It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown airs October 27

Running a very close second to A Charlie Brown Christmas as one of my favorite television specials of all time, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown will air on ABC October 27 at 8 pm. The special will be followed by a bonus cartoon in which Linus runs for class president. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Halloween special in which wise but naive Linus tries to tell everyone about The Great Pumpkin, a mystical creature who rises from the pumpkin patch to deliver toys to all the good children. Charles Schulz originally came up with the idea for the Peanuts comic strip as a gag in which Linus confuses Halloween with Christmas. Actually, the name "Charlie Brown" in the title is kind of misleading, since Linus is the real star of this special. You still gotta feel bad for ol' Chuck getting all those rocks in his treat bag, though.