This is definitely the kind of sitcom that could only exist in the early 2000s.

Emeril wasn’t a thing in Australia, so I was surprised to learn that Elzar from Futurama was a parody of a specific TV chef (Elzar doesn’t even have a different catchphrase, he just says “Bam!”)

This show seems like a "Home Improvement" cameo that got wildly out of hand.

I remember my family watching this pilot. For some reason, the memory stuck with me all these years. I think 9/11 seared random things around that time into my brain.

It seems to me like this could have been a halfway decent Jason Alexander vehicle.

Emeril doesn't appear to be that bad of an actor. If you didn't know he was a celebrity chef, he wouldn't seem that out of place.

I remember watching this as a kid with my mom and thinking it sucked, but she loved it and was upset it got cancelled. She's a huge Emeril fan and still has those recipes from the show printed off and uses them for holiday dinners. Not a good show, but those recipes are great.

That Sponsorship is on point😂 And yeah I agree with your point that this show suffered from staring Emeril himself and not a stand in. It really seems like the Producers were desperately trying to create wacky characters that could carry the comedy leaving Emeril the underused straight man in his own show.

Ah a truly hideous television experiment. It’s always fascinating to go back and watch pilots or short lived sitcoms and daytime talk series that were given to momentarily popular celebs of the day! Thank you for bringing this to us!

Even being a HUGE fan of his cooking shows, I remember seeing the ad for this at the time and going, “Well now, doesn’t that just look awful!”.

From the actual Wikipedia for EMERIL: "Those involved with the show blamed the continuous news coverage of the terrorist attacks as the reason the show was never able to find much of an audience. Others blamed its non-acting leading man and unfunny scripts."

12:08 somehow seeing Burt Reynolds made me smile, knowing that he sure loved to be in as many films and TV episodes as possible

You folks remember My Big Fat Greek Life? Would love to see an episode on that blunder

I remember NBC promoting this. I never watched it but even back then I knew it was just a bad idea. It'd be like giving Gordon Ramsay his own sitcom, it MIGHT sound good on paper but in reality, you'd just ask what they were thinking.

Yay! I always look forward to Forgotten Failures!

You can't mention The Larry Sanders Show and not do a video on it lol. That's one of my favorite shows of all time and I would love to see you do a retrospective on it.

I remembered this show being considered lost media at one point (since it never got any official home video release). And since it became obscured by the September 11th attacks, many people speculated whether or not it existed (similar to Rapsittie Street Kids)

I honestly I had no idea this existed. One of many shows that led to NBC's decline. Maybe the Friends spinoff Joey could be a forgotten failure next? I'd be happy to donate season one

I remember they basically wrote an episode of Disney's Hercules just so he could guest star. And let's not forget a parody caricature of him is a staple of Futurama. It can't be understated how popular he was back then. The problem was they made a sitcom instead of having him host a game show or syndicated Talk Show. Side note, did you know that Rachel Ray's talk show is still on the air? The show itself was painfully generic, not the worst I've ever seen by a country mile (and some of those got multiple seasons). But it wasn't a smart choice. You could put any non-entertainment celebrity in that generic series and it still would have been exactly the same. And to add insult to injury, this came out at a time when we really didn't know what we wanted out of sitcoms, let's be honest. The big hits of the 90's either ended or were in the process of ending, The Office was still a few years away, we were stuck between the Friends/Seinfeld years and the single camera, theatrical half hour series years. I hate to say this, but if NBC wanted to capitalize off of Emeril's popularity, they SHOULD have made (again, REALLY hate to say this) a ...choke... Reality Show hosted by him. Something like they'd currently have on Food Network or similar to one of Gordon Ramsey's shows. It would have at least done a full season.

Emeril Hill Zone act 1

One sitcom from round this time that needs looking at is a show called Ladies Man with Alfred Molina, it lasted 2 seasons on CBS and it even had Betty White in it and the daughter was played by Kaley Cuoco who was brought on as a cast replacement for the 2nd season

"even those who tuned into it have little memory of it" indeed.. this awoke a bizarrely hidden memory. I recall it existing, but that's it. Emeril really is a good performer though, he was great on his guest appearance on Space Ghost Coast 2 Coast. One of the top 5 best ever.

Didn’t expect the guy’s seasoning I was using had a freaking tv sitcom, but I guess shouldn’t be too shocked.

7:49!!!! those are seriously the funniest forgotten shows of that era! and I'm telling you: I literally save these on Roku or Pluto whenever I can. can we get Drew Carey Show converted to DVD yet? that show is criminally underrated!

This video tapped into my memories of waiting with anticipation and completely losing my mind whenever Emeril said "BAM!" when my parents would watch his cooking show(s) as a young kid

My grandma reacting to Emeril ANYTIME (even his cooking show) was basically Jackie Gleason here. She's smiling on this epic roast of him.

ooooh this is why I recognized Elzar from Futurama. Bam! spice weasel!

