"The Restaurant" Reality Show Season 2

[BuzzDraft]

Tonight at 8 EDT is the final episode of this series, probably for good. NBC's site teases that Dispirito considers a buyout offer from Chodrow. I wish he'd take it, but then I know what has gone on in court since the last filming wrapped.

I'd like to have a look at his cookbook, but I find him so repulsive I don't want to give him an extra dime in royalties.

Will we miss it?

[Dignan]

Here in Houston we've had a news blackout in honor of Ronnie Reagan (for the most part; they've worked in local news as well, and we've got some thunderstorms brewing). I'm waiting, it's 7:29... Nope, now it's a "sponsored segment" by Grand Casino Coushatta (sp?) in Louisiana.

[BuzzDraft]

Chodorow: Buy me out, we go to litigation, or take a couple hundred thousand to go away.

I hoped Dispirito would sell out like he does on Home Shopping Network. Since I know of the court cases a couple months ago, Dispirito took the litigation route. As bad a person as Chodorow may have been, I hope he cleans Rocco's clock. And this Mama love affair I don't get at all. She comes across to me as the Wicked Witch.

And so ends the video side of it. No matter how awful this play was, I have to find out how the plot ends by reading blurbs on the net from NY courts?

Thanks all for a very interesting thread over the past year. It sure as hell has been more interesting to discuss here than watch on NBC.

your pal,

[ingridsf]

That finale, my friends, was no train wreck. If only. Oh for a conflagration. Instead, it was just…limp. Like it or not, JC grabbed Rocco's mojo but good. Rocco bedding down in The Restaurant with his girlfriend (Fertility rite? Too cheap for a motel? Roommate hang a necktie on the door?) was plain weird. Mama lives right there, why not stay with her? If I thought this program had the capacity for wit, irony, or even some cheap self-parody, the “no wood in the oven” admonition might have had an intentional link to Signore Beppe’s assumption that Rocco’s been in need of Viagra. (Or maybe it’s a new Italian wine, for all I know, Chianti di Viagra.) Why didn’t anyone tell me that “rocco” and “fiasco” are synonyms?

[Holly Moore]

So season three will be on Court TV. Cool.

[Dignan]

So, what happened? As I noted above, the show was preempted here in Houston.

Chod issued an ultimatem, and Rocco squated in the restaurant? Did he chain himself to a $1500 bar stool?

[TrishCT]

Trishnodamus predicts:

It's last call for Rocco's 22nd. It will morph into a Chowdorowish eatery, and with a nod to Thomas Keller, will be called "Dirty Laundry, Per Se."

Rocco will enjoy another 5 minutes of celebrity before his next big venture... a cooking show on the Food Network...not ala Melting Pot...more Roccocentric... Instead of "Bam" Rocco will coin the phrase "Boink."

AND...

Mamma and Rocco's aunt & uncle will open a family style italian joint specializing in meatballs and homemade pasta. Rocco will never visit it and will publicly declare he hates italian food. Ooops, sorry, he's already done that...

[KatieLoeb]

Trishnodamus predicts:

It's last call for Rocco's 22nd.  It will morph into a Chowdorowish eatery, and with a nod to Thomas Keller, will be called "Dirty Laundry, Per Se."

Rocco will enjoy another 5 minutes of celebrity before his next big venture...  a cooking show on the Food Network...not ala Melting Pot...more Roccocentric... Instead of "Bam" Rocco will coin the phrase "Boink."

AND...

Mamma and Rocco's aunt & uncle will open a family style italian joint specializing in meatballs and homemade pasta.  Rocco will never visit it and will publicly declare he hates italian food.  Ooops, sorry, he's already done that...

If Rocco had a self-reflective bone in his body he'd have realized that getting offered $200,000 to just "go away" was about as good an offer as he'd ever get, and in fact an extremely generous offer. Probably would have allowed him to save some face by citing "creative differences" or some such bullshit, even though it was on National Television for all the world to see that it was really his colossal ego and utter inability/indifference to tend to the business side (no less the kitchen side) of his responsibilities. He forgets that he was hired to be a chef, not a rock star. Or maybe that was the first mistake. He actually thought he was being hired to be a rock star. Big money investor to back his vanity restaurant with "MY NAME on the awning!!!" Fool.

This guy has a sense of self importance that would upstage even Narcissus himself. I don't think years of therapy will undo the damage. Even if he can cook (although it seems he's developed an allergy to being behind the line), as some of his defenders have said, he's revealed himself for the pompous playboy and petulant little boy that he really is. No investor with a grain of sense would back him now, unless the agreement boxed him in so tight he couldn't scratch an itch when he had one.

