The One with All the Turkeys

November 26, 2010 By 3 Comments

Last year I shared my favorite Thanksgiving TV episodes with you, starting with Friends and the very special Thanksgiving episodes aired every year during its 10-year run. [You can watch them all on the WB's site. And still, I’m not sure why the WB still has a site.]

But our six favorite friends aren’t the only ones to celebrate Thanksgiving on television. Here are some of my favorites, including some I mentioned last year and a few new ones. I hope you’ll share yours, too!

How I Met Your Mother: Slap Bet – A few years ago, Barney lost a slap bet to Marshall over Robin’s big secret. Hilarious and the start of a running gag that’s lasted all the way to last year’s legendary episode, Slapsgiving.

Ed: Something Old, Something New – In the first season of one of my all-time favorite shows evah, Ed deals with his first Thanksgiving after divorce. Mike bets him ($10, of course) that he can’t get the grocery store manager to tell him where the lettuce is in under a minute. The catch? He must pronounce it “let-oose.” I don’t know why, but this particular $10 bet cracks me up every time. Just like it cracks me up every time Mark and I use this alternate pronunciation. Which might be more often than you’d think.

Gilmore Girls: A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving – You know I love my Gilmores. Apparently, I’m not alone. This episode made several of the top 10 lists I found online, many from TV professionals. That’s right. The critics and I agree – it’s a holiday miracle! In this season three ep, our beloved girls tried to eat four Thanksgiving dinners in one day. And then there was a little issue of Jess and Rory sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. (No, they were not actually in a tree.)

Planes, Trains & Automobiles – As I mentioned last year, my go-to Thanksgiving movie is Home for the Holidays with Holly Hunter. A classic and a must-watch for me. However, I was reminded of this hilarious movie – and its infamous pillow/not a pillow scene – yesterday and couldn’t help but include it today!

Will & Grace: Lows in the Mid-80s – Last year, I mentioned Movable Feast as a classic Will & Grace holiday episode, and while I still love that episode (along with the one where the whole gang spends Thanksgiving with Vince’s family), I remembered that the flashback episodes that show Will and Grace’s traumatic almost-hookup took place on Thanksgiving, too. I’m not sure which part was funnier – the sad 80s fashion, Will asking Jack for advice, Sara Rue as Grace’s annoying sister or Grace’s mom singing. Oh, forget it. It was ALL funny to me!

That 70s Show: Thanksgiving – “While ordinary people look forward to enjoy Thanksgiving and later Christmas, the Formans suffer, even in anticipation …” I love this episode, especially the part where the Formans realize that nobody remembered to pick up grandma. (You have to click over to watch this one; it wouldn’t let me embed the video for you.)

Cougar Town: Here Comes My Girl – Okay, so nobody’s going to call this a classic. But it is the first episode of Cougar Town I remember watching, and it now cracks me up on a regular basis. If you’ve avoided Cougar Town because of its hideous name (I don’t blame you. It IS hideous.), give it a try and just SEE if you don’t laugh out loud. You could try with last year’s Thanksgiving episode, or you could just watch last week’s and go from there. It’s pretty easy to catch on without needing to catch up. That’s kind of the beauty of it.

Parenthood: Happy Thanksgiving – And on the completely other side of the TV Thanksgiving episode spectrum (did you even know there WAS such a thing?!), we have Parenthood. This show is so hard to watch, but it’s SO good. The Thanksgiving episode was no different, moving me to tears and making me laugh all while showing off the great writing and acting I enjoy – hard as it may be – each week. (Or, to be honest, every week that I remember to watch it. Because as good as I think this show is, it hasn’t quite made it into the weekly rotation.) You can watch the full episode of the Bravermans’ Thanksgiving on Hulu, or just check out this clip of dinner. My favorite part, though, was when the kids cleaned up the kitchen and danced together. THAT is what made me cry.

For more top TV Thanksgiving lists, check these out:

What are your favorite Thanksgiving movies or TV episodes?

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10 TV Characters Who Started Out Annoying…and Grew on Me.

August 30, 2010 By 30 Comments

Do you ever find yourself watching a TV show and loving it – except for that one character? Have you ever wished a certain character would meet an untimely demise, as they say?

But what if he could change? What if she promises it will be different this time? What if they really mean it? Today’s Top 10 Tuesday is about TV characters who started out driving me up the wall . . . but ended up being my favorites (or at least bearable).

