Thanksgiving episodes of series with ensemble casts tend to be a lot of fun; the holiday requires all of the characters to interact within a set for the big dinner, and “bottle episodes” are often the most satisfying installments for heavily invested fans, as the pressure-cooker atmosphere results in unusual pairings, brings simmering tensions to a head, and teases out satisfying bits of character development.  And there is also the pleasure in seeing beloved characters acknowledging their affection and commitment to each other…we might not initially be so thrilled at the prospect of spending an afternoon with drunk uncle Morty, but watching, say, the Gilmore Girls struggle through four turkey dinners in the course of a single day can cast a warm glow over our efforts to reaffirm bonds with even the most truculent members of our circles.

Some series go another way with the Thanksgiving episode. My favorite example this year has been South Park’s savage takedown of the History Channel’s pandering Ancient Aliens franchise, but the best nontraditional Thanksgiving episode ever remains the classic WKRP in Cincinnati offering “Turkeys Away.”

WKRP station manager Arthur Carlson, tired of being sidelined by his more competent underlings, decides to get directly involved with a Thanksgiving-themed promotional stunt.  Keeping his plan secret from increasingly agitated program director Andy Travis, Carlson conspires to drop a number of live turkeys from a helicopter. The one flaw in his plan:  turkeys don’t fly.

The mayhem is hilariously conveyed by the onsite reportage of the ever-oblivious station newsman Les Nessman (whose halting reading of the helicopter’s banner—Happy Thaaaaaaaanks? Giving! From W…K…R…P!—never fails to kill me), who narrates the massacre with choked horror (“One just went through the windshield of a parked car!”), explicitly referencing the famous report of the Hindenburg explosion.  It’s a little tasteless, a little surreal, and a masterful example of releasing the tension of a slow-building, inspired joke.  This sort of smart silliness was WKRP’s calling card, and never better executed than in this classic episode.

Let us know your favorite Thanksgiving episodes!  If anyone puts forth 1973’s A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, I won’t argue with you.