Food on Sitcoms

Did your favorite sitcom ever have an episode revolve around food?

On *The Simpsons*, Homer became a food writer for the town paper because he could smell what was written on a birthday cake.

M*A*S*H had a lot of food episodes. There was an episode about getting black-market steaks and the one where they had the riot in the mess tent over "fish and liver for weeks". Ultimately they get some ribs imported from Chicago to make things better. There was also one where they saved a lamb from being slaughtered and roasted and replaced the meat with SPAM. Then there was the one where Ed Begley Jr. came in as a wounded soldier and winds up cooking gourmet meals for the group. Finally, there was the episode where Col Potter's last living WW1 buddy died, culminating in him drinking a bottle of brandy with the guys that was saved by them since WW1. Of course, there were so many scenes----and jokes about the mess that it could have filled an entire episode many times over!

This is probably a little bit off the topic, but every 2 or 3 years, I actually get to be a sitcom person and it’s connected with great food. Trying to make a long story short, about 10 years ago, I joined the fund raising committee of our church auxiliary. Tired old bake sales weren’t making it so we decided to have a 50’s benefit dinner. The idea evolved into something called a “TV Party Dinner”. The menu was homemade meat loaf, choice of scalloped potatoes or mac & cheese, choice of buttered corn or green bean-onion ring casserole and tossed salad, along with hot tomato sauce or brown gravy for the meatloaf and molded jello salads supplied by members of the group on the tables. Appetizers at the open bar during cocktail hour (can you guess it’s a Catholic church?) were items like clam dip and pu pu platters – the Stern’s Square Meals was our inspiration. Since many of our younger generation never made these foods, it was new to them and tasted like mom’s cooking to the older ones.

I’ll skip over the decor part, which is always outstanding. The Youth Group wears roller skates and their interpretation of Car Hop outfits and zips around serving the tables with only a couple of dropped trays. The local Oldies station supplies a DJ and offers oldies tapes or CDs for door prizes. But one of the most fun parts is the guests during dinner, who stroll around the room. We have had Lassie & Timmy, The Fonz (arriving on his motorcycle), Laverne & Shirley (Laverne kept trying to pick up guys), and so many more. I get to be June Cleaver and my husband is Ward and we go around to the tables checking if everyone cleaned their plate enough to have dessert, which varies but last time, was hot fudge sundaes or strawberry shortcake.

If anyone has a source for aluminum old-style TV dinner trays in large quantities, please let me know because I have been looking for them for years. So TV sitcoms and home-style cooking can turn into a big fund-raiser for your church or organization.

Happy Days often revolved around food at the soda shop. Certainly I Love Lucy with that chocolate candy on the conveyer belt scene must count! Everyone Loves Raymond has many kitchen scenes, especially with his mom bringing over food. Seinfeld had some classic scenes in the luncehonette, the Kenny Rogers chicken episode and the "low-cal" frozen yogurt episode. And the list goes on!

The first thing I thought of when I saw this topic was the Northern Exposure episode where "Adam" made demi-glace. Many (most) NE episodes included food, but that was my favorite.

I thought someone else had already mentioned that, though, so I found this post by cindyloo:

"Not a movie but a TV show -- the episode of Northern Exposure when Maurice throws a huge feast for some reason -- Adam the crazy barefoot chef comes back and makes this amazing, huge meal for everyone in town, ranting and raving about his Sabatiers and his veal demi-glace."

Also, I agree with EdSails that MASH had some tremendous food shows. The "Adam's Rib" episode where they had the ribs shipped from Chicago (but forgot the cole slaw) was probably the best.

"Dallas" had some great BBQ shows, and many shows featured family meals. (Incidentally, Dallas was my favorite series EVER. Next was MASH.)

"Waltons" always had good food. Corny, yes, but that show was much better than 99% of the trash that's on network TV today.

I'm sure I'll think of others...

quote:

Originally posted by RubyRose



If anyone has a source for aluminum old-style TV dinner trays in large quantities, please let me know because I have been looking for them for years. So TV sitcoms and home-style cooking can turn into a big fund-raiser for your church or organization.

Smart & Final has new aluminum divided trays that might pass. I like to go there and buy bulk Chinese food takeout containers. If you go on Ebay and search "TV dinner tray" there is a set of 8 with no bids. I know that's not many, but you are probably going to have to collect them over time. Sounds like fun!

