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The Best Moments From “Thanksgiving Live”
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I was fully expecting to write a snarky blog post about all the major fails that happened on the first “Thanksgiving Live” show, but you know what? I thought it was pretty freaking great! Live TV is never easy, and for the most part, everyone came off looking like a real pro.
Didn’t catch it? No problem. Here were the most memorable moments from the show:
Alton declared that his favorite part of the turkey was the “dark meat.” Of course, Sunny Anderson took the opportunity to turn that into a sexual joke about loving black women. She said, “oh, I’m so happy to hear you like the dark meat, Alton.” Sooooo original, isn’t it? Rachael got overly excited, Flay semi-rolled his eyes, and Alton reminded her it was a “family show.”
Sunny and Rachael worked next to each other. Anne and Bobby worked next to each other. And waaaaaay in the back was Melissa D’Arabian, talking about $2 side dishes and making “pumpkin balls.” Don’t those just sound scrumptious?
When Alex said she was “macerating” berries, Alton giggled and said she won a prize for being the first person of the day to say “macerate.” Oh Alton. You so funny.
Luckily, Guy Fieri wasn’t on set. Instead, he called in and made 6 minutes of annoying small talk with Rachael Ray about how she once upon a time set a kitchen towel on fire.
Before hanging up, Alton asked Guy if he wanted to “take the opportunity” to ask the chefs for any cooking pointers. He then warned Guy to be careful of “flammable hair care products” in the kitchen. I know, hilarious, right? The funniest humor is often subtle and shaded with innuendo, and Alton is a master of that.
Overall, an entertaining few hours of TV – and it let you see the personalities of everyone without editing. I have to give credit where credit is due – and everyone did a damn fine job.
Alton stole the show as host – and I actually learned a few things from the chefs along the way. So well done, everybody. Golf claps all around.
Other posts on Food Network Humor:
---5 Best Moments From “Dear Food Network: Thanksgiving Questions”---Thanksgiving Live: This Weekend On Food Network
---Honest Food Network Chef Autobiographies
---Alton Brown Celebrating 10 Years Of “Good Eats” With Live Shows
---Food Network’s 2009 Thanksgiving Day Parade Float (w/ Video)
- General: Food Network
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88 Responses
I hadn’t planned to watch it, but my television was on FN when I turned it on this morning, and it was right as the show started. It was actually amusing. I loved Alton Brown telling people to be quiet, and I thought it was hilarious when he would start cringing and rolling his eyes when callers took forever to get to their question.
Thanks for the recap Jill. I was about to delete this from my DVD but I think I’ll watch it now. Love the screencap of Alton drinking hendricks gin, which does in fact make stuff better :)
Only complaint: it wasn’t live. At least, it wasn’t live for Central, Mountain nor Pacific time zones.
It was live for Central for sure. And I watched it live from the Pacific time zone because my cable system carries Food Network HD on the Eastern time zone feed. (Non-HD is at the regular time.)
They reaired it later in the afternoon. It was on live at 11.
No, it wasn’t on live at 11. Nor at 10. At least, not on “normal” cable, in the central time zone.
agreed, but it was live where it mattered.
George, evidently you’re right. I don’t believe anyone in my time zone gave a rat’s ass whether it was on or not, nor at what time.
I liked it, too. The one thing that grated my nerves was Melissa saying she can get a 10lb bag of russets for a buck. I don’t know where this chick lives but I can’t get a 10lb bag of ANYTHING for a buck. And I’m in Mississippi!
The tequila and the Anne Burrell cracks were the funniest to me.
I just got a 10 pound bag of russet potatoes at Albertson’s for 89 cents. But that’s their Thanksgiving loss-leader price, not their everyday price.
Just a few observations/thoughts:
1) It was a lot more entertaining than I thought it would be – and loved that it was “unedited”, really showcased the Food Network hosts as endearing and authentic.
2) What was with Alton and putting down Sunny and to a certain degree Ted? Maybe I took his jokes too seriously, but he seemed to be picking on them more.
3) I too noticed that Melissa was stuck in the back, and of course they had Rachael and Bobby in prime view most of the time.
4) Loved the muppets scene at the end – Alton played that perfectly as a host.
