Culture Crash: The Thanksgiving Sitcom Classics

Every year, Halloween and Christmas are essentially turned into month-long celebrations. TV networks air marathons of Halloween or holiday movie classics, storefronts are done up as part of the festivities, and both holidays truly feel like seasons in their own right.

Thanksgiving, though, has been relegated to sort of a strange no-mans land. It truly is a single-day affair. Instead of watching Thanksgiving movies, we watch football games all day and, honestly, kick off the Christmas shopping season. But I did want to take some time to identify a few Thanksgiving classics in their own right, in case you feel like getting in the turkey-chowing mood.

The obvious classic answer is Planes, Trains and Automobiles, the John Candy/Steve Martin buddy comedy about a trip home for Thanksgiving gone horrible awry. The movie is a John Hughes, 1980s classic, and any excuse to watch an old John Candy movie is a good one. A more modern, if less conventional, choice would be Stuck in Love. The coming of age romance movie stars Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Kristen Bell and more in a film that covers multiple romances at various life stages through the prism of a fractured family. The movie is funny and dramatic, and while it does cover a full year, it begins and ends on the Thanksgiving holiday.

But, where Thanksgiving culture really shines is in the world of TV. Friends did an annual Thanksgiving episode and many of them are classics. My favorite is season 6, episode 9 “The One Where Ross Got High,” which features a classic Ross and Monica sibling fight. Master of None season two used season 2, episode 8 to highlight a family coming to terms with a woman’s sexuality over the course of multiple Thanksgivings in a powerful episode that won an Emmy for its writing. And some other shows with classic Thanksgiving installments include The Simpsons, The Brady Bunch, Gossip Girl, Gilmore Girls, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and more.

While Thanksgiving may not be the cultural force that both Halloween and Christmas are, there are a few movie options and a slew of TV options that can make your November feel a bit more festive between all the football games.