For all your Thanksgiving needs

[scarlettina]

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Because we are a post-TV generation, our traditions are, perhaps, different than our parents', but that makes them no less precious. We must enjoy the full range of holiday cheer. To this end, I offer an incomplete but entertaining collection of Thanksgiving entertainments--my favorites, anyway:

WKRP in Cincinnati: "Turkeys Away!" The complete episode from Hulu. "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!" With, among others, the astonishingly hot Gary Sandy and the unspeakably cool Howard Hesseman. (As a post-script, a friend pointed me at this oral history of the origin not only of the episode but of the show. Wonderful stuff.)

Friends: The One with All the Thanksgivings: This is but a clip from a flashback episode of the show, in which Monica's trying to cheer up Chandler. It may be one of the weirdest stunts I've ever seen in situation comedy--I can't help admiring Courtney Cox for being game enough to do this thing--but it never fails to entertain. The quality of the video isn't great, but it's still worth watching for the fez and the dancing turkey wings.

Alice's Restaurant, 40 years and counting. I know that kradical prefers the original version, but I dig the one at my first link because Arlo makes some great side comments--just a couple--about it being, well, 40 years from when the incident occurs. Time passes for us all, but this song remains a classic.

Happy Turkey Day!

Comments

[bedii.livejournal.com]

I have a live stream from WNCW on because they' always play it at noon their time (although I may listen to the station other times of the year because the music selection so far is excellent).

The Friends episode is pretty strange, but I always felt the dimensional travel episode of Mad About You took the cake--I don't think they ever did SF/Fantasy again, but boy, for a first attempt they did it up proud.

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

I watched a piece of the WKRP episode. It's so bizarre to think now that Hesseman didn't rate the opening credits. I saw him in Night of the Iguana once, amazing actor.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that Hesseman didn't rate the credits was a surprise to me, too. Of course, this was only the sixth episode of season one. I don't remember for sure, but I suspect he rated in later seasons. BTW, I've added to this post a link to an oral history of how the episode was created. It's pretty great stuff.

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the oral history. Great stuff and a great snapshot into how something like this comes together.

[varina8.livejournal.com]

The WKRP episode is one of my holiday favorites. Thanks for the reminder.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's pretty great. BTW, I've added to this post a link to an oral history of how the episode was created. It's pretty great stuff if you're curious.

[shadowdaddy.livejournal.com]

I put on Alice's Restaurant just before firing up LJ. It is my one nod to the day today...but if I can get the hulu link to work I may watch WKRP too! =P

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Hope you can! BTW, I've added to this post a link to an oral history of how the episode was created. It's pretty great stuff if you're curious.

Just ask anybody

[the-same-andrew.livejournal.com]

Generally, if I ask someone, "Hey, do you remember "WKRP in Cincinnati?" they reply with, "As God is my witness..."

Thanks for those links!

[davidlevine]

Another T'giving favorite is the Mad About You episode "Giblets for Murray" or, as it's known in our household, "the one with the five turkeys."

[garyomaha.livejournal.com]

Thank you so VERY much for including the link to the oral history of the WKRP episode. I had not seen that and it made my day...and perhaps is even (gasp!) the top story of 2012 for me.

Why? Not only because it talked about one of my favorite TV shows of all time (likely because I had worked in radio and much of radio was really, truly like that. But also because one of the interviewees in the articles is someone I knew!

I went to the University of Iowa and was involved with the student radio station there. One of the other students involved was a fellow named Max Tash, who was part of the WKRP interview. I got along fairly well with Max, possibly because we were both Jewish. When a group from our student station took a field trip to Chicago, we stayed at Max's home. It was at that time that I had one of the Most Significant Experiences of My Life. Max's mom ordered in pizza for all of us and this pizza place (whose name is lost to history, at least for me) delivered "beef pizza." Up to that point in my young and impressionable life, "beef pizza" had always meant crumbled ground beef. Nope, this one had slices of roast beef on it. Gasp. To this day, I've never experienced anything else quite like it. (And no, I don't suppose they kept very kosher in that household.)

I have not kept in touch with Max -- I wrote him years ago after they brought back WKRP and he was a full producer on that series, which I recall didn't last long. In my mind, Max is one of the more famous people I've known.

So, special thanks, Janna!