Emeril (2001)

About

Superchef Emeril Lagasse ("Emeril Live," "Essence of Emeril") serves up his work and home life as the zesty ingredients for this half-hour comedy concocted by acclaimed television writer Linda Bloodworth and directed by her husband Harry Thomason (shared credits for "Designing Women," "Evening Shade").

PLOT

Emeril essentially stars as himself in the role of a likable and popular chef who struggles to meet the shifting demands of his popular cable TV cooking series and numerous other requirements as America's top culinary expert. Lisa Ann Walter and Sherri Shepherd star respectively, as his brassy producer and outspoken stage manager who provide the spice and sass at his cooking show.

On the kitchen's set, Emeril is distracted from his culinary focus by his show's flighty food stylist, B.D. Benson (Carrie Preston), and his agent, Jerry McKenney (Robert Urich), who offers his friend a rare and appreciated male point-of-view. In addition, Emeril must deal with his teenaged son, James (James Lafferty) -- who works as an intern on his show - as well as his neglected wife, Nora (Mary Page Keller), and self-righteous network executive Trish O'Connell (Tricia O'Kelley).

ABOUT

The show was lambasted with criticism long before it ever premiered. Lagasse was clearly uncomfortable delivering scripted dialogue (although he got better as time went by) and they compensated by making the rest of the characters brash and piling on guest star appearances (including Bo Derek and Dom DeLuise, whose episodes have yet to surface).

The original pilot was scrapped, his family was mostly pushed off-screen, the setting was shifted to behind-the-scenes at the cooking show, and Robert Urich was added as Emeril's chauvinistic agent, Carrie Preston as the loopy food stylist and Tricia O'Kelley as the ball-breaking network suit.

"Emeril" premiered on September 25, 2001. The show got dismal reviews and, coming right on the heels of 9-11 when public consciousness was preoccupied with other things, it was seen by a very minuscule audience, ranking 104 out of 156 in the overall yearly Nielsen Ratings tally, tying with the similarly derided "That '80s Show." Production was abruptly halted in October, with only 7 of the 11 episodes making it to the air. Years later, the show popped up on a "lost media" list and, although these 9 episodes subsequently found their way into fandom, two have remained elusive.

Since re-emerging online, the show has built an even bigger reputation as a turkey, but objectively, it wasn't worse than any of the other sitcoms that were on American TV at the time (look at the silly 7th season of "Friends" for a prime example), it was just headlined by an entertainer who never had the opportunity to become comfortable performing as an actor.

The recipes denoted at the end of each show can be found at an archived version of NBC's Recipe Archive.

All but two shows (the pilot and "Fat") are sourced from different tapes than the ones on YouTube, which were individually ported over to Internet Archive. The picture on these copies is a little sharper and the contrasts are richer.

EPISODES:

Archive

Internet Archive, in The VHS Vault

Licence or status

The Internet Archive states none for this item.

Credit

Mozark

Language

English

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Teens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed