S01.E01: Omelette

[Pallas]

In 1962, cookbook author Julia Child boldly pitches a groundbreaking television series for the home cook, centered on demonstrations.

[Anela]

I'm enjoying this. Something more lighthearted, mostly (so far). I didn't know they were going to pick up at the PBS series starting, but Julie and Julia covered her start in French cooking. 

I love that she bought her own TV, at the end. I expected it, anyway, but it was a nice moment. 

I've also been thinking about making an omelette, for the last few days, so I'm off to make one. I'm glad that I remembered the show starting this week. 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Anela

[chediavolo]

Love this so far. But it makes me so hungry!! That fish! My fish always comes out barfy! But of course, Julia’s way of cooking was very unhealthy for the most part. But boy does it look good. 
I always wondered about her breathlessness also. Her doctor said it’s part of menopause?!  I think that’s bs. Let’s see if we get a real dx. 

[EtheltoTillie]

Paul comes across as such a drip, and they’re not getting along. Other things I’d read made it seem they were so happy. 

[Starchild]

Regardless of his personality, he does seem to really love her.

[ichbin]

Sarah Lancashire is wonderful so far. but then again she has been in pretty much everything I've ever seen her in.  

[amarante]

I am enjoying this so much. I knew about Julia Child of course but not all of the personal back story beyond knowing she was married to a career diplomat.

It is such a relief because I had been watching Wecrash, The Drop Out, Inventing Anna and Super Pumped which was essentially horrible people doing well. Except for Anna Delvey they all have wound up extremely rich and I doubt Elizabeth Holmes will wind up doing significant jail time.

So this is a talented person who made good - not to mention how great it is that a middle aged woman pre The Feminist Revolution could achieve greatness and iconic stature. 

Edited April 2, 2022 by amarante

[howiveaddict]

On 4/1/2022 at 2:45 PM, ichbin said:

Sarah Lancashire is wonderful so far. but then again she has been in pretty much everything I've ever seen her in.  

I kept looking at Julia and couldn't figure out who was playing her. Had to go to IMDB.  It's a really good transformation.  The only thing I can tell it's Sarah, is her eyes.  Great show so far.  

[LisaM]

Huge fan of Sarah Lancashire so I tuned in specifically to see her. I thought the episode was quite good and will definitely continue watching. 

[Pallas]

Please discuss the episode and not dietary principles. There's now a topic for all things food, related to Julia and Julia. 

[Hanahope]

Did you see the prices of the TVs at the end of the show?  $500 and more?  even the small ones were $400.  And that's in 1960s dollars.  that's a pretty large purchase back then.

Good for Julia for getting what she wanted and figuring out how to get Paul to come around.

I think if i recall correctly, with Julia's second book focusing a bit more on baking and such, the flour amount had to be adjusted due to the different way the french process their flour compared to the US.  that's why she had a problem with the cake recipe, or at least one reason.

[Yeah No]

I like this better than I thought I would so far.  David Hyde Pierce may not look that much like Paul but he's otherwise great for the role and believable.  I'm just not feeling much chemistry between him and Julia but it's early yet.  I didn't realize he was so against her doing a TV show in the beginning.  Ironic as he became her biggest champion and helper.

I'm a big lifelong fan of Julia.  My mother knew about her before her TV show from reading the New York Times and buying her book.  We watched the very first episode of her show together and most of them after that for many years.  I am enjoying the recent resurgence of interest in her, such as the Food Network competition airing right now based on her recipes and cooking wisdom.

[amarante]

On 4/7/2022 at 5:52 PM, Hanahope said:

Did you see the prices of the TVs at the end of the show?  $500 and more?  even the small ones were $400.  And that's in 1960s dollars.  that's a pretty large purchase back then.

Good for Julia for getting what she wanted and figuring out how to get Paul to come around.

I think if i recall correctly, with Julia's second book focusing a bit more on baking and such, the flour amount had to be adjusted due to the different way the french process their flour compared to the US.  that's why she had a problem with the cake recipe, or at least one reason.

I am not quite old enough to remember the earliest television sets of the 1950's but my father was an early adaptor who bought a set in the early 1950's and it was a HUGE expenditure for a working person. It is probably equivalent to how expensive the big screen television sets were when they first came out - thousands and thousands and now the same size is now longer a luxury price.

