Thanksgiving TV: 5 Episodes to be Thankful For

Thanksgiving is a time to gather with your family, eat a lot of turkey and judge the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade floats. (Really, Shrek again?) But it's also a time to count your blessings and take stock of what you're thankful for.

So what better time to list off the Thanksgiving episodes that make us thankful it's turkey time again?

"Friends"- The One With all the Thanksgivings

If there was one show that could claim the title of 'Master of Thanksgiving Episodes' it would be Friends. In fact, this could easily have been a whole list made up entirely of Friends episodes. Remember the one with the football or the one with Brad Pitt that's now kind of awkward to watch post-divorce? Those were pretty great too.

What really puts this Friends turkey-day outting in the front of the pack is that there are just so many Thanksgivings to choose from. We get to see Chandler with a Flock of Seagulls haircut. We get to see Monica pre and post weight lost and Rachel pre and post nose job. But most importantly, we get to see Chandler tell Monica he loves her while she's dancing with a turkey on her head. And that turkey is wearing sunglasses. Instant classic.

"How I Met Your Mother"- Slapsgiving

There's a countdown clock to a slap, that's about all you need to know about this episode. In the first post-slap bet episode, Marshall goes mad with his ability to torture Barney. This includes the aforementioned countdown clock and culminates in an after slap sing-along at the piano.Underneath it's slappy trappings, however, it was really a story about moving on from a bad breakup and the power of friendship. Mostly it was about slaps though.

"Gossip Girl"- Blair Waldorf Must Pie

A great name for a great episode that addressed Blair's bulimia head-on. (Sadly, it has rarely been addressed since.) It also focused on the families of all our favorite Upper East Siders, giving us new insights into the characters. Lily and Rufus' prior relationship finally came to light, throwing love birds Serena and Dan into a tailspin.

Blair and Nate's parents are fairly horrible, although Eleanor Waldorf does eventually redeem herself. And the show displays some of it's magical thinking about the time it takes to get from the Upper East Side to Brooklyn with several trips back and forth over the course of one day. But it's the strong friendship on display between Blair and Serena that makes this one a classic.

"Buffy The Vampire Slayer" - Pangs

A fairly silly episode from the show's fourth season, Buffy's Thanksgiving episode still stands out as the only one of this list in which people are shot with arrows.

Maybe "Gossip Girl" can incorporate that into a Thanksgiving episode next year. Xander pisses off some Native American spirits, Angel comes down from L.A, (secretly!) for an assist and Spike is tied to a chair. It's about as warm and fuzzy as holidays get in the Buffy-verse.

"Gilmore Girls" - A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving



Lorelai and Rory take on the ultimate challenge for gluttons everywhere: four Thanksgivings in one day. And they pull it off, somehow, with their tiny stomachs exploding.

They start out at Lane's for Tofurkey and then move on to Sookie's deep fried Thanksgiving.

Next it's a stop in for awkward times with Luke and Jess before ending the episode with an even more awkward dinner with the Gilmore grandparents. Talk about biting off more than you can chew!

(Ed. Note: Any discussion of Thanksgiving TV is incomplete without this clip, from "WKRP in Cincinnati" and their legendary "Turkey Drop" episode)

What are your favorite Thanksgiving-themed episodes? Sound off in the comments!