Perhaps that would be both the answer and his penance.

[rose_ayn]

Perhaps he has given up on the idea (at least for now) of working a restaurant.

I've seen in a couple of media sources where DiSpirtio has been shopping around a daytime talk/cook show for syndication.

[ingridsf]

In no particular order, these are my highlights from the final episode of The Restaurant. It’s not a scene-by-scene, just the parts I remember. The episode’s about both Rocco and JC wanting out of their arrangement and checking out other options. Rocco functions a bit better in The Restaurant, perhaps in the same way you have a couple of really good hair days after making an appointment to have it cut.

Rocco goes to see the Oracle at a restaurant called Beppe that looks really comfortable and is totally empty. God, I would love to eat in a restaurant that’s not open. It would be quiet enough to have a conversation. Laurent is along for the ride. Rocco says some snotty thing to him about how Laurent’s making considerably more money than he is. Laurent snips back something about, “Maybe not now.” In terms of the overall program, this scene is the sweet bubble-gum center in my Blow-Pop. Signore Beppe, sitting all relaxed and Italian at his cozy little bar, tells Rocco he is: not good-looking like he used to be, puffy, and looks like a homeless person; probably needing Viagra; makes problems out of everything; and should leave the country for several months, go to Tuscany, for example. Laurent was not in the frame for this part of the scene, probably because he fell off his barstool in a fit of helpless Gallic giggles that the sound editor had to deal with.

Jeffrey flies down to Miami to check out a hot chef whose name starts with an R. Call him Miami Heat. Oh my, and such a chef. He likes, he really enjoys, the feel of knocking someone out cold. He says it’s his favorite thing in the world in the interview close-up. All right, fine, he’s a prize fighter, and for all we know, the line was edited and what he said was, “…out cold when I catch them hurting defenseless kittens.” JC has his regulation 12 apostles around the table (Does he make them fly coach, I wonder, while he flies charter?). I understand JC’s wife wants to sit near her husband but the seating arrangement was all wrong. JC kept shouting down to Corporate Chef about how he was going to plotz when he tasted something. Well, now I understand Corporate Chef’s Tips for Success: Agree with JC. It’s not like his preferences are hard to read. I don’t know about this business of deep-frying meatballs though. I prefer mine browned in a skillet and finished through poaching in the sauce. You know Rocco’s time is so up when Mama’s meatballs are no longer pre-eminent. JC is high on Any Chef Not-Rocco but therein lies the rub. Miami Heat is JC’s transitional cook, his Rebound Chef. Miami Heat doesn’t know this. He doesn’t have any way of knowing that JC hasn’t even broken up with Rocco yet.

Meanwhile, Rocco has a sit-down with Mama and he tells her he wants to start seeing other restaurants. Prettier restaurants, mom-and-pop restaurants, restaurants that won’t talk back. Mama recommends he look out for the people he hired, figure out what part in this impasse with JC he was responsible for and cut it out, and get some therapy. Oops, no, that’s not what she says. She says he should do what he want and she is on his side, and holds his hand. With her other hand, Mama swats him with the loaf of bread she’s eating and snaps, “Be a big, grown-up boy!” Oops again.

Rocco is in The Restaurant during dinner service. A couple of times, I think. He visits the kitchen to annoint Gavin, who is either a victim of poisonous editing or is some kind of Piece of Al Haig Work. Either way, Gavin is Top Toque and is not afraid to say so. Unfortunately, power that announces itself is generally not so powerful. A line cook whose name I missed is not impressed with the regime change and in a rare moment of reality on this program, demonstrates how easy it is to say “Chef” with a sarcastic inflection.

Rocco also takes a moment to fire a cook he likes on a personal level. Just business. Except when it’s about naming Mama Executive Chef. Naturally, Rocco doesn’t have the guy’s final check ready, nor does he assure him he’ll have it within the appropriate time-frame. Fired Cook has tears in his eyes and I am caught unawares by the sight of honest emotion, and they make it worse by filming him outside with snowflakes on his eyelashes, a la the Little Match Cook. Jesus.

Cut to Carrie kneeling at Rocco’s feet in the dining room, as she exudes feeling feeling feeling about the divorce-like air in the restaurant. Carrie wears low-rise jeans, BTW, which I notice simply because they have her SQUATTING for no reason as Rocco sits at an empty table, and they keep shooting her from the back.

