Food Network: Real TV

[Abishai100]

The advent of public access TV has created the demand for various kinds of reality and instructional programs such as Mexican Made Easy and Barnwood Builders.

Remember as America gathered around their television sets to watch the Apollo landing on the Moon?

Well, today, networks such as the Cooking Channel and The Learning Channel offer viewers real-time guides and demonstrations of repair jobs (DIY), cooking recipe experiments (Food Network), and politics meetings (C-SPAN).

Perhaps it was the pioneering audience-inviting instructional cooking work of Julia Child, the renowned celebrity cook and culinary maestro who hosted the groundbreaking American instructional cooking TV show The French Chef, which introduced audiences to the notion of 'integrative TV.'

Today, the Food Network towers above all others in lifestyle/instructional programs, offering audiences a wide range of shows that cater to all kinds tastes, education levels, and flavor preferences. Shows such as Mexican Made Easy, Iron Chef America, Chopped, and Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives suit today's TV audiences looking for a more 'enriching' television-viewing experience.

The Food Network is to new age TV what news was to yesteryear's PBS.

 

[OldLady]

The advent of public access TV has created the demand for various kinds of reality and instructional programs such as Mexican Made Easy and Barnwood Builders.

Remember as America gathered around their television sets to watch the Apollo landing on the Moon?

Well, today, networks such as the Cooking Channel and The Learning Channel offer viewers real-time guides and demonstrations of repair jobs (DIY), cooking recipe experiments (Food Network), and politics meetings (C-SPAN).

Perhaps it was the pioneering audience-inviting instructional cooking work of Julia Child, the renowned celebrity cook and culinary maestro who hosted the groundbreaking American instructional cooking TV show The French Chef, which introduced audiences to the notion of 'integrative TV.'

Today, the Food Network towers above all others in lifestyle/instructional programs, offering audiences a wide range of shows that cater to all kinds tastes, education levels, and flavor preferences. Shows such as Mexican Made Easy, Iron Chef America, Chopped, and Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives suit today's TV audiences looking for a more 'enriching' television-viewing experience.

The Food Network is to new age TV what news was to yesteryear's PBS.


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Not quite. The commercials ratio is about 40/60.
It is fun sometimes though. I've tried a couple recipes and they always are more complicated than they seem on tv, but I guess that should be expected.

 

[Dekster]

The reason you can get a lot of famous people to do Food Network isn't because the Food Network is very profitable for them in and of itself. It is because the shows are like infomercials for their merchandising.

 

[Abishai100]

Detention Dear

Yes, but merchandising is becoming rather expletive and fanciful in recent times (e.g., Air Jordans, Napster, Gatorade, etc.).

Imagine an American breakfast cereal made of corn-and-tofu crunch-balls glazed with sizzled brown sugar called 'American History Cereal.' Every cereal box comes with a coupled image of a culture-relic gentleman and an iconic American horror film character.

Would you buy such a cereal, or would you consider boycotting it? Consumerism isn't all frail. There hare high-points, and one of these is the Food Network show 'Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives' (Guy Fieri), which presents the visits of a celebrity chef to various roadside and mainstreet eating establishments across this great land. It's real soul candy.

Incidentally, here's that American History Cereal box cover coupled image.

 

[Abishai100]

The Media Dream?

Food Network (FN) is still around, but its main 'rival' was the Fine Living Network (FLN) which also presented nice cooking shows (as well as nice interior-design shows). FLN was replaced by the Cooking Channel (on Memorial Day 2010), which is nice in its presentation but still not as 'professional/ambitious' as the Food Network.

FN boasts many high-quality chefs, but one that really stands out to me is Mario Batali, an American chef whose expertise in Italian cuisine and muscular approach to cooking is both instructional and conversational.

Batali is the kind of 'new age celebrity' that illuminates the 'invitational' qualities of media I think, which is why I compare him to Bob Ross or Mary Carillo.

 

[ChrisL]

I love Food Network. I get all kinds of tips and ideas.