I actually remember one of the commercials they played to promote Emeril. It was Sherri Shepherd going in to the trash to eat the food Emeril just threw out. It reminded me of that Quizno's commercial where the woman ate a sandwich out of the trash.

This show is only notable for being Robert Urich's final television role before his passing.

I had no clue why this was so familiar to me until I realized this guy is exactly like Elzar from Futurama. They were referencing Emeril this entire time...

Speaks to Gleason's talent a lot in how funny completely out of context decades old Honeymooners scenes without actual words still are.

Great video as usual. Never new this existed. Keep up the great work. I would love to see a Forgotten Failures episode on the Pauly Shore sitcom called "Pauly".

I had an idea for a fictional spinoff of a celebrity chef show once: an animated series based on Cake Boss where they'd be making cakes which were physically impossible. Looking at this, it's probably for the best that nothing came of my idea.

I do recall requesting this one a while ago.

So happy Joe is finally getting paid sponsorships. Although, I respected his resistance, you gotta make that dough.

When I worked at a grocery store a few years ago, I once dropped a case of like 9 jars of Emeril brand pasta sauce. What I'm seeing here gives me similar vibes as cleaning that up.

My granny loved his cooking show, so she was all in on this. After the first commercial break for the sitcom, she changed the channel and never put it back. Also, hey, that's a young Melissa from Abbot Elementary!

Does anyone else remember the Ranco infomercial for this rotisserie thing? And the audience would always say, "Set it and forget it!" I love the cheesy infomercials from the early 2000s

Might i suggest the short lived Dan Aykroyd sitcom SOUL MAN. About a cool single dad that drives a motorcycle and just so happens to be a preacher.

I never knew Emeril had a sitcom. I’ve known about his food shows on that were on Food Network but I never heard of a sitcom starring Emeril Lagasse. Perhaps it’s a good thing I never heard of this show until now.

Emeril was HUGE in the early 2000s.

Watching at 7:48 I remembered that Michael J. Fox also had a sitcom loosely based on himself that went south.

I recall around this time, or maybe a few years afterwards, there was a Sex and the City style dramedy adaptation of Anthony Bourdain's book Kitchen Confidential, this was before Bourdain had become a popular TV personality in his own right so the Bourdain character was played by (IIRC) a young Bradley Cooper.

1) I'm super happy about the appropriate Hello Fresh sponsorship. Congrats on that, you deserve it. 2) I wonder what could have been done to get Emril into a scripted show format. I suppose his strength was his charisma while cooking, so why spoil a good thing? He probably could have done supporting roles or cameos if he really wanted to explore acting, but it definitely seems like an executive pushed this mess, and not Emril himself. 3) Holy shit, this video reminded me of how much of a cultural powerhouse that guy was when I was younger. He really was everywhere.

I have never heard of this man before so all im thinking is "Oh that's what the Futurama chef is referencing"

Lisa Ann Walter has such a gift for delivery and to see it misused on stuff like this was a shame. So glad she is getting her flowers now for Abbott Elementary!

The late night cooking show is actually a fun idea and it looks interesting. But wow that sitcom. lmao

The best parts of the first Emeril pilot were the jazzy acoustic guitar bridges. The desire to seem like another Just Shoot Me! or Suddenly Susan to the network executives was palpable

Encore! Encore! next, please! I'd also accept NBC's Daddio starring Michael Chiklis.

This was one of Robert Urich's last TV shows; I think he held the record at the time for most TV pilots that went to air, or, he was at least close to it at that point. A lot of them were bad but boy, I remember thinking that he was really slumming it to be in this one. I mean this was Dan Tanna, and now he's on "Emeril". All of "Emeril" felt wrong, but that part always depressed me.

It would have been interesting if they had somehow blended an actual cooking show, with actual dishes, with the "behind the scenes" type sitcom. Like, imagine if Tim from Tool Time actually taught you how to fix your toilet while doing the typical "family-based sitcom". Might have worked, maybe not, but it would have been new. EDIT: oh wait, they did that and it didn't work. lol.

I've never heard of Emeril before. I'm only just now realizing that the chef character on Futurama who goes "bam!" is a reference to this guy

This Elzar-centered Futurama spinoff series was weirder than I expected

I saw an episode of the show and I thought it could have been really good. The idea of what celebrity chefs do outside of work wasn’t a bad idea, it was the writing that I put it down to. Write some actual good humor and then it might work

It's stuff like this that makes me love this channel. Keep up the good work 😁

I don't know what it is about failed sitcoms from the big three networks around the turn of the millennium that is so interesting...I could binge about 50 of these Forgotten Failures episodes on them!

You should do a piece on the Wayne Brady 2001 variety show, which premiered a week before 9/11 and, to my knowledge, never aired another episode. I saw it when it aired and it was quite good. Whatever happened to Wayne Brady? (Just kidding) 😄

5:30 _kick it up a notch, BAM!_ Chef Emril IS the inspiration for Chef Elzar from Futurama!

