10 Greatest Thanksgiving Episodes of the 2000s, Ranked for Holiday TV
A Holiday at the Hospital
One episode on the list follows surgeons facing family tensions, demanding work and personal upheaval over Thanksgiving. Izzie hopes for an ordinary, picture-perfect holiday, but events do not go as planned.
George’s family life offers a tender contrast, while the characters end up back at the hospital. Rather than resolving their problems, the story gives them brief moments of comfort amid heartbreak and chaos.
Mad Men Turns to Loss
In the Season 1 finale, “The Wheel,” Thanksgiving 1960 provides a stark setting for loneliness and emotional distance. Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm, pitches Kodak’s slide projector as “The Carousel,” presenting it as a time machine powered by nostalgia.
Family photographs of Don, his wife Betty, played by January Jones, and their children strengthen the pitch, even as his marriage is coming apart. The episode also develops Betty’s struggle with Don’s infidelity and her own stalled life.
The West Wing Faces Asylum
The West Wing’s Season 2 episode “Shibboleth” brings political questions and workplace comedy together. Its central story concerns nearly 100 Chinese evangelical Christian refugees detained by the Coast Guard after arriving in California to seek asylum.
President Jed Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, interviews a refugee named Jhin-Wei, played by Henry O. Bartlet uses the biblical test of a shibboleth to assess his faith and conviction, and the administration covertly arranges for the refugees to escape detention.
Key points
- The episodes use Thanksgiving to explore family strain, loneliness and political conscience.
- In Mad Men’s “The Wheel,” Don sells nostalgia while his own marriage fractures.
- The West Wing episode centers on nearly 100 Chinese evangelical Christian refugees seeking asylum.
- The hospital story finds brief comfort amid personal turmoil and demanding work.