Wonkette Thanksgiving Movie Matinee: Alice's Restaurant
'You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant.'
Happy Thanksgiving!
I bring you a bunch of surroundings before we get to the main meal of Alice’s Restaurant. I have a little bit of everything to satisfy everyone’s holiday specials cravings.
First we have the funniest Thanksgiving TV special ever, it’s WKRP In Cincinnati with Turkey’s Away. Full version available for free on the Internet Archive. This is the first TV special that comes to mind when it comes to turkey TV. A promotional stunt goes very wrong when the station owner, Mr. Carlson, drops live turkeys from a helicopter.
“As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!”
Friends has had a couple of memorable Thanksgiving specials, including the hilarious wearing of the turkey by Monica, with a little hat, glasses and a cute dance. I always wondered how bad it must have smelled inside that turkey but Courteney Cox’s dedication to the bit may have gotten a few turkeys stuck on people’s heads when the family clown tried it themselves. (Any of our medical peeps out there want to jump in on weird holiday emergency room encounters?) This video has clips of all the best Thanksgiving moments, the turkey hat starts at 4:21.
The forerunner to Friends was the fantastically funny Living Single; here is a selection of clips from their Thanksgiving episodes, Things To Be Thankful For. I found the entire series on the Internet Archive, I may have discovered my holiday marathon to watch instead of Godzilla flicks!
Next up is Cheers with Thanksgiving Orphans where the gang come together for a meal and end up throwing it at each other in a spectacular food fight. Full episode on Paramount+ with subscription.
So much fun stuff, it was hard deciding what not to include. But Paul Simon in a turkey costume, that had to be in.
Saturday Night Live always has some twisted fun with the holiday; my favorite is how Adele’s song Hello saves the day when dealing with bigoted relatives at a Thanksgiving dinner. It’s A Thanksgiving Miracle.
I have to include this even if it is not specifically Thanksgiving. It is The Golden Girls with Bea Arthur as Turkey Lurkey in the laugh till you cry Henny Penny.
I must honor my new home town of Cleveland with The Drew Carey Show and Mimi’s Day Parade.
What would Thanksgiving be without popcorn, jellybeans and toast? It is A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving from 1973.
I wanted to include clips from The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers but couldn’t find them. I do have Simon’s Cat with The Heist (Thanksgiving Special.)
The main dish is Alice’s Restaurant, based on the album of the same name by Arlo Guthrie.
Alice’s Restaurant is available for free on YouTube. Also available for free on this YouTube channel.
Alice’s Restaurant stars Arlo Guthrie, Patricia Quinn, Geoff Outlaw, Alice Brock, Pete Seeger, Shelley Plimpton, Kathleen Dabney, and M. Emmet Walsh. Directed by Arthur Penn.
To make requests and see the movie lists and schedules go to WonkMovie.
Saturday night we finish November with Back To The Future, which is available for free on the Internet Archive. With subscription on Netflix. $3.99 in the usual places.
I put a lot of love into this post, I wanted it to be like a feast, you could click on something and just watch, not even have to leave the page. I hope you all enjoy it as much as i enjoyed putting it together.
My first Thanksgiving in Cleveland has been wonderful! Lotsa snow, ate my favorite meal for this day, now I am having some vodka and weed and hanging out my friends.