The Thanksgiving Special

"The Thanksgiving Special" is the twelfth episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series Regular Show, as well as the 128th episode of the series overall. A Thanksgiving special, the episode aired on Cartoon Network on November 25, 2013.

The episode drew in 3.04 million viewers, making it the most viewed episode of the fifth season.

Plot
Mordecai and Rigby inadvertently ruin the preparations for the park's Thanksgiving dinner by playing football in the house. The other park workers decide to replace the meal before their families arrive, refusing to let Mordecai and Rigby help. The duo then sees a commercial on television advertising a contest to write a commemorative song for the holiday with the chance of winning a turducken. They decide to enter the contest, but quickly find that writing the song is not as easy as they thought.

Meanwhile, Benson, Pops, and Skips go to the store for another turkey and subsequently get in a fight with a trio of Thanksgiving enthusiasts over the last one in stock, which is eventually run over on the street. Muscle Man and High-Five Ghost go out for more sides and get in an end zone dance competition with football player Broc Stettman. All the while, Thomas goes to the airport to pick up the park workers' families. Mordecai and Rigby get caught in traffic and ride from Margaret's father via his helicopter. They arrive just in time to enter, still very unprepared. The previous entry, in which billionaire Richard Buckner 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, with Buckner's back-up musicians joining in, and win the contest, only for Buckner to steal the turducken. The rest of the park workers, who witnessed the live stream, decide to work with their rivals to get it back. Mordecai and Rigby board Buckner's blimp, where he explains why he was after the turducken – it has a golden wishbone capable of wish fulfillment that he intends on using to gain the rights to Thanksgiving and have all his employees thank him, much to their shock. The duo fight Buckner with help from their friends; however, they fall out of the blimp, but not before seizing the wishbone and replacing it with spoons. Buckner attempts to make his wish, only to discover Mordecai and Rigby's deception moments before the blimp is crashed, killing him. Just when they are about to fall to their own deaths, Mordecai and Rigby wish to be returned home as they break the bone just in time. After appearing back at the house, Thomas informs them he was mistaken about the flights being delayed – he had mistakenly checked the departure schedule instead of the arrivals, to everyone's frustration – and their families, along with Broc and his team, the contest's organizer Farmer Jimmy, some of Buckner's singers and the enthusiasts, are already there and have replaced the dinner. Benson gives Mordecai and Rigby a toast thanking them for saving Thanksgiving as the episode culminates.

Production
The episode was written and storyboarded by Benton Connor, Toby Jones, Andres Salaff, and Calvin Wong, and was directed by series creator J. G. Quintel and supervising producer Mike Roth. The episode includes guest stars Terry Crews, Chord Overstreet, LeToya Luckett and Josh Keaton. The episode also includes two original songs, "What Are You Thankful For?" and "Chewing on Freedom".

According to J. G. Quintel, the episode "[had] some really awesome songs", but the crew "ended up having to record the people in the songs all at separate times", which proved challenging.

The episode was watched by 3.04 million viewers.

Reception
Alasdair Wilkins of The A.V. Club wrote that the special was "A worthy companion to last year’s brilliant Christmas special", complementing the special for "all the things associated with thanksgiving: food, football, good cheer, and most importantly family". Wilkins also complemented the family and friendship bonds throughout the show that the special has shown. Austin Allison from Collider placed the special as one of the "Top 10 Cartoon Thanksgiving Animated Specials to Gobble Down This Season", praising the special for managing to "ring in the true meaning of the holiday of being thankful for the ones closest to you, through song-form and hamboning."

Paul Le also placed the special as one of the "14 Best Thanksgiving Episodes in Animated Television, Ranked", stating that "Regular Show is always weird, but this Thanksgiving special takes the cake. Or should we say, "turkey?"".

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 businessman, television host, and future United States President Donald Trump and Walmart and Sam's Club founder Sam Walton.