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Originally posted by LizzieR

Happy Days often revolved around food at the soda shop. Certainly I Love Lucy with that chocolate candy on the conveyer belt scene must count! Everyone Loves Raymond has many kitchen scenes, especially with his mom bringing over food. Seinfeld had some classic scenes in the luncehonette, the Kenny Rogers chicken episode and the "low-cal" frozen yogurt episode. And the list goes on!

I only saw one episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. The mother-in-law (Doris Roberts?) was teaching the daughter-in-law her famous recipes, but they wouldn't turn out the same for her. She peeled off a spice label to discover Doris had put an oregano label on a jar of tarragon. I just thought it was too unspeakably cruel.

The characters in Gilmore Girls constantly talk about food: the titular twosome hang out in a diner, after all (where unlike in every other TV show ever, they actually order and eat the food), and three of the secondary characters are the owner of said diner, a hotel chef and a produce farmer. And, of course, one of the series' throughlines is that they have to have a family dinner with Lorelai's parents every Friday night, and one of the series' ongoing jokes is that the Gilmores have the most atrociously unhealthy diets and yet it doesn't affect them at all. Between the food and the music (this show has the most wide-ranging musical taste on TV, from Johnny Mercer to the White Stripes), it's like I've written this series in some kind of fugue state that I snapped out of and now it's being broadcast back to me!

I love the episode of Friends where Joey gets his head stuck inside the Thanksgiving turkey!! I've already gone into my favorite MASH food episodes on another thread (there are tons, but the best is when Hawkeye orders ribs from Chicago). On That 70s Show, Eric and Donna make "special" brownies...Woohoo! and the rest of the kids scarf them down. Then they sit around saying I don't feel anything...I thought you said they were special brownies? Then Eric and Donna confess that what made them special was that they were made with chocolate flavored Ex-Lax. The expression on their faces was hilarious! (What can I say...I guess I am a low-brow humor kind of girl.)

As has been mentioned in a previous thread, Seinfeld seemingly revolved around food. From brand names, such as Junior Mints and Twix, to actual eateries, such as H&H and Kenny Rogers, to the constant get togethers at the coffee shop, references to food were constantly part of the storyline.

I loved the "Mr. Bean" episode where he treats himself to dinner at a "fancy" restaurant, and orders steak tartare, as it is the only thing he can afford.


He spends the rest of the meal trying to hide it in various places and finally succeeds whe his plate falls to the floor He is then brought another serving of it.

I miss that program, have not seen it in a while.

Oh, I also love all of "Ms. Bouquets" schemes that revolve around her candlelight suppers, usually with names like her "outdoors in barbeque with finger buffet" or some such titles.

I am not much of a sitcom watcher but I remember one "Ellen" episode where Martha Stewart was coming for dinner and Ellen's oven died so she used the oven of a neighbor on another floor. I just remember a lot of running up and down and Martha finally ordering pizza for all. Also a "King of the Hill" episode where Peggy and Bobby discover that burgers and steaks cooked on charcoal tast better than Hank's beloved propane. They did alot of sneaking around until Hank found a lump of charcoal.

quote:

Originally posted by Lone Star

I loved the "Mr. Bean" episode where he treats himself to dinner at a "fancy" restaurant, and orders steak tartare, as it is the only thing he can afford.


He spends the rest of the meal trying to hide it in various places and finally succeeds whe his plate falls to the floor He is then brought another serving of it.

I miss that program, have not seen it in a while.

Oh yes......and even better: When he's making the holiday dinner for the lady guest, and gets his head stuck in the turkey cavity just as she rings the doorbell.....

Yeah, I remember heading to Kenny Roger's Roasters after that Seinfeld Ep. It was closed! The hell with The Gambler, I wanted chicken.

Remember what the Coneheads used to eat? Six-packs of beer, insulation and Tang straight from the jar. Just like Denny's!

Originally posted by meowzart

I love the episode of Friends where Joey gets his head stuck inside the Thanksgiving turkey!! I've already gone into my favorite MASH food episodes on another thread (there are tons, but the best is when Hawkeye orders ribs from Chicago). On That 70s Show, Eric and Donna make "special" brownies...Woohoo! and the rest of the kids scarf them down. Then they sit around saying I don't feel anything...I thought you said they were special brownies? Then Eric and Donna confess that what made them special was that they were made with chocolate flavored Ex-Lax. The expression on their faces was hilarious! (What can I say...I guess I am a low-brow humor kind of girl.)

