S01.E01: The Great Holiday Baking Show: Cookie Week

[Athena]

Cookie Week

[irisheyes]

Brooklyn Lady (can't remember her name) needed to realize that when they give you five hours, they expect five hours of work. Everyone was adding tons of details, and she's powdering her face.

Eddie is someone who would work well with a partner. He gets flavoring, but struggles with timing. And presentation.

[Rinaldo]

I feel as if, even with the huge USA to choose from, the general standard of expertise among the six isn't as high as one generally gets from the dozen on the British show. There were some ragged-looking gingerbread structures. I do think they definitely made the right call as to who had to go.

 

There's certainly some good talent among them too. Lauren is certainly impressive so far, one or two others as well. It'll be interesting to see how we go from here.

[Amethyst]

Eddie probably would have gone home had Grace not completely checked out of that technical challenge.  I knew the moment they showed her powdering her nose she was gone.  Did she even do the candied doctors and nurses she mentioned?  Disappointing.  Even Tim managed to fix his carousel five minutes before the deadline and his freaking roof fell in. 

 

I doubt Lauren will be going anytime soon, even if she does mess up.  While the flavor of her pagoda was poor, her decorating skills are incredible.  The pagoda was definitely a showcase piece.

 

I hope Eddie stops panicking so much.  I thought his cookies sounded delicious, but he reminds me of Ruby from the British version, constantly freaking out.

[NYGirl]

Ok...Lauren annoys me.  She has a condescending look on her face and it bugs me.

 

I was sorry to see Grace go but boy was she out of her element.  I started to root for her being she was from Staten Island and worked at Lutheran Hosp.  I loved when she told the judge.."don't judge me" and he replied "I'm just doing my job".  I giggled.  He is a formidable (and good looking) replacement for Paul Hollywood.

 

I don't like the host..bring back Jeff Foxworthy.  I also like the hosts of the British show and they way they say "bake". 

 

You would think they could find better contestants for this type of show..really.  I could probably make a better gingerbread house.

[Irlandesa]

I think it would be interesting to see what kind of talent level they'd get if they took more time to search.  This seems to have been put together rather quickly.

 

Still, I did enjoy it. 

[Quilt Fairy]

Definitely agree that they could have found better bakers than this to compete. The first episode seemed very harsh to me compared with the British show. I liked the male judge (that I like Mary goes without saying) and the host couple. Maybe it will mellow out in the next 3 episodes.

[Rickster]

I feel as if, even with the huge USA to choose from, the general standard of expertise among the six isn't as high as one generally gets from the dozen on the British show. There were some ragged-looking gingerbread structures. I do think they definitely made the right call as to who had to go.

 

There's certainly some good talent among them too. Lauren is certainly impressive so far, one or two others as well. It'll be interesting to see how we go from here.

Yes, I was wondering how they came up with contestants, I think they could have done better.

This is as close a clone of the UK show as you could ever expect to see (I do miss Paul Hollywood though), and better than the US show of a couple of years ago, IMO. Although they didn't mention that it was filmed in the UK, I'd guess they did it there to use the production team already assembled for the UK show. Very curious to see how it does in the ratings and what people unfamiliar with the British version think of it.

[Amethyst]

You would think they could find better contestants for this type of show..really.  I could probably make a better gingerbread house.

 

Yeah, those cakes weren't great.  First week jitters, maybe?  

 

Visually, I thought the pagoda and the Eiffel Tower looked the best, while the hospital, beach house, and Eddie's creation (was it a house?) were pretty messy.  The beach house needed better trim and looked gloppy in places, the hospital was lackluster, and wasn't Eddie's house caving in?  

 

I'll give Tim the benefit of the doubt because his roof fell apart at the last minute.  Otherwise, his looked pretty good.  But considering that they had at least three hours to do these, the decoration could have been better.

[DHDancer]

Argh, a really hot button with me is TO GIVE vs TO GIFT!!!   There's absolutely nothing wrong with using either but please, in the right situation.  Mary didn't "gift" the ingredients for the first challenge -- she GAVE them the ingredients.  Makes me absolutely nuts turning nouns into verbs but in the case of "to gift" I grit my teeth as long as it is used in relation to giving an actual gift.

 

Interesting start: these people don't seem very experienced.   Oh, and why didn't they just have Mel and Sue be the hosts?  The "who the hell are these people" American hosts were a waste of space. (and ps the woman host looks like she's never eaten a cookie/biscuit in her life)

Edited December 1, 2015 by DHDancer

[Sandiscot]

So near and yet so far. Somewhat disappointing, largely because the bakers are not nearly as good as the British show.  I don't care for the host couple much. Too much shouting, IMO.

