Tuning

A Peanuts ‘Pumpkin’

For many television viewers, it isn’t Halloween until the Great Pumpkin makes an appearance.

The Peanuts classic “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” makes its annual visit at 8 tonight on CBS.

The beloved special, from the mind of the late Charles M. Schulz, finds Linus waiting patiently, to the dismay of his young pals, for an appearance by the Great Pumpkin. The 1966 animated classic includes all the comic strip regulars, from Snoopy and Charlie to Sally and Lucy.

Time for ‘24’

The “Can You Top This?” principle of American entertainment will be tested by tonight’s third-season premiere of Fox’s “24.”

The dynamic series evolved from critical darling into commercial success last year with its spine-tingling suspense and real-time action, but today’s audiences want to know, “What have you done for me lately?”

Tonight’s season premiere, airing at 9, bodes well for Kiefer Sutherland and company. The show, presented tonight without commercial interruption, revels in the same hair-trigger tension as in previous seasons.

Jack Bauer (Mr. Sutherland) remains a tortured hero, though this year’s model features a new wrinkle that promises to up the intensity. Two romances appear ready to boil this time around … and it’s at least one too many for a show that purportedly takes place in one day. The extra plotting seems an unwise bid for female viewers uninterested in the adrenalized mayhem.

This season — set three years after last season’s activities — finds the president (Dennis Haysbert) fully recovered from an assassination attempt. Or is he?

A new terrorist group, meanwhile, has left a plague-infected corpse outside a government health agency as a not-too-subtle warning. The guilty party quickly follows up with a phone call demanding the release of a drug kingpin Jack spent the past three years chasing.

“24” still teems with film-quality visuals, from split screens that make narrative sense to deadly serious acting across the board. Its romantic excesses could undermine future episodes, but if past seasons are any indication, it’s more likely the affairs won’t matter compared to the tick-tick-tick of the plot’s final hours.

Story Continues →