I'm sort of a cooking show geek. I can watch Martha Stewart bake a pie or Alton Brown explain how a convection oven works any time of the day, even two in the morning. And it's not like I just started watching cooking shows in the past several years because it was hip to do so, I've been watching them since I was a kid. I was rather addicted to The French Chef and The Galloping Gourmet when I was younger.
Two-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep does an amazing job of bringing Julia Child to life in the new movie Julie & Julia. Watch the clips that Bob posted recently and you'll understand why I'm sure this film will earn Ms. Meryl another Oscar nomination. That will be number 16, breaking her record of 15 nominations thus far.
But did you know that Dan Aykroyd steals the movie right out from under Meryl Streep's nose ... not to mention Amy Adams, too? It's true. Director Nora Ephron wisely included the famous Saturday Night Live sketch called The French Chef, in which Dan masterfully skewered Julia's TV show. The cry, "Save the liver" is still one of the funniest lines I've ever heard -- and still use when the occasion calls for it!
Julie and Julia opens today, so I thought it would be fun to compare the real Julia Child with Meryl Streep's movie version. Below are two videos. The first is the real Julia Child making an omelet on her show The French Chef, and the second is a clip from the movie.
Child had a deeper voice than most impersonators would have you believe, but it looks like Streep does a good job.
PBS's content is finally online, just barely pulling them a little closer to catching up with everyone else. Their portal seems pretty straight-forward and there is a clear effort for organization, but the amount of content is super-limited. If you're looking for a bit of Time Team America, there's only one full episode online, but if Antiques Roadshow is more your thing, the site is definitely worth checking out.
I'm most excited about having NOVA on-hand, mainly because of the amount of non-video content that is directly accessible through each episode. Like, check out this installment about fractals and then poke around all the links immediately beneath the player. It'll make your brain tingle.
Edit: Obviously, this isn't the first time PBS has had content online, but it's still nice to finally have a place to house it all, yes?
I love British chef Gordon Ramsay. I love watching him on TV, whether it's his Fox shows -- Hell's Kitchen or Kitchen Nightmares -- or the ones that have turned up on BBC America like Ramsay's Boiling Point and the most recent show, The F Word. The F stands for food, by the way. Much as I love him, though, I don't think I want him as a teacher.
Well, that's what he's going to be doing next. The Simon Cowell of cooking is plotting something new for the network. Ramsay's doing a special cooking show for Fox in the Julia Child tradition, teaching how to do what he does. The idea is for Gordon to create a three-course dinner while giving home viewers instructions about how to do it with him.
This question comes up at least once a year: do we still need PBS?
Of course, I think the real question people want an answer to is, do we still need to fund PBS? Charles McGrath looks at both sides of the issue in this New York Times piece.
The Bush administration (and let's face it, more than a few citizens) want to slice the annual budget for PBS in half. They've been trying for several years (there was even a West Wing episode where this was one of the plots), but every year they get their money. The main arguments against funding are twofold: 1.) is PBS really necessary in this age of 150 channels, and 2.) should we keep funding PBS since they do their own fund raising every year and also make money on the stuff they sell? The network pulls in less viewers now (though the viewers that remain are loyal and help save the network every year). So what should happen?
TV Squad reader, Steve, likes to cook with celebrity chefs. He says watching a recipe on television is "easier to understand than just reading in a cookbook." And, if you ask me, he probably likes the friendly company of Emeril, Rachael Ray and Paula Deen. But, recording cooking shows on VHS is a pain. To find his favorite pizza recipe, Steve would have to search through the tape. He asks TV Squad: Are there any DVDs/CDROMs of celebrity cooking shows?
Yes and no, Steve. There are, but I found surprisingly few.
I'm sort of a cooking show geek. I can watch Martha Stewart bake a pie or Alton Brown explain how a convection oven works any time of the day, even two in the morning. And it's not like I just started watching cooking shows in the past several years because it was hip to do so, I've been watching them since I was a kid. I was rather addicted to The French Chef and The Galloping Gourmet when I was younger.
PBS! Internet! Things! High-five, nerds.
I love British chef Gordon Ramsay. I love watching him on TV, whether it's his Fox shows -- 
This question comes up at least once a year: do we still need PBS?
TV Squad reader, Steve, likes to cook with celebrity chefs. He says watching a recipe on television is "easier to understand than just reading in a cookbook." And, if you ask me, he probably likes the friendly company of Emeril, Rachael Ray and Paula Deen. But, recording cooking shows on VHS is a pain. To find his favorite pizza recipe, Steve would have to search through the tape. He asks TV Squad: Are there any DVDs/CDROMs of celebrity cooking shows?
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