Yvonne takes a spill on her scooter and Rocco dashes to Mt. Sinai where her swollen knee has a scrape. Interesting exchange here. Rocco is behaving like a normal boyfriend until he finds out she’s not seriously injured, when he snits something about leaving The Restaurant during service for this. Of course. He only leaves to do important things, like go on Cleavage Patrol at the local Barnes & Noble. Yvonne looks none too pleased at Rocco’s lack of pleasure in her well-being. I hope the doc she was hanging out with mentioned he can do a nice marinara himself after Rocco left.

Running underneath it all, the continuing father-son crap going on between JC and Rocco, including JC’s smug little assessment that Rocco will never be as successful as he is. I can so easily imagine them around a family dinner table, screaming at each other, and Rocco slamming the door to his bedroom while Mama looks reproachfully at JC. It’s enough to make me want to lock them all in a Skinner Box and throw away the key. And it’s not like JC getting a psych assessment of his business partner in a coat-check room is in any way sketchy. If the kitchen can do stuff “on the fly,” why shouldn’t a mental health professional?

Wasting no time because it involves getting what he wants, Rocco bundles Mama up in her snowsuit and they hit the sidewalk to look at spaces that may be available. This was one of my favorite moments. Rocco says they’re going about 4 blocks and Mama’s just aghast at the prospect of having to haul butt on snowy, slippery streets that far. I’m with her on this one. God invented cabs for a reason, namely, so I don’t have to risk wiping out with every step I take. I kept waiting for Rocco to do what everyone does with me in a situation like that: offer to carry Mama piggy-back. He does not. But I am pleased to see they walk slowly and Rocco’s got a good grip on her hand. They peek in at a number of places, Rocco explains that “Closed for Vacation” means the place is toast (Hey! That kinds of sheds a new light on Signore Beppe’s urging Rocco to “take a long vacation,” now doesn’t it?”) and we learn that Mama doesn’t like old junk, when Rocco admires some antique-y items in a shop. Mama, you become so much more well-rounded in this last episode. Who would have thought you hated to walk AND possibly furnished your home from Scandanavian Design?

Rocco and JC meet at The Restaurant to talk about their future. For those keeping count, this is Conversation 4,632. Maybe this will be the one that takes. Of course it won’t, we all know that. I’m expecting JC to spill it in fairly short order – he’s got another chef whose name starts with an R, the plates won’t need to be changed, their wives both use L’Oreal 631 (I’m not dissing those who dye – I partake of it myself), the guy’s itching to close the restaurant he owns, uproot his life, and throw his lot in with the Lord of Ultimate Darkness in a highly unstable venture with an awning that’s looked dingy from Day One. But instead JC’s preamble goes on and on about what they both wanted and how much they put in, blah blah blah. Yeah, it’s a knife in my heart that you may not recoup your investment a thousandfold. Rocco says much the same which is basically nothing. So, as is to be expected when two blockheads are squabbling, a solution is near to hand that they manage to completely fuck up. They both want out. They both have projects they want to pursue. Somehow, despite neither one of them really wanting Rocco’s as it is, they’ve gone into litigation over who controls it. Somebody needs to put a call in to Miami so somebody can knock some sense into Dumb and Dumber.

The Peanuts gang from the front of the house are ice-skating together. The feuding bar staff make efforts to fight no more forever, Shane looks mighty fine in a form-fitting ensemble, various women staff skate around, fall, almost fall, and laugh that high-pitched shrieking laugh that always reminds me of malls. The purpose of this scene, so unlike the majority of scenes with its peace-making jolliness, is to leave the workers on an upbeat note. Fine.

The program closes with several text frames of what-happened next. As mentioned, litigation. Also two tiresome quotes from Plaintiff and Defendant, aka Beavis and Butthead, The Whiners, Fred and Ethel, The Two Stooges, and so on. I would have preferred a Animal House type closing, where we’re told where each one ended up, the more fictitious the better as reality here has been a wash-out. Things to be grateful for: there were no video montages inserted into the shows, no playful food-fights, no slow-motion sequences in the kitchen during a rush, and the product placements were not in evidence. Small blessings. It’s all about small blessings.

[Comfort Me]

Perhaps he has given up on the idea (at least for now) of working a restaurant.

I've seen in a couple of media sources where DiSpirtio has been shopping around a daytime talk/cook show for syndication.

Oh my Dog! That is such a funny idea. Of course, he'd never actually BE in the studio, so Michael Jackson would be able to fill in as guest host. (Michael's hair catches fire in each progam!)

LMAO. Thank you!

[jhlurie]

That finale, my friends, was no train wreck. If only. Oh for a conflagration. Instead, it was just…limp. Like it or not, JC grabbed Rocco's mojo but good. Rocco bedding down in The Restaurant with his girlfriend (Fertility rite? Too cheap for a motel? Roommate hang a necktie on the door?) was plain weird. Mama lives right there, why not stay with her?