I like videos like this because i have never heard of anything involved at all and I feel like I’ve learned a lot by the end.

I only have a passing knowledge of who Emeril is but the fact this exists at all is incredibly bizarre at face value.

Noooo! Nooooooooooooo! Not integrated ads!!! Now this whole video feels like it exists just to make content that compliments Hello Fresh.

Wow. I was never even aware of this at the time. Congrats on the sponsorship, by the way. Nobody likes ads, but if I've got to see one, I'm glad it's supporting one of my favorite creators.

At the time, I was one of the people that laughed at the idea of giving Emeril a sitcom. Today, particularly thanks to this video, I can see the logic behind the attempt. And the logic both for the initial family setting and the retooling to a workplace setting. Honestly, I can only feel the weak link was Emeril as an actor. They tried a basic "easy mode" format that they thought would accommodate an unskilled actor until he could gradually grow into the role, only for the pilot to fail so badly that they felt they had to completely change the show before he ever had the chance. So they switched to a popular ensemble format where everyone else could carry the show until Emeril eventually grew into the role, except Emeril never grew to match these stronger personalities and instead awkwardly stood around the edges. Then the show was cancelled.

Joe you are diabolical. I had forgotten witnessing this trainwreck of a show for years, and now it's all coming back 😱

If you see Emeril without the white chef's outfit, he looks like a completely random unrecognizable person.

That decade wherein NBC lost its damn mind. This sounds like a chef version of Home Improvement. Basically, you could do a whole FG series on Jeff Zucker alone.

This is the first Forgotten Failures that I actually watched as it aired. The only storyline I remember is the office weight loss challenge where Emeril and the manager shave their whole body. Oof

I knew you were going to eventually get to this and do an amazing job with it

This some underrated content

Well who would've thought a Reba sitcom would would work? Who would've thought a sitcom of Charie Sheen's promiscuous escapades would work? Who would've thought a show about a bunch of nerdy virgins would become the #1 show on television, and the biggest show of the decade? You'll never know unless you try.

6:00 Linda Bloodworth-Thompson loved that sappy music in dramatic scenes.

I completely forgot about this show till your video! I don't recall ever watching it and it looks like I didn't miss anything. Thanks for reminding me of this humongous blunder!

His fame must have been before Food Network began airing in the UK, as they've never shown him here. This is the first I've ever heard about him!

Now I know where the alien chef from Futurama comes from😂❤ BAM

Great video! Would love to see your take on ABC's 2015 Muppets show!

I like when a youtuber can even make the sponsor segment fun and enjoyable. Hats Off just has that style, in my opinion.

Definitely NEVER heard of this haha. Watching Emril Live with my dad is one of the things i remember fondly about my childhood. Same with the Munsters. But man, he loved Emril

Personally I think the "we went campin'" gag ain't bad.

I think Emeril did a great job

I miss Emeril's cooking show.... All we get nowadays are the competition type stuff and cooking shows in the day...

I thought about this randomly last week. Even as teenager I thought it was an odd concept for a sitcom. Even though Emeril was a big commodity then this was not a good idea.

Can't wait to watch this tonight after work!

I did not remember Emeril's Sitcom existed, even with the knowledge of other shows that only made one season like Teen Angel.

Please consider doing a video on "Fat Actress" the show's first episode was a big hit, but got cancelled after (I think) 8 episodes. I've never seen that for TV show before. Maybe you could explain why that was.

You say through this for us. Lol man that's some legit work ethic. Thanks .

I watched every episode of this with my family when it first aired. You've got to get around to doing an episode on The Knights of Prosperity or Carpoolers sometime.

Another sad thing about this, it just reminded me that Robert Urich's been dead for 20 years.

Emril Live was really popular in my house back in the day. I forgot he had a sitcom.

I kinda remember seeing a couple of commercials for this show and thinking to myself that the only reason I'd probably tune in would be to watch the wonderfully talented and likable Robert Urich, who I used to love in Spenser for Hire. Really miss that guy.

He doesn't seem like a bad actor at all

I fucking love you're stuff keep up the good work. I watch everything you put out on my phone my wife's phone and my kids phone too!

I honestly never knew where the got the idea of Elzaar on Futurama, thank you muchly

Even Emeril doesn’t remember this show.

If this would've taken off it probably wouldn't have been all that crazy to see a drama biopic of george foremans rise from a boxer to the man behind the grill 😅

i watch everyone of your videos

Emeril! feels like the kind of gag that Futurama would have for Elzar.

This would be like if they gave Gordon Ramsay or the Bar Rescue guy his own sitcom.

Poor guy never had a chance with that release... And you are so right about the "side" actors over acting each other and how the show just used his likelihood. It was hard to watch some times.

I remember when someone on a forum lied and said this show debuted on the 1st of September and it was so bad....said events happened later.

Home Improvement should have been a blueprint for this show.