Morgan Heit, actress Christine Lakin and actor Patrick Stewart guest starred in the episode. Recurring guest voice actors Alexandra Breckenridge, actor Chris Cox, writer Mike Desilets, actor Ralph Garman, writer Gary Janetti, writer Danny Smith, writer Alec Sulkin, and writer John Viener also made minor appearances throughout the episode. Recurring guest cast members Adam West, Jennifer Tilly and Patrick Warburton also appeared in the episode as Mayor Adam West, Bonnie Swanson, and Joe Swanson respectively. Cultural references As the Griffin family prepare to sit down for their dinner, baby Stewie is shown watching television, with the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade taking place on the screen. Stewie notices a hot air balloon in the parade resembling himself. After the family decides to go to the Griffin family's backyard to play football, Joe approaches his son to encourage him to beat the other team. Joe then references the 2009 war film The Hurt Locker, with Kevin responding with disdain for the film, despite supposedly being in a coma during its release. Joe also goes on to point out that Kevin is wearing an Ed Hardy t-shirt, which also became popularized during his supposed coma, and despite Kevin telling his father that he flew straight home after he awoke. Later during dinner, when Kevin reveals that he went A.W.O.L., Peter makes an off the wall reference, causing the episode to cut to a room showing several of the show's editors, who become confused about what cutaway to play on the screen. They then decide to play a clip involving several characters from The Wizard of Oz, including the Cowardly Lion, who is shown to be actress Lindsay Lohan's gynecologist. Reception "Thanksgiving" was broadcast on November 20, 2011, as a part of an animated television night on Fox, and was preceded by The Simpsons and Allen Gregory, and followed by Family Guy creator and executive producer Seth MacFarlane's second show, American Dad!. It was watched by 6.04 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings, despite airing simultaneously with the American Music Awards on ABC, The Amazing Race on CBS and Sunday Night Football on NBC. The episode also acquired a 3.1/7 rating in the 18–49 demographic, beating The Simpsons, Allen Gregory, American Dad!, in addition to significantly edging out all three shows in total viewership. The episode's ratings increased slightly from the previous week's episode, "Back to the Pilot". Reviews of the episode were