Saturday Night Live's Tradition Of Thanksgiving Songs

Hi again everyone,
We're big fans of Saturday Night Live, especially of the show's classic eras.

SNL has never had a "Thanksgiving episode", but the show has featured quite a few Thanksgiving-themed musical numbers over the years.

In 1976, host Paul Simon opened the show by singing "Still Crazy After All These Years"...in a turkey costume:


Sorry I couldn't find any video of this online.  Simon stops in the middle of the performance and calls it "one of the most humiliating experiences of my life!"

EDIT (2019):  Since we first published this post back in 2011, a Youtube video of the Paul Simon clip has become available, so here it is: 

Perhaps the most famous Thanksgiving song in the show's history was performed on November 21, 1992. Adam Sandler introduced "The Thanksgiving Song", a new song he'd written about eating turkey. It also contains a plethora 90s pop culture references that have nothing to do with Thanksgiving:

A year later (November 20,1993 to be exact), Sandler did an excellent impression of Bruce Springsteen performing a Thanksgiving song.
Here's a Springsteen Thanksgiving:

In 1996, we got a sketch featuring multiple singers auditioning new Thanksgiving songs for a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts. This sketch includes the debut of Cinder Calhoun, played by Ana Gasteyer. "Cinder" would become a recurring character on the show for several years. Tim Meadows also stands out in this sketch performing a sultry, soulful and innuendo-filled Thanksgiving ballad.
Watch "Thanksgiving Song Auditions" here:

And speaking of Cinder Calhoun, she showed up the next year on Weekend Update to perform another Thanksgiving song. The song condemns the killing of turkeys on Thanksgiving and compares Butterball to Hitler and Stalin! She was joined by musical guest Sarah McLachlan on "Basted In Blood:
Here's a photo from the bit from 11/22/97:

EDIT (2019): And here's a link to an article with the video clip:  https://www.thecut.com/2015/11/basted-in-blood-your-lilith-fair-holiday-jam.html

And just last year, current cast member Jay Pharoah appeared on Weekend Update and wondered what a Thanksgiving rap written by Jay-Z or Biggie Smalls would sound like. Pharoh proceeded to rap about Thanksgiving and its trappings, from November 20, 2010:

So maybe if you're musically inclined, you'll find yourself leading your family in a singalong of one of these songs tonight after you've finished all the pumpkin pie. Okay, that probably won't happen (considering some of these songs contain outdated references George Wendt and Darryl Strawberry), but these songs are still lots of fun.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

J.A. Morris and RigbyMel

The Bob Newhart Show: "An American Family"

Premiered November 23, 1974

Bob Hartley (Bob Newhart) and his wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette) are preparing for Thanksgiving. Bob's parents Martha and Herb (Martha Scott and Barnard Hughes) are spending Thanksgiving with them for the first time in five years.  Martha is a control freak and has strict ideas about how a turkey should be prepared, what pies should be served, how table seating should be arranged, etc.  Bob's sister Ellen (Pat Finley) and her fiance Howard (Bill Daily) will also be there.  Howard is very nervous about meeting Ellen's parents for the first time.  Bob's office mate Jerry (Peter Bonerz) and his receptionist Carol (Marcia Wallace) will also be joining them for Thanksgiving dinner, so there will be eight dinner guests all together.

Emily's parents, Junior and Aggie Harrison (John Randolph and Ann Rutherford) show up unannounced, they've flown in with a 35-pound turkey and intend to celebrate the holiday with Bob and Emily.  Martha doesn't like this, as she has planned to cook a turkey.  Plus she and Junior have never gotten along, they start sniping at each other immediately.  So the Hartleys will now have ten guests at Thanksgiving dinner, Jerry agrees to bring extra chairs.  Bob and Emily agree to try to keep the peace between Martha and Junior.

On Thanksgiving Day, Junior and Martha make up flimsy excuses so they can skip dinner and avoid each other.  Emily invites her parents for dessert, and Bob does the same, as a way of forcing them to act like adults.  Can Martha and Junior finish their pie without ruining Thanksgiving?

J.A. Morris says:

This is a great Thanksgiving episode because most of us can relate to the plot. I've been in holiday scenarios where I had to keep peace between relatives for one reason or another. Bob and Emily were often the sanest characters on the show, this time the "crazies" they have to deal with are their own parents.

I hadn't watched The Bob Newhart show in years, but it's still a very funny series. It featured a great ensemble cast, every character had at least two laugh lines in "An American Family."  Barnard Hughes (one of the best character actors of his era) stands out as Herb.  He gets to deliver a great speech about families uniting around what they have in common during holiday gatherings.

