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30 greatest Thanksgiving episodes of all time

By Reed Gaudens

385848 12: Actors (l-r): Courteney Cox Arquette as Monica Geller and Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay star in NBC's comedy series "Friends" Episode: "The One Where Chandler Doesn''t Like Dogs." (Photo by Warner Bros. Television)
385848 12: Actors (l-r): Courteney Cox Arquette as Monica Geller and Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay star in NBC's comedy series "Friends" Episode: "The One Where Chandler Doesn''t Like Dogs." (Photo by Warner Bros. Television) /
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Portrait of actors from the TV series, ‘Cheers,’ on the barroom set, 1983. L-R: Nicholas Colasanto (1924 – 1985), Rhea Perlman, Ted Danson and Shelley Long. (Photo by NBC Television/Fotos International/Getty Images)
Portrait of actors from the TV series, ‘Cheers,’ on the barroom set, 1983. L-R: Nicholas Colasanto (1924 – 1985), Rhea Perlman, Ted Danson and Shelley Long. (Photo by NBC Television/Fotos International/Getty Images) /

9. Cheers

Episode: Season 5, Episode 9, “Thanksgiving Orphans”

What’s on the menu: Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, especially on Thanksgiving. Given the fact that Cheers takes place inside of the titular bar, you wouldn’t be wrong to anticipate the classic sitcom to throw a holiday dinner with its crew at the bar and feature a strange menu of beer and pretzels. But in Season 5, Cheers produced one of television’s most highly regarded and beloved Thanksgiving episodes of all time.

In “Thanksgiving Orphans,” Carla invites the Cheers crew over to her place for a potluck dinner since her children will be spending the holiday with her ex-husband. Sam arrives with a pie but without his girlfriend; Norm, happy to be away from his mother-in-law brings an uncooked turkey; Cliff, Frasier, and Woody each come over, as does Diane after leaving her professor’s party. Unfortunately, dinner’s running late and their patience is running short. What’d to do while they wait?

Why we’re thankful for it: There’s only a few television food fights that matter, and one of them is the famous Cheers Thanksgiving battle. It’s cathartic to watch a group of people at odds with each other throw peas, carrots, and potatoes at each other with reckless abandon. Who hasn’t dreamed of launching a few trimmings at their own turkey day table? Perhaps the greatest part of “Thanksgiving Orphans” is the near introduction of Norma’s wife Vera, who enters Carla’s home and immediately gets whacked in the face with a pumpkin pie. Classic.

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