Switched to Thanksgiving sitcom episodes after I finished eating. "Turkeys Away" from WKRP In Cincinnati may be the most famous - or at least notorious - Thanksgiving TV episode ever. Station manager Arthur Carlson wants to be more involved in the station and devises a huge Thanksgiving promotion to give himself something to do. He thinks it's going to be the greatest event in the history of radio broadcasting...but he never considered that turkeys are flightless birds...
Barney Miller has an equally frustrating and weird "Thanksgiving Story." The last thing anyone at the 12th Precinct feels like dealing with before they eat their turkey are the inmates of a mental hospital wrecking havoc in an automat. There's also the guy who stabbed his brother-in-law with a fork at the Thanksgiving dinner table because he thought he was being a mooch.
Rushed to work after that. Given this is the day before the biggest food holiday of the year, I think you can safely guess that we were mobbed for most of the afternoon. The store was a mess. The parking lot was a mess. It was easier to keep up with carts when the morning bagger was still there. After he left, it got harder to do it on my own...and then during the last half-hour, they kept calling me to return turkeys. We ran out of the free ones earlier in the day, and now people were buying every other type of turkey and putting them back when they didn't come up free. I was overwhelmed and frustrated by the whole thing, and I never did finish the carts.
I was too tired to cook when I got home and not in the mood for leftovers anyway, so after I changed, I went back out again for a walk to Crown Chicken and Gyro. They were surprisingly busy for the night before Thanksgiving. I guess I wasn't the only one who either wasn't in the mood to cook or whose kitchen was full of food for the holiday. I got a tasty fish sandwich, their yummy fries, and a Diet Coke.
At least it was a nice night for all the running around. It had been a little cloudy all day, nothing too bad, and cool but not overly cold for late November. The wind picked up a bit later, but once again, it still wasn't horrible. I even got to see a lot of great light displays as I walked home, including an amazing one a block away from me with strings of lights and glowing icicle lights tenting over the sidewalk.
Ate dinner while watching one more sitcom episode. "One, Two, Three, Give Me Lady Liberty" from the historical swashbuckler spoof Jack of All Trades definitely gets the award for the most creative (and unlikely) holiday show. Emilia is suspicious when diminutive dwarf Napoleon insists on using her as a model for the huge statue he's going to give the US. Jack first creates a Thanksgiving feast to get the plans from him, then makes use of another Thanksgiving tradition as a distraction - football!
Took a shower, then switched to tonight's Chuck Woolery tribute on YouTube. Scrabble was probably his longest-running and most popular show, remaining a stalwart of NBC's daytime schedule from 1984 to 1990. It was such a hit, it briefly returned in early 1993. It's really more of a crossword puzzle game. Contestants choose tiles with letters they can put in a crossword board on the screen. If they guess the wrong letter, they lose their turn. Three turns lost, and they have to guess the word. They play two games, with winners facing off against each other in the end. The winner of that game has to guess three words in 10 seconds to win the money.
This, Sale of the Century, and Super Password make me wish I hadn't been so devoted to the CBS game shows in the 80's and early 90's. I've really enjoyed all three and wish more of the first two were available. Scrabble is still a lot of fun to play along with, especially if you're already a big word fan or reader like me. (Apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks so. The CW just revived this last month with Raven-Symone hosting. From what I've gathered, it's more based after the actual game than the original versions.)
Finished the night with Planes, Trains, and Automobiles at Paramount Plus. All ad executive Neil Page (Steve Martin) wants is to get home to Chicago for Thanksgiving. Running into Del Griffith (John Candy), a traveling salesman who is the nicest guy you'll ever meet, but is also a chatty and needy mass of bad habits, doesn't help matters. Nor does his case of the worst luck traveling ever. His plane gets grounded, the train breaks down, and rental cars can't be found on the lot. As he and Del travel across the frozen mid-western landscape in one vehicle or another, he finally figures out why Del is on the road...and why he has a real reason to be thankful.
Candy and Martin are hilarious and touching in what is arguably director John Hughes' best film. They manage to keep things believable, even when the movie takes a left turn into forced sentimentality towards the end. Highly recommended for adults who have likely been through just about everything that happens to these two guys on the road at one time or another.
Here's even more vintage Thanksgiving tales to tide you over while you wait for dinner tomorrow!
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