The Pumpkin Patch Kids

This has absolutely nothing to do with crime fiction. However, I suspect it will appeal to a broad selection of this genre’s readers, who grew up watching Peanuts TV specials.

Tonight marks the 40th-anniversary U.S. broadcast of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, based on Charles M. Schultz’s immensely popular comic strip. Without harping on my age, let me just say that I was around for the premiere showing of It’s the Great Pumpkin, on October 27, 1966, and have made watching this half-hour special a Halloween tradition ever since. Together with A Charlie Brown Christmas, which first hit the airwaves in 1965 (and was also animated by Bill Melendez), it has become a fond, if melancholy, reminder that yet another twelvemonth is coming to a close--and that I’d better revisit my last list of New Year’s resolutions to see if any of them can be crossed off.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is scheduled to show tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC-TV.