Happy Thanksgiving 2023, to all those in the USA. Some of you might be traveling or already making preparations for get-together gatherings with family and/or friends. I actually still worked a full day today, but looking forward to a 4-day weekend with tomorrow and Black Friday off, woot!!
Well, it was back during the pandemic when I posted some of my favorite Thanksgiving scenes in movies. This year, I thought I’d revisit some of the memorable TV episodes set during the Thanksgiving holiday. Before I do, I just want to say THANK YOU to all of you readers, visitors, and frequent commenters (you know who you are!) I’m thankful that I still get to blog after over a decade since I started FlixChatter!
Cheers – ‘Thanksgiving Orphans’
This is one of the rare episodes where the characters of the show step out of the Boston bar where everybody knows their names 😀 It’s fun seeing everyone including Frasier and Woody all sitting at the table at Norm’s house (we ‘almost’ see Norm’s wife Vera as well before Diane throws a pie at her, ahah. Apparently, this episode got some angry mail when it aired as there was a ‘Stop World Hunger’ campaign at the time, so the show was criticized for wasting food. Some even threatened to boycott the series, wow!
Frasier – Thanksgiving Matchmaking
Leave it to the son of two psychiatrists to [almost] pull of a trick on his parents to get him a mini bike. It’s fun seeing him play a game of matchmaking to get Frasier and Lilith back together, as Martin supervises Thanksgiving dinner prep like a tyrant (poor Daphne!) Even seeing Lilith in her gray suit inside the kitchen is incredibly amusing!
Friends – ‘The one with all the Thanksgivings”
I’m still saddened by Matthew Perry’s sudden passing recently, so it’s a bit emotional to see him in this hilarious Thanksgiving episode. It’s clearly inspired by the Mr. Bean episode which was set during Christmas in the UK, so I’m adding that as a ‘bonus’ at the end of this list. Hard to compete with Rowan Atkinson’s hysterical performance but this one is quite amusing as well Monica and Phoebe try to get the turkey off Joey, and Chandler’s reaction is hilarious!
Gilmore Girls – ‘A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving’
I actually haven’t seen the Gilmore Girls series in its entirety, I just watch a few episodes here and there, and this is one I happened to watch recently.
I had to include both clips here as Lorelai and Rory had to visit four Thanksgiving celebrations in a day, starting with the one at the Kim’s where Mrs. Kim is confused about why Lorelai gives her chocolate and of course, there’ll be Tofurkey in a Korean Thanksgiving (I love anything tofu-related so YUM!)
I was pleasantly surprised to see Melissa McCarthy guest star as Sookie in this episode, she is just adorable!! The scene where she gets drunk while her husband and friends deep-fried everything in a large deep fryer in the front yard is a hoot!
Seinfeld – ‘The Mom & Pop Store’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GCj4Oy-f7c
This is an episode with Bryan Cranston as dentist Tim Whatley who invited Elaine to his Thanksgiving party. Elaine is temporarily deaf that night which of course leads to an amusing conversation with everyone, most especially with Tim. The bit about Jon Voight’s toothmark is hysterical!!
WKRP in Cincinnati – ‘Turkey’s Away’
I used to watch the reruns of this show which originally aired on CBS from 1978 – 1982 and it’s so funny! I guess I love shows involving radio as I love this one and Frasier. I mean, who in the right mind would plan a live turkey giveaway by throwing the poor bird out of a chopper!! The funniest bit is when TV reporter Les Nessman (Richard Sanders) does a live-on-air play-by-play and gets more and more horrified as the turkey falls splat into the ground and everyone flees in terror, mwahahaha!!
BONUS episode
This one is NOT a Thanksgiving episode as they don’t have that in the UK, but it involves a turkey so I thought I’d add it just for the fun of it. It’s from the Mr. Bean TV Show ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Bean’ where his head got stuck inside a turkey looking for his missing watch. Classic!
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The Mr. Bean episode is a classic. I love that show. I have seen Gilmore Girls as that is a great episode in that third season as it moves the story forward as Lorelai and Rory did 4 Thanksgiving dinners in one night. One for Rory’s friend Lane in Tofu-turkey, Lorelai’s friend Sookie as she is forced to watch her husband deep-fry the turkey, the third at Luke’s where they ate with Luke (aka the future husband of Lorelai in that awful reboot miniseries) and his nephew/Rory’s then-boyfriend Jess, and at the home of Lorelai’s parents where Rory considers going to her grandfather’s alma mater in Yale.
I was never into Friends though I always did like Matthew Perry as not only because he was funny but he also had that sense of humility in his humor while I do know about the moment him and Monica hooked up and Ross was unhappy about it. I am going to miss Matthew Perry as he was a good dude and seemed to be in a really good place in his life.
You can’t go wrong w/ Mr Bean, he’s just so hilarious!
I didn’t know you love Gilmore Girls! But yeah, that’s a really special Thanksgiving episode, love the mother-daughter relationship in that show.
I like Friends for a while but never been as into it as I was with Frasier or Wings in terms of sitcoms, but some of the episodes are so rewatchable!
Wonderful collection of Thanksgiving TB clips, Flixy, I thoroughly enjoyed! Happy Turkey Day, gobble, gobble 🙂
Thanks Becky, hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving by the beach!
I still can’t believe that 2023 will be over in just a little over a month! The older you get the faster time goes by. Lol!
I only watched the two shows from your list here, Cheers and Seifeld, but I don’t remember much about those Thanksgiving episodes. I think Thanksgiving is a holiday that don’t get that much attention when it comes to TV shows and films. The only Thanksgiving related film that I can remember is Planes, Trains and Automobiles. But we have tons of Christmas related shows and films. Lol!
Hi Ted! Yeah 2023 seems to have gone by real fast.
True, I think w/ Thanksgiving people are just gearing up for Christmas. I bet lots of people actually spend Thanksgiving day getting their home ready for the holidays! 😀
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