Season 11 Episode 6: A Bundy Thanksgiving

November 24, 1996

Published 11/24/96

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.