Saw this on DVD again tonight and was surprised nobody on IMDB ever put in a review, so here goes: Debra wants to start their own family traditions starting with the upcoming Thanksgiving, all planned for a few days away across the street at her mother-in-law's. Ray is reluctant to go along because his mother's great cooking "almost makes her worth it all."
When Debra tells Marie she says instead of doing Thanksgiving at her own parents one year and Marie's the next, she'd like to be including in the rotation. Marie is most upset that she wants to start this on "her year." But she later agrees that she and Frank will come over.
Debra shocks Ray speechless when she reveals that she feels she can't compete with Marie for her turkey, so she wants to get a yard-long bass and have fish for dinner-on "Turkey Day." As he almost always does, Ray lets her have her way.
To help out his stressed-out wife on the big day, Ray happily agrees to load the dishwasher for her while she changes diapers on one of the twins. Ray, never able to keep his mouth closed, does a two-minute comedy bit for the other twin baby, while paying no attention to the dishes he slips into the dishwasher. We all see him stupidly sliding Debra's big fish and the plate it is on into the machine, right before he closes the door and turns it on.
Moments later, Debra returns and asks Ray where her fish is. He of course tries to lie as he opens the dishwasher door and pulls out the fish-as Debra is staring at him wondering how dumb can this man be. He proudly says, "I forgot to put soap in."
Now we are given the time line that the company is expected to arrive about 3 p.m. Ray says he is eager to go out and watch the Cowboys and Redskins game-which doesn't make sense because the Dallas game on this holiday is always set for 4 p.m. EST, giving the network time for a pre-game show after the 12:30 game from Detroit. Since they live on Long Island, this isn't a matter of the time zone being different.
Debra tells him her dad is in there watching soccer. Ray can't believe it. Debra's dad, played wonderfully by Robert Culp, proudly tells him its Uruguay and Venezuela-as thought there would be a reason he'd want to watch that. Probably 95% of the soccer fans in the United States would think this a dull matchup between two countries they don't really care about-two teams who aren't ever in the big World Cup matches to boot.
Ray's dad Frank comes in the door and on seeing the soccer game says, "What the hell is this crap?" Debra's dad proceeds to give them a lecture on how popular soccer is around the world. Frank has grabbed the remote and turned it to the football game, when out comes Debra's mother who insists on putting on "the parade" because of a certain song they are going to have.
Again, this makes no sense. Everybody knows the Thanksgiving Day parades-New York, Detroit, or wherever, are held in the morning, so people can watch and then go home to their Thanksgiving dinners. They are not held at 3 or later in the afternoon. In fact, since they were not to arrive before 3, she should have had plenty of time to see whatever parade she wanted to before leaving for the dinner.
The next big scene is where Debra is concerned because her in-laws have yet to arrive and her fish will be ready in 10 minutes. In comes Marie-bringing a beautiful turkey, along with Ray's brother Robert, holding two big hot food dishes. He happily stands there, converses a bit, then says, "Oh, oh, I forgot to use pot holders" and dashes to the dining room area to put down the hot dishes.
Only after Frank starts to choke on some food that went down the wrong way, saved by Robert doing the Heimlich Maneuver, does Marie realize how wrong it was to have brought the turkey. This was the first year of this series, before they made the characters SO hostile to each other that I couldn't stand to watch the series any more. Marie goes and sincerely apologizes to Debra, tells her she did a great job, and says, "From now on, we'll have Thanksgiving at your house EVERY year."
The final scene was a slow pan around the living room of all the men, snoring away with their pants unbuttoned/unsnapped.
To me, this was the funniest episode this series ever had. Sure it had some of the weaknesses other episodes had, but it just plain had more funny things happening. I think the most unrealistic part, even for a character like Ray, was that while talking to his 2-year-old, he could lift a heavy plate and slide the multi-pound fish into the dishwasher and not realize what he was doing. Grabbing a valuable dish he wasn't supposed to wash-sure, but not something that heavy.
My biggest laugh usually comes from seeing the gleeful smile of Debra's dad as he announces to Robert what he's watching on TV-"Uruguay and Venezuela!" as though that should automatically be something they'd be excited to watch. If you ever come to visit me and you put something like that on TV and I just meekly let you watch it, when there is a football game I care about on another channel...you must really be a friend I want to like me more.