5) I really like Alex on FN, but it was annoying how she flip-flopped answers just to please Alton. Stick with your original thoughts!
I love AB but I thought he was an asshole. He was probably trying to be funny,but he was mean.
Just imagine what it would’ve been like with Sandra Lee …
I just thought it was nice to see Alex not death glaring at people like she does on Chopped.
When Alton didn’t drink her cocktail she made her guilty-italian-mother face.
That Foood Magazine brings back some fun memories. I totally forgot about that chick.
Did we watch the same show?! I thought the Live show was quite borring. There were so many mishaps (there was 2 or 3 times during commercial breaks where all of sudden Alton would show up mumbling something to the producer? and then it would cut back to regular commercials). They all seemed hammered after the first 5 minutes & was it just my TV or did they all have really bad spray tans?
Everything was orangey. Don’t now what went wrong, but yeah, it was orangey.
That said, I still loved it.
oh nooooo i wanna bang bobby flaaayyyy
Did anyone else notice that Anne Burrell grimaced when Melissa D’Arabian offered advice on dealing with overcooked turkey. RUDE!
Overall, it was much more enjoyable than FN’s typical Sunday afternoon fare.
We were howling at how nobody really answered the viewers’ questions. Best example: the woman who asked Bobby if his restaurant prep procedures transferred to his home kitchen. It became the generic ‘do you have any special tips for preparing Thanksgiving dinner’.
They was some really bad advice too: putting your frozen turkey in brine, unrefrigerated for 2-3 day? Probably not a good idea. Never mind you have to be careful to buy a non-injected turkey if you’re going to brine. They did put the kibosh on the overnight-turn-the-oven-off-to-cook-the-turkey method.
They did, but they didn’t.
They first spent a few minutes with Ray and Flay talking about how they’ve done variations of it or how they might do it and even when Alton mentioned how he found the amount of time in the danger zone to be “worrying” it still wasn’t a forceful ‘don’t do it’ kind of comment.
OMG yes, that was terrible (that woman did NOT ask Bobby about tips on Thanksgiving).
It was better than I expected. Watched the whole thing without having the urge to blow my brains out. I thought the questions at Chelsea Market were staged and the folks with Ted were very carefully handpicked.
Yeah, Ted’s questions at Chelsea Market were most definitely staged. I’ll bet all those obnoxious kids are in Broadway shows.
Alton did seem a little mean, but I think because he was the host it went a lot better then I thought it would.
I love it when Alex second guesses her response to Alton’s queries.
I thought it sucked because 90% of the time they really didn’t understand or properly answer the viewer questions. But that’s the risk you take when you go live, I guess. Of course Ina doesn’t always provide good answers on “Ask Ina,” nor does Aida on “Ask Aida,” and those questions are obviously prescreened.
These questions were pre-screened, per the instructions on the FN blog. Makes me wonder why the FN hosts didn’t really have answers.
I am not an Anne Burrell fan, but I liked her today. She seemed normal instead of her usual grunting and wierdness.
What annoyed me the most, was when a viewer asked what to do with lumpy gravy. Anne Burrell, of course, gave the correct answer. Strain the gravy. Guess what? Melissa just repeated what Anne said, only she didn’t know the reason. Alton and Bobby are wrong on this (sorry). Starch lumps in gravy are uncooked, pureeing them won’t help. Anne is the only real chef on FN. Team Anne for Iron Chef Allstars!
I agree with this post. Ive been watching fn for years and its gotten old for me. But I really learned alot by watching this. The questions were really good, and their responses in general were excellent.
You know what else I liked. They looked like they were having some fun. It did not have that overproduced, fake stuff that previous specials had. I hope they do something like this again.
“They looked like they were having some fun. It did not have that overproduced, fake stuff that previous specials had”
Agreed. They did look pretty relaxed and reasonably spontaneous.
Me too on the topic of “viewers’ questions weren’t really answered”. Melissa’s pumpkin cake balls were NOT a side dish, they were a dessert. If you want something for kids to do as a side, let them do a relish tray or crudites, or mash potatoes.
And really, potatoes are the only cheap side dish Melissa could come up with?? Corn pudding, succotash, baked squash, glazed carrots–seriously, woman. It’s not that hard.
