The Thanksgiving Special

"The Thanksgiving Special"
Regular Show episode
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 13 & 14
Written by	Calvin Wong Toby Jones Benton Connor Andres Salaff
Story by	J. G. Quintel Matt Price Sean Szeles Mike Roth John Infantino Michele Cavin
Original air date	November 25, 2013
Running time	23 minutes
Guest actors
Terry Crews as Broc Stettman Chord Overstreet as Dusty B LaToya Luckett as Jennifer Josh Keaton as Auto T

"The Thanksgiving Special" is a Thanksgiving special of the American animated series Regular Show as part of the fifth season that aired on November 25, 2013, on Cartoon Network.

The episode drew in 3.04 million viewers, making it one of the most watched programs on cable.

Plot

Mordecai and Rigby accidentally wreck the park’s Thanksgiving dinner by playing football in the house. The other park workers decide to try to replace the meal before their families arrive, refusing to let Mordecai and Rigby help. The duo then sees a commercial on TV advertising a contest to write a Thanksgiving song with the chance of winning a “turducken” (a chicken stuffed into a duck stuffed into a turkey). They decide to enter the contest, but quickly find that writing the song isn’t as easy as they thought.

Meanwhile, Benson, Pops, and Skips go to the store for another turkey, and get in a battle over the last one in stock, which is eventually run over in the street. Muscle Man and High-Five Ghost go out for more sides, and get in an end zone dance competition with a football player. Mordecai and Rigby get caught in traffic and get a ride from Margaret’s father in his weather helicopter. They arrive just in time to enter, still very unprepared. The previous entry, which a billionaire paid a group of professional singers to write and perform, is the clear favorite.

As Mordecai and Rigby are about to start, Thomas informs them that their families’ flights have been delayed to the following day. They decide to sing about how family and friends are more important than food, and win the contest. However, the billionaire who paid for the previous entry steals the turducken. The rest of the park workers, who saw the song on TV, decide to work with their antagonists to get it back. They catch his blimp, and he reveals that the reason he wants the turducken is because it has a golden wishbone that actually grants wishes, and he wants to end Thanksgiving. Mordecai and Rigby fall out of the blimp, but not before swiping the wishbone. They wish to be safe at home with their families, and break the bone just in time. After appearing back at the house, Thomas informs them he was mistaken about the flights being delayed, and their families are already there and have replaced the dinner.

Production

The episode was written and storyboarded by Benton Connor, Toby Jones, Andres Salaff and Calvin Wong. The episode includes guest stars' Terry Crews, Chord Overstreet, LaToya Luckett and Josh Keaton. The episode even included two original songs, What Are You Thankful For? and Chewing on Freedom.

According to J. G. Quintel, this episode "has some really awesome songs, but [they] ended up having to record the people in the songs all at separate times and that was really challenging."

The episode was watched by 3.04 million viewers.

Cultural references

Stettman's football jersey resembles the jersey used by the NFL team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, in the 1970s. The water tower in the episode also has the current logo of Cartoon Network. The episode's main antagonist, Richard Buckner, is a parody of future United States President Donald Trump.

External links

• "The Thanksgiving Special" at IMDb
• "The Thanksgiving Special" at TV.com