 

Was it really filmed in the UK? The bakers can't go home during the week so they must have changed the filming schedule, but then these bakers won't have the same opportunity for practice that the British ones have.

[DHDancer]

I think they do have time to practice --- it was mentioned in the episode as someone saying either it turned out better or worse when he/she practised it during the week.

 

And yes, obviously filmed in the UK at the exact same location as the UK show.  And in early spring, judging by the crocus but that could be editing faux pax...

[GaT]

I thought it was a good first episode, it felt like the British version, but I have no idea what Nia Vardalos & her husband are doing on this show, I didn't enjoy them as much as Jeff Foxworthy. Who Star Baker was going to be & who was going home were pretty obvious, so no surprises there. 

[Kromm]

This was ridiculously well done. Even the husband/wife celeb team didn't irritate me, and Judge Johnny wasn't as annoying as I'd assumed he'd be.

Mary is the key to this. I think it's clear that when the people who did the CBS version dragged Paul over they got the wrong damn judge. She was perfect in this--she hit that middleground perfectly of remaining herself even for the American audience, while trying on some minor Americanisms... but clearly for laughs.

The bakers could have been a shade better as bakers, but I suppose we all understand that because an American casting company cast this, and those casting agencies are spawns of the devil/pure evil/shit in human form, it means the casting was done for personalities and not talent. That said, none of these people actively annoyed me either, and I did enjoy the spectacle of Mary Berry trying to work out a Staten Island accent. For that moment alone it was probably worth selling our souls to The Casting Demons.

[Kromm]

(and ps the woman host looks like she's never eaten a cookie/biscuit in her life)

If Nia Vardalos ever sees this topic and your post, I think you'd make her the happiest woman alive. She quite famously had weight issues.

Nia Vardalos Opens Up About Pressure to Lose 40 Pounds

 

 

Oh, I will say that although I didn't find the hosts that objectionable, I DID find Ian Gomez' "there's nothing sadder than a soggy bottom" a HORRIBLE bit of pandering to the classic Bake Off audience. You KNOW he was inserting that phrase for effect, because it hardly fit the situation (liquid seeping out of cookies).

Edited December 1, 2015 by Kromm

[BW Manilowe]

Argh, a really hot button with me is TO GIVE vs TO GIFT!!! There's absolutely nothing wrong with using either but please, in the right situation. Mary didn't "gift" the ingredients for the first challenge -- she GAVE them the ingredients. Makes me absolutely nuts turning nouns into verbs but in the case of "to gift" I grit my teeth as long as it is used in relation to giving an actual gift.

Interesting start: these people don't seem very experienced. Oh, and why didn't they just have Mel and Sue be the hosts? The "who the hell are these people" American hosts were a waste of space. (and ps the woman host looks like she's never eaten a cookie/biscuit in her life)

The hosts are married couple actors Nia Vardalos & Ian Gomez. She's best-known for the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding & its apparently upcoming sequel. I think he's known for a Courtney Cox TV show called Cougar Town, which started on ABC & ended its run on the TBS cable channel in the last year or so.

[Fishy]

I prefer the British version of this show.  Couldn't get invested in any of the contestants.  Did they really know what they were doing?  This was the best of the best???  Duh, pretty lousy if you ask me.  Didn't like the host/hostess either.  Imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery in this case.   Mary Berry is probably embarrassed to be a part of this show.  Fail.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I suppose we all understand that because an American casting company cast this, and those casting agencies are spawns of the devil/pure evil/shit in human form, it means the casting was done for personalities and not talent.

I didn't get much tv personality from this set of bakers (translation: they don't seem like famewhores) and none of them seemed like they were cast to be the psycho in the tent so at least they didn't go with standard reality show casting where it's just a bunch of assholes yelling things like "I'm just being real!" and "I'm not here to make friends!"

 

While the level of baking didn't seem extraordinary, I'm willing to chalk it up to a combination of nerves and how last minute the casting was. They seemed to throw this show together pretty quickly so they probably didn't have much time for casting. And on top of that, whoever they cast had to be able to take time off from work (I'm guessing at least two weeks) so they could fly to the UK to film, which I'm sure reduced the talent pool even more. I have a totally understanding boss but if I told him, "Hey, I need to take two weeks off from work right away so I can go film a reality show in the UK," I can only imagine what he would say.

 

Eddie did surprisingly well in the technical challenge and his flavors saved him from the decorating disasters of the signature and showstopper. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he just didn't have time to decorate all those tree cookies and he was rushing so they looked sloppy but after seeing his gingerbread house, I'm starting to think he just can't decorate. His gingerbread house looked like something a kindergarten class decorated together. It was just a complete mess.

