đť The Ghosts of Thanksgiving Past, Present, and Future
Thanksgiving on television is usually a recipe for chaos: forced family dinners, culinary disasters, and maybe a minor emotional breakthrough before the credits roll. Every sitcom has tried to capture that specific blend of forced proximity and escalating absurdity. But in recent years, one show has risen above the rest, delivering holiday hilarity with a paranormal twist: CBSâs brilliant comedy, Ghosts.
The show, centered around the living couple Sam and Jay inheriting a haunted mansion populated by the spirits of those who died there, consistently finds new ways to mine humor from the collision of centuries. Yet, their Thanksgiving episode, âPlanes, Shanes and Automobiles,â transcends the usual holiday special formula. It doesn’t just offer laughs; it provides a masterclass in ensemble comedy, high-stakes farce, and surprisingly tender character revelations. If you want proof that Ghosts is the current king of the network comedy castle, this episode is your evidence. It captures the frantic, travel-stuck, family-drama energy of the holiday better than anything else weâve seen.
âď¸ The Premise Perfection: A Farce Built on Travel Trauma
The core genius of âPlanes, Shanes and Automobilesâ is its ability to take the universal, stressful experience of Thanksgiving travel and amplify it by a factor of ten, all while keeping the main cast trapped in the haunted house.
The Livingâs Nightmare: The Road Trip Fiasco
The episodeâs action kicks off with the very relatable premise: Sam and Jay decide to travel to Jayâs family for Thanksgiving, a venture immediately doomed by terrible weather and worse luck. This forces them into a classic road-trip farce, borrowing heavily from the very film referenced in the title.
-
The Struggle is Real: We watch Sam and Jay battle snow, car trouble, and the sheer desperation of holiday travel. This grounding in realistic (if heightened) discomfort immediately makes their struggle relatable. Weâve all been there, swearing under our breath in a car full of melting groceries.
-
The Escalation: The writers perfectly escalate the living couple’s distress, pushing them to the brink, which in turn fuels the emotional drama back at Woodstone Mansion. Their inability to make it home is the catalyst for the entire ghostly plotline.
The Ghosts’ Goal: Ensuring a Feast
The ghosts, meanwhile, have a mission: they absolutely must have a proper Thanksgiving dinner. Their entire existence revolves around their attachments to earthly pleasures and routines, and Thanksgiving is arguably the biggest, most American routine of all. This simple, clear goalâgetting a cooked turkey on the tableâprovides the structure for the homebound plot. It’s high-stakes for the ghosts, even if the stakes are merely culinary.
đ˛ The Comedy of Competition: Who Gets to Cook the Turkey?
With Sam and Jay stuck in a blizzard, the ghosts realize they must guide Jay’s clueless, temporary caregiver through the process of cooking the massive Thanksgiving feast. This setup delivers the episodeâs most delightful comedic element: the clash of ghostly opinions on the proper way to celebrate.
H3: Fanny and Hetty: The Battle of Historical Etiquette
The fiercest competition comes from the historical ghosts, Hetty Woodstone (the judgmental Victorian matriarch) and Fanny (The Captain) (the Revolutionary War soldier).
-
Hetty’s Obsession with Propriety: Hetty insists on the most rigid, historically inaccurate (by today’s standards) version of the holiday, demanding precision and grandeur. Her disdain for modern methods is a goldmine for laughs.
-
Fanny’s Military Precision: Fanny, ever the commander, approaches the cooking process with military efficiency, barking orders and demanding flawless execution. Their attempts to simultaneously guide the caregiverâwho can only hear one of them at a timeâresult in a series of hilarious, contradictory instructions that guarantee a kitchen disaster.
H3: Isaac and the Political Purity of the Meal
Isaac Higgintoot (the fussy Colonial ghost) adds another layer of absurdity, insisting on the political purity of the original colonial gathering. He views the entire process through the lens of historical grievances and proper 18th-century deference, often completely derailing the practical cooking advice with pedantic historical footnotes. This blend of individual eccentricities creates a burstiness in the dialogue that keeps the pace electric.
â¤ď¸ Character Revelation: Sasappis’ Unexpected Heart
Beyond the farcical cooking attempts, âPlanes, Shanes and Automobilesâ manages to deliver a surprisingly profound character moment that elevates the episode above typical sitcom fare. The heart of the episode lies with Sasappis (RomĂĄn Zaragoza).
The Secret Grief of the Past
Sasappis, the usually dry, cynical Lenape ghost, is conspicuously absent from the initial Thanksgiving excitement. We learn that Thanksgiving is a deeply painful time for him, and the holiday triggers a specific, profound memory:
-
His Last Meal: The episode reveals that Sasappis’s final meal before his death was a humble, shared family dinner, which his father had gone to great lengths to provide. The memory is less about historical trauma and more about personal, familial loss. This small, intimate detail anchors Sasappis’s usually aloof character in deep, recognizable grief.
