“Thanks for that on-the-spot report, Les. For those of you who’ve just tuned in, the Pinedale Shopping Mall has just been bombed with live turkeys—film at eleven.”
wittylibrarian
wittylibrarian
To be fair, ignoring WKRP is an AV Club Thanksgiving tradition.
-goes thru list to see where WKRP and Cheers are ranked-
This. Any list without the WKRP Turkey Drop is immediately suspect. Oh the Humanity...!
And it’s Vera’s one and only appearance!
Only came here to see if this was #1 or not. Awful list without it.
Meh. I always felt that headmaster episode was just a beat-for-beat ripoff of the far better John Cleese episode of Cheers.
There’s also the episode where Frasier and Lilith torment the headmaster of a prep school they want to get Frederick into as the poor man tries to prepare his Thanksgiving dinner. It has this classic Lilith/Niles exchange:
It Was A Short Memory, Charlie Brown
I should add, King of the Hill went 4 for 4 on Thanksgiving episodes, in addition to “Spin the Choice”:
I feel like people who are paid to be pop culture writers should have at least some deeper knowledge of TV’s past than your average person that age. Like I wouldn’t trust a film critic who’d never seen a silent movie.
The food fight is one of the all time great sitcom scenes. Just so good.
No Cheers? And not Frasier’s “The Apparent Trap”? That one is a top-tier Lilith episode.
10. Turkeys Away
9. Turkeys Away
8. Turkeys Away
7. Turkeys Away
6. Turkeys Away
5. Turkeys Away
4. Turkeys Away
3. Turkeys Away
2. Slapsgiving
1. Turkeys Away
Since the obvious omissions have already been pointed out, I will add that one of my personal favorite shows - Spin City - has made a couple great Thanksgiving episodes. Both “The Competition” (guest starring Stephen Colbert in one of his earliest TV roles) and “Gobbles the Wonder Turkey Saves the Day” get a rewatch…
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how dare you
This list is a travesty.
TV didn’t exist before 1990, apparently.
So this list was tailored by and for people who were in college in the early aughts? The exclusion of the “Cheers,” “WKRP” and “The Bob Newhart Show” episodes is mind-boggling. I can’t wait for the Christmas list that excludes “Christmas and the Hard-Luck Kid II.”
I know most people don’t give it a second thought, but Just Shoot Me’s Thanksgiving episode where Elliot finds out Jack slept with his mother is great.