Ah, Thanksgiving. The annual vacation when households pause and take a second to understand all the pieces they’ve – earlier than stuffing their faces stuffed with meals.
However turkey and carbs aren’t the one issues individuals binge throughout this annual vacation. Many households will collect across the TV to take pleasure in some festive vacation programming, too.
Whereas most minds conjure up ideas of NFL video games or the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade when they give thought to turkey day tv, many traditional sitcoms and dramas have used the vacation as a way to air particular episodes.
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Arguably essentially the most memorable serving of Thanksgiving TV got here from WKRP in Cincinnati in 1978. Then in its first season, the sequence struck comedy gold with its plot centered on a radio promotion gone horribly mistaken.
Likewise, the traditional sitcom Cheers counts a Thanksgiving episode amongst its most memorable, because the gang of bar associates assembled at Carla’s home for a nontraditional Thanksgiving dinner. The episode’s meals combat grew to become a well-known TV second, although it additionally spawned boycotts amongst some viewers.
Many traditional Thanksgiving episodes got here from locations you’d anticipate, like heartwarming turns from The Surprise Years and The Brady Bunch. Others have seemingly come out of nowhere: Did anybody actually anticipate a Thanksgiving episode from The A-Staff?
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In fact, traditional Thanksgiving tv has not been restricted to live-action exhibits. Each The Simpsons and South Park have delivered memorable vacation episodes, with the latter unforgettably introducing the world to a particular turkey by the identify of Gobbles.
We’ve assembled a cornucopia of Thanksgiving programming beneath that spans 5 many years of tv.