Good Eats

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Good Eats

Good Eats Logo
Genre Cooking show
Creator(s) Alton Brown
Starring Alton Brown
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
No. of episodes 167 (as of February 21, 2007)
Production
Running time 21 – 23 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel Food Network
Original run July 7, 1999 – Present

Good Eats is a television cooking show created and hosted by Alton Brown that airs in North America on Food Network. Likened to television science educator Bill Nye, Alton explores the science behind the cooking, the history of different foods, and the advantages of different kinds of cooking equipment. The show tends to focus on familiar dishes that can easily be made at home, and also features segments on choosing the right appliances, and getting the most out of inexpensive, multi-purpose tools. Each episode of Good Eats has a distinct theme, which is typically an ingredient or a certain cooking technique, but may also be a more generic theme such as Thanksgiving, or "man food." Good Eats received the Peabody Award.

Contents

The show has a distinctive visual style involving Dutch angles and shots from cameras placed inside and on various items in the kitchen, including the ovens, refrigerator, and microwave oven. In some episodes, Alton and other actors play various characters to tell the story of the food. For example, in the episode "The Big Chili," Alton played a cowboy trying to rustle up the ideal pot of chili. Also in the episode "True Grits," Alton dresses up as Colonel Bob Boatwright (an obvious visual reference to Harlan Sanders), making Pineapple Upside-Down Cornmeal Cake. In other episodes Alton is simply himself, but is surrounded by fictional characters such as his eggplant and tomato wielding neighbor Mr. McGregor, or a city councilman who refuses to eat fudge. He also uses various makeshift teaching aids to demonstrate scientific concepts.

Episodes of Good Eats typically begin with an introductory monologue that always either ends with or leads into the phrase "good eats." The show often closes with the phrase as well. For the first several seasons, Brown himself would say the words "good eats." More recently, however, Alton avoids saying "good eats" at the end of the intro or outro, stopping just short and letting the theme music fill in the phrase.

Incidental music during the show is typically a variation of the show's theme. There are dozens of variations of the theme played throughout, crossing all genres of music, including the keypad tones in "Mission:Poachable" and nearly every incidence where a countdown of ten seconds is used. New music is composed for each episode by Patrick Belden of Belden Music and Sound.

Each episode also features text pieces containing trivia related to the food or cooking technique featured in the episode. These are always shown just before ad breaks, and are often shown between major transitions in location or cooking action. The information presented is usually notes about the history of the food or technique, helpful cooking hints, or technical or scientific information which would be too detailed or dry to include as part of the show's live content.

A staple feature of Good Eats is the presence of several recurring characters who play important roles on the show, from Alton's relatives and neighbors to various nemeses. There is an unofficial rule on the Good Eats set that every crew member must appear in an episode in some fashion, at some point in their time working on the series. Steve Rooney, who was the show's Executive Chef in the first seasons, has had the most varied characters.

A few members of Alton's real-life family have appeared on the show. His mother had a walk-on part; his daughter, Zoey, has appeared in several episodes; and his late[1] grandmother, "Ma" Mae Skelton, co-hosted the biscuit episode, "The Dough Also Rises." Even his bassett hound and iguana have shown up in a couple of episodes. However, his wife DeAnna (who is also the executive producer of Good Eats) has never been documented as having appeared on an episode.

Specialists who hold real-life positions commonly appear as themselves to provide Brown with useful information on the topic at hand.

