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CBS to serve up foodie shows?

jhlurie

By jhlurie
in Food Media & Arts

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jhlurie

jhlurie

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This preview of the pilots CBS has ordered for consideration for next season reveals that they are considering not one, but TWO possible shows around matters culinary:

Taste

Premise: Culinary-school grad gets her first big job.

Studio: Regency TV, CBS Productions

Production Team: Kirk Rudell ("Spin City"), Andy Cadiff ("Home Improvement," "My Wife and Kids")

Stars: Jane Krakowski ("Ally McBeal"), Richard Ruccolo ("Two Guys and a Girl"), Rufus Sewell ("Dark City") Lombardo Boyar ("The Bernie Mac Show") and Jim Parsons

Status: Pilot order

and

Cooking Lessons

Premise: Food writer's relationships intertwined with cooking; based on a book by Amanda Hesser.

Studio: Warner Bros. TV, Tannenbaum Co.

Production Team: Ivan Reitman, Emily Fox, Eric Tannenbaum, Kim Tannenbaum

Stars: Elizabeth Lackey ("Just Cause," "Mulholland Dr."), Constance Zimmer ("Good Morning, Miami"), Paula Marshall ("Hidden Hills"), Lindy Booth ("Odyssey 5")

Status: Pilot order

Considering CBS' status as the number one rated network, they are not likely to require many actual new shows--so the likelihood of EITHER of these pilots being picked up is probably pretty low.

Still, until that becomes clear, I suppose we can at least speculate on what kind of Television the life of Amanda Hesser would make.

Jon Lurie, aka "jhlurie"

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Jinmyo

Jinmyo

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Egad.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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Some of the names attached to these pilots are pretty serious. Rufus Sewell in the cast of Taste, Ivan Reitman as a producer on Cooking Lessons. And if CBS is doing two food-inspired pilots that certainly marks a trend. If so, presumably the other networks are working on food-related shows as well.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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jhlurie

jhlurie

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Some of the names attached to these pilots are pretty serious. Rufus Sewell in the cast of Taste, Ivan Reitman as a producer on Cooking Lessons. And if CBS is doing two food-inspired pilots that certainly marks a trend. If so, presumably the other networks are working on food-related shows as well.

The Reitman attachment to "The Amanda Hesser Story" aka "Cooking Lessons without Mr. Latte" :wink: struck me as interesting too. That increases the chance of it actually being picked up, although admittedly Reitman is not the powerhouse in TV he is in movies.

As for Rufus Sewell? Man, I have problems imaging the broody guy from Dark City in a fluffy comedy. Actually, here in the U.S. at least I think his career has kind of stalled.

One thing I know is that networks always over-order pilots. But some small number of them get second chances as mid-season replacements or even summer replacements for the following summer. So stuff being pitched now might not show up for more than a year.

Still, it will be interesting to follow the development of these shows. Maybe if people involved with them are actual food people we can recruit spies. :biggrin:

Jon Lurie, aka "jhlurie"

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Steve Klc

Steve Klc

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Jon--you have problems imagining Rufus Sewell playing a cynical brooding chef, who has worked his whole life sweating and burning himself in the kitchen? You don't think of a Bourdain or Eric Ripert when you think Sewell? I loved him as Seth, the brooding son destined for bigger and better things in...that's right...show biz, in "Cold Comfort Farm." He just might be a perfect foil for some perky wannabee flush out of cooking school. But that sounds more like a made-for-tv movie.

Let the hilarity ensue.

Steve Klc

Pastry chef-Restaurant Consultant

Oyamel : Zaytinya : Cafe Atlantico : Jaleo

chef@pastryarts.com

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Bruce Cole

Bruce Cole

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CBS is also producing a show called "Whats hot, whats cool" (or something to that effect) for the Food Network. Hopefully my interview with them this last week makes the cut, and actually gets on the air - which I guess will count for my 15 seconds of fame...

