GH: Quartermania Thanksgiving Marathon

SoapNet had a General Hospital marathon on Thanksgiving night, Thursday November 22, 2012. The episodes which aired were from 1995, 1997, 2001, 2009 and 2011.

Episode One: November 23, 1995

This is Emily's (Amber Tamblyn) first Thanksgiving without her mother. The Qs argue about the holiday as usual, though Lila (Anna Lee) wants a peaceful event too. The next time we see the Quartermaines everyone is together including Monica (Leslie Charleson) and Alan (Stuart Damon). Ned (Wally Kurth) and Lois (Rena Sofer) are greeted by a happy Emily. Ned's gift of a bank, was a direct reference to how Edward (John Ingle) believes that Lois's music company is a nickel and dime operation.

Felicia (Kristina Wagner) and Tom (Matt Ashford) are involved and Maxie (Robyn Richards) and Tommy are with them. Simone and Justus (Joseph C. Phillips) also show up though they leave to go to the Ward house. We see Tom in a conversation with both Steve and Audrey (John Bernadino and Rachel Ames). Tom doesn't want his son to be torn between his parents during the holiday.

Katherine (Mary Beth Evans) and Mac (John J. York) are having Thanksgiving alone. Tony (Brad Maule) invited Lucy (Lynn Herring) to Thanksgiving at Bobbie's (Jackie Zeman) brownstone. Sigmund the duck has gone missing and Lucy freaks out yelling for her pet. Lucy goes to Mac as he is a private investigator. She wants him to go find her duck, and Lucy leaves once she realizes their Thanksgiving Chinese food includes duck.

Lucy then goes to the brownstone in search of Sigmund. When she finds out they are eating duck, she gets upset and leaves. Lucky (Jonathan Jackson) and Luke (Tony Geary)  show up at the Brownstone. Kevin (John Lindstrom) comes in to see Mac and Katherine.

Keisha (Senait Ashenafi) comes to the Qs and gives Emily a wreath for her head. Jason (Steve Burton) and AJ (Sean Kanan) argue, and AJ tells Keisha he has been sober since his DWI. Lucy freaks out the Qs are having duck too.

Lucy was happy hearing that the Wards would be having turkey and not duck for Thanksgiving. Lucy goes to see Kevin and he wants to help her find Sigmund.

Emily says she doesn't want duck, as does Monica (Leslie Charleson), pretty much everyone didn't want to eat the meal. Edward isn't happy, but it is a quorum.

Robin (Kim McCullough) goes to see her uncle Mac and gives him the status of Stone's health.

Lucy and Kevin finds Sigmund with a female duck. Kevin dubs her Billie, and says that they should leave them alone outside for the night.

Lila wants them to wait to eat to sing the song. They start signing and then start passing out the pizza.

Episode Two: November 27, 1997

Jax (Ingo Rademacher) and Brenda (Vanessa Marcil) are discussing how she can't defrost the turkey as it is too big to fit into the microwave.

Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst) was in her bad girl mode as she is still smoking. Nikolas (Tyler Christopher) and Sarah (Jennifer Sky) are dating, and Lucky comes in with the missing cat Gatsby who Foster had chased from Audrey's home.

Emily goes to see Jason at the penthouse. He decides he'd rather have pizza than turkey, though it is perfectly cooked. Jason doesn't go back with Emily to the Q's, but  then flashes back to a conversation with Robin. He then decides to go.

Alan and Monica discuss what kind of pizza they will have for Thanksgiving. Justus is happy to see Keisha. AJ (Billy Warlock) comes in with Keisha. Annabelle and another dog came in after they eat some food. Ned and Alexis (Nancy Grahn) come in and Edward is snarking about her due to something Stefan had done.

Luke answers the door at Bobbie's as the kids, Felicia and Mac come into the room. There are jokes about Foster. Carly (Sarah Brown) and Tony came and its awkward as they are dating. They end up staying for the holiday.

Pilgrims comes with pizza and guns as they plan to rob the Qs. When the pilgrims see Jason, they decide to leave. They run out destroying the turkey. Annabelle eat the pizza, and it is revealed that Tracy (Jane Elliot who wasn't on GH at the time) was the one who paid for the robbers.

In the closing credits, the Qs are eating Chinese instead of pizza and singing we gather together.

