30 greatest Thanksgiving episodes of all time

2. Gilmore Girls

Episode: Season 3, Episode 9, “A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving”

What’s on the menu: In true Lorelai and Rory fashion, the menu is varied, unfocused, has no limits. In “A Deep-Friend Korean Thanksgiving,” the Gilmore girls make four stops on the holiday since they are in such high demand. Their first is Lane’s house, where Mrs. Kim serves tofurkey. Next up, Lorelai and Rory hit Luke’s, where they dine with Luke and Jess and Lorelai steals all of Luke’s marshmallows. Third on the call sheet is Sookie’s, who’s surviving the horror of Jackson deep-frying a turkey — and everything in sight — with lots of alcohol.

Finally, they land at Emily and Richard’s for a more refined affair that’s equally full of surprises. Rory reveals that she applied to Yale, which doesn’t necessarily go over well with Lorelai’s instinct to do the opposite of her parents. Meanwhile, Kirk decides to get a cat, and that decision yields terrible results. Dave asks Lane out despite the tofurkey, and Dean stands up to Jess in a duel of the egos. Gilmore Girls had a lot cooking in its classic Thanksgiving episode.

Why we’re thankful for it: Time and time again, Gilmore Girls bottled up the essence of life’s little grievances. There’s an uncanny precision to how the series captured the human experience, even as it raced full speed ahead with breakneck dialogue. Lorelai and Rory’s roving holiday is all too real for anyone who has had to make multiple stops on Thanksgiving or Christmas, and as you know, you never walk into something normal. This episode isn’t just one of the best Thanksgiving episodes of all time, it’s also one of the best episodes of Gilmore Girls of all time.