It wouldn’t be the Thanksgiving season without sharing these scenes that I love from the brilliant sitcom, WKRP in Cincinnati. I’m looking forward to seeing my family in Baltimore this Thanksgiving and, for maybe the 100th time, watching this classic episode.
Believe it or not, this episode was based on a true story! It didn’t happen in Ohio. Instead, it happened in Atlanta, Georgia and it was real promotion stunt for a local station, WQXI. Years later, a young copywriter named Hugh Wilson heard the story while he was working WQXI. Wilson later moved to California, started writing scripts, and eventually created WKRP In Cincinnati.
I always feel bad for the turkeys but I am glad that the survivors were able to launch a counter attack.
Happy Thanksgiving! Due to the holiday, Retro Television Reviews will be taking a few days off! This feature will return on Monday, December 2nd, with Miami Vice and CHiPs!
The much-missed Gary Loggins always shared this song on Thanksgiving, on both this site and his own personal site. I’m happy to honor his memory by continuing that tradition.
I love Thanksgiving because I love spending time with my family. My Mom is one of 15 kids from a large Catholic family in central Arkansas, so this is the time of year that I get to see a big part of that extended family. A lot of people are spread out across the state and country so we don’t get to see everyone at Thanksgiving, but we do get to see a lot of people. We go to my aunt Jo Ellen’s house, and I get to hang out with a bunch of my aunts, uncles and cousins. We’ll have a giant feast from a potluck of items we’ve grown to love over the years…Aunt Jo Ellen’s turkey and dressing, Mom’s candied yams, Aunt Connie’s deviled eggs, the giant table of desserts, etc. Our family is all about traditions, and this is the time of year we share those with each other. I just love it!
One of our movie-watching traditions is watching PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES together. And we do it every year. We still laugh at all the right parts…Kevin Bacon getting Steve Martin’s cab thanks to a mysteriously large trunk on the curb, John Candy reading The Canadian Mounted, Doobie’s Taxiola, “Those Aren’t Pillows,” Owen’s strange facial expressions and throat noises, “a couple of balls and an extra set of fingers,” the runway crossing, the car rental counter meltdown, “you’re going the wrong way,” the hotel destruction getaway, and the indestructible car radio. Odds are many of you are smiling as you read this quick summary of some of my favorite parts. We’ll watch the movie together while we’re settling in back at Dad and Mom’s house after a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch. It’s a guarantee that Dad will be snoring at some point.
As much as I love to eat, to me, Thanksgiving is all about spending time with the ones I love. We’ll tell a lot of the same stories that we’ve told many times over the years, and we’ll laugh at them all over again. We’ll truly enjoy our time together. Our family is not perfect, and we don’t always see eye to eye on everything, but we love each other and that is more important than just about anything else. That’s a Crain family tradition passed down from my parents. One of the best things about PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES is that there are times when the laughs die completely down, and that’s when the movie reveals its heart. The same can be said for my family, and that’s something I’m truly thankful for.
To all of our readers in the U.S., Happy Thanksgiving!
Even if you didn’t get a chance to buy a big turkey this year, you can still make a wonderful Thanksgiving meal! As demonstrated by Snoopy and Woodstock in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, all you need is toast, popcorn, and a little help from a beagle!
“As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”
With those words, the Turkeys Away episode of WKRP in Cincinnati takes it place as a holiday classic, a rare Thanksgiving episode in a genre dominated by Christmas. In this episode, Arthur Carlson — the station manager of the perpetually low-rated and eponymous radio station — incorrectly assumes that turkeys can fly, turning his plans for the greatest radio promotion in history into something very different.
As with many of WKRP‘s wildest stories, this episode was based on something actually happened.. A radio station in Atlanta tried a similar promotion, with the station manager tossed the turkeys out of the back of a moving truck. Turkey still couldn’t fly or get out of the road fast enough. It’s not easy being a turkey in November.
While celebrating the holiday tomorrow, take a moment to enjoy this classic TV moment. Happy Thanksgiving!
Every Monday night at 9:00 Central Time, my wife Sierra and I host a “Live Movie Tweet” event on X using the hashtag #MondayMuggers. We rotate movie picks each week, and our tastes are quite different. Tonight, Monday November 25th, we’re watching TOWER HEIST starring Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Alan Alda, and Matthew Broderick.
So why did Sierra pick TOWER HEIST, you might ask? It’s simple. It’s a Thanksgiving movie. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is even used as a key part of the heist strategy! Sierra and I love the holidays and we’re getting in the spirit. We hope watching this movie will enhance your Thanksgiving week!
It’s on Amazon Prime, and we’ll be following along the theatrical edition (NOT the Extended Edition). Join us if you’d like!
The much-missed Gary Loggins always shared this song on Thanksgiving, on both this site and his own personal site. I’m happy to honor his memory by continuing that tradition.
Through the Shattered Lens 