macys thanksgiving day parade

This year, we're betting that 'American Idol' stars Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina are mostly thankful that turkey day is firmly behind them. The Season 10 winner and runner-up both had pretty bad experiences yesterday.

An estimated 50 million viewers were watching as country crooner McCreery was revealed to be lip-syncing at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.

Meanwhile, Alaina can now join the pantheon of singers -- yes, we mean you Christina Aguilera, Cyndia Lauper and ... um ... Scotty McCreery -- who've flubbed the national anthem on live TV.

• At 4:30AM, TCM has a marathon of Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies.
• At 6, TLC has a Cake Boss marathon.
• At 7, USA has a House marathon.
• At 8, Syfy starts their James Bond movie marathon with Dr. No.
• At 8:30, Cartoon Network has a Tom & Jerry marathon.
• At 9, NBC has The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, then the National Dog Show.
• CBS has highlights from parade on The Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS at 9.
• Discovery has a Mythbusters marathon at 9.
• TV Land has a Brady Bunch marathon starting at 9.
• There's a Golden Girls marathon on Hallmark at 9.

Recently, when I shared my view about a certain Dell computer commercial, some of you thought I was a moron. Okay, we'll call it a difference of opinion. However, just to show you that I'm not a grumpster, allow me to extol the virtues of the Macy's commercial that celebrates this iconic American department story that's been around for over 150 years.

What makes The Magic of Macy's so much fun is that it doesn't tell you why the place is legendary, it shows you why. All those film clips from movies and television, years before anyone was using mentions like these for commercial purposes, underscore how much a part of pop culture Macy's was.

(It still is, to some extent, but the days of one brick and mortar store dominating the business landscape are long gone.)