Episode Three: November 22, 2001

Bobbie and Scott (Kin Shriner) were arrested as he had been speeding and they were stuck in a small town. Many people were waiting at the brownstone for Bobbie and Laura (Genie Francis) was filling in as host. Audrey is there, but Elizabeth is out of town and off screen. Roy (A Martinez) and Luke talked about the holiday though it was awkward being there. Laura asked Luke to help her. Maxie has a tattoo and little Georgie mentions it. Lucky (Jacob Young) tries to calm down Felicia and Mac, but they aren't happy. Laura gives the Thanksgiving speech as Bobbie doesn't make it in time. Since it is 2001, there is a veiled reference to the real world.

Nikolas (Colton Scott) and Gia (Marissa Ramirez) are at Wyndamere, sharing their engagement with Alexis, her sister Kristina (Jaime Ray Newman) and Stefan (Stephen Nichols). It is awkward at first, but Gia was extremely supportive.

Carly (Tamara Braun) and Sonny (Maurice Benard) are in the process of divorcing. Carly wants Jax to back her business, and he says she needs to come with him. Sonny goes home and Mike (Ron Hale) is there with food.

At the Q's, Rae (Linda Dano) has joined the family waiting for Skye (Robin Christopher). Lila is sweet to Rae and wants everyone to get along. Later everyone is snarking at Rae at the dinner table, as Lila has left the room. Reginald comes in with the bird. AJ, Alan, Ned, Monica and Edward are all there at the table when Skye comes in, Lila is on the phone with relatives in another room. Monica ends up fighting with Skye and it turns into a food fight. AJ ends up calling for pizza.

We gather together sung by Ned ends up over various scenes. Nik goes to see Helena (Constance Towers), we also see all the families at the brownstone, at the Cassadines etc. The episode ends with little Lulu telling everyone including Serena (Carly Schroeder) that Scott and Laura are going to get married. The show is in honor of the late director Alan Pultz.

Episode Four: November 25, 2009

Robin, Molly (Hayey Pullos), and Kristina (Lexi Ainsworth) worked together to set up Mac and Alexis. When Diane (Carolyn Hennessy) came by to spend the the holiday with the Davis girls, Molly let her in on the plan by paying her a dollar to be her attorney. Diane liked the idea of helping Alexis, so she let the plan continue. Later in the episode, Diane and Max reunited. At Robin and Patrick's (Jason Thompson), Matt (Jason Cook) brought Patrick's ex-girlfriend Lisa (Julie Mond) to dinner. Sam (Kelly Monaco) was with them at the meal.

Kristina and Ethan (Nathan Parsons) ran into each other, they spoke and he went to the Qs instead of Kelly's for Thanksgiving as his father Luke was there. Rebecca (Natalia Livingston) planned to leave the mansion to volunteer for the holiday, but stayed for the meal. Spinelli (Bradford Anderson) went to see Maxie after spending time with Milo. Meanwhile Maxie (Kirsten Storms) shared with Lulu (Julie Marie Berman) how she cheated on Spinelli with Franco.

Carly (Laura Wright) and Jax were going to spend the holiday apart. Both of the cars stopped working due to Morgan and Michael's (Drew Garrett) interference so everyone spent the holiday at home.

The Qs had their Thanksgiving pizza. Edward took out a pitch pipe and started singing "We Gather Together" as they all ate their meal. At the end, they broke character and talked to the fourth wall wishing the audience a happy Thanksgiving.

Episode Five: November 23, 2011

Sonny and Kate (Kelly Sullivan) spend the holiday in NYC. She does some work while in the city, which upsets him, and they discuss their relationship. Kate brings Sonny outside to his Bensonhurst home.

Dante (Dominic Zamprogna) and Lulu talk about how she isn't wearing his engagement ring. He ends up leaving after she burns the pie she baked. Dante ends up in a crime scene and passes out from chest pains. The reason that Lulu is apprehensive about marrying him is she is afraid he will get shot on the job again. Lulu tired of waiting for Dante leaves the apartment.

Michael (Chad Duell) goes to the Qs instead of spending the holiday with his mother Carly. Carly spends the holiday with Shawn (Sean Blakemore) at Kelly's along with little Joss.

Jason and Sam are dealing with the Franco fallout, though she hasn't told him what happened. Sam wants to go to the Qs for the holiday, and begrudgingly Jason goes with his wife. Tracy is disappointed that Luke isn't there, though Anthony sends her flowers. Edward starts to sing "We Gather Together", Jason gets upset and tips over the Thanksgiving table. Sam follows Jason out of the living room.

I preferred the episodes from the 90s to the more recent ones, which isn't surprising. I think it is because those holidays had more Qs and more fun. They were light-hearted in a way that the 2009 and 2011 were not as the characters in Port Charles didn't get to enjoy the holiday.