Networks Offer Traditional Thanksgiving Bill of Fare

For holiday revelers who enjoy television with their turkey, the broadcast and cable networks have prepared a Thanksgiving Day menu of traditional servings of parades, football games, specials and movies.

Parades: “The All-American Thanksgiving Parade” will again be broadcast from four sites around the country: Hawaii, Disneyland, Detroit and New York. Phylicia Rashad (“Cosby”) and Victoria Rowell (“Diagnosis Murder”) are among the members of CBS’ daytime and prime-time series who will serve as hosts for the 37th annual event, which starts at 8 a.m. on Channel 2.

At 1 p.m. on NBC, Katie Couric of “Today” will join her morning-show colleagues Willard Scott and Al Roker for start-to-finish coverage of “Macy’s 70th Anniversary Thanksgiving Day Parade” in New York. This year’s parade, which begins at 77th Street and Central Park West, will feature 18 giant helium balloons, 13 marching bands, 31 floats and performers from stage, screen and television.

Movies: CBS will broadcast “Free Willy” at 11:30 a.m. . . . NBC offers the popular comedy “Home Alone,” starring Macaulay Culkin, at 9 p.m. on Channels 4 and 36. NBC will also broadcast “Scrooge,” starring Alistair Sim, at 4 p.m. . . . Cable’s USA Network will offer a daylong marathon of films, beginning at 9 a.m. with Jim Varney in “Ernest Goes to Camp.”

Specials: ABC helps Ebony, one of the leading magazines among African Americans, salute its golden anniversary with “Celebrate the Dream: 50 Years of Ebony Magazine,” at 9 p.m. on Channels 7, 3 and 42. The two-hour telecast, taped Nov. 17 at the Shrine Auditorium, features an A-list of celebrities: Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali, Halle Berry, Bill Cosby, Whoopi Goldberg, Whitney Houston, Quincy Jones, Oprah Winfrey and others. . . . CBS (Channel 2) laces up its ice skates at 1:35 p.m. to resume its coverage of “Ice Wars: USA vs. the World,” a 90-minute special in which Team USA members Scott Hamilton, Brian Boitano and Rosalyn Summers compete against Kurt Browning, Oksana Baiul and Katarina Witt. . . . The Christmas season kicks off on the small screen today with the animated “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” based on the whimsical tale by Dr. Seuss, at 5:05 p.m. on cable’s TBS. . . . PBS’ “Nightly Business Report” gets together with financial planner Jonathan Pond, who shows consumers how to cut their personal budgets on “cash guzzlers”--cars and home improvements, 6:30 p.m. on KOCE-TV Channel 50.

Sports: The Detroit Lions play their annual Thanksgiving Day football game, this year against the AFC’s Kansas City Chiefs at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich., starting at 9:30 a.m. on NBC (Channels 4 and 36). The second game of the NFL’s holiday doubleheader matches the Dallas Cowboys at home in Irving, Texas, against their NFC East rivals the Washington Redskins. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. on Fox (Channel 11).

In the college ranks, Air Force travels to San Diego State to play the Aztecs in a Western Athletic Conference football game, starting at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN2. Meanwhile, Syracuse plays Kentucky in a nonconference basketball game on ESPN at 6 p.m.

Marathons: Today’s PBS menu features six episodes of “Adventures From the Book of Virtues,” at 3:30 p.m. on KCET-TV Channel 28. Later, KOCE broadcasts six episodes of the hit British TV comedy “Mr. Bean,” starring Rowan Atkinson as the disaster-prone but endearing man-child, from 8 to 11 p.m.