In transitioning from Comedy Central to the Sci-Fi Channel, Turkey Day took a year off. Unfortunately this is also the last Turkey Day until 2013, because the Sci-Fi Channel didn't really have the push for Mystery Science Theater 3000 that Comedy Central did, because it was hardly the channel's most popular show (I believe Farscape and Sliders were the big draws of the channel while they had MST). One could even argue this isn't really a true "Turkey Day," as it wasn't titled as such, didn't feature bumpers, and the marathon wasn't even entirely an MST marathon, as they also showed two Star Wars movies during their prime time slots.
But it's still something of a Thanksgiving marathon of MST episodes, so I guess it counts.
Somewhat gimping this Turkey Day is the fact that the Sci-Fi Channel only really had the episodes produced for their network available to them, which means this is the only "All Mike" Turkey Day (and "All Bill Corbett" by association). Sci-Fi had aired almost all the episodes for the eighth season by the time they aired this marathon, but for some reason they concentrate very heavily on the second quarter of the episode order. They start off with their little half-hour "Making of" special, then jump straight into the first episode of their run with Revenge of the Creature. After that they jump again to Terror from the Year 5000 and then just do a straight run through the episodes produced up until Incredibly Strange Creatures. It's not so much of a mix-and-match, but more of just a season sampler.
The only real change of pace is the break for the two Star Wars films after Giant Spider Invasion, which is random but kind of funny. I'm actually having trouble confirming which two Star Wars movies they showed during this marathon, but I'm going to take a random guess and say they were the original and Empire Strikes Back (the only other Star Wars movie other than ignored TV movies at the time was Return of the Jedi, so there is a chance it was an Empire/Jedi double feature). I'm not against mixing in Star Wars with my MST3K, but showing a movie with a budget amidst a bunch of cheapies? It might seem more honorable to toss one or two of those made for TV movies they show all the time in there instead.
Revenge of the Creature
Terror from the Year 5000
The She-Creature
I Was a Teenage Werewolf
The Giant Spider Invasion
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
Parts: The Clonus Horror
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies
Average Rating (our of 4): 2.857
Restrained episode selection and a lack of bumpers help propel Sci-Fi's lone Turkey Day into the most lackluster one yet for the series, but it's also a fairly easy one to recreate, considering it's only seven episodes and a couple of Star Wars films. One could even keep the theme alive by using the Rifftrax versions of those Star Wars films should they chose to do such a recreation (I've even linked my Rifftrax reviews above) to help keep the riffing theme consistent. That being said, it's less of a Turkey Day and more of an Odd Duck.
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