I give this a 9-the few dumb parts keep it from being a 10.
When Debra tells Marie she says instead of doing Thanksgiving at her own parents one year and Marie's the next, she'd like to be including in the rotation. Marie is most upset that she wants to start this on "her year." But she later agrees that she and Frank will come over.
Debra shocks Ray speechless when she reveals that she feels she can't compete with Marie for her turkey, so she wants to get a yard-long bass and have fish for dinner-on "Turkey Day." As he almost always does, Ray lets her have her way.
To help out his stressed-out wife on the big day, Ray happily agrees to load the dishwasher for her while she changes diapers on one of the twins. Ray, never able to keep his mouth closed, does a two-minute comedy bit for the other twin baby, while paying no attention to the dishes he slips into the dishwasher. We all see him stupidly sliding Debra's big fish and the plate it is on into the machine, right before he closes the door and turns it on.
Moments later, Debra returns and asks Ray where her fish is. He of course tries to lie as he opens the dishwasher door and pulls out the fish-as Debra is staring at him wondering how dumb can this man be. He proudly says, "I forgot to put soap in."
Now we are given the time line that the company is expected to arrive about 3 p.m. Ray says he is eager to go out and watch the Cowboys and Redskins game-which doesn't make sense because the Dallas game on this holiday is always set for 4 p.m. EST, giving the network time for a pre-game show after the 12:30 game from Detroit. Since they live on Long Island, this isn't a matter of the time zone being different.
Debra tells him her dad is in there watching soccer. Ray can't believe it. Debra's dad, played wonderfully by Robert Culp, proudly tells him its Uruguay and Venezuela-as thought there would be a reason he'd want to watch that. Probably 95% of the soccer fans in the United States would think this a dull matchup between two countries they don't really care about-two teams who aren't ever in the big World Cup matches to boot.
Ray's dad Frank comes in the door and on seeing the soccer game says, "What the hell is this crap?" Debra's dad proceeds to give them a lecture on how popular soccer is around the world. Frank has grabbed the remote and turned it to the football game, when out comes Debra's mother who insists on putting on "the parade" because of a certain song they are going to have.
Again, this makes no sense. Everybody knows the Thanksgiving Day parades-New York, Detroit, or wherever, are held in the morning, so people can watch and then go home to their Thanksgiving dinners. They are not held at 3 or later in the afternoon. In fact, since they were not to arrive before 3, she should have had plenty of time to see whatever parade she wanted to before leaving for the dinner.
The next big scene is where Debra is concerned because her in-laws have yet to arrive and her fish will be ready in 10 minutes. In comes Marie-bringing a beautiful turkey, along with Ray's brother Robert, holding two big hot food dishes. He happily stands there, converses a bit, then says, "Oh, oh, I forgot to use pot holders" and dashes to the dining room area to put down the hot dishes.
Only after Frank starts to choke on some food that went down the wrong way, saved by Robert doing the Heimlich Maneuver, does Marie realize how wrong it was to have brought the turkey. This was the first year of this series, before they made the characters SO hostile to each other that I couldn't stand to watch the series any more. Marie goes and sincerely apologizes to Debra, tells her she did a great job, and says, "From now on, we'll have Thanksgiving at your house EVERY year."
The final scene was a slow pan around the living room of all the men, snoring away with their pants unbuttoned/unsnapped.
To me, this was the funniest episode this series ever had. Sure it had some of the weaknesses other episodes had, but it just plain had more funny things happening. I think the most unrealistic part, even for a character like Ray, was that while talking to his 2-year-old, he could lift a heavy plate and slide the multi-pound fish into the dishwasher and not realize what he was doing. Grabbing a valuable dish he wasn't supposed to wash-sure, but not something that heavy.
My biggest laugh usually comes from seeing the gleeful smile of Debra's dad as he announces to Robert what he's watching on TV-"Uruguay and Venezuela!" as though that should automatically be something they'd be excited to watch. If you ever come to visit me and you put something like that on TV and I just meekly let you watch it, when there is a football game I care about on another channel...you must really be a friend I want to like me more.
I give this a 9-the few dumb parts keep it from being a 10.