Same was true of the earliest computers - especially the earliest Apple computers. Until about 1990 Apple computers were about $10,000. They then decided to attempt to gain some share of the personal computing market and released the Performa lines which sold for about $2000 complete with monitor. I think the hard drive was about 50 megabytes. That was my first computer.

There is an episode of The Honeymooners where Ralph convinces Norton to share a television set which naturally will be set up in Ralph's apartment. It is a really funny episode especially because Art Carney was such a wonderfully subtle physical comedian. Worth tracking down if it is streaming anywhere.

[Yeah No]

15 hours ago, amarante said:

I am not quite old enough to remember the earliest television sets of the 1950's but my father was an early adaptor who bought a set in the early 1950's and it was a HUGE expenditure for a working person. It is probably equivalent to how expensive the big screen television sets were when they first came out - thousands and thousands and now the same size is now longer a luxury price.

This reminds me of when I got married in 1980 and my parents gave us a Sony Trinitron TV for a wedding gift.  It cost close to $400.

My parents were also early adopters and I remember they spent over $2,000 on a Sony Betamax in the late '70s, a decision they regretted soon after when VHS became the standard. 

Getting back to the topic, thanks to Julia, my mother was an early adopter of the Cuisinart and nonstick cookware, which took her cooking to new levels.

[smartymarty]

On 4/10/2022 at 10:56 PM, Yeah No said:

I like this better than I thought I would so far.  David Hyde Pierce may not look that much like Paul but he's otherwise great for the role and believable.  I'm just not feeling much chemistry between him and Julia but it's early yet.  I didn't realize he was so against her doing a TV show in the beginning.  Ironic as he became her biggest champion and helper.

Clearly casting decided to ignore the significant height difference between them. I also complained during this episode that I felt no chemistry between them (even at the end when they almost... you know). I hope that improves. Maybe DHP was trying to show how depressed Paul was at being involuntarily retired.

As for him being her champion, I'm wondering if the writers cooked up (see what I did there?) this plot about having to convince him.

Found it odd that, despite how great a cook Julia was, she and Paul kept going out for dinner.

 

[Hanahope]

On 4/13/2022 at 8:07 AM, smartymarty said:

Found it odd that, despite how great a cook Julia was, she and Paul kept going out for dinner.

well, its like asking the computer tech in your family to always handle your computer problems, the lawyer in the family to handle all legal issues.  sometimes people don't want to do "their job" at home.

[EtheltoTillie]

On 4/12/2022 at 9:34 AM, Yeah No said:

This reminds me of when I got married in 1980 and my parents gave us a Sony Trinitron TV for a wedding gift.  It cost close to $400.

My parents were also early adopters and I remember they spent over $2,000 on a Sony Betamax in the late '70s, a decision they regretted soon after when VHS became the standard. 

Getting back to the topic, thanks to Julia, my mother was an early adopter of the Cuisinart and nonstick cookware, which took her cooking to new levels.

Ha I got married in 1980 too, and I got a Zenith TV. Sony Trinitron was too expensive!  

As to eating out, I think someone like Julia really loved to be sampling the professional cooking at great restaurants. 

[ProudMary]

I just started watching and I'm going to try not to binge it, especially since not all the episodes are streaming yet. I'm definitely in as I enjoyed the first episode.

I loved the early '60s set decoration. Two items really hit home and took me waaaay back. 1) The 1959 Chevy with rear wings and teardrop tail lights in traffic on the street while Julia was walking to the television station. We had one of those! Ours was black though; the show had it in that stunning red. When you'd drive up a steep hill, the wind would get under those wings and it felt as if the back end of the car was lifting off the ground!  2) The beanbag ashtray! I haven't thought about those in forever, yet there it was and we had several of those in our house. (Both of my parents were smokers. Mom quit when I was 6; Dad quit when I was 10.) Our beanbags were red plaid though. I grabbed a couple of photos from online sources to post here.

I hope they keep up this level of set detail throughout the series. Between Julia and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, set in the same time period, it's like taking a trip back in time.

 

 

 

[Pallas]

13 hours ago, ProudMary said:

Between Julia and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, set in the same time period, it's like taking a trip back in time.

The creator for Julia, Daniel Goldfarb, was a producer and writer on Mrs. Maisel. When you need midcentury American, he knows who to call. 

