15 Insider Pop-Culture Facts About Classic Thanksgiving TV Episodes
Thanksgiving is always a scene of chaos, with mashed potatoes, unwanted political opinions, and invasive personal questions equally flying while everyone silently wills the turkey to hurry up and be done already. It turns out making a Thanksgiving installment of a beloved media franchise is no less frenzied.
15 WKRP in Cincinnati’s “Turkey Drop” Was a True Story
The “Turkeys Away” episode, hailed as one of the funniest in TV history, featured a promotional stunt so obviously wrongheaded that it couldn’t possibly happen outside TV Land, but it basically did. It was a pickup truck, not a helicopter, from which Dallas radio station employees threw live turkeys at unsuspecting shoppers, but the carnage was so much more real.
14 “Thanksgiving Orphans” Featured Norm’s Real Wife
The season five Cheers episode “Thanksgiving Orphans” marked the only time Norm’s wife, Vera, was technically seen onscreen, though her face was obscured by a pie. In fact, that face belonged to Bernadette Birkett, George Wendt’s real-life wife.
13 Sam Beckett “Leaped Home” to Field of Dreams
In Quantum Leap’s Thanksgiving two-parter “The Leap Home,” Bakula leaps back into himself as a teenager, when his family lived in… the house from Field of Dreams, apparently. You can even see the baseball field.
12 Allen Ginsberg Saw Himself on The Simpsons
In the episode “Bart vs. Thanksgiving,” an angsty Lisa writes a poem that begins, “I saw the best meals of my generation destroyed by the madness of my brother, my soul carved in slices by spiky-haired demons.” This is, of course, a reference to Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl,” and not only was Ginsberg reportedly watching, he was tickled by the shout out.
11 Mister Rogers Paid a Thanksgiving Visit to The Incredible Hulk
In a 1980 episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, the star of The Incredible Hulk, Bill Bixby, shows Fred and friends around the set during the filming of an episode. That episode was Homecoming, the show’s 1979 Thanksgiving episode.
10 Robert Reed Showered The Brady Bunch With Thanksgiving Gifts
After filming “The Un-Underground Movie,” in which the Bunch films a reenactment of the first Thanksgiving, Brady patriarch Robert Reed gifted each of his TV kids with a Super 8 camera. In 2023, Jan Brady actress Eve Plumb said it was still one of her most treasured childhood possessions.
9 Jasmine Guy Broke a Different World Guest Star
In season two’s “If You Like Pilgrim Coladas,” a homesick Whitley and Kim hit the clubs for Thanksgiving, where Whitley cajoles a singer into performing “La Bamba.” While drunkenly (she thinks) singing along, she interjects, “Shake it up, baby!” which wasn’t in the script. You can see the singer laughing.
8 Rob Reiner Quit Archie Bunker’s Place After “Thanksgiving Reunion”
The 1979 episode marked Rob Reiner’s final appearance as Michael “Meathead” Stivic, having turned down a contract renewal to pursue a directing career in Hollywood. To be fair, it worked out pretty well for him.
7 Full House Repurposed Material From an Unaired Pilot
Can you believe Bob Saget wasn’t always Danny Tanner? In the first season episode “The Miracle of Thanksgiving,” he quizzes his daughters about how “super great” Thanksgiving is going to be, a bit that had previously been recited by John Posey as Danny in the show’s unaired pilot. He’s best known now for Teen Wolf. What could have been, eh, Johnny?
6 Judy Norton Hated the Waltons’ Thanksgiving Food
Norton, who played Mary Ellen Walton, often disliked the food the family ate and only pretended to eat it, and she later vividly recalled doing so in the episode “The Thanksgiving Story.” “I don’t like relish,” she said, “so at the point when I’m being given the relish to taste, I can guarantee I wasn’t eating that relish. I was faking that.”
5 A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Premiered in… Canada?
Despite its focus on a thoroughly American holiday, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving actually premiered first in Canada. That’s because Canada celebrates Thanksgiving in early October, backwards country that they are.
4 The Berenstain Bears Meet Bigpaw Was Too Hot For DVD
Nelson Mandela’s favorite cartoon bears’ 1980 Thanksgiving special is the only volume not to be released on DVD after Sony acquired the rights to the franchise in 2002. Why? Because a hedgehog is briefly seen smoking a cigar, and they didn’t want to set a bad example for the little hedgehogs in the audience.
3 Tom Turk Called Daffy Duck a Nazi Sympathizer
In the 1944 Looney Tunes short “Tom Turk and Daffy,” the titular gobbler calls Daffy a “Quisling” after he betrays his location to a hungry Porky Pig. In case you’re not up on your Norwegian history, Vidkun Quisling was the prime minister who sold Norway out to the Nazis in 1940. He was basically calling Daffy a war criminal.
2 Tom and Jerry Did Blackface
In the 1949 Thanksgiving short “The Little Orphan,” Jerry’s friend Nibbles lights Tom’s tail on fire, singeing off his fur in such a way that makes him look… uh… very un-woke. Later broadcasts of the cartoon were mysteriously missing this scene.
1 ALF’s Fappiano Was Named After His Puppeteer
In the season three “Turkey in the Straw” two-parter, it’s revealed that Thanksgiving exists on ALF’s home planet, but it’s called Fappiano. It was named after Bob Fappiano, one of the puppeteers literally behind ALF. That means there’s a human out there who knows he’s responsible for a group of aliens, fictional or not, wishing each other a “happy Fappy.”