Read the rest of this post at Mama Loves Her Shows.

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You know me as Photoqueen…

September 12, 2008 By 10 Comments

…but sometimes I go by other names, too.

Disclaimer: I was not a fan of Beverly Hills 90210. And I’m not promoting the new version, either.

However, I know that if I’d watched the original series, I would have loved it. I didn’t watch it because at the time, my family only had one TV. And I was not allowed to watch that kind of “garbage.” (In case you’re wondering, I was also not allowed to watch The Simpsons. That one, I’m okay with, as even now, I think that show is pointless and annoying.)

Anyway, back to my point. (What was it again?) Last week, the much-buzzed-about revival of 90210 premiered. I caught the second half, partly because nothing else was on and partly because I was curious. And partly because I loved Jennie Garth in What I Like About You. (Chalk that one up to things I secretly love!)

It was okay. Turns out, I probably would have been offended if I’d seen the first half, but since I didn’t, I thought it was okay. But that’s a topic for another post. Because my point after all this rambling is this: how did my names get on this show?! My whole life, I’ve thought I had a weird (or unique, as I’ve come to see it) middle name. Occasionally – no, rarely – I’d see another girl with that name. But now, here it is, on the CW! One of the characters is named Adrianna.

And then. And THEN! I found out the next day, when I was reading reviews of the show (and learned about the icky scene in the first half), that one of the main characters is played by an actress named Annalynne. That’s my kiddo’s name! Spelled differently, but still, I really kind of thought I’d made that name up myself! And there it was, on the CW!

Okay, so this isn’t really a big deal. But it is kind of interesting. Two of my family’s uncommon names in one show. Huh.

Do you have any unique names in your family? Do you like unique names or hate them? After a lifetime of being embarrassed by my “weird” middle name but also aware of how irritating it can be to have the same name as five other girls in your class, I really stressed out about giving Annalyn a unique but not weird name. I think I did okay, but only time will tell. Check back with me when she’s 12…

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Back in Sicily…

July 22, 2008 By 4 Comments

I just read that Estelle Getty, from Golden Girls, died today. I watched a lot of episodes of that show recently, before Annalyn was sleeping through the night. I’d feed her at 10 pm, then settle in to watch two episodes each of Will & Grace, Frasier and Golden Girls before feeding her again at 1 am. (This may explain why I still have baby weight to lose!)

I watched a couple episodes just two weeks ago (staying up late to finish Triple’s scrapbook!), and the last one I watched really focused on friendship. I mean, I know every episode did; that was the theme and the point of the show. But in this particular episode, Sophia won a community service award and gave a lovely speech, crediting her good works to the love and support of her wonderful friends. (Who, in true sitcom fashion, had been fighting over the award throughout the episode.)

So in honor of Sophia and Estelle, I’d like to take a moment to appreciate my “golden girls.” To my best friend, Smitty, and my favorite blogger, Chelley, and Triple and T-Rex and all my other college friends, to my graduate school friend (yes, just one), my church friends, my new blog friends and to my work friends, I’d like to say, “Thank you for being a friend.”

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"Nothing is really real unless it happens on television."

April 9, 2008 By 9 Comments

No, I don’t really agree with this quote. But as I designed my blog and considered answering all the questions in the “My Profile” section, I was bummed that there’s not a spot for my favorite TV shows. A spot for movies? Yes. Books, yes. TV, no.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love movies, and reading is my favorite thing to do. But TV? Well, sometimes it’s what gets me from Monday to Friday. Sometimes, and I’m only admitting this to you, it’s what tells me what day it is. (What’s today? Oh yeah, it’s Office-Day, I mean, Thursday.) So, in order to share this part of my life with you that should not be so important…but really is…here are my favorite TV shows.

New shows:
Chuck
NCIS (no, it’s not new, but I just discovered it last summer)

Not-new shows:
The Office
Grey’s Anatomy
Bones
So You Think You Can Dance

Cable shows:
Monk
Psych
My Boys
What Not to Wear

Old, canceled shows:
Gilmore Girls
Veronica Mars
Ed
Friends
JAG
Felicity

So, that’s it. That’s what I had to say today. I wrote a page about multitasking, several paragraphs about irony and friendship, and this is what I came up with. TV.

What are YOUR favorite TV shows?

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