I loved it on the 70s show when their parents accidentally ate the "special" special brownies. They did that camera spin thing they do when people are stoned. They were waxing poetic about potato chips and Red kept getting up and asking, "Did you hear that? Is someone at the door? Hello???

Jack's Bistro on 3's Company was the bomb. Also Cosby had the premium hoagies on his self-named show. Horschack had too many knishes in Coney Island on a Welcome Back, Kotter. On Facts of Life, the girls opened up a bakery. On Dif'rent Strokes, Arnold was called a "junk food junkie." Joey spooning jam and Rachel's meat pie on Friends. Never forget Mel's Diner, the ultimate Roadfood stop in Phoenix.

quote:

Originally posted by jmckee

quote:

Originally posted by Lone Star

I loved the "Mr. Bean" episode where he treats himself to dinner at a "fancy" restaurant, and orders steak tartare, as it is the only thing he can afford.


He spends the rest of the meal trying to hide it in various places and finally succeeds whe his plate falls to the floor He is then brought another serving of it.

I miss that program, have not seen it in a while.

Oh yes......and even better: When he's making the holiday dinner for the lady guest, and gets his head stuck in the turkey cavity just as she rings the doorbell.....

Also, when Mr. Bean went shopping for a frying pan and brought the whole fish with him in his sportcoat pocket to make sure that the pan he bought was big enough to fit the whole fish.

No mention of the Seinfeld "Soup Nazi" episode?

There is an older episode of the now-cancelled "Just Shoot Me" where Elliot's crazy brother keeps chanting: "chicken pot, chicken pot, chicken pot pie." My son & I swear it's the funniest sitcom episode we've ever watched! It makes you want to run out to the nearest home-cooking type place to order it!

I'm not a sit-com watcher, but there was an episode of Helen hunt's show (something about love??) where a turkey flew by a window in a very funny Thanksgiving dinner skit.

And Fraser and his brother owning a very very pretentious restaurant was also very funny.

To me a pie in the face is what's really funny. I loved Soupy Sales!

Oh yeah, The Peanuts the Clown episode on Mary Tyler Moore is a classic.

I'd almost forgotten about the Frasier episode where they finally put his caricature on the wall-----and Niles throws up all over the owner of the restaurant.

My god folks nobody mentioned Alice! Mel's Diner! The king of Roadfood sitcoms!

Hotrodder---sure they did--six posts back ahead of you--but he didnt mention Alice---just Mels---i was actually bummed out once driving through Pheonix realizing i couldnt really stop there for dinner--but i think my favorite food scene from a sitcom has got to Latka's brownies!Hey---while im here---sombody slap some cheese on this burger!

Anybody remember the WKRP in Cincinnatti show where Herb Tarlek lined up the promotion for free Turkeys He didn''t know that domestic turkeys couldn't fly and they were throwing them out of a helicopter while your reporter on the scene, Les Nesman, was calling the action. It is one of the funniest things I have ever seen on TV

Roseanne opened a loose meat sandwich shop both on her show and in real life(on the show it was called The Lunch Box; in real life I don't know; But is there a difference between the 2?). I've wanted a loose meat sandwich ever since. But still haven't gotten to Iowa. Is it like Sloppy Joes?

Oh there it is

Brownies... that reminds me of the Barney Miller brownie episode.

I love WKRP

Les: No parachutes yet. Can't be skydivers... I can't tell
just yet what they are, but - Oh my God, Johnny, they're
turkeys!! Johnny, can you get this? Oh, they're plunging
to the earth right in front of our eyes! One just went
through the windshield of a parked car! Oh, the
humanity! The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks
of wet cement! Not since the Hindenberg tragedy has
there been anything like this!

As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.

And there was an episode of Just Shoot Me where they got this japanese candy called "Lemon Wacky Hello" that makes them all hallucinate. Why is it so darn funny to watch people hallucinate? Especially the Simpsons.

Goldborscht, loose meat in Iowa is Maid Rite, a regional chain. It's like a sloppy joe but it's dry (well, except for meat juice)Everybody made a big deal about them when I was in college but I thought they were bland.

As far as food shows, seems that a lot of Northern Exposures episodes involved food, either Maurice's
dinner parties, Maggie cooking for Joel or everyone hanging out at the Brick. I loved that show.

Oh Hotrodder...Oh the Humanity! I love that bit. That and the episode where they finally get a location job and the place gets robbed and Johnny keeps telling the microphone they are being robbed, but since there is NO audience, nobody calls the cops.