She only lives there "on TV". In real life... no.

It was basically intended as a place for Mama to rest her tired feet after making several hundred meatballs each morning. Even during the actual taping of the show, she was hardly sleeping there.

This was indeed an end with a whimper and not a bang, but given our own foreknowledge of the aftermath... we kind of knew that would be the case. So we finally get back to the messy/lazy bartender? Yawn. So the Temp Tony replacement acts like a Tin Hat but also hates his job? Okay, that part was interesting I guess. So Jeffrey goes to see yet ANOTHER Chef we know ahead of time won't be working at Rocco's? Yeah... yawn.

The psychologists' take on Rocco was interesting, although no doubt slanted somewhat for her audience. She could have just used the two word version "fuck up", and it would have described Rocco just as well. And isn't it funny that Rocco's Italian friend actually had some poignant advice "You worka too hard! You looka too old!"

[mags]

Ingrid, you are a permanent source of joy.

[Mabelline]

You stay-uppa too late! You squeeza too many jugs! You looka like Hell!

[TrishCT]

Also two tiresome quotes from Plaintiff and Defendant, aka Beavis and Butthead, The Whiners, Fred and Ethel, The Two Stooges, and so on.

...Or as we say in sitcomspeak -- The Bickersons.

I missed the last 2 episodes since they were on Saturdays thank you for the synopsis, Ingrid!

[ronnie_suburban]

Thanks Ingrid, your take was a helluva lot better than the show itself

=R=

[challah-baker]

And what was Gavin smoking/drinking when he told Rocco he wasn't interested in staying as "chef"? I don't mean it was a dumb decision, but didn't he look really stoned/intoxicated? He was also slurring his words...

[ingridsf]

Thanks, mags, trish, and ronnie. I think I've spent every bit of Restaurant-snark in me. And we know how painful unspent snark can be.

Jon, I'm relieved to know Mama was not in fact living in that hideously drab apartment they showed her in. It still begs the question though of why Rocco didn't have his pajama party THERE.

Uh oh, that sounded like more snark. I'm not going to give into the temptation to speculate on challah-baker's question regarding Gavin dazed and confusedness.

Ingrid

[Dignan]

In no particular order, these are my highlights from the final episode of The Restaurant. 

Thanks very much, Ingrid, for the synopsis!

[jetsie]

. . . the Little Match Cook. . . .

Wonderful recap!

Scariest/most bizarrely edited moment: Mama looming over Rocco (who appeared to have slept clutching his little light-up blue cell phone) the morning of the banquette slumber party. How did the girlfriend keep from screaming?

[howard88]

what got to me in the last episode was the scene with Jeffrey and the psycho-ologist.

I suppose that was the end of Jeffs and Roccos couples therapy.

It was a good example of the amateurish bullshit that goes on in the profession.

Come on. Ganging up on Rocco with Jeffrey would be fine during a session doing shots and beer.

When someone calls themselves a psychologist it was simply totally inappropriate and points out how unqualified and unethical some,so called professionals do more harm than good.

[jhlurie]

I missed the last 2 episodes since they were on Saturdays thank you for the      synopsis, Ingrid!

Hey, that's what Tivo was invented for (or the ghetto version... the VCR)!

I suppose that was the end of Jeffs and Roccos couples therapy

I don't think it was the same psychologist.

It still begs the question though of why Rocco didn't have his pajama party THERE.

Yes... it does. Although the generic "it's for TV" answer still fits. Mama had to appear to live in that apartment for TV, and it was also more dramatic for TV if Rocco slept elsewhere.

[JennyUptown]

...demonstrates how easy it is to say “Chef” with a sarcastic inflection.

Ingrid, you're hilarious. Loved it!

[Stone]

It still begs the question though of why Rocco didn't have his pajama party THERE.

Yes... it does. Although the generic "it's for TV" answer still fits. Mama had to appear to live in that apartment for TV, and it was also more dramatic for TV if Rocco slept elsewhere.

When Rocco decided to take over the kitchen, he said that he'd sleep there if necessary. Of course that was the same night that he left the kitchen to cruise the gals at the bar and then went home early. I think Rocco is of the opinion that sleeping at the restaurant = effort, and if he sleeps in the restaurant he can spend the evening schmoozing and signing autographs. But if anyone calls him on it, he can say, "hey, I care, I'm sleeping at the restaurant."

[JennyUptown]

Judge lets Rocco in... but only to take photos.