-
The Comfort of the Found Family: The rest of the ghosts, realizing his pain, rally around him. They don’t try to fix his historical trauma, but they offer the comfort of their found, ghostly family. They provide a new kind of support and belonging that transcends the centuries, making the episode’s conclusion genuinely touching. This shift from pure farce to heartfelt connection is what makes Ghosts truly special.
đ Ensemble Gold: The Joy of a Trapped Cast
The showâs premiseâtrapping all the main characters together for eternityâis its greatest comedic advantage. When the writers are forced to work with this confined ensemble, the creative genius truly shines.
H4: Alberta and Trevor: The Modern Misunderstandings
The episode gets endless laughs from the clashes between the more modern ghosts and the historical ones.
-
Alberta’s Culinary Standards: Alberta Haynes (the Prohibition-era singer) brings a diva-like energy to the kitchen, judging the cooking and offering sass in her signature style.
-
Trevorâs Modern Entitlement: Trevor (the finance bro) adds his modern, entitled takes on holiday traditions, clashing humorously with the historical ghosts who view his “corporate” approach to feasting with suspicion. His absolute conviction that his method is superior, despite his obvious lack of practical skill, is classic Ghosts comedy.
H4: Pete and the Quest for Purity
Even the usually simple Pete (the cheerful scout leader) gets his moment, driven by his pure, almost frantic desire to replicate the perfect, traditional Thanksgiving he remembers. His panic over the impending culinary disaster is a beautiful, contained arc of its own, reminding us that even the simplest ghosts have deep emotional ties to these human traditions.
đ Outranking the Competition: Why Ghosts Nails the Holiday Episode
Traditional sitcoms like Friends or Seinfeld had classic holiday episodes, but their humor often relied on temporary, external problems. Ghosts elevates the formula by integrating the holiday into the characters’ eternal existence and using the paranormal twist to amplify the stakes.
-
High Perplexity of Situation: No other sitcom can feature a scene where two ghosts from different centuries debate the appropriate method of basting a turkey while simultaneously floating through a wall to communicate with a bewildered, living third party. The sheer perplexity of the situation generates unique, unparalleled humor.
-
The Eternal Stakes: For the ghosts, they literally have nothing else to do for the rest of eternity. Their commitment to this one day is absolute, which makes their frenzied attempts to salvage the dinner incredibly funny.
Final Conclusion
Ghosts‘ âPlanes, Shanes and Automobilesâ easily earns the title of one of the funniest Thanksgiving episodes on television. It masterfully blends the high-stakes farce of holiday travel with the chaotic humor of a disparate group of spirits attempting to micromanage a single turkey. The episode is a brilliant showcase of the ensembleâs chemistry and the showâs unique comedic premise. More than just a laugh riot, the episode delivers unexpected depth through Sasappisâs poignant memory, reminding us that this showâs real strength lies in its ability to ground eternal absurdity in relatable, human emotion. It’s a joyful, essential watch that perfectly captures the beautiful, messy chaos that defines the American holiday season.
â 5 Unique FAQs After The Conclusion
Q1: Which actor plays the fan-favorite ghost Sasappis in Ghosts?
A1: The insightful and often cynical Lenape ghost, Sasappis, is played by actor RomĂĄn Zaragoza.
Q2: Does the Ghosts Thanksgiving episode feature any returning special guest stars?
A2: The episode âPlanes, Shanes and Automobilesâ primarily focuses on the established main cast (both living and ghosts) and introduces a minor temporary characterâJay’s relative or caregiverâwho is briefly in the house to manage the Thanksgiving cooking fiasco.
Q3: What famous movie is directly referenced by the title of the Ghosts Thanksgiving episode?
A3: The title âPlanes, Shanes and Automobilesâ is a direct and humorous reference to the classic 1987 John Hughes road trip comedy, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, starring Steve Martin and John Candy.
Q4: What recurring Ghosts dynamic is best highlighted by the Thanksgiving cooking chaos?
A4: The Thanksgiving cooking chaos perfectly highlights the generational and historical clash between the ghosts. Their inability to agree on simple thingsâlike cooking techniques or traditional etiquetteâbecause of the vast differences in their time periods is a core comedic strength of the series.
Q5: Is Ghosts based on an original American concept or is it adapted from a previous show?
A5: Ghosts is an adaptation. It is based on the highly successful British sitcom of the same name (UK Ghosts), which premiered in 2019 and shares the core premise of a living couple inheriting a house full of resident spirits.