Character Played by: Role on the show
"W" (Vicki Wong) Vickie Eng A parody of James Bond stories' Q, "W" is a manager at Bed Bath and Beyond (or any other store where Alton goes to find kitchen gear). "W" is antisocial, curt, and has a very sardonic sense of humor, and finds Alton particularly annoying. Alton realizes this, and intentionally fools with gadgets and acts silly to get a rise out of her. He also likes to sabotage her attempts to make sales. Even so, she is the most reliable source of equipment for Alton, as she knows everything about kitchen tools and appliances. Her appearances are accompanied by a theme that sounds similar to those heard in the James Bond movies. "W"'s full name is revealed in the episode "Salad Daze II: The Long Arm Of the Slaw." In later episodes, "W" began working in the "Good Eats Testing Lab". In real life, Vickie Eng is Alton's chiropractor.
Marsha Brown-Brady Merrilyn Crouch Alton's older sister. Marsha is a constant source of annoyance to Alton (and, as revealed in some episodes, to members of the Good Eats production staff also). She often tricks Alton into cooking for her, which usually initiates the topic of that episode. For instance, in "Circle of Life," Marsha manages to talk Alton into making dozens of doughnuts for her bunny scout troop's bake sale, and then tricks him into buying them all back. She has been divorced more than once, as Alton referred to her ink not having dried on her LAST divorce "yet" in "Behind the Bird."
Elton Brown John Herina Marsha's son, hence Alton's nephew. Elton is often featured as Alton's assistant, learning the ways of cooking in the process. Alton treats Elton almost like his own son, despite his and Marsha's constant feuding. Herina, who looks strikingly similar to Alton, also plays a young Alton when necessary, as in the introduction to the roulade-centered episode "Fit to be Tied", and also appeared in the 1996 movie Nightjohn as the character Homer Waller.
B.A. Brown
AKA "Anti-Alton"		 Alton himself Alton's evil twin of sorts. Alton uses camera tricks to appear as himself on one side of the screen and as his "brother" on the other. B.A. Brown is often used in a manner similar to Goofus and Gallant to compare Alton's cooking techniques to B.A.'s techniques, which often fail or are inferior to Alton's. In "American Pickle," for example, B.A. compares Alton's sweet pickled fruit to a recipe for extremely hot "Firecracker" carrots. B.A. could either stand for "Bad Alton" or be Alton's initials, reversed, or it could be a reference to Mr. T's character on the television series A-Team who also had a "Bad Attitude."
Colonel Bob Boatwright Alton himself A white-clad Southern gentleman based on Colonel Harlan Sanders, Colonel Boatwright demonstrates traditional Southern recipes such as mint julep and upside-down cake.
Cousin Ray Steve Rooney Alton's cousin, who seems to be a bit of a redneck. Ray also appears to be either a con man or simply uneducated when it comes to food. In "Crustacean Nation," Ray claims that the shrimp he is selling are turning pink because they are happy to see Alton when actually, as Alton explains, they are cooking in their shells due to the heat. Steve Rooney also plays Alton's "Aunt Verna" who is seen at Alton's Thanksgiving dinner.
The Mad French Chef Steve Rooney Alton's arch-nemesis, who is stereotypically snobbish toward all forms of cooking not following the French ways, and often berates Alton for not using French techniques. Over the course of the series, the Chef seems to become more angry, as his title in different episodes changes to "Really Mad French Chef" and beyond. The Chef is currently voiced by Alton, as he is no longer seen on-screen except for one "appearance" as an oven mitt/puppet in the episode "Crepe Expectations."
Thing unknown Named after Thing from The Addams Family, Thing is a hand that appears in random locations to hand Alton ingredients and tools. Alton then replies, "Thank you, Thing." In "Behind the Eats," it was "revealed" that Alton's Thing is the son of the Addams Family Thing.
Paul Paul Merchant Paul is Alton's apprentice and intern. Paul is generally incompetent and quite often seems to stress out regarding food-related issues. Alton calls on him frequently for assistance, often because he is the only one available.
Lactose Man Paul Merchant (?) While appearing to be a superhero, he is in fact a nemesis to Alton, who is lactose intolerant. Lactose Man usually appears in dairy product-based episodes. A variation of the Lactose Man character, Lever Man (albeit in the same costume) appeared in the episode "Shell Game," which is dedicated to oysters. Alton may or may not know the true identity of Lactose Man, as he identified Lever Man as being his apprentice, Paul.
Chuck Daniel Pettrow Chuck is Alton's "Butcher Neighbor." He has appeared in several episodes, including the episode "A Chuck for Chuck" where Alton spends the entire episode making a pot roast for Chuck, whose mother has left town on pot roast night. Chuck also appears in the episode "Romancing the Bird: A Good Eats Thanksgiving," where he drives a "Turkey Truck" and explains the difference between fresh, frozen, and refrigerated turkeys.
Frances Andersen Widdi Turner Frances (a parody of Annie Wilkes from Misery) is Alton's self-proclaimed biggest fan. She has a collection of many of the show's props that she purchased from the internet. Alton first encountered Frances in "This Spud's For You Too" after his truck broke down, and she held Alton hostage in "Ill Gotten Grains" after he lost his memory in a fender-bender.
Farmer McGregor unknown An elderly man who has a farm near Alton's home, he prides himself on his home-grown produce and enters them regularly in county fair food contests. Alton used to pilfer from McGregor's prized tomato patch, but soon stopped when McGregor realized the tomato dishes Alton gave him were made with his own tomatoes. McGregor also has the skills to produce larger-than-average produce, making a potato that weighed 29 lb (13 kg), although it lost in the "Big Food" contest to Alton's modest olive. McGregor also appears in the eggplant episode and brings Alton too many eggplants to use, often using wheelbarrows and cardboard boxes as delivery methods. He is an obvious reference to farmer McGregor of The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
Koko Karl Bart Hansard Another of Alton's nemeses, Karl is the symbol of conglomerate chocolate manufacturers like Hershey. He is often seen peddling his products to people on the streets and does his best to force them down people's throats. Alton eventually walks by and becomes fed up with Carl's inferior products and then sets out to produce homemade versions of his own. Usually by the end of the episode, Carl ends up in jail for his "crimes," which Alton reads from a newspaper or sees on television. In "Power Trip," Alton visits Koko Karl in a solitary confinement cell in a scene that mirrors The Silence of the Lambs. In "Puddin' Head Blues," Karl is disguised as "Auntie Puddin'."
Sid Maxburg Bart Hansard Sid is a bombastic entertainment agent who is usually seen trying to revamp allegedly forgotten foods like vanilla ("My Pod"), sweet potatoes ("Potato, My Sweet"), and okra ("Okraphobia").
"Government Agents" Alton, others Stereotypical "Men in Black", mostly from the FDA or USDA, who usually give information about government standards for certain foods, speaking in a stereotypical overly-serious tone. At times, they also claim that Alton's food does not meet government regulations, and as a consequence confiscate what he's cooked. Sometimes, Alton's aforementioned evil twin acts as a single "agent"[citation needed]; at other times, they show up as a group of three "agents," two men and one woman, and are generally played by members of the production crew. Alton always appears as one of the "Feds." In "School of Hard Nogs" they called themselves the "Food Police." In one episode ("Churn Baby Churn 2"), Nic Sims of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a fan who got her kitchen made over by AB in a Food Network special, played one of the "Agents," dressed as soda jerks.
The Dungeon Master Lucky Yates Alton's personal dungeon master (a parody of Igor), who appears in "Cubing A Round" and "Tort(illa) Reform." Alton usually disapproves of his loose grip on reality; for example, in "Cubing A Round" he spends $15,000 on a Swiss mechanical steak cuber using "the little plastic thing with the numbers on it" (a credit card). (Lucky Yates has appeared in numerous "Good Eats" episodes.)

