While I’m still waiting for Mariah Carey to come out with a Thanksgiving album, I have lots of Thanksgiving themed episodes of my favorite TV shows to fill up on. So here I have compiled a mini list of some of my favorite Turkey Day themed episodes to be thankful for:
6. Everybody Loves Raymond: “No Fat” (Season 3, Episode 5)
Much to Raymond’s dismay, everyone’s favorite nagging mom Debra changes Thanksgiving dinner and after attending a Senior Health Fair, she decides to introduce a new healthy eating style consisting of a tofu turkey. Needless to say, no one is happy.
5. One Tree Hill: “Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace”
The OTH gang gathers and Nathan and Haley’s to spend Thanksgiving with friends and family. A smoke alarm goes off, there’s a football game and a healthy dose of drama like any good OTH episode. But this one has some really nice quotes from all the characters that make this episode a really feel good episode.
4. Grey’s Anatomy: “Thanks for the Memories” (Season 2, Episode 9)
Another fan favorite show, this episode of Grey’s has one of my favorite lines from any show ever spoken by the great Meredith Grey. I’ll just leave you with the quote because I think it speaks for itself:
“Gratitude, appreciation, giving thanks. No matter what words you use, they all mean the same thing. Happy. We’re supposed to be happy. Grateful for friends, family. Happy just to be alive. Whether we like it or not. Maybe we’re not supposed to be happy. Maybe gratitude has nothing to do with joy. Maybe being grateful means recognizing what you have for what it is. Appreciating small victories. Admiring the struggle it takes to be simply human. Maybe we’re thankful for the familiar things we know. And maybe we’re thankful for the things we’ll never know. At the end of the day, the fact that we have the courage to still be standing is reason enough to celebrate.”
3. Gossip Girl: “Blair Waldorf Must Pie!” (Season 1, Episode 9)
Everybody needs a little drama in their life around the holidays, but let it be the drama of the Van der Woodsens and Humphreys. Dan naïvely invites Serena and her family to Thanksgiving dinner, creating and uncomfortable situation. Blair’s emotions nearly spiral out of control when her dad doesn’t come home for Thanksgiving, and Nate has an awkward family dinner as well. So it’s a lot of family drama, but at least everyone looks good right?
2. How I Met Your Mother: “Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra” (Season 9, Episode 14)
The third in the Slapsgiving series, this episode takes place 17 hours before Barney and Robin’s wedding. This episode is based around the famous slap bet of the show, and the “Slap of a Million Exploding Suns”. This episode doesn’t really feature many thanksgiving things but HIMYM is still one of the best shows of all time (in my opinion) and this episode is silly but well done.
1. Friends: “The One with All the Thanksgivings” (Season 5, Episode 8)
Of course my favorite episodes has to be a Friends episode. The show has about 10 or so Thanksgiving themed episodes alone so if you’re ever feeling like you just need a lot of Friends your next bingeathon should be all the Friends thanksgiving themed episodes in chronological order. This one happens to be my favorite one because it has a ton of flashbacks and gives a lot of backstory to the characters. The characters all reminisce about the worst thanksgivings each has had. This is also the episode where Chandler tells Monica he loves her for the first time so that’s also great.
I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving break, eat lots of turkey and pumpkin pie, and sic ‘em Baylor football at TCU!