Thought the same thing! Mashed potatoes are a given — the caller wanted OTHER ideas.
Overall I liked it too and hope they continue to do it. Alton was a hoot, even though somethimes he appeared to be mean (but that’s just him). Loved it when he said “I’m a guy, I just eat over the sink” on that table setting part LOL
The Swedish chef needs his own show on food network!!!!!!
bork, bork, bork
YES
I’ll have to disagree, just because I don’t want the FN to ruin the Muppets!
This was mildly enjoyable because of the combination of cooks/chefs. All of those present are credible and respectable professionals. Could you imagine if we replaced these people with the likes of Guy, Giada, Sandra Lee, and Paula Deen. What a mess that would have been. I actually like Paula but I think she would have tried to turn the whole thing into the Paula show. Despite thinking that the chefs/cooks did fine, I thought Alton was racing around a little like he had ADD and I’m sorry but Ted Allen was even more useless than he is on Chopped. But yeah, I’d say overall it was OK for their first dabbling into live TV.
AMEN to that! At least they picked some good ppl for the show.
I LOVED how AB pronounced Fieri’s name, the way it should be pronounced.
I did enjoy this but agree with the comment that said AB was harsh on Ted Allen. When he made fun of him when he was doing math for the wine comment? Not nice. I think Ray Ray caused AB to cut the ending short cause she had her little story about her sister letting her nieces and nephews cut in their high chairs. Also Bakerella of bakerella.com INVENTED cake balls so I don’t know why Melissa D is even touting them about.
Yeah, because everyone on that show invented what they were making.
I can see why people think that AB was being kind of harsh to Ted and Sunny, but really…they all know each other personally. There’s a good chance they’re all friends and it’s good natured ribbing.
Didn’t d’Arabian claim to invent glazed carrots ?
I’m glad I was not playing a drinking game for each time Rachael Ray mentioned her husband. I’d be three sheets to the wind within the first half hour. Who gives a flying shit what kind of cocktail Cusimano prefers? And how many damn times have we heard that he’s a lawyer by day and whatever the fuck by night?
This show reminded me of why I started watching food network. They actually talk about and cook food…without a reality competition attached to it!
I did like it when the show cut back from commercial too early and AB was giving instructions to the prop guy for his knives for the carving segment. The best moments are unintentional…or involve muppets. Is there anything that disney CAN’T cross-advertise with the muppets this year? When Miss Piggy starts hawking condoms, they will officially be out of ideas. Though, I’m sure there’s a pig skin hawking lamb skin joke in there somewhere…
last week jay leno made some jokes about a bacon lube… and we all know the joke “whats green and smells like ham”
Did you miss the part at the very beginning where “poor” Ray-Ray could’t get her shaker open? I laughed so hard watching her struggle with that thing.
Why was Melissa there? RRay has a 2x Emmy Award winning show, Iron Chef Bobby, 2 Iron Chef candidates and Sunny has personality and can think on her feet. So Melissa?
Desperately trying to prove they can have a “Food Network Star” winner that can cook? Only thing I can think of!
yeah, where was Sandwich King?
Seems like he’d be a natural to follow Alton’s turkey carving instructions when he talked about the meat on the carcass being left for SANDWICHES…
No, that’s “SAMWICHES.” :o(
Melissa fills their harried-mom slot on the network. AB tossed a few kiddie questions her way. Poor girl really seemed outclassed and overwhelmed by the live format. She’s better in the commercials they run all the time and force her to churn out.
The “Sandwich King” would have been a better pick for a show like this. By the way, I loved the moment when AB went to Sunny with a question and she sauntered over to join him and his iPad with a drink in one hand and a piece of turkey in the other! It’s a live show, even AB is a bundle of nerves, and Sunny’s chillaxin’.
Probably part of Sunny’s relaxed way of doing things on live tv is because she was a radio dj before she started working at FN, she’s been doing live broadcasts for years. I’m sure that’s helpful. But I agree with the others too about Melissa. I’m sure she’s a very nice lady and all, but she had no reason being there. To me it doesn’t matter if someone is an Iron Chef or has won awards, if they can cook, I want to watch them. But what I’ve seen of her show, she’s never done anything great. And she looked so out of her element- the only thing that would’ve made the show really great would’ve been not having Racheal Ray there. I know they need her on there to sell more $20 garbage bowls, but her presence alone annoys me.
