A 2011 short film about Roosevelt's moving the day of Thanksgiving

Happy day after Thanksgiving! Hope you're thankful for the day, as that comes from 1941, when President Roosevelt used an executive order to make Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.  This four and a half minute short looks (smirkingly) at the controversy of 1939, when Roosevelt made it a week earlier.  (Though, er, it wouldn't have made a difference this year.)  There are dancing Nazis.

A Thanksgiving without turkey? How will this 1951 family celebrate?

I'll assume your Thanksgiving was exactly like this one.  A batch of surly, whining brats learns how to not be ungrateful little snots in this 1951 ephemeral film because "they're still better off than the pilgrims."  Maybe if dad wasn't such a useless ghost of a man, incapable of coming up with an alternative plan, this never would have happened.  At least they're thankful for the library. 

Evening Entertainment - 1979 Canadian animated special "Intergalactic Thanksgiving, or Please Don't Eat the Planet" from the director of ROCK & RULE

Made by Nelvana productions and featuring the voices of Sid Caesar, Catherine O'Hara and Al Waxman, INTERGALACTIC THANKSGIVING presents a musical, cosmic retelling of the United States holiday, as a family of puritan farmers (they forbid singing for some reason) comes to a new planet only to discover that they're not the only ones there.  Their new home is ruled by a king determined to be the funniest creature in the land, and he's not happy that the rest of his kingdom finds the new country folk so amusing.  It's an odd special, and I'm a little unclear as to what lessons are supposed to be learned by this other than something vague and environmental, but it's certainly interesting.  Director Clive A. Smith later directed 1983's ROCK AND RULE.

A Muppet turkey doesn't quite "get" the Thanksgiving holiday

The short-lived "Muppets Tonight" TV series isn't as well-known as a number of other Jim Henson company projects, but it had a fair share of solid segments, like this entertainingly morbid tale of a turkey that's really into "Turkey Day."

TV's Jimmy Olsen, Jack Larson, hosts a Thanksgiving Superman marathon on the character's 50th anniversary

For several years, Larson, who played spunky bow-tied reporter Jimmy Olsen on "The Adventures of Superman," hosted a Superman marathon on television, featuring episodes from the '50s TV series.  This 1988 compilation acts as a mini-documentary on the character on his 50th anniversary, featuring interviews with "Adventures"' Lois Lane, Noel Neill and a look at the history of the man of steel.

Eddie Izzard's First Thanksgiving

Eddie Izzard's take on the U.S. holiday gets a stop-motion video from John Cannizzaro in this nifty little short that's a little bit more honest about Thanksgiving's origins than normal.

Michael Showalter and David Wain go back to the first Thanksgiving

On one of the shorts from "Stella," the project from David Wain, Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black, Wain and Showalter go back in time to the first Thanksgiving and meet themselves, with sexy results.



Thanksgiving 1621 from TheState on Vimeo.

Morning Cartoon: Tex Avery's "Jerky Turkey" (1945)

Is there a more appropriate Thanksgiving cartoon?  No, there is not.

Learn how to cook turkey the Armour way in this 1951 short

Still need some help with that last-minute dinner planning?  Let the turkey masters at the Marie Gifford kitchen tell you about this "good new" way of having turkey any time of the year.  Thanks, Prelinger Archives!