What was on TV? Thurs Nov 25, 2004

In 2004, Thanksgiving is (really, really) late. But 20 years ago, it was early! Let's see what was on TV that night.

9:00 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC

Watch on youtube

As she and (ugh) Matt Lauer prepare for the start of this year's parade, Katie Couric quips "believe it or not, the temperature is a balmy 64 degrees...Maybe it’s global warming, I’m not sure." I want to walk into the (rising) sea.

I can stomach bad video quality, but the quality on all the videos from this parade is really bad and that marred my experience. I was at least hoping to see some great Broadway performances, but none of the really cool musicals from that year (The Light in the Piazza, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Spamalot) brought floats. My favorite part was seeing the Rockettes perform to the hot chocolate song from The Polar Express.

I'm letting my 2004 self eat Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family. But My 2004 self records Peep Show on BBC America and the MTV EMAs.

Late Night

Maybe you're alone and sad, or recovering from dinner with the family, or avoiding talking to your Dad. But if you're watching a late-night talk show on Thanksgiving, you need it to be good.

So it's a good thing that Late Night with Conan O'Brien delivered one of the best episode I've seen since starting this project. The opening segments aren't promising (did you know that Ruben Studdard is fat?). But once Steve Irwin arrives, it's all bangers all the time. Steve Irwin brings tons of enthusiasm and a truly enormous snake that will not behave, it's chaotic and delightful. Then there's one of the best taped segments I've seen them do, starring Christ Gethard (!) about freshmen coming home for Thanksgiving. It rules.

The last guest of the night is Paul Giamatti, who had just hit the big time with Sideways. The fall of 2004 was a rough time for studio releases, and after weeks of hosting the stars of clunkers like After the Sunset and Alexander, Conan is clearly thrilled to give a movie his honest endorsement. And Giamatti is a great guest, their interview is irreverent and delightful.

The full episode is available on archive.org.

What Else Was On

• On Fox, you could watch the broadcast premiere of stealth Thanksgiving movie Spider-Man.
• The Seinfeld box set was arriving just in time for the holidays, so NBC aired a promotional special full of repackaged DVD extras.
• Tonight's special sweeps guest star: Jamie-Lynn Sigler on Will and Grace.

But most importantly: Destiny's Child performed at the NFL Thanksgiving Halftime show.

It's amazing. Gorgeous acapella harmonies, crazy vocal runs, intense dancing, all three members ate at the top of their game. There are hordes of backup dancers and a ginormous marching band. "Lose My Breath" with its athletic subject matter and marching band orchestration, was pretty much made for this moment and it sounds amazing. It also marks an interesting moment in Beyonce's career.

This was the first major NFL halftime performance post-Janet and Justin. So there was a lot of pressure on both Destiny's Child and the NFL. The league had to approve their lyrics and outfits. But Destiny's Child delivered. The show is spectacular, and no one could argue that it wasn't All-American. Military salutes, a flyover, a song called "soldier," they made the censors happy. There's some debate about the best Super Bowl Halftime show. But not with the Thanksgiving one. It's Destiny's Child.

It marked the beginning of Beyonce's relationship with the NFL. She would use that platform to more halftime performances at the Super Bowl, and those performances put forward a very different vision of America. Someone should really write an academic paper about this.

In the News

Tonight, Survivor did a visit-from-the-loved-ones episode. The show's two lesbian contestants naturally kissed their partners, but Survivor cut away. When Entertainment Weekly asked Mark Burnett about it, he did not mince words:

“I’d be an idiot not to notice both the way the country voted and the backlash from the FCC that came off of Janet Jackson’s [Super Bowl debacle]. I wanted to protect my franchise and didn’t think it was right to show both lesbian kisses at 8 o’clock. I can’t be any more honest than that, can I?”

Mark Burnett's decision is not surprising. But it is especially galling when you remember that in just a few months, networks were happy to promote the living daylights out of lesbian kisses and storylines on The OC, One Tree Hill, and Wife Swap to juice ratings for February sweeps, titillating horny straight dudes and taking advantage of desperate gay kids. But two women kissing their partners is too scandalous for 8:00 (when The OC, for one, aired).

We're already seeing people in the industry make similar decisions in the wake of the 2004 election. I hope we can all recognize and call it out as it happens, and that we can get people to explain themselves on the record the way Entertainment Weekly did here. Seeing someone say it out loud is powerful, even all these years later. It reminds us what we're up against and it reminds us that attitudes can change, for better and for worse, so it's important to keep fighting.

TiVo Status

The three-hour Masterpiece Theater miniseries The Lost Prince and The Office Christmas Special from across the pond (2 hours), the TNT movie The Wool Cap, one episode of Peep Show, and the MTV EMAs. 10.5 hours, with 17.5 hours of space left.