Why ‘It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’ still holds up

For the first time, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown will not be airing on cable TV. How does this classic holiday special hold up today?

The classic 1966 Halloween special It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown has charmed families for years and continues to be a type of Halloween tradition! Every year, this Halloween special would air on cable TV.

It first aired on CBS in 1966 and then ABC for the following years leading up to 2019. This year however the Halloween special will only be available to watch on Apple TV Plus.

The news was surprising as the world still has a lot of love for the characters created by Charles M. Schulz.

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The article, Where to stream the Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin special, does provide a solution for those who do not have Apple TV Plus.

“You can get a free year of the service when you purchase a new Apple device—or you can sign up for a free seven-day trial and watch on most of your favorite devices. You’ll be able to stream It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown for free. The Halloween special will be available to stream for free from October 30 till November 1.”

To quickly sum up the 25-minute special, Charlie Brown’s best friend Linus goes to the pumpkin patch every year to meet The Great Pumpkin. A figure no one believes in.

Charlie Brown’s little sister Sally decides to forgo trick or treating to wait with her crush, Linus. Meanwhile Charlie Brown, Lucy (Linus’s sister) and their friends enjoy Halloween as Snoopy goes on his own imaginative WWI adventure as Flying Ace.

How does a holiday special from 1966 still hold up to the present 2020?

No matter how times will change Halloween is still popular if not even more so today. One of the central plots in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is when Charlie Brown and his friends go trick or treating while Linus and Sally wait in the pumpkin patch for The Great Pumpkin.

The kids wear costumes and go door to door wherein Charlie Brown constantly receives a rock instead of candy, like his friends. After they finish trick or treating they go to a Halloween party for more fun.

Trick or treating is practically a rite of passage for children. While costumes will change and even perhaps party activities like bobbing for apples is retired, children will still go door to door to get their candy and perhaps go to parties with friends and family.

The television special has this uncanny ability to bring people together. Many grew up watching this special as children and once they grew up and had children of their own they watched it with them.

Those who did not grow up with the Halloween special get a sense of what Halloween was like in 1966. They get a brief but up-close view of how things used to be.

It doesn’t feel dated. The lingo might be a little strange and yes there is no cell phone in sight.

But there are no references from 1966 specifically. It is a harmless special that speaks to all ages without feeling age restrictive.

You can be a child and relate to the excitement Charlie Brown feels to be going trick or treating. You can be an adult and reminiscence your childhood while chuckling at the humorous moments.

Speaking of humor, the Halloween special is in no short supply of it. Whether it be a witty comeback between characters, Linus’s unending hope that he will meet The Great Pumpkin one day, or Snoopy’s imaginative epic dogfight with the Red Baron, you will laugh and be frankly amazed at Charles M. Schulz’s creativity.

The children act like children. They are hopeful, sweet, sad and sometimes mean to each other.

But at the end of their exciting Halloween Charlie Brown thinks about all the rocks he’s collected and Linus hopes with triumphant glee that The Great Pumpkin will arrive next year.

The bottom line is that holiday specials like It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown has characters like Charlie Brown and Snoopy that have become practically household names and public figures. Everyone knows who Snoopy and his plethora of personalities is.

Everyone knows Charlie Brown’s most commonly uttered words, “Good grief.” Just recently Loungefly released Peanuts merchandise with the likes of Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Woodstock.

This Halloween special will never feel outdated and irrelevant. People will always look forward to watching it and the rest of Charles M. Schulz’s television specials.

Watch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on Apple TV Plus