Name Specialty Role on the show
Shirley Corriher Author, chef, self-labeled "mad" food scientist Shirley often appears as an aid to Alton, explaining the scientific processes behind cooking. She is the author of CookWise, the Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking, which won the 1998 James Beard Award for Food Reference and Technique. Whereas Alton tends to use comedy around the other experts, particularly Deborah Duchon, he generally plays straight with Corriher.
Deborah Duchon Nutritional anthropologist Duchon is from the Department of Anthropology and Geography at Georgia State University, and often appears on the show when Alton is exploring the history of a topic. She tends to appear out of nowhere, leading Alton to almost predict her presence as soon as he mentions "nutritional anthropologist." She is probably the most featured expert on Good Eats, appearing in many episodes since part of the show is normally dedicated to exploring the history of a food. Generally, Alton ends his scenes with Duchon by asking her, "how do you like your (food of the day)?" One fourth season episode ("Chile's Angels") featured a character called "Debbie Duchon" who was supposed to be Duchon's daughter. She was, in fact, a fictional creation of Alton's when Duchon was not available for filming, leading to a bemused reaction from Duchon when fans of the show asked her about her "daughter."[2]
Caroline Connell Nutritionist, dietitian Connell (and other similar experts) tend to appear on episodes where Alton features a food that has positive health effects, and uses nutritionist's data as evidence. She appears many times in the first seasons, but now it seems that Alton retrieves his information from many specialists that only come on the show once or twice.
Carolyn O'Neil
The Lady of the Refrigerator		 dietitian O'Neil is a dietitian who occasionally shows up to discuss nutritional value of foods with Alton. She also plays The Lady of the Refrigerator (a parody of The Lady of the Lake), who occasionally appears in Alton's refrigerator to impart information about the food or cooking technique covered in the episode, and to tease and needle Alton.
"Ma" Mae Skelton Alton's grandmother In addition to being referenced by Alton in several episodes, she appeared in "The Dough Also Rises," and baked biscuits alongside Alton. She passed away in 2001.

Alton also plays other roles from time to time, which usually consist of him explaining something close to the camera while another Alton performs the information that is being presented behind him (similar to the technique used to present B.A. Brown). At the same time, he also acts out alone or with others on camera while providing a narrative quite often (to re-enact such topics as cavemen discovering cooking techniques). There are also scenes where Alton talks to a character played by himself, cutting away to the other after each one has said their line. This is mostly used when the "USDA agents" appear to give grades and regulations placed on meats and dairy products.

