It’s been a while since I’ve done a top ten list on this blog.  As we approach Thanksgiving this week, I thought this would be a good opportunity to share my ten favorite things to watch on (or in the days leading up to) Thanksgiving.

Before I share my list, I would be remiss if I didn’t pause to reflect on the importance of this holiday.  Obviously, being thankful for our blessings and provisions is more important than what to watch.  Going through a pandemic over the past couple years makes me (and I’m sure everyone else) appreciative of good health.  It may be easy to take for granted things like food and shelter, as well as family and friends.  But, even in difficulties, it’s important that we take some time to reflect on what we have to be thankful for.

With that said, while I recognize that what to watch on Thanksgiving is on the less important side of things, I usually dedicate this blog to topics that are not quite as serious.  Last year, I shared my top ten favorite Christmas movies on here.  And while Thanksgiving movies don’t really exist to my knowledge, I thought I would make a similar list for Thanksgiving.

Before diving into the top ten, let me first give an honorable mention to all the Thanksgiving episodes of Friends that don’t appear on the list.  Friends was a TV sitcom that ran for ten seasons from 1994-2004, and was quite well-known for their Thanksgiving episodes each year.  Honestly, I thought about making this post dedicated to ranking the ten Friends Thanksgiving episodes.  However, other people have already done that online, and I wanted this post to contain more variety and include my overall favorites.  I only had room for a couple of Friends episodes in my top ten, but I wanted to at least give honorable mention to the rest of their Thanksgiving episodes that couldn’t make the list.

And now, on to my top ten Thanksgiving shows…

10. Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.  Personally, I’m not much for watching parades on TV.  But I do at least enjoy catching the last few minutes of the Macy’s parade when Santa Claus makes his traditional appearance.  Plus, it’s such a tradition that it at least deserves to be on this list.

9. The Big Bang Theory – Season 7: The Thanksgiving Decoupling.  For those of you who are fans of The Big Bang Theory, this is the episode where the gang spends Thanksgiving at Mrs. Wolowitz’s house.  When Penny finds out that she is legally married to Zach, hilarity ensues when Leonard invites Zach over to resolve the issue.  Meanwhile, Bernadette’s father bonds with Sheldon when he finds out Sheldon is surprisingly a football expert.

8. The Mayflower Voyagers.  This is the Peanuts special you’re probably less familiar with.  You may recognize it as the episode that sometimes comes on right after A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.  It features the Peanuts characters as portrayed on the Mayflower in 1620.  It serves as more of an educational program to show the events of the Pilgrims’ voyage across the Atlantic on the Mayflower, as well as their first year in the New World, leading up to the first Thanksgiving.  The fact that it is done by Peanuts characters makes it more interesting.  It’s not as high on my list as A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, but it’s still worth watching.

7. Detroit Lions football.  A Thanksgiving tradition, the Detroit Lions host a football game each year at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time.  This year, the Lions (0-9-1) host the Chicago Bears (3-7) in a battle between two bad teams.  Since the Lions are traditionally not a good team anyway and winless so far this year, it begs the question, “Why do the Lions get to host this game every year?”  (Since I have family in Michigan, sorry to any Lions fans who might be reading.)  Still, it’s traditional Thanksgiving football between two rival teams here in the Midwest, and perhaps it’s something to watch during dinner if you are so inclined.

6. Dallas Cowboys football.  Another Thanksgiving tradition, the Dallas Cowboys also host a football game each year at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time.  This year, the Cowboys (7-3) host the Las Vegas Raiders (5-5).  Although I’m not sure we have to watch the Cowboys each year either, they’re usually a competitive team, and this game at least appears to be a decent matchup.

5. Thanksgiving Thursday Night Football.  The third game of the Thanksgiving football tripleheader features different teams each year.  This year, the honor of Thursday night game goes to the New Orleans Saints (5-5) hosting the Buffalo Bills (6-4).  Although my cousin Caitlin is a Saints fan which makes me want to root for Buffalo out of spite, the Bills are also competing with my Colts for a playoff spot.  So, I guess I will be rooting for the Saints this week.

4. Friends – Season 1: The One Where Underdog Gets Away.  The original Friends Thanksgiving episode from 1994, this one paved the way for all the other classic Thanksgiving episodes that would follow each year thereafter.  This episode from the first season features everyone each having to cancel their original Thanksgiving plans.  When the Underdog balloon from the Macy’s parade gets away, the gang goes up to the roof to watch, inadvertently locking the door behind them and causing Monica’s Thanksgiving dinner to be ruined.  At the end, everyone is together, eating grilled cheese sandwiches.  Although their day was not how any of them had originally planned or hoped, the lesson was that at least they got to spend it with each other.  As Chandler put it to the rest of the group, “I’m very thankful that all of your Thanksgivings sucked.”

