The One Where Adina Ranks Thanksgiving Episodes
Adina's Ranking of the Friends Thanksgiving Episodes
Friends was known for its tradition of Thanksgiving episodes, with one in every season except season 2 (the holiday gets passing mention in “The One With the List”, but it’s not the same as the dinner-centric episodes in every other season). They’re all wonderful and warmhearted stories of friends being their own family, forming their own tradition to spend this holiday together, and some of them are among the top episodes in the series. In honor of the season, and of our podcast discussion of the Friends pilot this week, I watched all of them back to back to find out which episode we need to give thanks for most.
#9: “The One With the Rumor” (Season 8)
This episode features guest star Brad Pitt playing Will, Monica and Ross’s friend from high school who, like Monica, lost a lot of weight since he was a teenager. The main joke of the episode is the reveal that Will and Ross had an “I Hate Rachel Green” club where they started a rumor that Rachel “had both male and female reproductive parts”. An overwhelming percentage of the jokes in this episode are either at the expense of weight or at the mere idea of trans and intersex people, so needless to say this episode is hard to watch in 2021. Even the B-story of Joey struggling to eat an entire turkey just to prove he can doesn’t salvage this episode.
#8: “The One Where Chandler Doesn’t Like Dogs” (Season 7)
This episode is perfectly fine. That’s all I can say about it, really. Not bad, but hardly memorable amongst the other heavy-hitters on this list. Aside from Chandler’s titular dislike for dogs, this episodes features Rachel confessing feelings for her assistant, Tag, who may be cute but is pretty bland as love interests on this show go. The best part of this episode is the C-plot of Ross struggling to name all 50 states of the US before he can eat dinner.
#7: “The One With Chandler in a Box” (Season 4)
It hurts me to rank this episode near the bottom, but it just goes to show how strong the rest on this list are! Chandler spending Thanksgiving in a box to prove how sorry he is to Joey for kissing Joey’s girlfriend Kathy remains both funny and heartwarming. However, watching Monica try to muscle through the weirdness of dating her ex-boyfriend Richard’s son is just uncomfortable, especially because there’s no real reason for her to do it? He’s cute, but he’s not THAT cute.
#6: “The One With the Football” (Season 3)
One of my favorite episodes of the series overall, and one I’ve probably seen the most times since it was on a Best-Of DVD my family played every weekend. This episode is entertainment from start to finish, better than the Super Bowl. The only reason it ranks so low because it has very little Thanksgiving content, and this is a Thanksgiving episode ranking.
#5: “The One With the Late Thanksgiving” (Season 10)
The final Thanksgiving episode gives a worthy send-off to the series, with Monica tired of cooking dinner for everyone but giving in to her friends’ demands that they keep up the tradition. However, when everyone else shows up late, it results in a stalemate of the others locked outside, until Joey gets his head stuck in the chained apartment door. Like the rest of Season 10, it has a lot of funny beats, but is less memorable as a full plot. But Monica and Chandler’s joy from finding out they’ll get to adopt a child at the end is unmatched.
#4: “The One Where Underdog Gets Away” (Season 1)
I’m shocked to have this episode so high up myself, since before I embarked upon my research for this list, this episode was my least memorable, I think because I’ve seen it the fewest number of times. However, the story of how the friends from their group Thanksgiving tradition in the first place really spoke to me this year, because I’m having my first Thanksgiving away from my family, with other young-adult friends. Watching them miss their families but find solace in each other really feels Thanksgiving-y in a way other episodes, even funnier ones, can’t match. (Plus, watching Joey react to his face on STD awareness posters around the city is pretty funny, too)
#3: “The One Where Ross Got High” (Season 6)
One of the few Friends episodes that is not titled after its most memorable aspect; many people will remember this as “The One With Rachel’s Trifle”. And now that I've reminded you what this episode is about, you’re probably gasping that I didn’t rank it as number one. I know, I know – it’s one of the most memed episodes of Friends, and for good reason. Judy Geller’s reaction to everyone’s outburst of confessions is priceless, but the episode gets off to a bit of a slow start before the big climax. That’s not to knock it, because the entire case performs their butts off reacting to beef trifle… but the top two episodes just barely beat this one.
#2: “The One With Rachel’s Other Sister” (Season 9)
Listen. There is a reason Christina Applegate won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for this episode. Her turn as Amy in this episode is truly one of the funniest sitcom performances I’ve ever seen. She gets in punches with every other character as they argue who would get to take care of Emma if Ross and Rachel die. The stakes of a baby’s care, and also Monica’s fancy plates, are tossed around in an expertly paced and incredibly funny plot. This is peak sitcom, and also peak family tension at Thanksgiving.
#1: “The One With All the Thanksgivings” (Alternately, “The One With the Thanksgiving Flashbacks”) (Season 5)
It’s fitting that the episode with the most Thanksgivings should win, right? But beyond that, this episode has always been special to me. It’s got wacky runners, with Phoebe recounting past lives; multiple flashbacks to Ross/Monica/Rachel/Chandler’s youth that illuminate a great deal about their characters, plus it’s got Chandler saying his first “I Love You” to Monica while she has a turkey on her head.
Podcast News
The month of November saw us discussing our favorite shows with Thanksgiving episodes (Gossip Girl for Kara, Friends for Adina).
Listen to our Gossip Girl (2007) episode here.
And then enjoy a clip from Kara’s favorite Thanksgiving episode “The Treasure of Serena Madre”:
Listen to our Friends episode here.
That’s all for this week! Remember to subscribe so you can get these emails straight to your inbox every Friday and tell a friend to do the same. In the meantime, you can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram.