The Future of Good Eats and Alton Brown

A good question from a reader: how long is the Good Eats contract? I can only partly answer this one. According to Alton's website he is in the process of filming more episodes in November and December. I'm not sure how TV contracts work; if they sign up per season or for a certain number of seasons. If anything it seems that Alton Brown has gained more clout at Food Network this past year or so. Maybe somebody else who wanders by here can provide a bit more insight into the contract issue or stop by the Good Eats Fanpage chat room. There are a lot of people over there who know the ins and outs of the industry better than I do.

Something interesting that this brings up is how long is Alton commited to producing Good Eats? I had started to wonder about this last season after a few lame episodes, but I have reversed my opinion after the quality has picked back up. I believe Good Eats has been impacted by all of Alton's other projects and the quality of the episodes is probably a reflection of how much time he has to spend between filing specials, Feasting on Asphalt, Iron Chef, doing talks, etc. Good Eats still has a lot of life to it because of the effort Alton and his crew put into not only the cooking, but the scince, scripting, casting, and filming. It's not the same week to week and it holds the viewer's interest. I hope the series keeps on going for quite some time.

From Alton's site:
"Time to fire up the lights, camera and cooking action for new Good Eats episodes - this time AB and the resident culinarians tackle Rack of Lamb, Dutch oven cooking, Fats, Cupcakes, Broccoli, Cranberries and that perennial fav taken to new heights... Apple Pie."

Back to the Good Eats! Kinda Blue

Now Kinda Blue was definitely a good show! I couldn't stop laughing when Alton Brown pops into the grocery store on his time machine.

The recipe selection was good too. Some episodes are entertaining or witty but I'm not always interested in testing out the featured dishes. Blueberries, however, really had me glued to the TV. I appreciated the fact that he used some frozen blueberries since it was in the 30s outside and not a fresh blueberry to be found. This past spring I made blueberry jam from one of Alton's earlier shows with some frozen berries I had picked the previous summer and they had every bit of flavor as the fresh berries. Sadly, i didn't get out to pick any this summer, so I'll have to pick some from the grocery store freezer section.. I have to say that the Good Eats version of jam turned out better than two Ball recipes and two one I found on another canning website.

I've never used tapioca flour before, so maybe I'll pick some up for Alton's pie recipe and see if I notice any difference from regular flour.

Alton Brown's Granola Bars: Good Eats Power Trip

I ran across a blog article that somebody by the name of Jenny wrote about Alton's granola bars. I always love to hear feedback on the recipes from Good Eats or Alton's books; whether it be about the taste, recipe, or difficulty level. I have to admit that I didn't pay much attention to this show since it seemed like a lot of trouble for something all too easy to grab off the shelf at the grocery store, but this article may inspire me to think twice. Jenny has a couple of tips and a good description of what they taste like. The bars don't sound as bad as they looked on TV.

Click here to read the blog post

Alton Brown on Turner Classic Movies

Alton Brown will be a guest host on Turner Classic Movies Novemeber 11th. Per his website: "AB has been invited to be a guest programmer for an evening on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) with their film historian, Robert Osborne. Alton will get to introduce each of the 4 films he selected as "highly influential" in his life and career."

According to TCM's website Alton's movie pics are:
What's Up, Tiger Lily? (8pm)
Closely Watched Trains (9:30pm)
Point Blank (11:15pm)
Blow Up (1:00am)

The new DVD recorder will be put to good use that night since my workweek begins on Sunday night! I've never seen any of these movies, though I did see some concert footage from Blow Up about a month ago when looking for '60s rock band clips on YouTube. I'll be interested to see if any of the filming techniques or themes are reflected in Good Eats, even more so with the upcoming filming of new episodes in the next couple of months with these films fresh in his mind.

You might also want to hop over to www.TCM.com to see all of the other guests hosts they have this month, such as Kermit the Frog, Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo), and Jerry Stiller to name a random few!