Three cartoons are traditional:
- Bart vs. Thanksgiving (“Mom-it’s-brok-en, Mom-it’s-brok-en”)
- A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (“Did he invite you here to dinner? Or did you invite yourself, Sir?”)
- Helen Keller! The Musical (“Gobbles!!!”)
South Park’s “Starvin’ Marvin”.
Some Brooklyn 99 highlights
How I Met Your Mother had the slapsgiving episodes. IIRC, New Girl did Thanksgiving episodes as well. I think Rob Reiner and Jamie Lee Curtis may have been in some of them. I know they played her parents but I don’t remember for sure if they made appearances for those episodes.
Also Friends.
Wasn’t the Charlie X episode of “Star Trek (TOS)” a Thanksgiving epi? Charlie produces real turkeys for the galley staff to prepare.
I doubt it; it aired September 15, 1966, as the second episode. Unless you’re like me and consider the Charlie X episode to be a turkey.
The episode specifically references thanksgiving aboard, and according to most sites, it was intended to be released at or about Thanksgiving, but the schedule was juggled around.
Later, in a corridor, Kirk is advising a galley chef that on Earth today it is Thanksgiving, and if the crew of the Enterprise has to eat synthetic meat loaf, he wants it to look like turkey.
From the Memory Alpha summary of the episode.
According to Kirk’s line "On Earth today it’s Thanksgiving ", the beginning of this episode takes place on 22 November 2266 (assuming American Thanksgiving is meant). The reference to Thanksgiving was included in the script because originally the episode was supposed to air in late-November.
Lance!
The baster monologue should have won an Emmy.
On the contrary, the Charlie episode hooked me through the gills – when the female crewman came around the corner and Charlie had made her face go away I thought I’d die. My six-year-old brain said, “These guys aren’t fooling around, what else can they make happen?”
Two of my favorite Friends eps are both Thanksgiving themed.
The One Where Ross got High - It’s the one where Rachel put beef in the trifle.
The One with the Rumor - Brad Pitt (who was in a relationship with Jennifer Aniston at the time)guest stars as a formerly fat schoolmate of Rachel and Monica’s.
To this day, anytime someone is describing any type of desert, layer by layer, someone in my family will throw that line in.
Host: There’s a layer of cake, then a layer of ice cream, then a layer of crushed oreos-
Me, interjecting: and a layer of beef with peas and carrots…
Incidentally, my mom makes a trifle as one of her go to ‘I have to bring something’ things, so she walks right into that one once or twice a year.
This year I learned that we are supposed to be deeply offended by A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. (It has been going around for years, but this is the first time I encountered it.)
Linus sits alone on one side of the table? That’s okay. Marcie sits alone on one side of the table? That’s okay. Franklin sits alone on one side of the table? RACISM!