Thanksgiving offers characters an appropriate moment to give thanks, and look back on significant events from previous seasons. Often this can mean casts reflecting on an entire season, if not their entire lives. From Friends to Orange Is The New Black, Thanksgiving has been featured in sitcoms, dramas, and mockumentaries.
Sitcoms usually follow the lives of their main characters throughout the years, which means viewers are privy to birthday, Christmas, and New Year's Eve episodes. But some of the funniest, most wholesome sitcom episodes center on Thanksgiving, and there's nothing better than tuning in to your favorite binge-worthy show during the holidays.
5 Friends: Season 5, Episode 8 – The One With All The Thanksgivings
Friends is one of the most popular sitcoms of all times. Running from 1994-2004, fans adored the 10 Thanksgiving episodes that aired across 10 seasons. The One With All The Thanksgivings showed the 6 main characters – Ross, Joey, Phoebe, Chandler, Rachel and Monica – reflecting on their childhood experiences of the holiday. After Ross complains that he is having the worst Thanksgiving ever, his best friends challenge him.
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Chandler tells the story of his parents' divorce. Joey describes the Thanksgiving he got a turkey stuck on his head. Monica explains how she once overheard Chandler, who was at her family home as he and Ross returned from college, calling her overweight. Phoebe recalls how one Thanksgiving, her arm was blown off (this recollection wasn't allowed by the group, since Phoebe claimed it was from her past-life). The One With All The Thanksgivings includes both important moments for viewers' favorite friend group in the present, and in their past.
4 Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Season 1, Episode 10 – Thanksgiving
Brooklyn Nine-Nine revolves around the detectives of Brooklyn's 99th police precinct: Jake, Amy, Rosa, Terry, Charles, Scully, Hitchcock, and Captain Holt. As the eccentric Charles Boyle enters the precinct of Thanksgiving, he wishes everyone a 'happy turkey day,' leading the group to reveal their Thanksgiving game of 'Boyle Bingo' – whoever gets the most 'Boyle-isms' wins. Amy invites her colleagues to her house to enjoy a thoroughly-organised, forced-fun Thanksgiving meal.
Jake swears by his anti-Thanksgiving approach to life, but despite a few hurdles, Thanksgiving ends with the team sat at Amy's table, toasting the things they're grateful for. It's a wholesome watch, and not without its comedy.
3 How I Met Your Mother: Season 3, Episode 9 – Slapsgiving
How I Met Your Mother features a similar Friends-type set-up in that it centers on 5 best friends: Marshall, Ted, Robin, Lily, and Barney. Slapsgiving shows Lily and Marshall's first-hosted Thanksgiving as a married couple. With Lily nervously awaiting hosting, Ted and Robin having slept together the night before, and Marshall threatening Barney with a long-awaited slap as part of their ongoing slap bet, their Thanksgiving is filled with tension and angst. Incredibly well-written, viewers love watching the How I Met Your Mother gang weave their intricate plotlines and inside jokes, and Slapsgiving definitely delivered.
2 Modern Family: Season 6, Episode 8 – Three Turkeys
Modern Family centers on the lives of one extended family and its three branches. Phil and Claire are the parents of Haley, Alex ,and Luke. Jay, Claire's father, is married to Gloria, and is the stepfather to Manny (and Joe's father, in later seasons). And Claire's brother, Mitchell, is in long-term relationship with Cam, who are fathers to Lily. In Modern Family's 11 seasons, fans are grateful for 7 hilarious and heartstring-pulling Thanksgiving episodes.
The Three Turkeys shows Phil in charge for Thanksgiving – hosting, cooking, and entertaining. Claire cooks a separate turkey just in case Phil's fails. As she accidentally trips the power, they decide to host Thanksgiving at Jay's while he and Gloria are on vacation in Mexico. Since Jay and Gloria's trip was actually canceled last minute (they decided not to tell anyone), Jay and Gloria must hide themselves and their cooking, so no-one finds out. In yet another furiously funny episode of Modern Family, writers have developed intricate storylines with ease – Modern Family often operating several plot lines at once.
1 It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia: Season 9, Episode 10 – The Gang Squashes Their Beefs
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is a sitcom focusing on 5 bizarre and eccentric friends: Sweet Dee, Frank, Dennis, Mac, and Charlie. Notoriously selfish and realistically bad people, it's no surprise that the gang weren't on great terms with everybody. Their bad-blood with others and ongoing feuds nearly wreck their Thanksgiving plans. So in an attempt build bridges and be thankful, It's Always Sunny's main characters invite their enemies to their thanksgiving dinner.
It's Always Sunny consistently gets better as the seasons go on, and, despite the characters off-beat and egotistical personalities, the writers have created a deeply likable cast. Ramping up to a great season finale, The Gang Squashes Their Beefs shows a rare side of compassion and humanity to the group – but it's not completely out of character for fan's beloved narcissists, ultimately serving their own needs before others in what becomes a disastrous dinner for everyone but the gang.
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