TV tonight: 'Great Pumpkin,' 'CSI,' 'Nashville'

• Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch ...
• 'CSI' offers a Halloween-themed case
• Kimberly Williams-Paisley guest-stars on 'Nashville' as a mysterious woman

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
ABC, 8 ET/PT

While there's no doubt TV went to the Charlie Brown holiday well more than once too often, there's also no doubt that the first two, A Charlie Brown Christmas and this well-loved Halloween-themed special from 1966, still hold up. Like Christmas, it's a sweet meditation on the power of faith — in this case, the wisdom of giving small children a little time to learn the difference between faith and fantasy. Which, come to think of it, is a lesson some adults could stand to learn.

CSI
CBS, 10 ET/PT

The yearly spate of Halloween-themed series episodes comes to an end with a CSI case that opens with a grisly, holiday-based murder before morphing into something else entirely. The shift is a bit abrupt, both in terms of plotting and tone, and a few story points seem to get lost along the way, but the change, when it comes, is nonetheless welcome. So wait it out.

Nashville
ABC, 10 ET/PT

Speaking of waiting things out: Kimberly Williams-Paisley begins a multi-episode guest run as a mysterious woman from Teddy's past on Nashville, a promising series that requires a bit of patience itself. The show has yet to produce an episode as good as its season-standard-setting pilot, but these kinds of growing pains are not unusual for new series, particularly those, like Nashville, that are being run by talented but inexperienced TV hands. Maybe tonight's outing will start the turnaround, but even if it doesn't, this show merits time for a learning curve to take hold.