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What does Thanksgiving mean to you? Is it a day of gathering together with beloved family members to share a bountiful repast, or is it the chore of getting up at six o’clock in the morning to shove croutons up a dead turkey while the rest of the family slumbers contentedly? Wherever your emotions fall in the overall Thanksgiving spectrum, we hope to give you some temporary relief by revisiting some of our (and hopefully your!) favorite TV turkey moments.
Cheers reveals what Vera Looks Like (Briefly!)
In the “Thanksgiving Orphans” episode, most of the regulars who frequent Cheers have no special plans for Thanksgiving, so they accept Carla’s invitation to a potluck dinner held at her home, with Norm in charge of bringing the turkey. Norm, however, unskilled in the nuances defrosting a bird before roasting it, brings an enormous frozen turkey to the party. Tempers begin to flare when it seems like the turkey will never be ready, and a food fight breaks out. Norm’s oft-mentioned but never seen wife, Vera, arrives during the melee, but before viewers can get a good look at her, she receives a pie in the face. So, who played Vera? That role was given to George Wendt’s real-life wife, Bernadette Birkette.
The Drunken Origin of the Bob Newhart Drinking Game
TV Guide rated the “Over the River and Through the Woods” episode of The Bob Newhart Show at #9 of the 100 Greatest Episodes Ever. It’s also Newhart’s personal favorite. Emily is going home to Seattle for Thanksgiving and Bob decides to stay home because his “patients might need him” (when in reality he can’t bear the thought of skipping stones across Puget Sound with his in-laws). His friend Jerry brings a large jug of vodka and cider, and starts taking slugs from it every time his alma mater (William and Mary) is scored against during the Big Game. Joined by Bob’s neighbor and a patient, the quartet plays the drinking game throughout several more televised football games until they realize that they should probably eat something. Bob drunkenly tries to order Chinese food on the phone:
“I’d like some Moo Goo Gai Pan. What do you want, Jerry?”
“I, too, want the Moo Goo Gai Pan.”
“Another Moo Goo…Goo Goo…”
“Bob! You said ‘Moo Goo Goo Goo!’”
“Maybe I’m ordering Chinese baby food!”
This episode inspired the “Hi, Bob” drinking game, where participants down a shot every time those words are spoken during an episode of the show.
WKRP’s Strange (and True) Turkey Day Promotion
Arthur Carlson, the station manager on WKRP in Cincinnati, longs to play more of an integral role in daily operations. So, in the “Turkeys Away!” episode, he secretly plans a special Thanksgiving promotion – dropping live turkeys out of a helicopter over the Pinedale Shopping Mall. The station’s earnest but clueless news reporter Les Nessman is on the scene reporting live, and at first states that skydivers are jumping out of the copter. But when no parachutes open…he suddenly realizes that he is witnessing live turkeys hitting the ground “like sacks of wet cement.” Mr. Carlson hadn’t intended any animal cruelty; “As God is my witness,” he states after the event, “I thought turkeys could fly.” Oddly enough, this episode was based on an actual radio station promotion that one of the show’s writers had witnessed. The stunt was inspired by an annual “turkey drop” festival held in Yellville, Arkansas, which was finally halted in 1989 after animal rights activists got wind of it.
Will and Grace struggle to Keep the Story Straight
Will and Grace fans learned the entire back story of all the main characters in the “Lows in the Mid-Eighties” episode (which originally aired as a one-hour special in November 2000.) Flash back to 1985, when Columbia student Grace brings boyfriend Will home with her for Thanksgiving. After dinner, Grace is all hot and bothered when they retire to her bedroom, but Will feels conflicted and rushes to the bathroom to call Jack, whom he’d met briefly earlier that day. Jack has already correctly noted that Will is gay, which Will vehemently denied at the time. “If you’re all hot for your girlfriend, then why are you on the phone with me?” Jack asks him. In addition to clarifying quite a bit, the show does bring up one inconsistency. This episode briefly shows Diane, the only woman with whom Will was intimate, but she’s a redhead played by a writer’s assistant. In a later episode, Diane is portrayed by blonde Academy Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino.
