Friends: "The One Where Underdog Gets Away"

Premiered November 17, 1994.

It’s Thanksgiving week in mid-1990s Manhattan, and holiday plans are in process.

Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) needs money so she can go to Vail with her family and hopes to earn it from her job at the coffee shop.

Ross (David Schwimmer) and Monica (Courtney Cox) are upset when they learn their parents are spending Thanksgiving in Puerto Rico.  Monica volunteers to do her best to replicate the family Thanksgiving meal, promising to include “the lumps” in their mother’s mashed potato recipe.  

Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) plans to visit to her grandmother and her boyfriend for Thanksgiving, however,  they won’t be celebrating Thanksgiving until December because the boyfriend is “lunar.”  Monica invites Phoebe to her place for Thanksgiving dinner.

Actor Joey (Matt LeBlanc) has recently gotten a job as a poster model for a free clinic.  Unbeknownst to him, his image is being used on the poster about venereal disease.  His family now thinks he has VD so he’s on his own for the holiday, and he’s going to be at Monica’s as well.

Chandler (Matthew Perry) does not celebrate the occasion due to a Thanksgiving childhood trauma, and he he plans to have a “feast” of grilled cheese, tomato soup and Funions.

Thanksgiving expectations and tensions begin to mount.  Monica is getting frazzled about meal preparation, especially since everyone expects her to prepare potatoes for the meal in different styles (with lumps, whipped with peas & carrots, as tater tots, etc).

Rachel is thrilled to learn that her friends have taken up a collection to get her a plane ticket to Vail.

Then Chandler arrives with news that the Underdog balloon has “escaped” from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.  Everyone runs to the rooftop of the apartment building to witness Underdog’s unscheduled flight.

Unfortunately, Monica and Rachel miscommunicate about keys to the front door, and find themselves locked out of their apartment, which means that Monica’s feast is overcooking and Rachel’s plane ticket and baggage are inaccessible.  

Is Thanksgiving ruined?

RigbyMel says:

This is a solid Thanksgiving episode with many of the expected tropes that have come to be associated with turkey day TV including the requisite cooking disaster and time spent with friends and/or family and the attendant tensions holiday expectations bring.

There is a subplot involving Ross (my least favorite character on the show because he is awful and entitled and self-centered) spending some time with his pregnant ex-wife and competing with her girlfriend for the affections of their unborn baby.  This subplot and some of the jokes (like one about Joey wearing makeup for his modeling job) haven't aged particularly well in my estimation.

That being said, it's nice to see actual Macy's Thanksgiving parade footage from 1993 including the Underdog and Smokey Bear balloons.   The national TV broadcast of the Macy's parade makes it a Thanksgiving touchstone for people all across the US and watching old footage from the parade provides interesting views of various moments in pop culture.     The unexpectedness of Underdog's "escape" from the parade and Joey's modelling woes add zest to the proceedings.

If you're a fan of the show and want to enjoy some 1990s nostalgia over your Thanksgiving weekend, this episode is recommended, even if it's not quite a classic.

RigbyMel's rating:

3 pumpkin pies

J.A. Morris says:

"The One Where Underdog Gets Away" is a solid Thanksgiving episode. I've written here before about how the Macy's Parade is as important to Thanksgiving as pumpkin pie, turkey and candied yams. This episode is another example of the parade's importance. The Smokey Bear balloon made its last appearance in the 1993 edition of the parade, footage of which is shown here.

The only problem I have with this episode is Ross' subplot mentioned by Rigbymel. It has nothing do with Thanksgiving and feels phoned in from another episode (it's also not particularly funny).

I found myself identifying Monica.  I've been in scenarios where I felt like I was doing all the work to make others happy (as I imagine a lot of us have).  Her breakdown felt genuine, nice work by Courtney Cox.  As Phoebe and Chandler had the funniest lines in this episode.  

If you were a big fan of Friends, it will provide a nice trip back to the 90s where you can pay a holiday visit to your old TV "friends."  Hardcore fans of the Macy's Parade may also enjoy it.

J.A. Morris' rating:

2 and a half pumpkin pies.

Spectacular Spider-Man: "Nature Vs. Nurture"

First aired June 14, 2008.

