1) Thanksgiving Day parade (shown here in a previous year), 8:30 a.m. to noon, NBC and Peacock. It will be a mega-parade — 22 floats, 11 bands,17 balloons, 10 performance groups, one Santa. And NBC adds Rockettes, more dancers, soloists (Jennifer Hudson, Billy Porter, Kylie Minogue) and the Broadway casts of “Hell’s Kitchen,” “The Outsiders” and “Death Becomes Her.”
2) Post-parade. NBC jumps to a dog show at noon and a parade rerun at 2. By then, viewers can switch to football. That’s 12:30 p.m. ET on CBS (Bears-Lions), 4:30 on Fox (Giants-Cowboys) and 8:15 on NBC (Dolphins-Packers). The one college game, Memphis-Tulane, is 7:30 p.m. on ESPN.
3) “Mary Poppins” (1964), 8-11 p.m., ABC. Here’s a perfect way for families to close the holiday, mixing grown-up wit and child-like wonder. At the Oscars, it lost to “My Fair Lady” for best picture, but its star (Julie Andrews) beat Audrey Hepburn for best actress. It won four more Oscars, two of them for its sprightly music.
4) More family films. Another all-time classic – “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) – is at 8 p.m. on TBS. It faces “Shrek” (2001) at 8 on CW and the “Home Alone” films, at 6 and 8:30 p.m. on FX. And at 6, TNT starts a 24-hour marathon, with “Christmas Vacation” every two hours.
5) More movies. Hallmark has done well with the character (from author Debbie McComber) dubbed Mrs. Miracle. She’s been played by Doris Roberts twice and Caroline Rhea once; now it’s Rachel Boston’s turn, at 8 p.m. Also, the E channel has “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946) at noon, 3, 6 and 9 p.m.; “Great American Family” has “I Heard the Bells” at 8 ET.
— Mike Hughes, TV America