Since you’re probably reading this at work while marking time until the long weekend begins, why not chime in with your favorite Thanksgiving TV episodes?
Comments (27)
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While it’s not necessarily a favorite, I can’t help but smile when I look back on that Friend’s episode where Monica ends up putting the turkey on her head. Quite inspired. As for actual favorites, the Slapsgiving episode of How I Met Your Mother was great. Proving it’s not the act of getting slapped that’s terrifying so much as it’s the anticipation.
posted by Nate on 11-26-2008 at 11:39 am
I love the Thanksgiving episode of The West Wing that finds Charlie tasked with finding the perfect carving knife for the First Family’s turkey. Despite hours of research, the president nixes every suggestion. Ultimately, we discover that the president is so picky because the Bartlett family has been using the same carving knife for generations — a gift to the family from Thomas Jefferson, passed down from father to son. President Bartlett ups the “aww” factor by giving the knife to Charlie.
posted by Chelsea on 11-26-2008 at 11:41 am
I loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s “Pangs” episode.
Buffy: Native American. We don’t say Indian.
Giles: Oh, oh, right, yes. Always behind on the terms. Still trying not to refer to you lot as bloody colonials.
Buffy cuts the Indian with his own knife, thinking she can defeat him. Instead, he changes into a huge bear.
Spike: A bear! You made a bear!
Buffy: I, I didn’t mean to.
Spike: Undo it, undo it!
posted by Laura on 11-26-2008 at 11:50 am
The Turkey Trot in Yellville is still going on. I attended in 2006. They fly a small plane over downtown and drop turkeys out of it. The turkeys kind of half fly/fall to the ground and then the townsfolk chase them and if you catch the turkey you get to keep it. My best friend and I actually saw a turkey whose blindfold was not removed fall like a stone and die right in front of us before it was scooped up by about 100 kids. It is an awesome spectacle and should be attended by all.
posted by Patrickgre on 11-26-2008 at 11:51 am
Patrickgre…lol.
the visual image of kids jubilantly picking up a dead turkey and tearing it apart is either wrong or really, really funny.. (im leaning more towards funny.)
posted by Jill on 11-26-2008 at 12:03 pm
It’s not a Thanksgiving episode, but in Mr. Beans Christmas, when Rowan Atkinson winds up with a turkey on his head is so ridiculously funny…..
posted by Chris Thorpe on 11-26-2008 at 12:31 pm
I like the ep of Friends where Joey wears maternity pants to eat. Scary clownish maternity pants. yikes
posted by qt314159265 on 11-26-2008 at 12:57 pm
Chelsea…Sorry to be a nudge…but the Bartletts’ carving knife was made by Paul Revere and bore the initials PR which Charlie has not seen before.
I would agree though, that is a great Thanksgiving episode. Especially with the turkeys showing up in CJ’s office.
posted by Matthew on 11-26-2008 at 1:05 pm
Every Mental Floss reader should enjoy the Thanksgiving 2000 episode of Friends: “The One Where Chandler Doesn’t Like Dogs”. That’s the episode where Chandler challenges everyone to name all 50 states in 6 minutes, and Ross is driven crazy when he can’t do it.
posted by gmsc on 11-26-2008 at 1:06 pm
On the WKRP turkey drop. I believe it came from an event at WQXI in Atlanta. Not sure about the Arkansas deal. Sandy being from GA may remember the event.
posted by Kev in GA on 11-26-2008 at 1:25 pm
The Friends epsidoes are classic…especially when they played football. How I Met Your Mother’s Slapsgiving was great too.