"No,no,no, my yams!  I wonder if Romita's delivers turkey and fixings pizza?"
-Peter Parker

"I'm fine. Well, not fine, but alive. Just glad I started the turkey this morning, before the post-traumatic stress kicked in."
-Gwen Stacy

Peter Parker (Josh Keaton) is getting ready for Thanksgiving.  But it won't be an easy holiday.  His Aunt May (Deborah Strang) is in the hospital, having survived a heart attack. 

At Midtown High School, Peter's friends and acquaintances ask how Aunt May is feeling.  Even football star Flash Thompson (Joshua LeBar), who normally taunts Peter, is sympathetic to him.

Liz Allen (Alanna Ubach) asks Peter if he can help carry Midtown's Mustang mascot balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.  He politely declines, saying he may be taking care of his aunt on Thanksgiving.  Gwen Stacy (Lacey Chabert) offers to accompany Peter to the hospital to visit Aunt May.

Another friend of his, Mary Jane (Vanessa Marshall),  needs to talk to Peter.  His estranged friend Eddie Brock (Ben Diskin) went on a date with her simply to get back at Peter. 

Mary Jane wants a word with Peter.

Eddie holds a grudge against Peter for getting him fired from his job.  Eddie has been taken over by an alien symbiote costume and possesses powers identical to Spider-Man's and calls himself Venom. 

Peter talks to Eddie on the phone, not knowing Eddie has become Venom.

Peter and Gwen visit Aunt May in the hospital.  Her physician Doctor Bromwell (Dorian Harewood) says May is ready to go home.  She says she'll prepare the Thanksgiving feast, but Peter says he's got it covered.

Peter & Gwen visit Aunt May, Dr. Bromwell says she should be out by Thanksgiving.

However, it turns out that Peter is in over his head, he burns the yams and leaves the kitchen looking like a disaster area.  In the middle of this, Venom attacks Peter in his house.

"My yams!"

The symbiote has told Eddie/Venom that Parker and Spider-Man are one and the same.  They brawl outside the Parker house.  It ends when Venom webs Spidey to a fence.  He leaves him there, promising to make him suffer.  Since Venom is a combination of Eddie Brock and the symbiote, it refers to itself as "we".  As he swings away, Venom tells Spider-Man "we know who you are and everyone you care about!"

Spider-Man eventually frees himself and heads to Aunt May's hospital room, (correctly) anticipating that Venom will attack her.  They battle all over New York City.  Venom disappears in the middle of the fight, right after telling Spidey "we know who you love the most".

Venom leaves a "note" for Spidey.

Peter thinks Eddie is talking about Mary Jane.  He heads to the parade site and spots MJ talking to Flash.  Spider-Man realizes Venom is after Gwen. 

Eddie Brock approaches Gwen at the parade.

Spidey goes looking for Gwen (who is marching in the parade and playing sax with the Midtown Band), and eventually finds her tied to a King Kong balloon.  

Spider-Man tries to resuce Gwen, but Venom intervenes.  Spidey tries to reason with his old friend Eddie, asking him to stop fighting and endangering Gwen.  But the Venom symbiote has taken complete control over its host.

Venom pursues Spidey through a sea of balloons!

Venom and Spider-Man go toe-to-toe, turning the Macy's Parade into a battlefield, bouncing off the giant balloons. Mary Jane, Flash chip in too, trying to help rescue Gwen.

The Midtown High Mustang balloon.

Will Gwen be saved?  Can Spider-Man defeat Venom?  Will Peter's lack of culinary skills ruin Thanksgiving?

The crowd gathered for the parade gets ringside seats to a Spider-Brawl!

J.A. Morris says:

I'm a huge fan of Spider-Man, I grew up reading the comics.  And the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is one of my favorite parts of every Thanksgiving, so I love seeing Spider-Man and Venom crash the parade in this episode!  It's great to see them jumping over giant balloons and chasing each other through the streets and skies of New York City.

When Spider-Man web's Venom's mouth shut, he sprouts another in his stomach.  Eeewww!

Another great thing about this episode is Venom's voice.  Since Venom is made up of both Eddie and the symbiote, his voice is double-tracked, making an inherently creepy villain even creepier! 

Venom hitches a ride on the giant cat balloon.

Spectacular Spider-Man was a great series and one of the coolest things about it was it gave us "a year in the life of Peter Parker/Spider-Man".  We got to celebrate most of the holidays with Peter and his supporting cast.  Superheroes + holidays=greatness!

Gwen & her father Capt. George Stacy see what Peter's "cooking" has done to the kitchen!

