THANKSGIVING ORPHANS

Cheers

Season 5 (1986)

Despite having been off the air for years Cheers has been part of the pop culture chatter a fair amount this past year, prompted by its being added to Netflix instant and being chosen as the Best Sitcom of All Time by Vulture.com.  It was never really on my radar, save that when I was a kid some neighbors of ours had Cheers glasses that they bought at the bar in Boston.  This sort of blew my young mind, that a sitcom locale could actually exist in real life. 

I didn’t actually sit down and watch the show until recently, prompted by all of the retrospective praise it’s been getting.  It’s not my favorite by any means; it’s a bit too guy-centric and I don’t care for the central character of Sam Malone.  But I quickly fell in love, however, with the character of Diane Chambers.  She’s my reason for watching and I even added her to my Top 100 TV Characters of All Time list (a list for everything and everything in a list is my motto).  Diane (as played by Shelley Long) is the kind of neurotic, slightly abrasive, wannabe sophisticate that I love (and a preponderance of this type of character is also why I prefer spin-off Frasier over Cheers).

Luckily this Thanksgiving episode is Diane-centric.  It’s also rather famous, often cited as one of the show’s most memorable episodes for its humor, food fight scene and one of the rare appearances of Norm’s wife Vera.  But more on that later.  The pre-credits scene is weirdly themed to Christmas, in which Woody starts decorating the bar and Frasier psychoanalyses Rudolph.  I would say it’s some sort of clever commentary on how Christmas encroaches on Thanksgiving but it feels more like a cut scene from a dropped Christmas episode that they decided to tack on here. 

Once the credits roll we’re back to Thanksgiving, as the gang at the bar realize that they all don’t have plans and decide to go to Carla’s for the holiday (her kids are with their father).  Diane has plans to attend a professor’s prestigious party but then she shows up too, in full pilgrim drag, when it turns out she was asked to the party as a server, not an honored guest.  Norm brings a raw turkey that he spends the rest of the episode cooking, while Diane despairs at the group’s non-stop watching of football.

Diane attempts to stop the madness

With the turkey still (slowly) cooking they finally settle down the at the table, but Diane forbids everyone from eating until the turkey’s done.  Instead she tries to get them all to share what they’re thankful for, leading to a brilliant bit where she rambles off a list of names (including Emily Dickinson, Shari Lewis and Buddha).  Finally tensions erupt and a food fight starts to break out, but once again Diane intervenes.  It’s a crowning moment for Shelley Long, in which she erupts in indignant anger only to get splattered with cranberry sauce.  The food fight breaks out again and everyone ends up having  a great time.  Norm’s errant wife shows up at the end only to get a pie in the face, courtesy of Diane.

It’s easy to see why this episode is well-remembered and it’s certainly not lacking in Thanksgiving cheer.  Diane/Shelley really steals the show throughout and I can relate to both her distaste for football and her struggles in this episode.  There is nothing but nothing harder than trying to corral people who aren’t that big into the holidays into a holiday mood.  It’s a cross I bear on a daily basis and it’s probably only a matter of time before I too get some cranberry sauce in my face. 

Solidarity, my sister.

The Menu: Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Cranberry Sauce, Peas, Yams, Popcorn Balls, Beer & Pie

Thanksgiving Quotient: 5

See It, Skip It, Own It?

While I don’t condone food fights I do heartily endorse this episode—go watch it now!