Waste of a great concept

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I have read several of your posts on this site and they have been so harsh. If you do not like "reality" tv then why watch and then post on a reality tv site? Just wondering...

I thought that the show was ok. I am sure that it will get better. I never like the first episode of any of these things.

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How, pray tell, would I know I hated "The Restaurant" unless I watched it? So I watched it. And I also quite honestly admitted I'd give it at least one more chance, although its a steep uphill climb. And I certainly don't hate all Reality TV. The Amazing Race, The Mole, Last Comic Standing, The Dating Experiment, The Family, Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, Faking It, and in its own way even a mega-trashy show like Paradise Hotel all have value. Heck, I've even said good things about "Fame", if not all of the contestants. Also, don't confuse the ability to snark on silly people appearing on my TV with true depth of feeling. Especially when it contains many grains of truth in it. Maybe the worst thing I've said about these people is "fame whore", but a lot of Reality TV EXISTS to give us "real-life" heroes and villians, I think. Some of them HAVE TO SUCK for it to be interesting. I just think that "The Restaurant" is trying to imply its more of a show like "Faking It" or "Queer Eye", where we are supposed to believe this is kind of like a fun version of a documentary. Well its not.

Yes, I misinterpreted the water dripping as a faux-sweat/cry moment (I actually meant to say "sweat" in that post and had a bit of a mental blip). And so its water. Okay, sorry Rocco! But even going back and rewatching it I still think it looks posed and kind of phony.

Also: Rocco put a target on his own back by entering into this venture. I'm not hitting on him for that reason (I'm really just interpretting what I SAW), but within certain bounds I don't think that him going on TV means that we have to conduct ourselves like a Fan Club. If I want to make fun of the silly Red & Blue Fugly Hat Rocco wore, for example, here on a website which frequently sees those kinds of joking comments, well... Rocco will survive it. I'm not exactly talking about standing outside of his restaurant and telling people he has rats in his kitchen. And it's not like I'm turning around and telling people who post HERE that they suck for their opinions. That's a bit worse than vague loose criticisms of some guy on my TV who wants to get rich and famous off our viewing habits.

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Originally Posted by stebo

All they have shown the viewers is that if you have enough money "crap" doesn't really happen.

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Really? I thought the entire episode was about crap happening. I'm already hooked on this show. The drama is organic, pardon the pun, instead of contrived, and Rocco has the right balance of ego and humility.

So they cram two months of problems into about 10 minutes of tv. The problems that they did show were trivialized and shrugged off. Not one health dept inspection, not one building inspection. This is a FOUR MILLION DOLLAR RESTAURANT, geez.. you think it went down like this????

Maybe I am dissapointed because I was looking forward to a new Reality show that would show the real problems associated with opening a new business. That is NOT this show. This is not Reality, this is a carefully planned out, acted out mess. I think the show is summed up perfectly by that waiter posting on here. He is not even close to a waiter, he is a career actor. And before you start saying that there are lots of waiters in NY; that is BS. Not at an upscale 4 star rest in Manhatton. You might find a lot of waiters at the local Denny's but you would find only professionals at a place like Rocco's 22nd Street. Want proof? Just try to find even one of them that is still there now that the show is not being filmed anymore.

You like the show because it is entertaining. Yes, it is entertaining... but it is a scripted show just a step above "Good Morning Miami" and way behind even the worst of them such as the new Star Search.

Who the hell wants to watch a building inspection and/or health inspection? If you want reality, go down to your local restaurant and watch it. This is television mi amigo. Take the good with the bad.

And no it's not BS that a large percentage of waiters in NYC and LA are actors/writers/musicians. Especially in upscale restaurants. Upscale requires pretty, outgoing, ambitious people who know how to cope with upscale clientele without getting all stupid. A lot of professional servers end up that way because they can find no other thing to do career wise. I can't think of many people that want to spend 40 years waiting tables. Food service, especially in the front of the house, has and always will be a temporary stepping stone until that person decides to move on with something more ambitious. There's a big difference between owning a restaurant and even managing one than there is to working in the kitchen or the front of the house. HUGE.

I think that the show is approaching it about as well as they possibly could considering. Of course some of it is going to seem staged (and some of it more than likely is), but I don't think it's scripted.

I completely fail to understand why people in the restaurant business get upset with this TV show. It's not for you, it's for us, the non-restaurant business people.

If I wanted to really know what went on, I'd either work in the business or read trade mags/talk to people.

The days of acting surprised because something isn't accurately portrayed on network TV are over. The days of being caught off guard by situations that take time being snipped into bite-sized pieces for an attention-lacking viewing audience are gone.

I don't want to know about the regular waiters and bartenders that do nothing except serve me food. I do however want to see a waitress that knows how to samba, an idiot that drinks other people's spit and celebrity chef that uses foul-language. That is interesting.

Rocco has a mighty impressive background and this is New York City. Is there a family-run shop in Kansas that would better show America how it's really done? I don't care. I couldn't even find Kansas on a map.