The pilot for Good Eats first aired on the Chicago, Illinois PBS affiliate WTTW in July 1998. The show was picked up in July 1999 by Food Network, which now owns exclusive rights to the show. As of 2007, new episodes continue to air on that network. Currently, the show airs on Food Network at 7:00 p.m., 11:00 p.m., and 2:00 a.m. (rerun of 11 p.m. episode) Eastern Time (ET) Monday through Friday, and, additionally, 10:00 p.m. (rerun at 1 a.m.) ET Wednesday nights. New episodes usually air at this time slot. On Food Network Canada, the show generally airs on Sunday, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday. The times it gets in Canada appears to change from week to week, but it tends to get sometime before 2:30 a.m. and/or after 7 p.m. on the aforementioned days.[3]

Good Eats earned a Peabody Award in 2006. "Rarely has science been taught on TV in such an entertaining – and appetizing – manner as it is in Alton Brown`s goofy, tirelessly inventive series."[4]

Main article: List of Good Eats episodes

  • In Seasons 1–4, the episodes were shot in the actual home kitchen of Brown's mother-in-law in the Atlanta, Georgia area.
  • In Season 5, taping moved to the new home of the show's Line Producer (Dana Popoff) and Director of Photography (Marion Laney), in which they built a much larger and more versatile kitchen for taping. A 7 ft (2.1 m) section of the island was built for the show and placed on wheels, so it can be moved (or removed) for various shots, and a 12 sq ft (1.1 sq m) grid of pipe was hung from the ceiling, for easier placement of cameras and microphones. The house was featured in a Home Magazine article in February 2003.
  • Starting with Season 7, the show moved yet again, this time to an exact replica of the previous kitchen and surrounding areas of the home, built on a sound stage. In the "Behind the Scenes" special, Brown said that complaints by Popoff's neighbors prompted the move. The stove top and the sink are the only functioning pieces in this kitchen. Many of the other appliances have even had part of their backs removed, so shots of Alton can be taken from inside cabinets, ovens, and refrigerators. This change was generally not known until the house used in Season 5–6 was put on eBay for sale. It was then revealed that they had moved. It is generally thought that in the "Q" episode on barbecue that was taped in Alton's Airstream trailer, when Alton says that they are "building the set for Good Eats: The Movie" this is in reality a reference to the new house set. The set was not officially unveiled on the show as a set until the Avocado Experiment show, though the appearance of a trap door in the hardwood floor several episodes previous ("Good Wine Gone Bad") was highly suggestive of a TV set.
  • Alton starred in Food Network's "All Star Kitchen Makeover" specials, a series which premiered in August 2005 and included other Food Network chefs Emeril Lagasse, Paula Deen, and Bobby Flay. The winner of the kitchen Alton was to design later went on to play one of the three federal USDA agents seen in "Churn Baby Churn, 2."
  • The clock seen in Good Eats is often set by the crew to a significant date such as a crew member's birthday, anniversary, etc.
  • In Season 9, the episode "Behind the Eats" was produced, which offered a backstage look at the show's production.
  • Whenever Alton mentions stuffing, someone holds up a sign that says "STUFFING IS EVIL." This is in reference to the Thanksgiving special, wherein Alton denigrated stuffing as increasing cooking time, being a harbinger of food poisoning, and not being good eats. However, he does make exceptions for when stuffing would be appropriate (particularly for stuffed pork), and he later recanted in Season 8 and agreed that stuffing, when done properly, is good eats (dedicating a whole show to the subject).
  • In episodes with Bigfoot, the sounds Bigfoot makes are the same noises demons make when dying in the computer game Doom.
  • According to urban legend, an episode devoted entirely to eating Cap'n Crunch was filmed as part of an April Fools' Day joke but never aired.[citation needed]
  • The access codes for the Good Eats laboratory are:
  • 0851390555 in Mission: Poachable (EA1C13 - Season 3 Episode 11)
  • 180*745666 in Chile's Angles (EA1D01 - Season 4 Episode 13)
  • Most Food Network shows do not display name brand names of products used during cooking, and care is taken to create false labels for products in these shows. However, in early seasons of Good Eats, Alton occasionally displayed brand name products on the show (e.g., a bottle of Karo corn syrup during the episode on cooking with sugar). Currently, brand name product labels are altered, although the alterations generally consist of false names added to labels rather than entirely new labels. Also, when using crushed crackers in a recipe, Alton will usually say, "What kind? Well, I'm not going to tell you, but they look like this," and then hold up a Ritz cracker. However, on occasional shots taken from inside the freezer, frozen Publix brand vegetables can be seen.

  1. ^ http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/ABFP/ABTimeline/MaMae.htm.
  2. ^ http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/References/TheInterviews/DebDuchon1.htm.
  3. ^ Good Eats - Shows - Food Network Canada.
  4. ^ http://www.peabody.uga.edu/news/pressrelease.asp?ID=142=List of 2006 Peabody Award Winners

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