10 Great Thanksgiving Moments from Film & Television

If you ignore the uncomfortable overtones to the Thanksgiving holiday (the entire Mayflower/Indians backstory), it really is a great time of year. One day out of 365 we get to stuff ourselves with food (woo-hoo!) and reminisce about all the things for which we're grateful. In a dreadful year like this, such a holiday is necessary.

And there's been no shortage of fictional Turkey Day festivities. If you're like me, you love to watch movies and TV episodes for special occasions (I'm tempted to look up Israeli Independence Day just to have a specified date every year to watch Exodus). But you don't want to make the season drag on, right? Like... ahem, Christmas? So how do you choose a small pantheon of Thanksgiving classics that'll only take you through about a week to watch?

Never you fear. Xander's blog is here! Here is a countdown of the ten undisputed greatest moments this bizarrest of holidays has in the pop culture ouevre.

10) Drunken Santa at the Parade, Miracle on 34th Street.
Okay, so the movie itself is about Christmas, but the fan-freaking-tastic opening sequence takes place at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, when the man (Edmund Gwenn) who claims he's Santa has a hilariously hostile run-in with a giddily inebriated, fake St. Nick. Just make sure you stick to the 1947 original.

9) Where's Grandma? "Thanksgiving," season 1, That 70s Show.
The Forman family settles down to a nice turkey dinner, but matriarch Kitty just can't help the gnawing feeling that she's forgotten something... but what? As the phone rings, the stark terror of the realization dawns on her: she's forgotten Red's abrasive, oblivious mother!

8) Dinner, Across the Universe.
It is on this lovely occasion that slacker Max (Joe Anderson) decides to tell his parents he's dropping out of college. Right in front of his aunts, uncles... and English newcomer Jude (Jim Sturgess), who watches in a sense of bewilderment fully befitting a character in a Beatles musical.

7) "A rather tender subject," The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Logically speaking, I'm sure it was Thanksgiving: the narrator placed the time of Brad and Janet's adventure in late November, and alien host Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry) served his guests up quite a feast: Eddie, played (ironically) by Meatloaf. Particularly great is the segment when we see Columbia run screaming from the room, then a cut to see Furter carelessly dumping ketchup on his disobedient entree.

6) End-of-the-summer pageant, Addams Family Values.
With the obnoxious, popular snobs all cast as pilgrims, Wednesday and her fellow outcasts as the Chippewa, and Pugsley as the turkey, the stage is set for a spectacular confrontation between perky and tolerable.

5) Dinner is popped, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
The thing that really irks me about this 1973 special is Peppermint Patty: she invites herself to a Thanksgiving feast Chuck never intended to have, and then has the nerve to complain about the results. But it's certainly one of the most intriguing T-Day dinners ever conceived: popcorn and toast.

4) Thanksgiving, Bing style, "The One Where Underdog Gets Away," Friends.
Poor Chandler reveals the reason why he doesn't celebrate this harvest holiday in a hilariously un-hilarious monologue about his parents' decision to reveal their divorce during the feast. As he points out, Thanksgiving dinner no longer holds any thrill for him: he's already seen the re-runs.

3) Biblical quotation, "The Little Atheist," All in the Family.
Concerned when Mike and Gloria reveal their baby will be allowed to choose his own religion, ignorant father figure Archie reads from the Bible: Romans 13, two dots 23.

2) Archie's conspiracy, "The Little Atheist."
Two list-worthy moments from the same episode? Fully deserved. Archie tells Edith they'll ensure the baby is a Christian if they have to break every commandment to do it. And when telling Mike he's won this battle, he lifts his head to Heaven, winking at God.

Drumroll, please....

Okay, seriously, stop now.

1) Alien mating dance, "Gobble Gobble Dick Dick," 3rd Rock from the Sun.
After the Solomons' first Thanksgiving on Earth, Harry (French Stewart) and the sultry Vicki Dubcek (Jan Hooks) clean up the leftovers in Mrs. Dubcek's kitchen. In the most bizarre (and laugh-out-loud funny) seduction in television history, Harry dons the turkey carcass like a hat, gives himself a gravy mustache, and throws Vicki down on the table.

Well, there you have it. The Thanksgiving best, whether heartwarming or... just plain disturbing.

Now please wait until after Thursday's dinner to start your Christmas celebrations. You'll be doing yourself a favor.