A Look at Home Improvement Thanksgiving Episodes .

Three years in a row now I have celebrated Thanksgiving with a special review of a Thanksgiving episode or episodes. After doing The Cosby Show, Roseanne, and Frasier (and with my look at Everybody Loves Raymond coming next year) the last few years, the next logical choice was an easy one.

 

This series didn’t do a Thanksgiving every single yar, but when they did they really did a nice job with it. Well, for the most part. As I looked over the episodes I realized that looking them over gives a nice overview of how this show was so good and then jumped the shark towards the end. Let me explain what I mean:



“A Frozen Moment” (1993)

This is sort of a Christmas episode also, but only because the B story involves Tim going overboard with the family Christmas card. Which of course results in crazy costumes and Tim causing the snow machine to break the window of the house. All in all, tame stuff. And the Thanksgiving parts are really nice, you feel like you’re watching Thanksgiving dinner at a real families house. Yeah I’m sure there aren’t to many families who literally go around the table talking about what they’re thankful for, but it is a TV show.





“My Dinner with Wilson” (1994)

I simply love this episode. It doesn’t rely on a crazy gimmick. It doesn’t have stupid celebrity cameos. Thanksgiving fits into the plot though to be fair it’s a B story. When the Taylor’s go to Wilson’s for Thanksgiving, they discover he is selling his house. Turns out its because he misses his late wife, and Tim explains that just talking aboyt her should suffice. So, why do I love this episode? Hard to say it’s just so honest. The talk Tim and Wilson have at the end feels like two people talking, and as I said the episode doesn’t rely on stupid stunts. That begins in out next episode.



“The Wood, the Bad and the Hungry” (1996)

While technically a gimmick the show remember to keep the heart in the script. In fact this is one of the quintessential Thanksgiving episode for me, I have to watch it every year. Even though it isn’t perfect. After Mario Andretti appears in the Tool Tim segment, we find eh story is about the fact that Benny isn’t invited to Tim’s. For those who don’t know Benny was a mooch. Then Tim sees Benny at a soup kitchen and feels guilty. But what really makes this memorable is the dream Tim has, which is basically a tribute to those old Rankin/Bass shows we grew up with. With actual stop motion puppets (which I saw once in Disney World). In the end turns out Benny is an even bigger mooch than we though, he didn’t need the soup kitchen after all, but apologizes and promises to make it up to everyone. Yeah it’s a tad corny but as I said, the episode’s heart and message about charity is in the right place.




“Thanksgiving” (1997)

And then we get to this episode and man does the age show on this series. First we get a ridiculous Tool Time segment where Al gets blown up like a balloon. Yeah. The plot is the Taylor’s are spending Thanksgiving at a luxury box at the Silver dome. It’s a ridiculous premise. The box has celebrities and then Tim blows the power in the stadium by doing..nothing really. This episode is dull and even includes a pointless celebrity cameo in Rodney Dangerfield. Who also appears in the tag on another Tool Time segment. The celebrity cameos on this show got so bad that the series would lampshade it themselves in a later episode.





“Thanks, but No Thanks” (1998)

Finally, the last Thanksgiving episode comes along in the final season when the series was trying like crazy to find different characters to focus on. This episode begins the arc which brings Tim’s brother into the house with his two daughters. And there really isn’t much more to say about it. Thanksgiving takes place between scenes and the episode really could have taken place on any day. I liked the earlier episode because the character stuff was between Tim and Wilson. Having an episode centered on Tim’s brother (who we hardly see) just doesn’t have the same impact. Not the worst episode, but not the greatest.




It always amazes me how the same show can do a holiday episode great one year, and then either half ass or just do a terrible job the next year. I’m sure we’ll be talking more about holiday episodes next month.
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