 

Coming in a close second was Grace. Her hospital was so sloppy and amateurish, especially considering what a simple design it was. She made a rectangle and some iced cookies. How did that take five hours? Everything was crooked. I don't think there was a right angle anywhere in that structure. The chocolates she used to make the windows weren't even in a straight line. She also came in last in the technical so I knew that her cute peppermint cookies in the first round would not be enough to save her. Maybe if her gingerbread had tasted good, she would have been neck and neck with Eddie for elimination, but if your showstopper isn't going to look good it better taste really good.

 

Ainslie's beach house was also very simple but it was better than Eddie's and Grace's showstoppers because she at least made an effort to put some interesting details like the red and white striped poles holding up the porch and the palm tree. And of course, her gingerbread tasted good which won her even more points with the judges.

 

Tim's carousel was pretty good, especially considering that the top half fell off five minutes before time was called. He really redeemed himself after those bear cookies too. The carousel horses were very detailed and decorated well. And his gingerbread tasted good which is a must. Loved the stacked star cookies to make the trees too. Simple but effective!

 

Lauren's pagoda was definitely a showstopper. She made something more complicated than a box house AND she had very detailed decorations. She was smart to use different colored icing on the pagoda too. It was really impressive. Too bad the gingerbread was so hard and didn't taste good.

 

Nicole's Eiffel Tower was also great. Like Lauren, she created something that was more complicated than a box so structurally she challenged herself. She did a really great job with the icing on the Eiffel Tower. It was so neat and precise, and she did different patterns in different areas. If she had just done the Eiffel Tower, that would have been impressive enough but then she did all the other decorations like the trees to create a complete scene.

 

Loved Mary trying to say "water" with a New York accent. And she was so cute when she pronounced someone's bake as "awesome."

[Frost]

 

The bakers could have been a shade better as bakers, but I suppose we all understand that because an American casting company cast this, and those casting agencies are spawns of the devil/pure evil/shit in human form, it means the casting was done for personalities and not talent.

Not as horribly cliched as most US reality television but the show couldn't have been casting for talent because I refuse to believe that these six are really considered 'top' bakers.  Maybe the Eiffel tower and pagoda bakers (I don't remembers names yet) but my niece would wipe the floor with the rest of them and she's a full time student in med school! 

 

On the positive side, they didn't muck up the formula from the British version.  They didn't mess around with prizes or earning 'advantages'.  The relationships between the bakers is not adversarial.  I like it when people are challenging themselves not trying to beat someone else. 

 

The camera people and editors are top notch.  I loved the close up of the crocuses during this winter holiday show!  And slipping in the shot of Grace powdering her nose instead of even attempting to work on her 'show piece' was brilliant! 

 

I get the feeling Grace was interested in a trip to England and being on TV, not in being a great baker.  Her plan all along must have been to use rectangular pre-made candy for the windows on her gingerbread hospital.  The judges always frown on store bought decorations.  And then she didn't even bother to put them on straight!  I can't imagine any home baker being proud to have that creation as their holiday centerpiece, let alone someone supposedly one of the top amateur bakers in the US.

[BusyOctober]

I'm guessing that ABC/Disney must have financial stakes in Nia Vardalos' "Big Fat" sequel because I don't know why else she'd be selected to host this.

As a huge fan of the British original, I am trying to be as open minded as possible. However...like many of you, I think the contestants are lacking serious talent. I know plenty of home cooks with baking skills miles beyond this group's. Many of the gingerbread houses looked worse than the ones my Brownie troop made for a fundraiser last year. Seriously, those girls measured templates for walls and roof slabs with the precision of architects. Even their piping skills were better than some I saw on this show. I think even the worst baker on the BBC show bested the efforts of all the US folks.

I don't mind Johnny, and of course Mary is a delight. Nia and her tag-along husband don't work for me so far.

[Miracle Maxie]

I'm irrationally happy to see this show. I think it's either Mary or The Tent that make this show what it is - or maybe a combination of the two. I don't particularly miss Mel and Sue, though I love them dearly. I also don't miss Paul as much as I thought I would and I'm not as annoyed with Johnny Iuzzini (sp?) as I feared I'd be.  The bakers... nice regional distribution for the most part, but I'm not yet convinced they're particularly good. Their skill level reminds me more of the various celebrity Bake Offs from the UK but I'm hoping they'll improve if and when they get over their nerves.

 

The most jarring thing to me is commercials!  I guess because of them we don't get any history lessons and we're probably also missing some of the baking.

