A MarkInTexas Made-For-TV Thanksgiving Dinner: B.C.: The First Thanksgiving (1973)

 You'd probably never guess this, but back in the 60s, Johnny Hart's comic strip B.C. was both one of the most popular and most funny strips around.  Taking place in a prehistoric world, the strip followed a group of cavemen and talking animals as they made their way through their primitive world, which was filled with numerous anachronisms.

Well before Hart ran out of material and essentially turned the strip into a Christian tract, a pair of 30 minute holiday specials were produced 8 years apart, with different production teams and different voice casts.  I reviewed the second special, 1981's B.C.: A Special Christmas, back in 2014 (it can be found in the comments on this page), and today, we'll take a look at 1973's B.C.: The First Thanksgiving.

The plot (which takes a full ten minutes to get started, after an extended, mostly dialogue-less stretch in with the red-headed title character discovers fire, then sneezes a lot) has the menfolk attempting to kill a turkey for a stew being cooked by The Fat Broad, one of only two female characters in both the strip and the special (amazingly enough, it took until just last year for The Fat Broad and The Cute Chick to finally get actual names).  Of course, it might help if the men actually knew what a turkey was.  Once they figure it out, the turkey runs, the men chase them, the turkey outwits them for a bit, then the chase starts all over again.  Since this is a talking turkey in a family cartoon, no one actually catches it, while meanwhile a dinosaur eats the rest of the stew, so everyone ends up dining on rocks.  

The special was directed by Abe Levitow, a veteran animated who worked for years on Looney Tunes, primarily for Chuck Jones.  Unfortunately, this would be the final project he'd see to completion before his death in 1975. Among the animators was Phil Roman, who would go on to be in charge of the animation of the various Garfield specials during the 80s, as well as the animation for The Simpsons through much of the 90s.  The voice cast included such vets as Daws Butler, who trotted out a Jack Benny impersonation a few times, and Don Messick.

B.C.: The First Thanksgiving isn't any great shakes, but it's mildly entertaining.  I can see why it took another 8 years for the next special to come along.  It would be another, even more popular comic strip, whose Thanksgiving special would become a holiday staple.

Next time: Thanksgiving from up north, and from outer space.