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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