WKRP's 'Turkey's Away' Aired on this date in 1978

But the most quintessential, uproarious Thanksgiving episode of a sitcom remains “Turkeys Away,” the WKRP in Cincinnati masterpiece of bird-dropping pandemonium that first aired in 1978. Four decades later, at least among those of a certain age or those possessing a certain amount of Thanksgiving pop-culture knowledge, it remains a touchstone. That’s partly because the jokes still hold up and partly because it ends with a perfectly quotable mic drop of a last line, spoken by the late Gordon Jump as clueless radio station manager Arthur Carlson: “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”

WKRP in Cincinnati was by no means the first TV comedy to do a Thanksgiving episode. But unlike most sitcoms, WKRP didn’t focus on a disastrous turkey dinner or riff on the story of the Mayflower. It considered how the best Thanksgiving intentions can go terribly wrong, but within the context of a work event. While the Thanksgiving episode became much more commonplace on television in the decades after “Turkeys Away” aired, even now, its approach feels like something fresh, different, and definitely warped.

In its own twisted way, “Turkeys Away” is about the same thing as just about every Thanksgiving episode: people trying to do something perfect for the holiday, failing wildly at that endeavor, then moving on with their chins up after it’s all over.