[ProudMary]

3 hours ago, Pallas said:

The creator for Julia, Daniel Goldfarb, was a producer and writer on Mrs. Maisel. When you need midcentury American, he know who to call. 

Thank you for that info. 🤗 In both shows, It's amazing how all of the set pieces are SO spot on! 

[J-Man]

I don't remember wireless remotes being available at that time -- perhaps they were, but I'm sure they were prohibitively expensive for most people. I didn't get a TV with a remote until the '80s.

Also, I was surprised by her reference to non-stick pans. Again, I don't remember them coming into prominence until at least a few years later in the '60s.

I must admit it took me a few minutes to realize that Niles and Lilith were working together.

[Yeah No]

On 4/24/2022 at 12:18 AM, ProudMary said:

I just started watching and I'm going to try not to binge it, especially since not all the episodes are streaming yet. I'm definitely in as I enjoyed the first episode.

I loved the early '60s set decoration. Two items really hit home and took me waaaay back. 1) The 1959 Chevy with rear wings and teardrop tail lights in traffic on the street while Julia was walking to the television station. We had one of those! Ours was black though; the show had it in that stunning red. When you'd drive up a steep hill, the wind would get under those wings and it felt as if the back end of the car was lifting off the ground!  2) The beanbag ashtray! I haven't thought about those in forever, yet there it was and we had several of those in our house. (Both of my parents were smokers. Mom quit when I was 6; Dad quit when I was 10.) Our beanbags were red plaid though. I grabbed a couple of photos from online sources to post here.

I hope they keep up this level of set detail throughout the series. Between Julia and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, set in the same time period, it's like taking a trip back in time.

 

 

 

Thank you for posting these!  Both of these things were a part of my childhood in one way or another.  I always loved cars and even when very little noticed every one and how it was different from other cars in terms of design.  I remember they used to call the back "fins" "fishtails".  So I used to call those Chevy's "Mr. Fish", LOL.  Yeah, I was little.  We had the beanbag ashtrays too, mostly the red plaid but I do remember the one above.  My mother and grandmother smoked but quit in 1964 when I was 6 after the surgeon general's report on the dangers of smoking.  We still kept the ashtrays around for visiting relatives and friends that smoked, and I played with them like toys, LOL.  I am really appreciating the adherence to keeping to the period on this show.  I have noticed a couple of inconsistencies here and there but nothing major.

[Yeah No]

1 hour ago, J-Man said:

I don't remember wireless remotes being available at that time -- perhaps they were, but I'm sure they were prohibitively expensive for most people. I didn't get a TV with a remote until the '80s.

Also, I was surprised by her reference to non-stick pans. Again, I don't remember them coming into prominence until at least a few years later in the '60s.

I must admit it took me a few minutes to realize that Niles and Lilith were working together.

Actually wireless remotes were around that early.  My grandparents had a Zenith TV with one.  We used to call it "the clicker" (I think most people did).  They were far from rich so I don't think it could have been that expensive but who knows, they may have saved up a long time for it.  I know my parents didn't have a TV with a remote until much later.

Also, Julia was a trailblazer with the nonstick pans and my mother ran right out and bought them because of her in the same brand and style, so I remember them in the early '60s.  I know my mother must have spent a lot on them.  We lived in NYC so you could find stuff like that easily.  They weren't anywhere near as good as the ones we have today.  Remember "teflon"?  They worked OK but they didn't last.  They developed little cuts and wore out very quickly and soon lost their non-stick properties.  

[SG429]

On 4/27/2022 at 11:30 PM, Yeah No said:

Actually wireless remotes were around that early.  My grandparents had a Zenith TV with one.  We used to call it "the clicker" (I think most people did). 

The one I remember was mechanical and produced a chime-y sound to change channels which, we found out, could be imitated by jangling keys.

[bybrandy]

I remember buying a tv in the late 90s early 2000s right when I was starting out on my own and my mom saying TVs had always been between 300-500 dollars it was just 300-500 dollars wasn't what it used to be.   

[lucindabelle]

Growing up in the late 60s and 70s my grandparents had one. Yes it was mechanical somehow it made the mechanical dial move. 
 

watching this is making my 90 year old mom very happy. Bringing her back.

[Miss chi chi]

I still call our remote, “the clicker”! Lol. I was born in 1968 and my grandparents were the only ones that could afford a TV. Our whole family would have sleepovers every weekend at their house. Four families would pack in with sleeping bags!