Thanksgiving (Family Guy)

The episode featured guest performances by Max Burkholder, Jackson Douglas, Kevin Durand, Karen Strassman, Colin Ford, Zachary Gordon, Scott Grimes, Julie Hagerty, Jonathan Morgan Heit, Christine Lakin and Patrick Stewart, along with several recurring guest voice actors for the series.

Kevin then tells his father that he had actually gone A.W.O.L., and because most of his unit was killed in the bombing but he miraculously survived, he faked his own death in order to leave the war and return home.

Before being taken to jail, Kevin reminds his father of a time when he let a homeless man get away with stealing a can of tomato soup to feed his hungry family, for whom he had felt sorry.

[5] Actor Scott Grimes, who notably portrays the character Steve Smith in MacFarlane's second animated series American Dad!,[6] took over the role of Kevin in the episode.

[2] As the Griffin family prepare to sit down for their dinner, baby Stewie is shown watching television, with the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade taking place on the screen.

[5] They then decide to play a clip involving several characters from The Wizard of Oz, including the Cowardly Lion, who is shown to be actress Lindsay Lohan's gynecologist.

[5][8] "Thanksgiving" was broadcast on November 20, 2011, as a part of an animated television night on Fox, and was preceded by The Simpsons and Allen Gregory, and followed by Family Guy creator and executive producer Seth MacFarlane's second show, American Dad!.

It was watched by 6.04 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings, despite airing simultaneously with the American Music Awards on ABC, The Amazing Race on CBS and Sunday Night Football on NBC.

The episode also acquired a 3.1/7 rating in the 18–49 demographic, beating The Simpsons, Allen Gregory, American Dad!, in addition to significantly edging out all three shows in total viewership.

Club wrote of the episode, "I had a hard time listening to the characters spout out opinions, since none of them really made sense as character views and felt distinctly like the writers just wanted a place to dump their liberalisms – I don't want to only call out Seth MacFarlane because he didn't write this episode, but considering the little bit I know about the show's writer's room, it's pretty safe to assume he has final say on this sort of thing, especially given his 9/11 experience.

Family Guy seems to do the exact opposite, waiting an extraordinarily long time to weigh in on a serious issue it doesn’t satirize for comedy.