The gang's all here

The GF and I watch The Food Network a lot. I think everyone around our age, who doesn't have a job that makes them work 22 hours a day tends to tune into The Food Network at least a few times a week. It's hard not to pass it up, it makes food prep look so glamorous. I am not a huge fan of The Food Network, and am finding out that TV entertains me less and less as the days go by, but I do find a few things to like when I sit down to watch people make cakes and compete at flounder broiling, etc. The main thing that I enjoy about The Food network is the atmosphere between its stars. It harks back to the Golden Age of Hollywood at MGM, and how MGM's big stars would work together a lot to draw attention to the studio and to movies.

Last Christmas, and I assume this Christmas and et cetera, The Food Network had a couple shows wherein its various stars came together to teach us how to prepare large banquet-style meals in holiday fashion. I remember one show where a woman had to make a big dinner for her husband and his fellow firemen cronies. She had a pretty tiny kitchen, but not to fear, because the stars from The Food network stopped by to aid her in the preparation of the courses. Robert Irvine was there as well as Giada, and I think Tyler Florence as well. It was fun to watch them all collaborate in the shows. There was another special last year called All-Star Holiday Desert Battle. Cat Cora and Paula Deen competed against Tyler Florence and Robert Irvine to create holiday-themed desserts. I enjoy the camaraderie between the networks' stars, and it reminds me of an MGM special from 1931 called The Christmas Party.

In The Christmas Party, Jackie Cooper wants to throw a Christmas party for the guys on his football team. Jackie's mother says OK, but there are too many kids who want to come, and the party won't fit inside their house. Jackie Cooper pleads with Norma Shearer to ask Louis B. Mayer if he can have the party on one of the MGM soundstages. (Louis B. Mayer was the head of MGM at the time. MGM = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...get it?) So Jackie gets to have his party with all the kids from his neighborhood at MGM and the stars of the time serve all the food. By stars of the time I don't mean second-rate guys who have nothing better to do, I mean Clark Gable, Norma Shearer, Jimmy Durante, Anita Page, Lionel Barrymore (Drew's grandfather), Marion Davies, Wallace Beery and a few others. The Christmas Party is only 9 minutes long and was designed as a way to show off as many stars as possible in as little time as possible, but it's also a lot of fun to see all the famous faces, especially when they have to spoon out mashed potatoes to a bunch of kids while wearing their signature furs and suits.

That was what movies were like back in the day: the stars worked for the studios and all of them knew each other, so they often worked with each other in these little shorts. Today that would never happen. The big stars don't work together because that would be too much competition, they don't know each other, don't live near one another and can you imagine Tom Cruise, Brooke Shields, Will Ferrell, Angelina Jolie and Tom Hanks getting together to serve sweet potatoes and turkey to Dakota Fanning's classmates? Of course not! Dakota Fanning doesn't have classmates. But The Food Network is keeping that atmosphere alive, and it makes that channel a welcome place to hang out.