Good point about Sunny and her DJ experience.
I still like Rachael despite everything. I used to watch “30MM” religiously but have never seen her daytime show.
But ever since the talk show and the magazine and the product lines, she has seemed deeply unhappy: harried, overscheduled, distracted, probably bored to some degree.
Paula Deen’s ascendance has occurred at the same time as Rachael’s, and love or hate her, Paula does seem to enjoy herself. Rachael does not, but perhaps I’m reading too much into it. It’s just the difference in attitude and body language from her early days on Food Network, and today, is remarkable.
Rachael seems over-worked, you’re right. She does do an awful lot. I personally don’t really like her, but when she started doing 30MM she at least had some enthusiasm. You’re right, she looks bored lately. Her daytime talk show seems to be doing well in ratings, perhaps down the road she’ll leave FN to do more things like that.
Thank goodness it wasn’t Aarti.
Hallalujah!
I only caught part of it, but at the end AB said that they would continue the conversation via a live feed on the website. I watched THAT, and it was great. Very casual and relaxed…they all told funny or interesting stories and it was the most entertained I’d been by Food Network in years. If the show was like that, then Food Network, bring back the live. Anyone remember Cooking Live with Sara Moulton in the early days? I loved that show.
Sara Moulton was the queen of swap-outs, which is a big no-no these days (and I agree).
I liked Sara because she was such a square, and I say that with no disrespect. She was just a basic, nice person who wasn’t flashy. The anti-Guy Fieri in so many ways.
It’s amazing she was so prominent on FN for so many years, but that was before they decided to transform themselves into a lifestyle network designed to hawk branded products, and before some moron decided that self-taught cooks (Rachael, Paula, Giada, Sandra) were more relatable than trained chefs like Moulton, Emeril Lagasse and Mario Batali.
I don’t know how the hell Bobby Flay has stayed on the network for so long; he must some some hellacious blackmail photos of the Scripps executives. He obviously knows his stuff in the kitchen but he’s as grumpy and wooden as ever as a television presenter.
Giada is a professionally trained chef who graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.
However, I am glad that she wasn’t included in this particular show. For starters she seems to be to focused on it being “all about her.”
Secondly, she was a nervous wreck she she was a co-competitor on a holiday ICA competition, so I don’t think a live format is her forte;.
Lastly, I think the constant interruptions of questions from viewers would irritate and rattle her.
Actually, I knew that about Giada, but I always forget she is actually a trained chef. I don’t know why that is.
You’re right that the live format would send her over the edge. Her OCD rage would terrify even the stalwart Alton.
I’ve seen her on the Today show doing segments & she doesn’t seem as nervous, but maybe it’s because she’s only on for like 5 minutes. But yes doing live shows doesn’t seem to be her strong suit!
I loved it and hope they try it again next year.
With that said, they really didn’t answer some of the questions. I am still waiting to hear what one should buy to have a bar. All RayRay said was gin and that was it.
Is too bad this doesn’t make it to Canada, I do love me some Alton *grins* a couple of hours of Alton Brown hosting just about anything is worth watching,
Ugh, I wish I had watched that show! Alton is my personal culinary idol. I DID watch his Good Eats episode, Re-Romancing the Bid(or what I could between a shower and meds) and he outdid his classic hour-long special with a cooler one which details how he made an excellent four-course Thaksgiving meal in four hours. (The four days for prepping the pie crust and turkey don’t count.)
We also go to see memorable characters from the show like Alton’s alter ego Capt. Boatwright and Sid the Food Agent. And the DM was dressed up and brought some ‘wines.” ^_^
Anyways, curse me for not following my tradition of watching FN specials – Chuggaconroy is to blame.
It was live, but the questions were definitely prescreened. There’s no way Rachel got a question about hors d’oeuvre while she just happened to be making deviled eggs or Bobby getting a question about a cocktail while he happened to be fixing one.
I went into this with low expectations. But I actually thoroughly enjoyed it! It’s the best thing FN has done in a long time! AB is so quick on his feet – he really kept things moving right along. Everybody seemed relaxed and like they were having fun. Watching Alton and Alex was so funny – you can tell they get along in real life.
