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hoot after all
Forget all you've heard. Chef sitcom is funny.
By Elizabeth White
It would be so easy to pan "Emeril," NBC’s sitcom starring chef Emeril Lagasse that debuts tonight at 8 p.m.
After all, everyone else is. The show is widely pegged to be among the first rookie shows to get the ax, if not the first.
But I can't.
I can't because I watched a review tape of the premiere episode and I laughed, out loud and often.
As a sitcom, "Emeril" is supposed to be funny, and it is, and to hell with what other critics tell you.
"Emeril" is a show within a show, set behind the scenes of the fictional cable network Food Channel’s eponymous cooking show. Lagasse’s TV chef is supported by his food-loving crew, an agent, and the network brass.
In its best moments, "Emeril" aspires to be to food shows what "Murphy Brown" was to newsmagazines, a workplace comedy whose well-intentioned staff battles the bizarre demands of network TV executives.
Of course, "Emeril" will never have the edgy bite of political satire that "Murphy Brown" managed. Employees of Lagasse’s fictional show don’t have to decide anything more important than whether to use butter or margarine.
But the behind-the-scenes peak at pop culture media has worked reasonably well for another NBC sitcom, "Just Shoot Me," set in the editorial offices of a women’s magazine, and there’s no reason to think that "Emeril" won’t be able to pull off the same kind of success on Tuesday night.
In the retooled version of "Emeril," Lagasse’s comic timing is still weak, but the new show doesn’t give him many lines and almost never requires him to carry a scene on his own.
The exceptions are when he’s shooting an episode for his fictional cooking show, and at those times Lagasse pulls off an affable TV chef quite believably.
The rest of the supporting cast is a little rough around the edges but shows promise of gelling into a likable workplace ensemble.
The three women who serve as the crew, played by Lisa Ann Walter, Sherri Shepherd and Carrie Preston, form a trio who provide funny but realistic support for Emeril, while the top network executive, played by Tricia O’Kelley, serves as the staff’s thinner and bitchier foil.
Robert Urich is squandered, however, as a poorly-imagined talent agent who cares only about appearances and money, and the scenes between just him and Lagasse are the weakest in the entire show.
Still, Urich brings a much-needed second male character to the show, and if his character gains depth in later episodes, then the relationship between him and Emeril could become one of the best parts of the show.
Until then, "Emeril" will have to settle for pleasantly surprised sitcom fans who turn away from its stronger 8 p.m. rivals, "Dharma and Greg" on ABC and "That '70s Show" on Fox.
September 25, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Elizabeth White is a staff writer for Media Life.
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