I review the holiday episode for the A.V. Club. Excerpt:
The Michael J. Fox Show can’t really afford to coast right now, but taking an easy slide down a hill are what Thanksgiving episodes are for. Occasionally there’s a “Turkeys Away,” the episode that may have saved WKRP In Cincinnati from getting cancelled in its first year, but most shows use the holiday to get away with some very old comic setups. The most cherished tradition is to invite a couple of older actors to guest as never-seen-before relatives, and “Thanksgiving” has Charles Grodin and Candice Bergen as Mike’s parents, Steve and Beth.
Bergen is a likeable actress, always a good sport, but her delivery is distractingly similar no matter whom she’s playing. The world seems to freeze for each of her very carefully enunciated lines, and her performance as Mike’s nosy, hypercritical mother is essentially Murphy Brown in a Betty White hairdo. Her snarking at Marie’s housekeeping and cooking skills is a nonstarter of a plot.
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