The funny thing is, if he really did think the turkey’s could fly, why would he drop them out of a helicopter to people on the ground? Wouldn’t the birds just fly away after being dropped from the helicopter and nobody on the ground would get a turkey anyway?
posted by Mike James on 11-26-2008 at 1:51 pm
That’s my fav episode of the Bob Newhart show too!! I like the part later in that phone call when he says the order is for Dr Newhart. As in Drrr
posted by Emmie on 11-26-2008 at 3:00 pm
Remember on Mad About You when they kept ruining the turkey and buying new ones at the corner store?
posted by Karen on 11-26-2008 at 3:13 pm
@GMSC – I remember that episode! I think all of my friends who saw it immediately tried to write down all 50 states as quickly as possible! :)
posted by Dawn on 11-26-2008 at 6:11 pm
GMSC: I bet my dad’s friend that I could do that at the last Thanksgiving. We had a race–and I won! That was pretty hilarious…
posted by Allison on 11-26-2008 at 6:39 pm
ok, Slapsgiving on HIMYM was seriously genius TV. as was the Buffy, Pangs. but the best line EVER from Pangs has to be from Spike about political correctness around Native American cultures:
You won. All right? You came in and you killed them and you took their land. That’s what conquering nations do. It’s what Caesar did, and he’s not goin’ around saying, “I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it.” The history of the world is not people making friends. You had better weapons, and you massacred them. End of story.
posted by mri on 11-26-2008 at 7:52 pm
I cannot believe that the turkey drop event continued for almost ten years after the WKRP ‘Turkey’s Away’ episode!
posted by billy on 11-26-2008 at 7:59 pm
How is this Turkey Trot in Yellville thing even legal, is that not animal cruelty? I’m disgusted that so many people would be involved in killing animals this way and make it into a fun event.
posted by Brittany on 11-27-2008 at 11:58 am
mri- i’m really glad that you find giving disease ridden blankets to women and children under false pretenses as acceptable warfare.
and had the nazi’s won WWII, they could use the same excuse about jews…so i’m thinking that quote is a little shortsighted.
posted by Em on 11-28-2008 at 2:37 am
I really loved the episode of Murphy Brown in which she tried to cook dinner in a homeless shelter, only, of course, to have it all go awry. I still giggle when I think about “almost turkey.” :-)
posted by Mark on 11-29-2008 at 1:13 pm
MRI was quoting from the show – chill out
posted by to em on 12-1-2008 at 5:46 pm
“It is an awesome spectacle and should be attended by all” posted by Patrickgre
By all what? Cro-magnons? Neanderthals? Knuckle-dragging, mouth-breeding inbreds who have the collective intelligence of a pice of turd?
They’re the only ones who would enjoy something as disgusting as a turkey drop.
posted by TenpoleTudor on 12-3-2008 at 2:02 pm
Les Nessman “like sacks of wet cement” had to be the best, although I have played the Newhart game..every time my NFL team scored..makes for a short night!
posted by Hargo on 12-4-2008 at 6:53 pm
Tenpole Tudor, it is “Mouth-breathing”. Not Mouth breeding.
posted by GreySkyGrl on 12-7-2008 at 5:36 pm
Re: Friends Episode. I thought everyone was weaned on the “Fifty Nifty United States” song in middle school choir? All 50 in alphabetical order, and a space to shout your own state as “the Best!!”. That and the alphabet backwards I learned in kindergarten have gotten me many free drinks in bar bets. God bless small town schools and their teachers.
posted by Flower on 12-13-2008 at 3:03 pm
The Thanksgiving episode of Roseanne where Jackie is pregnant and Roseanne invites Fred over even though Jackie doesn’t want him there. The best part is when their great nana mary exposes that their mom was pregnant before she got married and Beverly storms out yelling “nobody loves me, I’m all alone” and they all go chasing after her and Fred stops Jackie to ask if she’s ok with all of the excitement going on and she responds “out of my way fred i’m not missing this”
posted by Jenn on 12-16-2008 at 1:05 am
I so agree with you, Laura! And the best was Spike’s statement:
Spike: Watch the heart!
posted by Jen Pen on 1-11-2009 at 5:29 am