Happy Thanksgiving, Canada!

I know it's been a gazillion years since my last post, but I really didn't see many films this summer and nothing really inspired me enough to write. However, the kids decided to break out the seasonal dvds we love watching this time of the year. I bet everybody has their movie and television traditions when it comes to Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. So for this post I decided to list a few of our favourite Thanksgiving traditions as well as shows I wish I could see again.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Written and directed by the late, great John Hughes, the film stars Steve Martin and the also late, great John Candy as an oddball couple thrown together by circumstances beyond their control where everything that can go wrong does. Neal Page (Martin) is an uptight marketing executive visiting NYC for a meeting and is trying to get home to Chicago for Thanksgiving with his family. Neal meets Del Griffith (Candy), a floundering shower curtain ring salesman who gets by on his charm and likeable nature. Through a series of travel related mishaps (delays, having to land in a different city due to weather, rental car difficulties, etc), Neal and Del are thrown together and Del makes it his mission to help Neal get back home for Thanksgiving, much to Neal's dismay. Despite the very dated music (think 80's Casio keyboard type stuff), it is very humorous and has held up well. A Turkey Day favourite for us.

Ellen
I love Ellen's television series so much that I've got almost all of the seasons on dvd and have written about it in more detail here. We broke out the season four box set to watch the Thanksgiving episode. In this episode, Ellen volunteers at a soup kitchen and invites a fellow volunteer to join her and her friends for Thanksgiving dinner. Paige has the Four Seasons cater the dinner to impress Spence's mother. Ellen and her friends discover during dinner that Perry, the volunteer that Ellen invited to join them, is actually homeless. Awkward hijinks ensue. Guest starring the very talented and funny Joe Flaherty as Perry.

Cheers
When thinking about Thanksgiving shows, this one has always stuck out in my memory. You know the one. The one where everybody, not able to be with their loved ones, goes to Carla's house for Thanksgiving with the infamous Thanksgiving dinner food fight with Diane dressed in a ridiculous pilgrim costume. I hadn't seen it in ages, though, but was able to track it down on youtube. Enjoy.



WKRP in Cincinatti
Another television show that immediately comes to mind when thinking about Thanksgiving is the episode of this show when Mr. Carlson, who owns the radio station, decides to give a whole lotta turkeys away to listeners.....by dropping them out of a helicopter. I was unable to find the episode in its entirety, but I did find this small clip of the Turkey Drop.....

WKRP in Cincinnati: Thanksgiving Turkey Bomb! @ Yahoo! Video

Garfield's Thanksgiving
This is one we have on dvd and watch every year. We actually have the dvd with the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas specials on it. Garfield looks forward to a big Thanksgiving dinner. Jon attempts to make his own dinner for his crush, Liz, Garfield and Odie's veterinarian. Grandma has to bail Jon out of a turkey dinner disaster. I was able to find the episode on youtube, but the video has embedding disabled, so you'll just have to click here to watch the special on youtube.

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
We broke out the season 1 box set to watch the Thanksgiving episode where Will's mother visits from Philly for Thanksgiving. In order to prove to Will's mother, Vi, that the children aren't spoiled, Aunt Vivian orders Will, Ashley, Carlton and Hilary to make the Thanksgiving dinner for the family and Will and Carlton's English teacher with disastrously humorous results.

Enjoy your turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed taters n gravy, punkin pie and all that other fun stuff. I will end with a quote from Garfield's Thanksgiving special with Garfield explaining to Odie the reason for Thanksgiving:

Garfield: Thanksgiving is the day we celebrate food by eating as much of it as possible!

More ramblings to come.......

DVD Quote of the Day: Ellen

I re-discovered this show last week. I bought the Season 1 DVD of Ellen (last year? year before?), and we recently pulled it out last week. I ended up getting the Season 3 DVD after that and haven't stopped watching it. Season 1 wasn't as good because the characters hadn't been developed and the cast was a little bit different.

Ellen Degeneres is Ellen Morgan, a bookstore owner in L.A. The rest of the ensemble are her friends. Arye Gross is Adam in season 1, 2 and part of season 3, Ellen's roommate and photographer friend. I'm not sure why Adam left the show, but he was gone after about four episodes into the third season. The hotness that is Jeremy Piven rocks as Ellen's cousin from N.Y.C., who moves in to get his life sorted out after getting kicked out of his doctor residency. Joely Fisher came on after the first season as Paige Clark, Ellen's sort of selfish, sort of promiscuous "producer wanna be" friend. David Anthony Higgins was a more minor character in season one, but became one of the main characters between season 1 and 3. His character, Joe, is the sarcastic coffee master who works in Ellen's bookstore, and is actually from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan (about forty minutes from me). I forgot Joe was from Canada, so it's funny to hear him say "Back in Moose Jaw...". Clea Lewis is Audrey, who made an appearance in season 1, and returned as a regular and different person. Audrey in season 1 wore dark clothes and was complaining and pessimistic, but in season 3 she's annoyingly sunny, perky and perpetually in pink. Excellent ensemble cast.


I forgot how much I loved this show. It's hilarious and Ellen is often compared to Lucille Ball, for good reason. Ellen's over eagerness to please people and concern for other people's feelings often have her getting involved in other people's business, making the situation worse. Her easygoing attitude is nicely juxtaposed with Paige and Spence's high strung neuroticism. For me, it's a good show if you get sucked into the environment and feel like you're there with them while you're watching. Also, if the characters and situations are interesting and fun enough that you wish you were there is another sign of a great show.


Some other people who have made guest appearances on Season 3 include Martha Stewart as herself, Carrie Fisher (Joely Fisher's sister) as herself shooting Paige's movie at Ellen's bookstore, Mary Tyler Moore as herself who comes to Ellen's aid over lobster rights, Ron Palillo (Welcome Back, Kotter's Horschak) as himself who starts dating Audrey, Janeane Garofalo as a fellow patient in a waiting room that Ellen wants to befriend, and Jamie Kennedy as Tad, the guy who rents Adam's apartment after he moves out.


Season 3 starts with an earthquake, the destruction of Ellen's bookstore and the arrival of Ellen's cousin, Spence (Piven). The first two episodes have Ellen feeling unsure about her future because of the bookstore in the earthquake's aftermath. I really like these two episodes because I think Ellen represents every person who goes through that indecision and doubt about their future and whether or not they are traveling the right path. At one point, she gets on a bus to search her feelings and think about whether she should rebuild the bookstore or not. She comes to a very strange store/museum with a strange man running the place and talks a bit about her search to him. I really like what he says to her. Here it is.....

Jake: The way I see it, if you get up every morning and you like where you go and who you see there.....then maybe, you've found your dream.

More ramblings to come.....