Season 11 Episode 6: A Bundy Thanksgiving

The only Thanksgiving episode the series ever made, and it splits neatly into two problems: Al needs a pie and the rest of the household needs a turkey. Al’s childhood Thanksgiving, as he describes it, involved his parents drinking Wild Turkey, driving to Aunt Maddie’s pie store, and passing out at home while he ate an entire sweet potato pie by himself. He and Griff set out to buy one and discover that Aunt Maddie has died, that the last pie in existence is at her funeral, and that Al is prepared to attend a stranger’s memorial service to get it.

The funeral scene is the sharpest writing in the episode. Al weeps about warmth and sweetness, the unforgettable spicy flavour and the buttery bottom, and the mourners beside him draw the only available conclusion about his relationship with the deceased. Then Maddie’s nephew introduces himself: James Brown, the host of NFL on Fox, appearing as himself, who turns out to have heard about Al his whole life, specifically as the cautionary example his aunt used to get him to do his homework.

At home, Jefferson cannot find a turkey anywhere, which is a problem because Kelly has one. Hank is her pet, she will not surrender him, and the episode ends her storyline with Kelly locking herself in her bedroom, the only time in eleven seasons the audience sees that room, saying goodbye, and launching the bird out of the window with instructions to fly like the wind. Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. The show lets her watch the result.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: Sunday, November 24, 1996 on FOX
• Season 11, Episode 6
• Overall episode 244 of the series
• Production code 11.11
• Written by Vince Cheung and Bob Montanio
• Directed by Amanda Bearse
• The only Thanksgiving episode in the series’ eleven seasons
• The only episode in which Kelly’s bedroom is seen

Guest Cast

• James Brown as himself
• Beau Billingslea as Reverend Hightower

Aunt Maddie’s Last Pie

Eleven seasons and one Thanksgiving is a striking ratio for an American sitcom, and the series had only glanced at the holiday once before, season four’s “Fair Exchange” opens the day after, and establishes that the Bundys eat pizza toppings for Thanksgiving and save the crust for the next day. Giving the holiday a full episode this late means the show gets to invent a tradition for Al rather than inherit one, and the tradition it invents is appropriately bleak: drunk parents, a long drive, and a boy alone with a whole pie.

The funeral sequence works because Al is not being disrespectful on purpose. He genuinely is grieving, for the pie, and the mourners’ misreading is entirely reasonable given what he is saying out loud. Griff’s contribution is to start dancing when the music begins, which earns him a warning from Al about making it a double funeral.

James Brown’s appearance pays off better than most celebrity cameos on the show because the script gives him a punchline at Al’s expense rather than just a greeting. He is delighted to meet the man his aunt talked about constantly, and then reveals the context: she used Al as the warning. Al’s reply, that he is glad he could help, is the whole series in six words. The epilogue hands the scene over to Brown’s FOX NFL Sunday colleagues commenting on his performance, two of whom had already guested on the series themselves.

Famous Quotes

• Al: “I don’t know how I can live without the warmth and sweetness.” / Mourner: “We’re all gonna miss her.” / Al: “That unforgettable, spicy flavor and buttery bottom.”
• Mourner #2: “Good Lord, is he talking about Aunt Maddie?”
• James Brown: “I’m James Brown, Aunt Maddie’s nephew.” / Griff: “Aren’t you that guy on TV?” / Al: “The host of NFL on Fox?” / James Brown: “Why, yes, I am. But you know, I also cover hockey.” / Al: “Yeah, but who cares about that?”
• Al: “I’d try to steal a cookie and she’d slap me upside the head. Then she’d give me a cookie anyway. She was a wonderful woman.”
• James Brown: “I’m where I am today because of you. She used to always say: ‘James, do your homework or you’ll wind up like Al Bundy.’” / Al: “Yeah, I’m glad I could help.”
• Kelly: “I’m sorry, Hank. I really want to keep you but… it’s not safe here. I’m gonna have to set you free… Fly away, Hank! FLY LIKE THE WIIIND!”

Notes

• Kelly’s bedroom, seen only here, appears to sit at the end of the upstairs hall by a window, directly across from the linen closet.
• Beau Billingslea, who plays Reverend Hightower, had appeared in season eight’s “Banking on Marcy” as the moderator.
• The epilogue features the FOX NFL Sunday panel discussing James Brown’s appearance. Two of his colleagues on that show had already been on this one: Terry Bradshaw in “Dud Bowl II” and Howie Long in “Al Bundy’s Sports Spectacular.”
• “Down by the Riverside” plays as Griff starts dancing in church, followed by “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” after Al threatens to make it a double funeral.
• The boy who owned Hank says Mr. McGinty told him where to find the bird. The McGintys had been referenced across several seasons, with Mrs. McGinty appearing once, in season three’s “Here’s Lookin’ at You, Kid.”
• Goof: the episode insists turkeys cannot fly. Wild turkeys can, over short distances, though domesticated birds bred for weight, as Hank would be, generally cannot.
• Goof: a boom microphone is reflected in the window as Al and Griff get directions outside Aunt Maddie’s.