“Friends” at 25 (Part III): The One with the Thanksgivings
Author’s Note: This is the third part of a five-part series on the legacy of Friends as it reaches its silver anniversary. Click here for Part I, in which I analyze the show’s pop culture legacy. Click here for Part II, in which I delve into what the show meant to me personally. Click here for Part IV, where I rank the 25 best episodes of the show’s run. Click here for Part V, where I rank the best acting performances on the series. For my recap of the reunion special that aired in 2021, click here.
Among the greatest contributions Friends made to television comedy — and popular culture in general — were its annual Thanksgiving episodes. It makes sense that Friends selected a family-oriented holiday such as Thanksgiving as its holiday of choice given that the show was at its core about young adults newly emerging from dysfunctional families to create a slightly more functional one of their own choosing. Some of the most memorable moments of the show’s run took place on the holiday ranging from the hilarious (e.g., Rachel’s traditional English trifle, the touch football game, Rachel’s catfight with her sister) to the deeply heartfelt (e.g., Chandler telling Monica he loves her for the first time, Chandler locking himself in a box as a gesture of apology to Joey, Monica and Chandler finding out they had been selected to adopt a baby).
Like many Friends fans, I like to revisit the show’s Thanksgiving episodes each year around the holiday. Below, I review and rank all ten so just in case you don’t have the time or patience to watch them all you can pick which one(s) you want to queue up on Netflix.
The Friends Thanksgiving Episodes, Ranked from Worst to Best
10.) “The One where Chandler Doesn’t Like Dogs” (Season Seven). It is perhaps unsurprising that the show’s weakest Thanksgiving episode came in the midst of the show’s weakest season. The season was marred by a lack of compelling plot arcs, an over-reliance on gimmicks, and Matthew Perry’s addiction struggles (which greatly affected his performance). This painfully clunky outing features a largely unfunny script centered on a contrived and unrealistic plotline in which Chandler hates dogs, yet tries to overcome it for Monica’s sake. Fortunately, the subplots involving Rachel deciding whether or not to tell a newly single Tag how she feels about him and Ross obsessively trying to name all fifty states fare a bit better. In addition to a poor script, the direction is awkward, the pacing is off, and the performances are largely unconvincing as they try to overcome the weak material (save Matt LeBlanc, who has some superb comic delivery). Favorite Lines: Joey: “If he doesn’t like you, this is all a moo point…It’s like a cow’s opinion, it doesn’t matter. It’s moo.” Rachel: “Have I been living with him for too long or did that all make sense?” Grade: C+
9.) “The One with the List” (Season Two). It is perhaps unfair to call this a Thanksgiving episode as the holiday is barely mentioned. But, nevertheless, it is technically a Thanksgiving episode as it features a pointless subplot about a newly unemployed Monica getting a job making desserts from a synthetic chocolate substitute (mockolate!) for the holidays. The main plot line puts yet another contrived obstacle in the way of Ross and Rachel’s eventual union. This time it is a pro and con list Ross types up on Chandler’s new laptop (hilariously ancient by today’s standards) while choosing between current girlfriend Julie and dream girl Rachel. There are some great one-liners and some emotionally affecting work from Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer, but ultimately the episode is a disappointment. Favorite Lines: “Oh no! Two women love me. They are both gorgeous and sexy. My wallet’s too small for all my fifties and my diamond shoes are too tight!” — Chandler mocking Ross. Grade: B
8.) “The One with the Late Thanksgiving” (Season Ten). The final Friends Thanksgiving episode shows some of the signs of age that marked the show’s final season, including lapses in logic (why isn’t Phoebe with her husband on Thanksgiving? Why is there a beauty pageant on a national holiday?), retreaded themes (Monica is annoyed about her hosting responsibilities!), and a reliance on slapstick (their heads get stuck in the door!). Nevertheless, Courtney Cox and Matthew Perry do hilarious work with their rage that Phoebe, Rachel, Joey, and Ross are all egregiously late to the Thanksgiving dinner they guilted them into making. The writing is uneven, but it ends with a moving scene in which all is forgiven upon Monica and Chandler finding out a woman selected them to adopt her baby. Favorite Lines: (Trying to come up with a diversion to distract Monica and Chandler) Phoebe: “We could plant PCP in their apartment and call the cops!” Ross: “That would be a good way to use up all the PCP we have lying around.” Grade: B+
7.) “The One where Underdog Gets Away” (Season One). The first Friends Thanksgiving sets up countless tropes that would recur throughout the show’s decade-long run. Monica hosts Thanksgiving for her and Ross after her parents decide to go out of town. Chandler establishes his hatred for the Thanksgiving holiday that is rooted in his childhood trauma. Joey does an embarrassing public health advertisement that gets him disinvited from Thanksgiving by his family. Rachel misses her flight to Vail when they get locked out of the apartment due to a distraction related to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. If the unnecessary and unfunny subplot involving Ross singing to his unborn baby had been excised and the scene with the entire ensemble locked out of the apartment while Thanksgiving dinner burned inside had been fleshed out, this could have been a true classic. This scene is where the episode truly shines, due largely in part to the Monica Gellar slow-burn, which Cox first begins to master in this episode. And few scenes establish the show’s “friends as family” theme as much as the closing dinner scene. Favorite Lines: Chandler: “I guess what I’m trying to say is, I am very thankful that all of your Thanksgivings sucked” Ross: “Here’s to a Lousy Christmas!” Rachel: “And a Crappy New Year!” Grade: A-
