An episode of television that I will never get sick of: Malcolm in the Middle, Season 6, Motivational Speaker. Top to bottom, this episode will entertain me forever and ever.
Scripps has done okay - I think the Cooking Channel is an improvement over their Food Network, in that it airs shows the Food Network aired 5 or 10 years ago, before it became a kind of lousy reality TV driven network that happens to use food as props. But I'm not sure if it's just the times I've happened to watch it or if it is the network as a whole, but its original programming seems to have an exhausting New York-centric aspect to it. My complaint would be similar to David Simon's.
There's another reason why it feels very insular and I think it is because there are basically two approaches to these type of shows - Broad and Narrow - celebrating a lot of things (a little bit) versus celebrating very few things (at great length). And I think the Food Network is actually quite good at the Broad aspect, but is terrible at the Narrow. They are good at sharing a large number of things and welcoming people into experiences. The Cooking Channel is terrible at sharing - it seems like most of the reason they give for liking something is because it is only in this one place, it is the best, and it is better because of X, Y, Z. The problem is that the Narrow often feels really arrogant and condescending.
This is also how it is with wine. The Narrow tends to be an 1855 premier crus from Bordeaux or a "cult" California wine. And as soon as you talk about these kind of wines, I start thinking about celebrity reporting: nobody really needs to know about these things. It is remarkably over-reported.
I think the Narrow and Broad is al
