A side of Pigskin

It’s easy to tell Norman Rockwell’s classic Thanksgiving scene was painted a long time ago. There are 11 people at that famous dining table, and not one is craning a neck to scope out a television in the next room. Things have changed since the ‘40s. In an untold number of American homes today, TV watching is almost as much a part of Thanksgiving as family and food.

“Football is on all day,” said Alli Ashwood, a college student whose family lives in Spokane. “It is going to be the background music of our meal.”

How festive.

Once, that might have been considered unusual. No more.

As TV has become an increasingly inescapable presence in modern households, it has gained an integral role in holiday gatherings.

We hear a lot about turkey and dressing. But couch potatoes have cooked up their own tradition.

Wielding the remote has joined carving the bird as an honored Thanksgiving responsibility.

Some resisted this trend, only to succumb in the end.

“I grew up with four brothers, and the balance of power has swung to their side over the past few years,” said Karen Swanson, 43, of Spokane. “My mother has finally conceded defeat and allows the television to be on while we are giving thanks at the table.”

She just asks that they keep the sound down. “It makes for interesting dinner conversation,” said Swanson. “Because when someone is screaming ‘Pass it, you fool!’ it could be either the football or the cranberry sauce.”

Not everyone has a sense of humor about this.

“Some family gatherings seem to revolve around TV, with Thanksgiving dinners prepared to suit the timing of football games,” sniffed a disdainful commentator in the online version of Mothering magazine.

Some insist that the distinctiveness of the day is eroded if TV is a focus of attention. They say it cheapens Thanksgiving to share it with deodorant commercials.

Aren’t we supposed to be out chopping wood for the fireplace, tossing a football in the back yard or spending nine hours setting the table?

Still, others maintain it’s no big deal.

In any event, differing opinions can lead to tensions.

One Spokane woman who didn’t want to see her name in print told about learning that first-hand.

She was at her in-laws for Thanksgiving. They are people who tend to leave multiple televisions on all day long, she explained.

“In my family, we had only one TV, and it was used to watch specific programs – not for background noise,” she said.

Anyway, it came time to sit down to dinner. So she walked over and switched off the nearby TV.

Suddenly the room got chilly, if you know what I mean.

“It was kind of a faux pas,” she recalled.

Face it. Certain people start getting twitchy if the TV is off for two seconds.

There are varying theories about why this is so. Maybe some of us are afraid to be alone with our thoughts. Or perhaps there’s a form of addiction at work here.

Which isn’t to suggest that spending a little time with the tube on Thanksgiving is a character flaw.

Countless baby boomers cherish childhood memories of annual viewings of “The Wizard of Oz” on Thanksgiving night.

“… But we’ve got to verify it lee-gal-ee.”

At Daryl Kyle’s home in Athol, Idaho, early risers still enjoy watching coverage of the Macy’s parade.

Will the inflated Bullwinkle snap his tethers?

Spokane TV news reporter Laura Papetti is among those who enjoy checking out old holiday-themed movies on Thanksgiving. “It’s the perfect follow-up to heavy eating,” she said.

She might be right. If you have overindulged at the table, a sedentary activity could be just the ticket.

And unlike our real families, we can count on the characters in “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “A Christmas Story” to behave predictably.

But selective viewing isn’t really what raises the red flags.

Frank Vespe, executive director of the TV-Turnoff Network, says many people no longer give a second thought to flipping on the television and leaving it on until bedtime. “And it’s clear that the amount of time we spend with TV is displacing a lot of other things,” he said in a phone interview from his office in Washington, D.C.

Things like meaningfully interacting with cousins and uncles.

Some would argue that if celebrating family bonds is one of the chief elements of Thanksgiving, flushing hour after hour down the video vortex is a poor way to go about it.

“I think it’s just one of those things a lot of us do without thinking about the ramifications,” said Vespe.

Of course, in more than a few families, Thanksgiving TV watching is an established pattern going back several generations.

Maybe you’ve seen it. Those who aren’t helping in the kitchen congregate around a television. It can be part of the time-honored choreography of the occasion.

Sometimes the script calls for women to wrangle pies and men to melt into recliners.

It’s not always a great gender divide, though. Spokane’s Helen Fitzsimmons doesn’t mind watching a little football. “I won’t be hiding in the kitchen,” she said.

And anyone suggesting that serious conversations can’t take place with the TV on isn’t being realistic.

Sure, some dens and living rooms will be inhabited today by slack-jawed individuals doing impressions of inert lumps of passivity. But elsewhere, the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys will be largely ignored as those supposedly watching TV discuss everything from divorces to career prospects.

Simply ignoring what’s on the screen is a practice that has been around longer than the “mute” button.

To view or not to view … it’s really a matter of taste.

As we were reminded earlier this month, on Election Day, disagreeing is the American way.

Not everyone is of the same mind about the best kind of turkey dressing. And not everybody agrees about whether television should be part of the picture today.

Some people couldn’t imagine not clicking on the set.

Others, well, let’s just say there are some traditions Norman Rockwell might still recognize.

What role does TV watching play in your family’s Thanksgiving gathering?

“None,” said hospital administrator Kris Becker. “We go for a hike after dinner.”