Poor Thanksgiving. All tragic and sandwiched in the middle of Halloween and Christmas. Stores don't enliven for it, and afterward to compound an already painful situation, they begin their Black Friday deals at 6 pm Thursday night, compelling their workers out the entryway, pie undigested, over to work. Indeed TV can't be annoyed. Woman Gaga in any case, who pulls out all the stops to mount a Thanksgiving-themed TV unique any longer? You're fortunate to stand out just enough to be noticed in case you're not Christmas (the departed 1999 Puritan-themed sitcom Thanks being a remarkable, to a great degree bizarre, exemption). It's sort of uncalled for.
But there is turkey-themed entertainment out there -- the good, the bad, the weird, the sad. And youHappy Days (1978): "The First Thanksgiving"
Mrs C. (Marion Ross) is so angry that her family would rather watch a football game on TV than help her in the kitchen on Thanksgiving Day that she unplugs the set and forces them to listen to her history lesson about the origins of the holiday. A time-traveling dream sequence commences, in which the entire cast invents Thanksgiving, and adds the olden tyme suffix "-eth" to a lot of words. Fonzie rides a foot-powered wooden motorcycle and absolutely nothing funny happens. It is, however, deeply ahistorical and stupid, so it's got those qualities going for it.
Mad Men (2007): "The Wheel"
When we talk about Mad Men, this is the episode we talk about. And it's based around a Thanksgiving where Don Draper (Jon Hamm) ignores his family in favor of work. Grinding out a pitch for Kodak's new circular slide projection device, Draper conducts a masterful monologue about loss, nostalgia, and longing so diabolically evocative and moving, so ready to rocket-fuel the sale of Kodak slide projectors, that it'll have you cursing every tear-jerking Hallmark commercial that followed in its fictional wake. That it also brutally interrogates the character delivering that monologue is just another example of this show's brilliance. Trigger warning: a serious bummer.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving(1973)
Bullied into preparing a Thanksgiving Day meal for his friends by Peppermint Patty, the perpetually-tormented Charlie Brown lovingly does his best to keep everyone happy by planning a menu of toast, popcorn, pretzels, and jellybeans. How a 7-year-old wrangles that many toasters remains a mystery, but that's not the point -- this remains a lovely animated lesson in manners, graciousness, and togetherness. Just ignore the last bit where Snoopy serves Woodstock roast turkey and Woodstock happily cannibalizes his fellow bird. It was a simpler time.
An entire box set of MST3K's annual Turkey Day marathons. You get all the awful movies (The Screaming Skull, for instance) and all the wrap-around sketches and clips that went along with them. You can dump your rapidly eroding VHS tapes now, and re-enjoy the excellent company of Joel, Mike, Cambot, Gypsy, Tom Servo, and Crow T. Robot. This will take all day to get through, so settle in.
Because you can't really think of Thanksgiving without also thinking of the forced migration (among other things) of the original Americans, and because that is an exceptionally unhappy historical reality -- or, in Buffy's (Sarah Michelle Gellar) own words, "a sham with yams... a yam sham" -- the Buffy crew sent the vengeful spirit of a Native American to ruin the Scooby Gang's Turkey Day. While trying to ward him off, Buffy accidentally transforms the angry ghost into a bear. This displeases Spike (James Marsters). Pointed and hilarious.
But there is turkey-themed entertainment out there -- the good, the bad, the weird, the sad. And youHappy Days (1978): "The First Thanksgiving"
Mrs C. (Marion Ross) is so angry that her family would rather watch a football game on TV than help her in the kitchen on Thanksgiving Day that she unplugs the set and forces them to listen to her history lesson about the origins of the holiday. A time-traveling dream sequence commences, in which the entire cast invents Thanksgiving, and adds the olden tyme suffix "-eth" to a lot of words. Fonzie rides a foot-powered wooden motorcycle and absolutely nothing funny happens. It is, however, deeply ahistorical and stupid, so it's got those qualities going for it.
Mad Men (2007): "The Wheel"
When we talk about Mad Men, this is the episode we talk about. And it's based around a Thanksgiving where Don Draper (Jon Hamm) ignores his family in favor of work. Grinding out a pitch for Kodak's new circular slide projection device, Draper conducts a masterful monologue about loss, nostalgia, and longing so diabolically evocative and moving, so ready to rocket-fuel the sale of Kodak slide projectors, that it'll have you cursing every tear-jerking Hallmark commercial that followed in its fictional wake. That it also brutally interrogates the character delivering that monologue is just another example of this show's brilliance. Trigger warning: a serious bummer.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving(1973)
Bullied into preparing a Thanksgiving Day meal for his friends by Peppermint Patty, the perpetually-tormented Charlie Brown lovingly does his best to keep everyone happy by planning a menu of toast, popcorn, pretzels, and jellybeans. How a 7-year-old wrangles that many toasters remains a mystery, but that's not the point -- this remains a lovely animated lesson in manners, graciousness, and togetherness. Just ignore the last bit where Snoopy serves Woodstock roast turkey and Woodstock happily cannibalizes his fellow bird. It was a simpler time.
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Turkey Day Collection
An entire box set of MST3K's annual Turkey Day marathons. You get all the awful movies (The Screaming Skull, for instance) and all the wrap-around sketches and clips that went along with them. You can dump your rapidly eroding VHS tapes now, and re-enjoy the excellent company of Joel, Mike, Cambot, Gypsy, Tom Servo, and Crow T. Robot. This will take all day to get through, so settle in.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1999): "Pangs"
Because you can't really think of Thanksgiving without also thinking of the forced migration (among other things) of the original Americans, and because that is an exceptionally unhappy historical reality -- or, in Buffy's (Sarah Michelle Gellar) own words, "a sham with yams... a yam sham" -- the Buffy crew sent the vengeful spirit of a Native American to ruin the Scooby Gang's Turkey Day. While trying to ward him off, Buffy accidentally transforms the angry ghost into a bear. This displeases Spike (James Marsters). Pointed and hilarious.
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