I went back and watched the rerun at 6:00 so I could catch some stuff that I missed the first time.
Nice “Dirty Work” reference. Possibly the best movie ever.
Fail. It was “Men at Work”. I hate when I do that.
I think I’ve seen Men at Work at least 30 times.
Love. That. Movie.
Seeing the “golf clap” was an awesome flashback.
I’m sorry but I have to disagree here. The show was pretty much mayhem from the start. Lots of rushed information. Unnecessary tension. Alton Brown acting condescendingly towards everybody. This was a disaster and a boring waste of two hours.
I think Sunny was trying to challenge Sandra Lee for next year’s hairstyling Emmy nomination.
I went to the taping of the Good Eats 10th Anniversary show and it was all performed live, like a variety show. The aired special was only an hour but he did two performances that were about 3 hours each. There’s no question that Alton is quick, witty, clever and engaging. He can host his ass off, I hope this is seen as a successful first run and we have more of these.
I actually enjoyed the show, everyone seemed relaxed and acted natural. The one thing I learned that was a “D’oh!” moment for me, was to cook two small turkeys so you get more legs and wings. I can’t believe I never thought of that.
BTW I thought Alton was being himself, he didn’t seem rude to me, I think people are being way over sensitive here.
I agree with all you say. I, honestly, was expecting the worst, it being LIVE and all. But they pulled it off.
I love how Alton was SO proud of his roasted pumpkin filled with stuffing. Pretty cute, it was – I will make that one day, for sure.
I turned this after the 1st 30 minutes and I immediately thought what would Ina do? Think about it…all her answers would deal with “good” ingredients, she would have on her good holiday shent and she would go on about how Jeffery doesn’t know how to do anything and that is why she hangs with her gay army.
Rachael and Sunny should avoid beiing filmed while sitting down. Not a flattering angle for either of them.
I noticed during the one “sitting down” segment that there was almost an “upskirt” moment for Anne, and that would have been mighty fine by me..and, to me, Sunny has a great figure…I’ll take those hips and her booty any day..I noticed both her and Anne now have rings on their left hands
My favorite part was when everyone was talking about deep frying their turkeys. People were talking about the new INDOOR deep fryers and Alton said.. “A lot of trailers in Georgia burn down every year because of people frying indoors”
The Guy Ferry segment must have been sponsored by Massengil.
More of this please! (hint, hint FN)
Great fun all around! I DVR’d it while watching it live (at least I thought it was–I live in the Central time zone) and will keep it. To all those who think AB was mean and snarky–not at all! I think he kept the tone light and fun and had great chemistry with everybody. Even though I’m sure his interviewees were carefully selected and they were fed their questions, I enjoyed seeing Ted here because I’m not a “Chopped” fan and can’t get into that show. Not that I’m a big Melissa fan, but I felt for her being in the back–hopefully that’s a seniority thing and she’ll either move up or somebody else will be there next time! RRay really seemed relaxed and natural and not her sickeningly perky self. Bobby Flay even seemed amiable. FN chose their personalities for this event unusually wisely–like one poster said, all it would’ve taken was one Guy Ferry or Giada to throw the whole thing off, and it would’ve been chaos that I’m not sure even Alton could have reined in. I really hope this’ll turn out to be an annual thing, but it may not be trashy enough for the FN suits.
I did like the show. With all of the alcohol around , it was good that Aunt Sandy was not there.
I also noticed that Anne Burell had a ring on her leflt hand.
I did like the show and was glad Melissa was in the back.
FN if you are reviewing these comments – please don’t wait until next Thanksgiving for another live show…this was the best thing I have watched on your network in a long time. A summer barbecue/cookout would be another seasonal show that would be excellent live. I agree with another person above that I would have liked to have seen the Sandwich Guy also appear on one of these live shows – he would be an excellent addition!
I loved that Alton pronounced Fieri’s name properly (without the T sound). His jabs are Fieri were funny and clever too. Good show all around.
I was impressed, but you could tell Food Network producers aren’t used to doing live. I’m hoping that they do the same thing around the holidays too, hell why not do a couple Sunday live specials, make one about the food and one about baked goods, come on food network make me love you again!