Every Simpsons Thanksgiving Episode

The Simpsons have been around for decades now but amazingly, there are not many Simpsons Thanksgiving episodes. With over 30 years on the air, The Simpsons boasts several Christmas specials and the “Treehouse of Horror” Halloween specials. Despite Thanksgiving being an American holiday and the eponymous family being an American institution, The Simpsons has barely celebrated the day. All in all, The Simpsons has done limited Thanksgiving specials and a Christmas and Halloween episode overlapping with the holiday. While each installment is notable for its reason, it’s surprising to see the show features so few Thanksgiving episodes when The Simpsons is famous for parodying and satirizing everything sacred to society.

Like The Simpsons‘ uneven history of Christmas episodes and “Treehouse of Horror” outings, the show’s Thanksgiving episodes veer between classic, standard, and disappointing. Although there is a late-season standout in the mix and an early, classic episode from season 2, another one of the show’s Thanksgiving episodes is also commonly cited as one of the worst Simpsons episodes ever. This difference in critical reception between the show’s episodes seems to be caused in large part by a gradual shift in tone evident in The Simpsons‘ Thanksgiving episodes, which range from the zany cartoon of later seasons to the more grounded character comedy of the first two seasons.

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“Bart Vs Thanksgiving”

The earliest of The Simpsons’ Thanksgiving episodes is also the show’s most holiday-focused outing, and unlike a lot of the later-season installments listed here, it’s a fairly relatable slice of life with few flights of absurd fancy in its short runtime. Sure, there are some over-the-top moments (Carol Kane’s brief imaginary cameo as Maggie, in particular). But by and large, season 2’s “Bart Vs Thanksgiving” is a definitive example of the pre-“Homer At the Bat” Simpsons. In this early era, The Simpsons was a more level-headed and less anarchic family sitcom with darker, less zany humor and more focus on satirizing traditional family comedies than the larger cultural landscape.

The “Bart Vs Thanksgiving” story sees Bart accidentally destroy Lisa’s centerpiece and run away when the family blames him, only for the pair of siblings to eventually reconcile when Bart returns. It’s nowhere near as jam-packed with jokes as Golden Age Simpsons, but the slower pacing makes Bart and Lisa’s reconciliation after he wrecks her centerpiece all the more bittersweet and touching. Meanwhile, the episode’s brief glimpse of Thanksgiving in a soup kitchen serves as a subtle early-season indication of the pointed political critiques The Simpsons would soon start to focus on more directly.

“Homer Vs Dignity”

The first of the show’s Homer-centric Simpsons Thanksgiving episodes is “Homer Vs Dignity.” One of the worst The Simpsons episodes, the ill-judged “Homer Vs Dignity” sees the title character become Burns’ “prank monkey” in a plot which never should have made it to production. It’s a messy, oddly bleak episode that features a misjudged instance of bestiality played for laughs and a level of wanton violence befitting a “Treehouse of Horror” special. It still tops lists of The Simpsons‘ lowest points to this day. However, as deeply flawed as the episode is, it did at least set the bar agreeably low for The Simpsons‘ following Thanksgiving specials.

“Homer The Moe”

Jumping ahead to season 13, “Homer the Moe” could not be further from “Bart Vs Thanksgiving” in terms of tone for Simpsons Thanksgiving episodes. That’s a mixed blessing for most reviewers, as the episode’s busier storyline makes for more gags and a more madcap sense of humor but less emotional impact according to critical evaluations of this Simpsons episode. The outing sees Moe returns to bartending school to rekindle his passion for the craft, redesigning his iconic tavern on the advice of a bizarre mentor (who promptly walks into a lake).

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Feeling unwelcome in Moe’s uber-hip new bar, Homer opens a hunting lodge as an excuse to serve Duff to himself, Lenny, Carl, and Barney. If the plot of this episode sounds only tangentially related to Thanksgiving, that’s because it is. As a result, when considered as a Thanksgiving episode this outing suffers from a lack of focus between its disparate storylines. That said, there are a few cute moments here centering on Moe’s barfly patrons sharing the holiday with their chosen family, and like so many later season outings, the episode features an out of nowhere (but thoroughly welcome) cameo from REM as themselves.

“Holidays Of Future Passed”

Opening with a family Thanksgiving dinner, season 23’s Simpsons Thanksgiving episode, “Holidays of Future Passed” skips ahead to the Simpsons’ future for a look at the kids’ later lives. This outing is mostly a Christmas episode, but its recurring thematic preoccupation with giving thanks – Homer thanking Grandpa for his flawed parenting, Lisa thanking Marge for the same, and Lisa and Bart’s children both thanking their parents for being there – make it a fitting tribute to the holiday it opens on, too.

It’s also an unusually sweet and thoughtful non-canon Simpsons installment which won rave reviews upon release and remains a firm favorite among fans. The episode is so well-liked among fans that some have argued it should have been The Simpsons series finale. Not only that, but the sweet reprise of a now-adult Lisa and Bart hiding from their dysfunctional family during the holidays makes it a perfect companion piece with “Bart Vs Thanksgiving”.

“Thanksgiving Of Horror”

The Simpsons‘ most ambitious Simpsons Thanksgiving episode yet, “Thanksgiving of Horror” cribs the “Treehouse of Horror” setup to tell a trio of terrifying seasonal tales centered around the holiday. It’s an odd decision to combine horror and Thanksgiving, and it does mean this special captures less of the holiday mood despite its renewed focus. The episode was well-liked thanks to its inclusion of a solid riff on Black Mirror’s White Christmas, a bloody and funny (if hardly timely) Apocalypto parody, and a surprisingly superb parody of Life and Alien starring a sentient, murderous blob of cranberry sauce. Interestingly, this one is also one of The Simpsons‘ longest episodes yet.

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“Poetic Interlude”

“Treehouse XXXII” was not a great “Treehouse of Horror” episode, but it did have one of the better Simpsons Thanksgiving episodes. This was in the segment called “Poetic Interlude.” The animation design was top-notch and stands out, a clear homage to Edward Gorey. However, the only problem is that this was very short, thrown in as a stylized interlude with Maurice LaMarche mimicking Vincent Price in this “Treehouse of Horror” nod to Edgar Allan Poe. For bed, Vincent Price reads Maggie a bedtime story about how Bart pulls off his pranks, but it all ends with a dark twist showing Maggie’s reaction to the horrors.

“Step Brother From The Same Planet”

In season 34, The Simpsons Thanksgiving episode had Homer deal with a new problem as his father had a younger girlfriend with a very young son. This meant that Homer’s dad expected him to interact with this child as his step-brother, which didn’t go down well.

With a new unwanted family member for Homer, it made sense that the show would center this around Thanksgiving, a family-based holiday that doesn’t always have the best outcomes when all the family is together. There is one problem – the plot from this Simpsons episode is the same as a season 4 episode called “Brother from Another Planet,” with Homer playing the role Bart played in the first one. However, with that said, it was still nice for The Simpsons to deliver a rare Thanksgiving episode.

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