This episode can be found on the third season dvd set of The Bob Newhart Show and is currently streaming on Hulu.

My rating:
3 and a half pumpkin pies

Cheers: "Thanksgiving Orphans"

Premiered November 27, 1986

Woody: "This is my first Thanksgiving away from home...unless you count last year."

Diane: "What could be more enjoyable than opening your heart this holiday season?"

Carla: "Opening yours with a can opener?"

It's the week of Thanksgiving, but Woody is already putting up Christmas decorations, including a paper Rudolph he made.  Sam says it seems like Christmas comes earlier every year. Frasier rants about the unhealthy messages for children inherent in the "Rudolph", he says the song "gives them a horribly distorted view of reality."

The gang is talking about their Thanksgiving plans: Sam has a date for the holiday (this episode takes place when Sam and Diane's relationship was "on again, off again" and they were often playing mind games); Norm says he’s(unhappily) spending it with his wife Vera and her mother; Diane is attending a recreation of the original Plymouth Thanksgiving feast at the home her literature professor.

Carla, Woody, Cliff & Frasier have no plans and it looks like they’ll be alone.  Diane suggests Carla host Thanksgiving for all those who have no family nearby.  Carla says yes, but insists it will be a pot-luck dinner.  She invites Sam and his date, Norm offers to bring a turkey and says he’ll talk Vera into joining the gang at Carla’s house too.

One by one, everyone arrives at Carla’s house and they sit down to watch football & the Macy's parade.  Norm brings a turkey that hasn’t been cooked yet, and also mentions that he and Vera had “the worst fight of our marriage” about their Thanksgiving plans.  Sam shows up without his date, his plans have fallen through too.

Diane also shows up unexpectedly, Carla initially slams the door (literally) in her face.  Diane’s professor only invited her so she could serve food, she is broken and humiliated.  Norm’s turkey is still being cooked while they watch football, much to Diane’s dismay.

Hours pass, the turkey (dubbed “Birdzilla” by Carla) is still not ready.  While waiting, Diane suggests everyone get up and tell what they’re thankful for.

After the “thankfuls” are over, the turkey is STILL not done, so they decide to eat the side dishes. Carla keeps ribbing Norm about the lack of turkey, Norm responds by throwing peas at her, then everyone joins in and we have a classic TV food fight!

J A Morris says:

Cheers is a show I literally grew up watching.  The first episode premiered when I was 11 years old, I was 21 when the series finale aired in 1993.  But this is the first episode I’d seen in a decade and it’s one of the best.  The Cheers workers & customers always acted as a support system for one another, so why not spend Thanksgiving together?   Frasier points out that families are "not necessarily limited to blood relations."  And like most “families”, there were always certain Cheers characters that were disliked by others, but in the end, they still come together to celebrate Thanksgiving...and have one of the greatest food fights in TV history!

After dinner, the gang is toasting absent friends and family members.  Sam proposes a toast to Coach, the Cheers bartender who died the previous year.  I always appreciate it when long-running shows mention departed characters.  Since the actor who played Coach, Nicholoas Colasanto had died in real life, this moment was especially poignant.

This is also an interesting Cheers episode because the bulk of the action takes place outside the bar.

"Thanksgiving Orphans" makes for great seasonal viewing.  It's available for streaming if you're a Netflix subscriber and is also available on the Cheers:Complete Fifth Season dvd set.

My rating:

4 pumpkin pies

RigbyMel says:

"Thanksgiving Orphans" is not a Cheers episode that I recall watching when it first aired, but even though I have come to it late, I have to say that this episode is a classic one.  The food fight alone makes it worthwhile, but Diane in pilgrim garb and the battle to cook Birdzilla the turkey are also wonderful moments.

This episode reminds me of the time I spent in the UK rounding up random British friends to celebrate the US holiday. (I spent 3 Thanksgivings across the pond.)  I had much better luck with the cooking aspects of the holiday, thanks in part to a little forward planning and overseas phone calls to my very patient mother. (I wound up making sweet potato pie rather than pumpkin pie as sweet potatoes were more readily available in Britain.)  I was very glad to have kind friends in Britain who were willing to help me celebrate, not unlike the way that the characters from Cheers banded together to help each other enjoy the holiday (although, my friends and I didn't have a food fight!).  So I find that this episode of Thanksgiving orphan-hood resonates with me in a very personal way.

Overall this is a great episode of a great series and one not to be missed.

RigbyMel's 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: