The Thanksgiving Promise on AllMovie

When it was first telecast on November 23, 1986, the made-for-TV Thanksgiving Promise (based on a novel by Blaine and Brenton Yorgason) was advertised as "A Thanksgiving Story as Only Disney Can Tell It." Actually, the film might not have come to fruition at all without the input of the Bridges family: Lloyd, Beau, Lloyd's wife Dorothy, Beau's son Jordan, and Jeff Bridges (uncredited). Jordan Bridges is the central character, a farm boy living in the shadow of his older brothers. Jordan's neighbor (Lloyd) entrusts the boy with a man-sized job: To care for a wounded gosling and fatten up the bird for Thanksgiving dinner. Inevitably, Jordan becomes attached to the bird, and as Thanksgiving approaches, he takes a series of odd jobs, hoping to buy the goose from his neighbor. But Jordan's father (Beau) insists that the boy keep his word and relinquish the goose. In addition to his costarring chores in Thanksgiving Promise, Beau Bridges coproduced and directed the film.