford the bigger collections. The editions published in the latter 70's and into the 80's were presented in a larger format, so the daily strips were correspondingly bigger, as well. The old editions, reprinting some of the strips' early years, still have a classic, appealing simplicity of design, and an attractive matte finish cover (such as "Good Ol' Charlie Brown" and "You'll Flip, Charlie Brown", both shown above).




 





 Fawcett books also offered adaptations of the tv specials and movies- a real treat in those days when no dvd's or videotapes existed. You can tell from the scans, these copies have been pretty heavily read. Incidentally, if you haven't seen it, "Snoopy Come Home" could bring a lump to the throat; just a warning...

 


Over the years I accumulated quite a pile of these paperbacks, while developing a great love for Charles Schulz' creations. Those books accompanied me to summer camp and kept me occupied on family car trips. Like comic books, these paperbacks were frequently found at grocery stores and gift shops, so they made great "keep em busy" purchases for parents. Plus, they were usually found at school! Such paperbacks were often among the selections in the Scholastic Book Club order forms. Which meant ,of course,some humor to go along with the usual dinosaur, baseball, and mystery selections. I particularly recall a "Peanuts Cookbook", which contained recipes named for (and presented by) the cast, such as "Lucy's Lemon Squares". Wish I still had that one...

Many of those paperbacks  found their way into the possession of my sons (and grandkids), over the ensuing years. They found enjoyment in them as well, proving once again that Charlie Brown and his friends remain universally loved. Somewhere, Charles Schulz is smiling...