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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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Buffy the Vampire Slayer
LOS ANGELES – APRIL 18: The cast of the television show ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ attend the cast party at Miauhaus on April 18, 2003 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) /

24. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Episode: Season 4, Episode 8, “Pangs”

What’s on the menu: Thanksgiving doesn’t seem like the type of holiday Buffy the Vampire Slayer would observe, given that Halloween is much more up its alley. But Joss Whedon found a way to tackle the holiday in the controversial fourth season episode “Pangs,” which delved into the issues and misconceptions rooted in Thanksgiving. Where Buffy typically battles vampires and demons, she and the Scooby gang faced a vengeful spirit originating from the Chumash tribe.

During construction for the college’s new anthropology building, Xander inadvertently releases the spirit, which morphs from a green haze into a Native American man who murders a museum curator and later materializes into a black bear. “Pangs” has been criticized for its stereotyping of Native Americans, but the episode has also has received praise for its handling of race and the symbolism involved in the juxtaposition of the gang’s Thanksgiving dinner.

Why we’re thankful for it: It’s rare that a television series addresses the actual history of Thanksgiving, but if any television series was prepared to do so, it was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Likening a Native American spirit as an entity Buffy must slay was definitely a risk, and it more than likely wouldn’t fly through today’s lens, but the episode ultimately made a statement worth listening to. Also, Buffy doesn’t just slay vampires and spirits in “Pangs.” She slays her first self-made Thanksgiving dinner while her mom’s out of town. Buffy can do it all.

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