My Favorite Thanksgiving Episodes

Thanksgiving is that time of year when everyone goes home to spend time with their families or avoids their families like the plague an attempts to make on their own with their friends. This is one of the best times of the year where there are numerous holiday episodes.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday with the great food, and its also because it is close to my birthday.  Here are some of my favorite Thanksgiving episodes.

1-Friends-This is the show that had a special Thanksgiving episode almost every season.  This show did Thanksgiving episodes best.  In the shows first season the thanksgiving episode "TOW Underdog Got Away" the six characters all made plans separately but Rachel could not get away and others plans got ruined so they all ended up spending their first Thanksgiving together.  The second season there was no Thanksgiving episode, but then in the third season they competed for the Gellar cup, and in the fourth season had Chandler sitting in a box because he betrayed Joey.  The best Thanksgiving episode ever is in the fifth season of Friends in an episode entitled "TOW All the Thanksgiving Flashbacks" is where we get to see fat Monica again, Chandler losing a toe, Phoebe's past lives, and Joey putting a turkey on his head.  The Thanksgiving episodes continued, but this one was the best.

2-The West Wing had two wonderful Thanksgiving episodes "Shibboleth" and "Indians in the Lobbey."  The better of the two is seasons two's "Shibboleth" and the best story was watching CJ (Allison Janney) having to help pick a turkey for the President to pardon.  Every year at Thanksgiving time the President pardons a turkey.  I love this episode!

3-Will & Grace also had two great Thanksgiving episodes "Homo for the Holidays" and "Moveable Feast."  The best episode among the two is "Homo for Holidays" where Grace and Will talk to Jack's mom and find out that Jack has not only never come out to her, but he has told her that he has dated both Karen and Grace.  This episode has one of my favorite lines in the entire history of the show, which came Karen.

GRACE: Hmmm. Well, you've come on a good night. Jack's mother is going to be joining us, and she doesn't know Jack's gay.
KAREN: How could she not know? What is she, headless?


4-Gilmore Girls-If anyone can eat four Thanksgiving dinners its Lorelai and Rory Gilmore.  In "A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving" Lorelai and Rory start their day at Sookie's and get to see Jackson deep fry a turkey, then they head to the Kim's for tofurkey, then onto Luke's diner for their almost double date Thanksgiving, and they end their night at the Gilmore's mansion.  There is nothing better than a smart witty Thanksgiving.

5-How I Met Your Mother-This show like Friends did a good job of navigating the world of celebrating Thanksgiving with Friends.  In season one we get to watch Barney work at a soup kitchen, and find out he is only doing it because he was court mandated.  Then after each season we get into the world of the Slap Bet.  The Slap Bet Episodes are great!  they focus around Thanksgiving but also on a bet that Marshall has made with Barney, and Marshall gets to slap him for losing the bet.  


I love the more modern Thanksgiving shows.  They do not focus as much on dealing with family, but are more about making Thanksgiving a time where you can spend this holiday with people you love who you want to be around.