Emeril

It was not Emerils fault that the show bombed.

The Thomasons would not let Emeril "play" Emeril as himself.

There were no "bams", no "kick it up a notches".

They forced him to play a toned down version of himself.

Then cast a bunch of actors around him to liven the show up.

Sure Emeril is no Sir Laurence Oliver, but neither is Tom Hanks.

Emeril was handicapped by not being allowed to be himself.

Emeril can still buy and sell any of you out there who have knocked his effort.

I went to one of the tapings of the show in California and in my opinion did as good of a job as was possible given the circumstances.

At least HE tried, can any of you dopes say say the same!

To say that this attempt to bring famed chef Emeril Lagasse to the sitcom world is bad would be understating the case. The unfortunate thing for Mr. Lagasse is that, despite what many will say, it simply isn't HIS fault. If you can stand to sit through one of these excruciating half hours, you may notice that Emeril himself is not all that bad. He's amateurish, and not nearly as fluid with his delivery of scripted lines as he is with the open banter of his actual cooking shows. But he's actually the best one of the bunch of "clowns" in this incomprehensible mess. The problem appears to be that the producers were afraid of Emeril's lack of polish and simply tried to cover it up by supplying a bevy of loud, obnoxious old-hat stereotypes to run around screaming. Mr. Lagasse could probably have done much better with some subtlety in the writing. Perhaps if the producers had modeled their product on the British comedy "Chef!", it might have suited better. Sorry Emeril, a chef is only as good as his ingredients, and the producers handed you spoiled ham to work with.

I enjoy watching Emeril Lagasse's cooking shows on the Food Network, but this situation comedy built around him is a misfire. Compliments to the chef: Lagasse appears to be very comfortable acting in front of the camera as opposed to cooking. However, it's as if he's a supporting character on his own show. Lisa Ann Walter (veteran of a failed sitcom herself) and the other two ladies who play characters who assist with the chef's cooking show seem to pull the action right out from under him. I have no idea why Robert Ulrich's agent character is there at all; I guess the writers needed to give Lagasse a male buddy to interact with to counterpoint all of the women he's surrounded by.

His cooking shows on cable are more entertaining than this undercooked offering.

The critics keep expecting a show that is synonymous with Henrick Ibsen or Anton Chekov in its writing and plots. But that isn't what Emeril does. The show is just a pleasant diversion, with common issues with its viewers. I watched the show and enjoyed it for what it was. Why are people attacking it? It's not derogatory, it isn't hateful, and it doesn't dumb down to anybody. It's just a pleasant television show about a famous cook!

Emeril is a tremendously talented chef ala artiste, but a comedic actor (or actor period) he's not. This mess is a terribly formulaic take on Emeril's actual Food Channel cooking show (a joy of a show and where Emeril belongs). To make up for Emeril's lack of acting ability, the producers surrounded him with crisp, timing-savvy comedic pros...you can almost hear the snare drum and cymbals after every punchline. Robert Urich lent a legitimate "big-name" which evoked nostalgic sympathy for the cancer victim. Plots lines are trite and "text-book", and yet infantile (those excruciatingly bad baldy wigs in episode #1). Painful to watch, thank God this mistake was taken off the burner before it became completely overdone and rancid.