Another year, another Thanksgiving to spend valuable couch time watching some essential television episodes that celebrate the holiday.
Thanksgiving-themed episodes of TV have been a cornerstone of the medium (across multiple genres) for decades. From the Seinfeld gang putting Macy's Thanksgiving day parade through their cyncial, comical lens to Buffy Summers defending her town and friends from whatever the Hellmouth throws at them, there's almost something for everyone when it comes to post-dinner viewing.
Here are a few memorable episodes worth checking out.
Bob's Burgers, "Turkey in a Can" (Season 4)
Where to Watch: Hulu
Bob's Burgers often excels in the holiday episode department and that is especially true of this season four classic, "Turkey in a Can." Bob (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin) goes a bit overboard on preparing a feast for his family, which leads to his turkey somehow landing in the toilet. The mystery surrounding that humorous folly culminates with one of the show's most endearing and funny outings.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Pangs" (Season 4)
Where to Watch: Hulu
Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) struggles to have, for once, a normal Thanksgiving dinner when an Indigenous spirit is unleashed on Sunnydale and it's up to her and the rest of the Scooby Gang to stop him.
The episode's centerpiece is a ridiculous all-out brawl where heroes Xander (Nicholas Brendon), Anya (Emma Caulfield) and Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) duke it out with the arrow-firing spirt as Spike (James Marsters), helplessly tied to a chair, watches. This episode is less of a spookfest and more of a tongue-in-cheek supernatural farce, one that concludes with Xander letting slip at dinner that it was nice to see someone that Buffy didn't: her estranged vampire lover, Angel (David Boreanaz).
Cheers, "Thanksgiving Orphans" (Season 5)
Where to Watch: Paramount+
"Sam Malone? Prepare... to... die!"
Shelley Long's line reading is just one of the many famous moments from this Thanksgiving classic. When the gang from the bar has no place to go for the holiday, Carla (Rhea Perlman) hosts a potluck at her place. Long's Diane Chambers dresses like a pilgrim and her plans for a classy Turkey Day meal get tossed — along with lots of food in a hilarious, showstopping food fight. "Thanksgiving Orphans" was a landmark episode for Cheers and for its iconic ensemble cast, proving that there was nothing these actors couldn't do in service of their show's unique brand of comedy.
The Simpsons, "Bart vs. Thanksgiving" (Season 2)
Where to Watch: Disney+
The Simpsons often finds a witty, irreverent way to celebrate the holidays (especially Halloween), but this Thanksgiving installment from the long-running animated show's second season set the tone for their novel approach to Turkey Day-themed episodes.
When Bart (Nancy Cartwright) destroys the Thanksgiving centerpiece that Lisa (Yeardley Smith) labored over creating, he is sent to his room by a justifiably upset Homer and Marge. But that doesn't stop Bart from running away from home. George Meyer's sharp script (his first for the series) features some clever, laugh-out-loud moments (especially when fans are introduced to Marge's mom, Jackie, in her first on-screen appearance), but what really ties "Bart vs. Thanksgiving" together is the resolution that warring siblings Bart and Lisa share on the house's roof. And here's some episode trivia: This episode actually aired on Thanksgiving day in 1990.
Fresh Off the Boat, "Huangsgiving" (Season 2)
Where to Watch: Hulu
Fresh Off the Boat's "Huangsgiving" is a showcase episode for Constance Wu as Jessica, whose fierce determination to prove to her mother that she can handle all the logistics of Thanksgiving yields one of the funniest holiday episodes the sitcom ever produced. From food prep to serving the meal, nothing is easy for Jessica and everything seems impossible when it comes to landing this dinner for her family. But Fresh Off the Boat balances the hilarious challenges Jessica faces with a heartening display of holiday cheer.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, "Talking Turkey" (Season 1)
Where to Watch: Hulu, Max and Philo
Holiday episodes fall into a pattern: Disaster strikes the festivities early so that our show's characters have time to find a heartwarming way to find a resolution to it all in the end. That pattern is well-serviced in this charming and underrated Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode from the NBC sitcom's first season, when Will (Will Smith)'s over-critical mom, Viola (Vernée Watson), comes to Bel-Air to spend Thanksgiving with her son. Viola criticizes the way Vivian (Janet Hubert) lets her kids "enjoy" the holiday by not having to do any work in the kitchen for it, so Vivian forces her kids to cook dinner which leads to one hilarious setback after another. Fresh Prince juggled a lot of tones during its run but really nailed it when it came to family farce, especially in "Talking Turkey."