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I completely fail to understand why people in the restaurant business get upset with this TV show. It's not for you, it's for us, the non-restaurant business people.

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Could it be... some of them feel it misrepresents them?

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Originally Posted by Krom

Could it be... some of them feel it misrepresents them?

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Where does it say that they have to be "represented?" And who are these mysterious people?

This is a well-crafted show that gives us the highlights of the rigors and stress involved in trying to open a new restaurant while being entertaining at the same time. I do not want to see health inspectors walk around for hours with their clipboards, or workers grouting floors and painting walls. I would open my own restaurant if I wanted reality.

This show does not claim to be a documentary. Instead it tries to be entertaining and yet give the viewers a glimpse into the restaurant world and all that it encompasses.

Do you honestly believe that the Food Channel shows us a realistic view?

Only one episode of "The Restaurant" has aired so far and suddenly a passel of naysayers has cropped up to trash it because it isn't "representative" or "realistic."

My advice? Don't watch it, and go out to eat instead.

Ok, how would you feel if you found out that the contestants of Survivor were not really roughing it; but rather just "playing a scripted plot"? How about the Amazing Race? How would you feel if you knew that they told them to stop running in one spot, rewound the tape, checked for mistakes... and then said "Action" The appeal of these shows is that you get to see Real People reacting to Real Situations. A boring situation on Big Brother like making a Peanut Butter and Jelly snadwich can turn into a major ordeal when someone makes a stupid comment. The thing is, this is not a Reality show, it shouldn't even have a forum on here. It is no different than Will and Grace. Actually it is closer to a show like "Trading Spaces" where some of it is prompted but the majority of it is just reading off a cue card. I just used those two examples of a couple of things that could go wrong. I could list a hundred things that went wrong. The title of this thread is "Waste of a great concept". It is a waste, this could have been so much better if it was the truth rather than a bastardization of it.

Maybe we don't agree but I really do not think I am in the minority. And where is the hell did you get the idea that anyone implied that a rest in Kansas would be more exciting. That is just a stupid statement. NY is where it is at. Do you really believe that the guy camped out all night "before" the show? I seriously doubt it. I would be willing to bet that he was picked before this thing started and that was all staged. Notice how he just left all his crap on the curb. Yeah right, some poor, helpless "waiter" (who just happens to be an actor with a web page that would rival any seasoned actor) leaves all his crap out on the street without thinking twice about it. Gimme a break, how stupid do you think we are (well, I guess some of us just buy it and don't think with out own minds). And you really think that he dresses like that to go interview for the opportunity of a lifetime? Gimme a freaking break.

I don't mind them "cleaning it up" to make it a little more exciting... but there they cut all of the real stuff. This is not a reality show and therefore belongs off of the main board of this site. This site is Fans of REALITY TV, not Fans of Fake-Not so Reality-TV. Enjoy it all you want, I will give it one more week and if it turns out the same I am out. Looks like most agree with me, the rating were absolutely horrible and I bet they just keep going down from here.

\out\

Well, I don't have the venom built up like stebo, but how is it different from things on "the Food Channel (sic-Network)", you ask?

Well, we don't have a year to analyze all of the Food Network programming. So... lets take "Mario Eats Italy", for example.

Italian-American Celebrity Chef teaches us about the joys of Italian cooking by taking us with him around Italy, where we meet various people and he explains to us why the regions they come from are great and how good the food is there. Wacky hijinks occur with his "buddy" and student Rooney, who is accompanying him. Meals get cooked, Italian gets spewed out at hyper-velocities but alternated with English, lots of wine gets drunk, and we all learn something.

The thing is... "Mario Eats Italy" is fake and makes NO pretenses about that, unlike "The Restaurant". We aren't really seeing Mario's trip with his student, we are seeing something which they don't even for a second pretend is really happening. Rooney, in fact, is a fellow chef--apparently pretty competent--and not Mario's little clown boy. This isn't hidden in interviews or stories about the show, and frankly its pretty obvious from watching the show, between the clowning. The humor is broad, and the setups each week so jokey that it doesn't take much to see it for what it is.

It's got an odd kind of integrity--they aren't saying here we are shooting a record of Mario exploring Italy... no, not at all. Its not trying to represent actions in the real world--its all happening in "Mario Land" or something. Heck... for the most part Mario's outside identity as the brains behind Babbo and numerous other restaurants isn't even mentioned. This is a fantasy after all.

"The Restaurant" is claiming to be a record of fact, it seems to me, versus a quirky somewhat edu-tainment show like "Mario Eats Italy". And while "Mario Eats Italy" isn't all of Food-TV... it is fairly representive of much of it.

FWIW, the contestants on TAR *are* in fact required to stop and re-create scenes, during the race, so the camera can get good angles. The cameramen keep track of the time required, and it's applied to all teams, so that they all still finish where they're supposed to.

This is an entertainment show foremost, which happens to be set inside a restaurant. It's surreal, not real, and meant to be enjoyed as such. Which I do.