With the holidays approaching, families are preparing to gather around the dining room table and enjoy turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and all the fixings. The silver screen has always had an eye for dinner scenes. Dinner is an occasion to talk, catch up, and sometimes it provides just the kind of tension that keeps audiences laughing.
These are the five of the top dinner scenes in movies and TV, from the elegant wood dining room tables of royalty to the familiar Formica of old-fashioned diners everywhere.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
An over-crowded house, high expectations for a Christmas bonus that won’t come through, surprise guests – the Griswolds’ holiday is enough to give anyone nightmares. To cap it all off, even the turkey was dry enough to wheeze smoke as soon as Clark carves into it.
As terrible as the Griswolds’ Christmas turns out to be, ultimately it’s a feel-good story about commitment to family.
Home Alone
Another Christmas classic, Home Alone features a lot of great gags around dinner time, from the chaotic mess of the extended family in the opening sequence to Kevin’s innovative ideas for getting pizza delivered.
But one quiet scene toward the end is particularly memorable. In the moments before the Wet Bandits begin their iconic (and ill-fated) break-in, Kevin sits down at a dining table tastefully decorated for Christmas to say grace over a plate of “highly nutritious microwavable macaroni and cheese dinner.” It’s a sweet moment before the true hijinks begin.
Beetlejuice
For those who prefer the ghosts and ghouls of Halloween to Santa and his reindeer, let us direct your attention to the most fun you can ever have hosting a dinner party in a haunted house. Desperate to scare away the Deetzes, an obnoxious New York couple who moved into their home, ghosts Barbara and Adam Maitland decide to possess the Deetzes and their dinner guests, making them dance to Harry Belafonte’s 1950s calypso anthem “Day-O.” Unfortunately, their antics only delight the Deetzes, but it’s one of the most fun dinner scenes in Hollywood history.
Shrek 2
Ever had a meet-the-parents dinner go disastrously? Family favorite Shrek 2 may have captured that moment better than any other film when the ogre-from-the-swamp meets Princess Fiona’s royal parents. It’s one of only a handful of sequels to get as much love as the original.
The Sopranos
It was the scene that had everyone talking for days. The last moments of the series that sparked prestige TV feature the core Soprano family meeting in an old-fashioned diner.
James Gandolfini’s Tony sits down at a Formica table and selects Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” off of a tableside jukebox as his eyes glance nervously each time the door opens. There’s a mounting sense of dread surrounding this scene of familial normalcy, and the end would be discussed on talk radio and around water coolers for weeks after.
If you thought your family dinners were dramatic, wait until you get a load of these iconic scenes.