6.) “The One with Rachel’s Other Sister” (Season Nine). The only Friends Thanksgiving episode to win an Emmy, this one introduces Rachel’s other self-obsessed sister Amy. (Reese Witherspoon played the other sister, Jill, in a two-episode arc in Season Six). Christina Applegate richly earned her Emmy as she pushes all of Rachel’s buttons, which in turn elicits a superb comic performance from Jennifer Aniston. The hilarious sparring over who becomes custodian of Emma if Rachel and Ross die is some of the most inspired writing of the show’s later seasons, especially as it begins to encompass Monica and Chandler, whose bossiness and insecurities (respectively) are dialed up to the max as a result of the debate. The fact that this stellar outing doesn’t even make the Thanksgiving Top 5 is a testament to how many great Thanksgiving episodes the show produced. Favorite Lines: Rachel: “I’d like to bring Amy to Thanksgiving” Ross: “It will be like the Pilgrims bringing the Indians syphilis.” Grade: A
5.) “The One with the Football” (Season Three). Probably the most iconic and beloved of the Friends Thanksgiving episodes among fans, this amusing episode relies a bit too much on juvenile humor to rise to the top but is nevertheless a truly creative and successful comic outing. Ultimately one extended scene, the episode takes place entirely within the context of a game of touch football that brings out the fierce competition in the Monica/Ross and Joey/Chandler dynamics. With that quartet carrying the emotional weight of the plot, Rachel and Phoebe are relegated to comic relief, and boy do they knock it out of the park. Favorite Lines: Chandler: “Where do Dutch people come from?” Joey: “The Pennsylvania Dutch come from Pennsylvania” Chandler: “And the other Dutch people? They come from somewhere near the Netherlands, right?” Joey: “Nice try. See the Netherlands is this make-believe place where Peter Pan lives” Marta: “Oh my” Ross: “Okay, enough with geography for the insane.” Grade: A
4.) “The One with the Rumor” (Season Eight). This episode may dwell on some disappointingly dated gender dynamics, but it is nevertheless a classic ensemble farce that mines interesting nuances of the characters and their inter-relationships. It is also the perfect use of an A-list guest star, with Jennifer Aniston’s then-husband Brad Pitt showing up as a high school classmate of Monica, Rachel, and Ross’s who exposes some dark secrets about the trio’s past. Pitt is a bit awkward at first, but he warms up to the role and establishes terrific chemistry with the group (especially with Kudrow, who lusts after him hilariously). This episode benefits from the reinvigorated writing and acting that marked the show’s stellar 8th season. Favorite Line: “[It is] my two greatest enemies, Ross — Rachel Green and complex carbohydrates” — Will (Brad Pitt). Grade: A
3.) “The One with Chandler in a Box” (Season Four). This Thanksgiving masterpiece features a flawless script and pivotal moments in two of the best plot arcs of the show’s run. The first has Chandler locking himself in a box to make up for how he betrayed Joey, a plotline that balances slapstick humor and heartbreaking emotion. The second is played strictly for laughs and finds Monica (in an eye patch) creepily lusting after Richard’s son (played by future Alias star Michael Vartan), which elicits some of the greatest one-liners of season four (and that’s saying a lot considering the Grade-A writing that dominated the season). Even the show’s third subplot — Ross realizing that Rachel returned every gift he’s ever given her — is milked for great comic and dramatic effect. Favorite Line: “Fine judge all you want to, but married a lesbian, left a man at the altar, fell in love with a gay ice dancer, threw a girl’s wooden leg in the fire, live in a box!” — Monica telling off her heckling friends. Grade: A+
2.) “The One where Ross Got High” (Season Six). Easily one of the best episodes of the show’s entire run, this brilliantly written outing features one of the show’s finest scripts and rises to a frenzied climax that contains some of the most memorable dialogue in Friends history. Every moment works here as Rachel makes the world’s worst dessert due to a cookbook mishap, Phoebe develops a crush on Jack after a naughty dream, Joey tries to figure out a way to spend time with his hot roommate (played by supermodel Elle Macpherson), and — most memorably — Monica and Chandler find out that her parents hate Chandler because of lies Ross told in high school. The razor sharp writing and superb chemistry of the ensemble has rarely been on as on-point as it is in this episode’s final scenes. Favorite Lines: “That’s a lot of information to get in thirty seconds. All right, Joey if you want to leave just leave. Rachel, no you weren’t supposed to put beef in the trifle. It did not taste good. Phoebe, I’m sorry but I think Jacques Cousteau is dead. Monica, why you felt that you needed to hide the fact that you are in an important relationship is beyond me … Ross, drugs, divorce, again. What happened? … And Chandler, you’ve been Ross’s best friend for years. You’ve stuck by him through the drug problems. And now you’ve taken on Monica as well. I don’t know what to say. You are a wonderful human being” — Judy Gellar. Grade: A+
1.) “The One with all the Thanksgivings” (Season Five). Those who find the flashbacks too gimmicky and anything involving “Fat Monica” egregiously offensive will disagree with me, but I find this to be the show’s most ambitious and successful Thanksgiving outing. Framed by the gang’s memories of memorable past Thanksgivings, each character gets a chance for great physical comedy: Phoebe reliving her past lives, Joey getting a turkey stuck on his head, Rachel and Ross’s embarrassing high school days, and — in one of the show’s most memorable sequences to date — the evolution of Monica and Chandler’s flirtation a decade before. Perry and especially Cox play the flashbacks flawlessly and do some of their greatest work of the season. Although “Fat Monica” was highly problematic, this episode tries to right some of those wrongs as it explores how fat-shaming deeply impacted her. The episode culminates with Chandler telling Monica he loves her for the first time, which is one of the most romantic and rousing episodes of the series’ run. Not only is this the show’s best Thanksgiving episode, but it’s one of its very best episodes overall. Favorite Line: “Reliving past pain and getting depressed is what Thanksgiving is all about. For me, anyway. And, of course the Indians” — Chandler. Grade: A+