We got some of the usual Thanksgiving tropes here:Cooking disasters, obligatory shot of the family around the table,but how many Thanksgiving shows have the a super-villain show up in the middle of cooking the feast?

Gwen, Aunt May & George enjoy some pumpkin pie.

In addition to Thanksgiving and fighting Venom, this episode takes Gwen and Peter's relationship to a new place.

"Whoa!"

One note about the pull quote at the top:Peter asks if "Romita's delivers turkey and fixings pizza".  That's a reference to John Romita and his son John Romita, Jr., who both drew Spidey's comic book adventures. 

Spidey swings past a lion balloon.

This episode can be found on dvd on The Spectacular Spider-Man:Season One set and you can purchase it as an instant video on Amazon. 

"Nature Vs. Nurture" has become one of my favorite Thanksgiving episodes and is highly recommended.  It's the last episode of this season and it ends on a high note!

Dr. Bromwell joins the Parkers & Stacys for Thanksgiving dinner.

J.A. Morris' rating:
4 pumpkin pies!

Tower Heist

Premiered November 4, 2011

Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) is the building manager of the Tower, a high rise apartment in New York's Columbus Circle.  (New Yorkers may recognize the building as the actual Trump Tower.) Josh is friendly with tycoon and Tower penthouse resident Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda).  The Tower's staff consists of a large and multi-ethnic crew including: Lester (Stephen Henderson), the doorman, Charlie the concierge (Casey Affleck), Odessa (Gabourey Sidibe), a hotel maid, and Enrique (Michael Pena), a new elevator operator.

We also briefly meet a few other wealthy residents of the Tower all of whom have idiosyncratic and exacting expectations of the staff.

Josh's boss, Mr. Simon (Judd Hirsch) tells him to take care of an eviction that needs to take place discreetly.  The evictee is Mr. Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick), a Wall Street trader who has lost everything in the recent stock market crash.  Josh doesn't have the heart to toss Fitzhugh out on the street and finds a way to delay the eviction.

The next day, Arthur Shaw gets arrested by the FBI for running a Bernie Madoff-like Ponzi scheme. As it turns out, Josh had given all the staff pension funds to Shaw for investments, so the entire staff is now without retirement money.

Josh realizes that Shaw is hiding missing funds in his penthouse without the knowledge of the FBI investigators.  He tries to confront Shaw, with disastrous results, and gets himself (as well as Charlie and Enrique) fired.  In disgust, and with a view towards making use of insider knowledge of the Tower's daily routines, Josh devises a Robin Hood-esque scheme to try and get the pension money back.  He enlists the aid of Charlie and Enrique as well as Mr. Fitzhugh - they make an unlikely team. Josh also brings in an outsider -- Slide (Eddie Murphy), a fast talking small time con artist from Queens -- to supply the criminal knowledge that he and his colleagues blatantly lack.

Our band of miscreants chooses Thanksgiving Day to pull off their master plan due to the complicating factor of the Macy's Parade passing right by the Tower, thereby making police intervention much more difficult.  Will our unlikely heroes pull off the heist and give Shaw his comeuppance? Or will they wind up in prison while Shaw goes free?  Will they all get entanlged in a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon?   Watch and find out!

RigbyMel says:

As is typical in this sort of caper film, nothing quite goes according to plan, which is part of the fun. The prominent role of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade makes this a memorable holiday film. Although I tend to find Ben Stiller a bit bland as the lead in movies, his character is likeable enough. That being said, the performances by the supporting cast are what makes this film "pop."  Eddie Murphy's Slide is hilarious and reminiscent of some of his earlier work from the 1980s.  Sadly, I feel Slide is a bit under-used in terms of the overall plot.  Gabourey Sidibe's safe-cracking Jamaican maid, Odessa is also a great addition to the cast.  It is nice to see Sidibe displaying her comedic abilities.
There are a few plot holes one could drive a 1963 Ferrari through if you think about them too hard, but this movie is about light-hearted caper-tastic fun rather than tight plotting.  It is worth a look, but may not be one for annual November viewing.

My rating:
2 1/2 pumpkin pies






J.A. Morris says:
We're in general agreement about this movie, and the work of the actors.  I'll add that Alan Alda is great as White Collar criminal Arthur Shaw.  But the real star of this movie is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, it's a "character" just as much as any of the human characters in Tower Heist.  And this movie is a reminder that the parade is just as uniquely (North) American as Thanksgiving Day itself.
My rating: