Certainly. I didn't mean to imply that the camera always lies in some deliberate or pejoritive way. Or that the show had any agenda in distortion. Or that restaurateurs were cosmetically gussying up their food.

I was just considering the notion of photographic image/distortion in general and the fact that we assume a kind of objectivity in photography that is not only unusual, it's virtually impossible. Going from 3-D to 2-D changes the sense space, depth, lighting that looks soft and romantic in person can look awful on film, or enhanced by harsh video lights, can end up looking garish instead.

At the same time, yes, a film of someone making a nicoise salad garnished with fruit loops can certainly expose a verbal claim to authenticity that might otherwise go unchallenged, etc. I'm all for the video element of Check Please. I basically like the whole thing well enough - even the nepotistic, schilling belly-dancers.

mrbarolo

I'm not naive enough to believe that the camera doesn't lie since I worked for years as an agent that represented photographers that did advertising and editorial work on a national level. I'm certainly aware of what a good food stylist can do and they're just amazing. In using the phrase "the camera doesn't lie" I simply meant that in viewing the pan that "Check, Please" does across the restaurant it gives you an idea of the atmosphere and decor of the place in the most general of terms. Kind of like putting a name with a face.

I haven't weighed in here because I think Check, Please is pretty good for TV, but not quite so good or interesting that I have to make that big a point of catching it, but that's just me, I have something of a phobia against TV involving ordinary people and can't handle Survivor, call-in shows, Taxicab Confessions, etc. Anyway, one thing I do find interesting that the article alerted me to is the list of past restaurants featured on C, P so that you can make sure yours has not been done already:

http://www.wttw.com/checkplease/restaurantsatoz.html

Kind of fun to look down the list and see how many you have or haven't been to already.

Mike G wrote:I haven't weighed in here because I think Check, Please is pretty good for TV, but not quite so good or interesting that I have to make that big a point of catching it, but that's just me, I have something of a phobia against TV involving ordinary people and can't handle Survivor, call-in shows, Taxicab Confessions, etc. Anyway, one thing I do find interesting that the article alerted me to is the list of past restaurants featured on C, P so that you can make sure yours has not been done already:

http://www.wttw.com/checkplease/restaurantsatoz.html

Kind of fun to look down the list and see how many you have or haven't been to already.

I notice LTH is not listed. Here's hoping it will stay that way.

I'd say I pretty much agree with Mike G's take on "real people" shows, with the distinction that the ones he lists - "Survivor" et. al. - are thoroughly dishonest from the get-go, manipulated and edited for fake melodrama and to make bad people look even worse, etc., and many are designed simply as pre-meditated human train wrecks for the enjoyment of rubbernecking viewers and their need to feel somehow superior to someone somewhere, somehow.

With CP, they're working hard in the other direction; to get diverse but intelligent interesting people and to enhance the level of discourse wherever possible without distorting it too much. Hence, Alpana's having notes of what people said off-camera so she can guide them back to previously stated, stronger opinions if they start to go soft on camera.

It ain't Plato's Symposium, but it's pretty engaging and, like Mike, while I don't seek it out, I tend to watch most of it when I happen to stumble upon it. That puts it way ahead of the vast majority of shows that I actively avoid.

LTH,

Oh sweet mercy, I just watched my favorite/least favorite Check Please, the Double-Yum debacle.

Double-Yum, a perky, transplaned New York City Trixie of a Blonde, over-talks the other, way too polite, participants and, incredibly, Alpana Singh even makes a bit of fun of Double Yum.

That, plus, I'm, at most, lukewarm on Double-Yum's restaurant choice, Wholly Frijoles.

Damn that tivo, now I will be saying Double-Yum for the next 2-weeks.

Enjoy,
Gary

it was my first horrid experience seeing the doubleyum trixie. yeegads!

but to complete the morbid curiosity of why on earth this lady would be saying "oh gawd, double yum", i saw rachel ray on oprah last night. apparently she's the originator of the "double yum" phrase. i don't have cable tv, and so have never seen rachel ray, despite all the posts on her here on lth. so i have no opinion of her.

check please has always been a form of entertainment for me - like a bizarro reality tv show, wondering just what inside scoop this oh so insightful show (kidding) will provide for me this week. but in my opinion it was much more entertaining with amanda puck. alpaca, err i mean alpana, just makes me want to shake her and scream, spit it out lady!

I have never seen this infamous double-yum episode. Wish I had.

I just couldn't stomach Amanda Puck. Whatever her on-camera defficiencies might be, I am comforted knowing that Aplana is in fact a master sommeliere, and that beneath her surface quirks lies a fairly vast body of food and wine knowledge. But, Amanda, in addition to being a complete stick on camera, was what? - a relative of a celebrity chef sell-out.

Count me in the Amanda Puck camp. "Singh About"...feh.

Inspite of the "double yum" women-possibly the single most obnoxious, abrasive guest ever, the show is much better that it ever was with Amanda Puck. Part of that is due to Alpana Singh being much more knowledgeable of all the aspects of running a restaurant. And she talks about the food!
Perhaps the most discouraging part of AP's show was how obvious it was that she often had never been to the restaurants being discussed. Even when she had, her commentary was insipid.

Sigh...too many people read Puck's cool erudition as inaccessible. Singh definitely appeals to those who need their ingratiation forcefed with a soupcon of trixie nasality.

I witnessed the double yum debacle on Saturday, and upon hearing each double-icious mewling from the frosted waif, I found each utterance was akin to having my fingernails being scraped away...closer and ever closer to cuticle...

I'm kinda glad to discover the episode has been deemed "infamous!"