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mongo_jones

mongo_jones

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As for Rufus Sewell?  Man, I have problems imaging the broody guy from Dark City in a fluffy comedy.  Actually, here in the U.S. at least I think his career has kind of stalled.

he was great in schlesinger's very funny "cold comfort farm". but yes, showing up in a tv pilot suggests he's resigned himself to not being a film-star.

to a cooking show he brings the possibility of sudden violence with kitchen knives.

edit to add: oops! just noticed that i'm merely repeating steveklc's point above

Edited by mongo_jones (log)
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jhlurie

jhlurie

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Jon--you have problems imagining Rufus Sewell playing a cynical brooding chef, who has worked his whole life sweating and burning himself in the kitchen? You don't think of a Bourdain or Eric Ripert when you think Sewell?

I hope the creative team behind the show has at least half the vision you do, Steve.

Jon Lurie, aka "jhlurie"

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Mayhaw Man

Mayhaw Man

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I wonder who is, well, "winsome enough" to play Ms. Hesser? Casting should be interesting.

Brooks Hamaker, aka "Mayhaw Man"

There's a train everyday, leaving either way...

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Suzanne F

Suzanne F

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Taste

Premise: Culinary-school grad gets her first big job.

Well, that promises lots of T & A in the changing room. And those wacky dishwashers who turn out to know more about cooking that she does -- and more than the chef does, too. Oh yeah, and the chef will put the moves on her while she makes silly mistakes on the salad station and comes up with snappy responses to the leches on the line. All the while, she's yearning for the pastry chef who comes to work in drag (a la Martin Howard).

Unless, of course she IS the chef (hey, she just graduated from culinary school, so she's qualified, right?). . .

Oh god, I can't go on.

Gah.

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jhlurie

jhlurie

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I wonder who is, well, "winsome enough" to play Ms. Hesser? Casting should be interesting.

Brooks, she's already been cast according to that linked article. I believe it's this woman, Elizabeth Lackey.

EDIT - actually, I'm assuming a lot based on the fact that she's first in the cast list. Constance Zimmer and Paula Marshall are also in the cast and approximately the right gender and age to play a faux-Hesser. :wink: Then again, from this picture Zimmer doesn't really seem very... "Winsome", and Marshall is a bit too old, even if she can pass for younger.

The presense of all of these women in the same age range in the cast makes me think they are really going for a "Sex and the City" angle with this. Isn't that what the book is supposed to be like?

Edited by jhlurie (log)

Jon Lurie, aka "jhlurie"

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Jinmyo

Jinmyo

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No, actually the book is more a set of musings of self-discovery.

Suzanne, we are talking about the Mr. Latte tittering are we not? :blink:

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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Kim WB

Kim WB

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No, actually the book is more a set of musings of self-discovery.

Suzanne, we are talking about the Mr. Latte tittering are we not? :blink:

Well, the book was about self discovery, as it relates to her relationships with food and family and her courtship with Tad.

And tittering is a well known by product of falling in love.

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jhlurie

jhlurie

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Okay, some of the information on this TV Tome page for Cooking Lessons is a bit freaky. "Professor Mocha"? In the Library with the Candlestick, perhaps? :wink: Played by some guy who was on Ally McBeal? So is like... every person who used to be on Ally McBeal going to get a food-related show as part of this trend? Calista Flockhart doesn't even eat. IMDB also has a page for the show, which literally popped up overnight, but with less detail.

Lackey is indeed faux-Amanda, although faux-Amanda is named "Olivia" so that we don't dare confuse her with Amanda Hesser. Because, you know... "Professor Mocha" doesn't sound anything like "Mr. Latte". Faux-Amanda apparently works for a "Cooking Magazine" and not a newspaper. I suppose "Cooking Magazines" are less likely to sue over being misrepresented.

Reitman is apparently directing the Pilot, which means that as a project he's taking this somewhat seriously.

TV Tome also has a page for Taste. Not much there (yet) except for additional casting details.

Jon Lurie, aka "jhlurie"

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Jinmyo

Jinmyo

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No, actually the book is more a set of musings of self-discovery.

Suzanne, we are talking about the Mr. Latte tittering are we not? :blink:

Well, the book was about self discovery, as it relates to her relationships with food and family and her courtship with Tad.

And tittering is a well known by product of falling in love.

I gather you did not find the book as disturbing as I found the articles then. :laugh:

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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Jinmyo

Jinmyo

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Suzanne, yes, "contempt" seems the right word.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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