3. Friends – Season 3: The One With All The Football.  As a football fan, this is my favorite Friends Thanksgiving episode.  In fact, I did an entire blog post on this episode at this time last year, in which I gave a painstakingly detailed recap of their football game.  You can read all of my comments about that episode here.

2. The Simpsons – Season 2: Bart vs. Thanksgiving.  As a longtime Simpsons fan (or specifically 1990s Simpsons), I make sure to watch this one every year at around Thanksgiving.  This episode goes all the way back to 1990, the very first Thanksgiving of the series’ current 32-year run.  Early in the episode, we see Homer and Bart watching the Thanksgiving parade on TV, and when Bart mentions that it wouldn’t hurt to use balloons from cartoons from the past 50 years, Homer points out, “This is a tradition! If you build a balloon for every flash in the pan character, you turn the parade into a farce!” just as a Bart balloon shows up on TV.

The main storyline from this episode shows Bart wrecking a centerpiece that Lisa had made.  After being sent to his room without dinner, he and the dog run away to try to find dinner on their own.  After a series of adventures and a visit to a homeless shelter, he realizes he really does have it good.  On returning home and talking with Lisa on the roof of their house, he finally has an epiphany about his sister’s feelings and apologizes to her.  It ends with a feel-good moment of family togetherness, or about as feel-good of a moment as we ever get to see on The Simpsons.

1. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.  It shouldn’t be a surprise that this one is at the very top of my list.  I’ve always been a fan of Peanuts, and I make sure to watch the Charlie Brown holiday episodes (Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas) each year.  If you refer back to my list from last year of top ten Christmas movies and specials of all time, A Charlie Brown Christmas is #1 on that list.  It’s only fitting that A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is #1 on this list as well.

In this special, we see Charlie Brown (with help from Snoopy and Woodstock) trying to make Thanksgiving dinner for several of his friends who have invited themselves over to his house.  He does about as well at preparing a meal as can be expected from a boy, a dog, and a bird.  Peppermint Patty was expecting an elaborate Thanksgiving turkey dinner, but the menu was toast, popcorn, pretzel sticks, and jelly beans.  She initially complains, but after some words of wisdom from Marcie, she eventually learns that Thanksgiving isn’t about which food you eat, it’s about being thankful for what you have.  It all works out in the end anyway, as the group is all invited to Charlie Brown’s grandma’s house for a real Thanksgiving dinner, while Snoopy and Woodstock stay behind for an elaborate meal of their own.

By the way, if you ever want to try the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving dinner sometime, go for it.  I’ve had the Charlie Brown dinner on Thanksgiving, consisting of toast, popcorn, pretzel sticks, and jelly beans.  It’s not bad.  Okay yes, it’s not turkey and mashed potatoes, but it might be a nice change of pace if you ever want to go that route and make things easier on yourself. Or if you really want to be different for Thanksgiving dinner, feel free to take some recipes from my Cooking With Ryan post.

Other random observations from this special:

• It must have been an unusually warm Thanksgiving, since they are eating dinner outside and don’t appear to be dressed for cold weather.  And we know they live in an area where the weather can be cold, as it is snowing all throughout A Charlie Brown Christmas.
• When Charlie Brown calls his grandma, he introduces himself as Charlie Brown.  Why would he have to provide his full name to his own grandma?
• The final scene shows Snoopy and Woodstock eating turkey together.  Why would Woodstock, a bird, be eating another bird?
• As much as Lucy is usually a main character, the only scene where she appears is the very opening scene where she snatches the football away from Charlie Brown as he tries to kick it.  She’s conspicuously absent for the remainder of the special, even though we see Linus.  Maybe her parents grounded her?

That completes my list of my top ten recommended Thanksgiving episodes.  I hope you enjoyed the recap.  Perhaps you want to watch some of these yourself this week.  Perhaps you would have ordered these differently, or have other Thanksgiving-related shows I missed.  Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think.  Until next time, have a great Thanksgiving, and don’t forget to be thankful.

Bonus List:  Top Ten Thanksgiving Foods (but in no particular order, because I can’t decide on how to rank them):

• Turkey
• Stuffing
• Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
• Green Beans
• 7-Layer Salad
• Corn (or cornbread)
• Yams
• Cranberry Sauce
• Rolls
• Pie (usually pumpkin pie)