Although the preview did look interesting... Am I the only one who thought this show is basically a ripoff of that SNL sketch "And a Pizza Place"? It's like they just stole the idea and changed it a little bit! I find it hilarious...
I watched the first two episodes and laughed my ass off. Plus, they had good ideas about lots of stuff. Mainly, it was just unbelievably funny.
Well, it appears to be the newest entry in the world of reality television... It's all about this fancy pants restaurant and the troubles it can have in starting up, or in a busy evening, or things of that nature. Why should I care about what it's like to eat at a restaurant? Why not just go out to eat instead of sitting at home and seeing what it'd be like on TV?!?! It boggles the mind. Why are they making a reality show about something so boring? Next it'll be a show about what it's like to work in a cubicle at an office.
Damn!! Damn!! Damn!! Damn!! Seeing as this thread has already derailed, I had planned to watch QEFTSG this week, and then things went to crap at work, and I forgot. Seeing as it's on Bravo, do you guys know if they have plans to rerun any of the episodes? When can I catch it?
Queer Eye wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but I still think it's way too stereotypical. Not all gay men are experts in fashion, culture, style etc.
'The Restaurant' turns up the heat in the kitchen By ANN HODGES Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle TV Critic New York City's hottest, hunkiest chef is in a stew. Rocco DiSpirito -- star of the Food Network and one of People magazine's Sexiest Men Alive -- opens The Restaurant on NBC Sunday. He must've followed a recipe for disaster. And that's exactly what NBC ordered for this new serving of reality TV. The Restaurant is a true-life soap opera set in a Big Apple eatery. Will Rocco's restaurant earn four stars, or sink in a bowl of spaghetti? That's the question that's supposed to keep you coming back for six Sundays running. The Restaurant is another British-series remake from executive producer Mark Burnett, who started the reality TV trend with Survivor. DiSpirito will fight to survive amid the hungry natives of Manhattan. But first he must get The Restaurant show on the road. With a budget of $4 million, DiSpirito has just seven weeks to find a location and get open for business. This is his first solo eatery; he became a celebrity chef working at New York's well-known Union Pacific. With Rocco's, DiSpirito goes back to his Italian roots, planning a menu just like Mama used to serve when he was growing up in Queens. In fact, he's hired Mama -- 77-year-old Nicolina DiSpirito is Rocco's executive chef. And he's scouring the town for his dream location, "a basement just like Grandma used to have." He can't find one, and not even his publicist's news that he's booked on NBC's Today (surprise, an NBC product plug) gives DiSpirito a lift. "The more press I get him, the more depressed he gets," DiSpirito's publicist complains. With six weeks to go, he goes on Today and invites the whole country to apply for a job at his new place. Applicants stretch around the block, and DiSpirito's interviewing style is unique, to say the least. Time flies and things get worse. Construction is ominously behind and training sessions turn into parties for the greenhorn staff. When a waiter chugs the spit bucket in the wine-tasting lesson, even Rocco's disapproving kitchen staff is betting "they won't last." With two hours to "soft launch" (friends and family only), construction workers are still clearing up the mess as the staff hauls in rented tables. In next Sunday's second helping, the invited guests arrive, and while service breaks down, The Restaurant's cameras get their biggest break -- a series of business and personal disasters, starting with the kitchen nearly going up in smoke. Now come the paying customers, with complaints about the food. And DiSpirito starts cutting the clueless from his overworked and undertrained staff. Something else needs cutting, too -- The Restaurant's background music. This high-volume stuff may be just what today's trendy eateries feature, but you can't hear what anybody's saying. A notice on the preview tapes assured critics that the audio was still to be mixed, so let us hope it gets fixed. Otherwise, The Restaurant is a tasty morsel that shows everything it takes to put Mama's meatballs before a paying customer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Restaurant, 9 p.m. Sunday on NBC/Channel 2. Grade: B-.
NBC owns the Bravo channel. The show has become such a hit that they (NBC) are going to start showing it on Thursdays after WIll and Grace.