By Michael Lyons
In December, when you’re looking for a Christmas episode of your favorite sitcom, you’ll have no trouble finding one, or in some cases, multiple episodes.
In March or April, when you’re looking for an Easter episode of your favorite sitcom...good luck! There aren’t many sitcoms that have chosen the springtime holiday as a basis for an episode.
However, some sitcoms have embraced Easter as the subject of or backdrop, such as...
Everybody Loves Raymond: “The Canister,” Original Airdate: April 9, 2001
This show didn’t just put the “fun” in dysfunctional family comedies; they celebrated it with consistently hysterical results.
This episode is no exception. It’s Easter weekend on Long Island, and Marie Barone (Doris Roberts) accuses her daughter-in-law Debra (Patricia Heaton) of not returning a beloved metal canister. Debra insists that she has...but finds out later that she mistakenly still has it.
To save herself from Marie’s “told you so’s,” Debra attempts to hide the canister and not tell Marie the truth. When the family gets together on Easter Sunday, the canister keeps turning up at the most inopportune time.
With Ray Romano and Brad Garrett at their helpless best, this episode is filled with amazing sight gags, and cast reactions. A scene in which the canister comes tumbling down the stairs has become one of the series’ hysterical highlights, for good reason.
“The canister” will have you laughing through Memorial Day.
Drew gets assigned the task of delivering Easter baskets for the department store where he works.
However, he is still having issues getting behind the wheel after a recent car accident. He realizes he can't make the deliveries and asks his friend Oswald (Diedrich Bader) to do it, but he stores all of the baskets down in the basement, where the chocolate bunnies melt.
Oswald, in full Easter Bunny costume, decides to deliver all of the melted baskets himself. The sight of his UPS-like “Global Parcel” truck chucking Easter baskets full of “chocolate gravy” onto everyone’s front lawns, porches, and even car hoods (while “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” plays over the soundtrack) is quite the sight to behold!
Happy Days: “Three on a Porch,” Original Airdate: November 18, 1975
Jumping to the ‘70s, here’s an episode that's more set during Easter than about Easter.
Richie, Potsie, and Ralph (Ron Howard, Anson Williams, and Donny Most) are bummed that they have no plans over Easter Break, so they rent a house at the secluded “Lake Whitefish,” but it turns out that they've only rented the front porch of the house.
A bright spot emerges when the high schoolers realize that the house itself has been rented to a trio of single college girls. The three then decide to disguise themselves as international businessmen to appear older.
Of course, the ruse is soon discovered, and Fonzie (Henry Winkler) shows up to add an element of cool (his "commune" with nature at the episode's conclusion is one of the character's funniest moments and one of the episode's biggest laughs).
Not a lot of baskets, bunnies, or jelly beans here, but it's still nice to see we once thought that Spring Break was this innocent!
McHale’s Navy: “Chuckie Cottontail,” Original Airdate: March 23, 1965
Yup, the sitcom about a Navy crew stationed on a remote South Pacific island during World War II had an Easter episode. The show starred comedy and acting veterans Ernest Borgnine as Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale, a young Tim Conway as Ensign Chuck Parker, and Joe Flynn (with his trademark nervous, cracking voice) as Captain Wallace Binghamton. Unfortunately, as it's from another era, the show also features insensitive portrayals of the island natives and offensive references about the Japanese.
In this particular episode, the local school's young students are disappointed that they won't have an Easter egg hunt, as there are no eggs on the island, and the Navy only uses powdered eggs.
However, the Admiral has a shipment of eggs sent to the island to have a nice Easter morning breakfast. Soon, everyone wants them: the Captain wants some for himself, the crew wants them to brew-up some homemade eggnog, and McHale intends to give them to the kids for an Easter egg hunt.
Soon, everyone is after the eggs, and the eggnog, including several Japanese soldiers, who mistake Chuck dressed up in an Easter Bunny costume as a "demon."
Oh, sure, it's from another time, and one needs to remember that when watching it, but this episode of McHale's Navy (a series that's become somewhat forgotten) is an interesting trip back in time to TV's past and a rarely-seen Easter one at that!
As we approach Easter weekend, each or all of these might make the perfect way to laugh those calories away as you enjoy your third Cadbury Cream Egg!
A Safe and Happy Easter to All!
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