Friends, "The One Where Ross Got High" (Season 6)
Where to Watch: Max
Friends showrunners Marta Kauffman and David Crane recently told the Television Academy that, when it came to the network TV tradition of putting on Thanksgiving-themed episodes every year, they felt their hit NBC sitcom "owned" that particular programming space. "The One Where Ross Got High" make a strong case in support of their argument, thanks to the episode's bottle show-esque structure that centers around Ross (David Schwimmer) and Monica (Courteney Cox)'s parents joining the friends for Thanksgiving. While at dinner, Geller family secrets come out ("Ross got divorced — again!") as Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) bakes a disastrous meat trifle that is unpalpable for everyone — save for Matt LeBlanc's Joey ("Custard? Good. Jam? Good. Meat? Good.")
Friends, "The One With All the Thanksgivings" (Season 5)
Where to Watch: Max
Flashbacks to past holiday feasts provide several standout comedic set pieces in "The One With All the Thanksgivings." Written by Gregory S. Malins, "Thanksgivings" is arguably best known as the one where Monica wears an uncooked turkey on her head. For an episode that was pitched as a series of vignettes centered on the gang's worst Thanksgivings ever, the end result proved to be one of the show's most successful installments.
Friends, "The One With Chandler in a Box" (Season 4)
Where to Watch: Max
A highlight of both the fourth season of Friends and of the series overall, "The One With Chandler in a Box" effortlessly mixes the sitcom's unique blend of hijinks with character-driven stakes. When Joey discovers that Chandler (Matthew Perry) recently kissed Joey's girlfriend, Kathy (Paget Brewster), Chandler is desperate to make it up to his best friend. So the snarky friend agrees to spend Thanksgiving dinner on the floor of Monica's apartment... in a box.
As Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) explains, Joey's reasons are "three-fold" for putting Chandler in a very tight spot. But he only needs one reason to let Chandler off the hook and back into his good graces in this very funny and heartfelt episode that also sees Monica crushing on her new dinner guest (Alias star Michael Vartan), who happens to be the son of her ex, Richard (Tom Sellick).
Gilmore Girls, "A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving" (Season 3)
Where to Watch: Netflix
Rory (Alexis Bledel) and Lorelai (Lauren Graham) have to attend multiple Thanksgiving dinners, which Lorelai says they are born to do because "all they do is eat." Their holiday dinner plans include a stop at Luke's dinner, as well as visiting the respective homes of Mrs. Kim, Sookie (Melissa McCarthy) and Jackson (Jackson Douglas) and Richard (Edward Hermann) and Emily Gilmore (Kelly Bishop). The highlight of "Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving" is Sookie getting drunk on margaritas to help her deal with Jackson and his eccentric family's choice to deep fry everything.
How I Met Your Mother, "Slapsgiving" (Season 3)
Where to Watch: Hulu and Netflix
Lily (Allyson Hannigan) and Marshall (Jason Segel)'s first Thanksgiving as a married couple and famously features the continuation of the "slap bet," which leads to Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) being slapped (the fourth slap overall). "Slap-solutely."
Seinfeld, "The Mom & Pop Store" (Season 6)
Where to Watch: Netflix
A solid double bill for this Thanksgiving would be to chase the annual viewing of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with Seinfeld's "The Mom & Pop Store." This popular episode from the sixth season features one of the show's zaniest plots: While George (Jason Alexander) struggles to purchase a car once joined by actor Jon Voight, Kramer (Michael Richards) gives away all of Jerry's shoes (because Kramer) and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) hooks her boss up with an opportunity to pilot the parade's famous Woody the Woodpecker balloon.