 

I hope this is successful enough to get another US version, maybe with a few more - and better vetted - contestants.  One thing I wonder, are the ovens recalibrated for Fahrenheit? Or do they have conversion tables?  I think it would be very difficult to deal with the latter.

[Rinaldo]

Argh, a really hot button with me is TO GIVE vs TO GIFT!!!   There's absolutely nothing wrong with using either but please, in the right situation.  Mary didn't "gift" the ingredients for the first challenge -- she GAVE them the ingredients.  Makes me absolutely nuts turning nouns into verbs but in the case of "to gift" I grit my teeth as long as it is used in relation to giving an actual gift.

 

Oh, and why didn't they just have Mel and Sue be the hosts?  

I'm not crazy about the verb-ing of "gift" either (except in participle form like "a gifted musician"), but they did seem to set its use up here visually, what with putting the Technical Challenge supplies in a gift box with a bow, which isn't otherwise standard procedure.

 

I doubt that Mel and Sue are available on a moment's notice for any show that wants them. They seem to be popular as a team and individually, and are probably booked up well in advance, while this show was thrown together almost last-minute.

 

I DID find Ian Gomez' "there's nothing sadder than a soggy bottom" a HORRIBLE bit of pandering to the classic Bake Off audience. You KNOW he was inserting that phrase for effect, because it hardly fit the situation (liquid seeping out of cookies).

Yes, but I felt that he, as a fan of the UK series, was inserting the phrase on his own initiative because he wanted to say it once. I like to think that he thought better of it immediately and wished he hadn't. (Yes, I'm inventing a whole subtext for him.)

 

The hosts are married couple actors Nia Vardalos & Ian Gomez. She's best-known for the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding & its apparently upcoming sequel. I think he's known for a Courtney Cox TV show called Cougar Town, which started on ABC & ended its run on the TBS cable channel in the last year or so.

He was also a regular on The Drew Carey Show and has been on plenty of other TV series over the years; he's almost always working. The two of them, separately or together, are frequent guest celebrities on the game show Celebrity Name Game.

While the level of baking didn't seem extraordinary, I'm willing to chalk it up to a combination of nerves and how last minute the casting was. They seemed to throw this show together pretty quickly so they probably didn't have much time for casting. And on top of that, whoever they cast had to be able to take time off from work (I'm guessing at least two weeks) so they could fly to the UK to film, which I'm sure reduced the talent pool even more. 

Yes, on consideration, I think this circumstance explains a lot. Their wish to use American bakers on British soil must have greatly limited the number of people who could actually do it, and I doubt they had time for a really thorough nationwide hunt in the first place.

[Sandiscot]

 

The most jarring thing to me is commercials!

 

Yes! And I didn't even realise it until I read your post! I knew there was something off, and that's it.

[ari333]

The "gift" thing  drove me nuts.

 

Some of those structures looked so very bad. Some were falling apart and there were only a couple minutes left, yet they suddenly appeared less terrible at the judging. What?

[BungalowSummer]

This show proves that the balance achieved on TGBBO is a fragile and delicate wonder. The producers have hewed quite closely to the form and script of the British original, but they just miss the mark. The contestants were perfectly nice, but lacked the energy and charm of the British competitors. I'm not sure if it's editing or haphazard recruiting or the natural charm of the Brits for American viewers, but this bunch was oddly flat to me. And I totally agree that as bakers most of them couldn't hold a cookie to their British counterparts. Mary had to dig deep to find something nice to say to some of these bakers.

 

Nia Vardalos and Ian Gomez also seemed out of their element and flat to me. There was a serious all-around lack of energy to the proceedings, as if the producers mistook the good feelings of the British production with a low emotional level. Here's where the absence of Mel and Sue were most felt.

 

 

Mary is the key to this.

 

Bingo! Mary Berry is like the lighthouse, the port in this fog. She was the one I wanted to see and hear. Johnny Iuzzini is okay, obviously a skilled pastry chef, a competent judge and handsome to boot. I missed Paul Hollywood's teasing hints and incisive explanations for why something failed or succeeded.

 

Even the location, which I never heard disclosed, lost its charm. The tent was never grounded in its locale as thoroughly as in the British show. It could have been set up in any park. I had no real idea of when it was taped. It got dark early, so I presume it was sometime within the last few months. But a shot of a spring crocus was confusing. The beauty and charm of the setting was never exploited. Was it Americans plunked down in Britain? Who knows?

 

Overall, the idea for doing a holiday version of the Great Bake-Off is fine, but the execution failed at exactly the points where the British show soars: charming and personable bakers who actually have skills, lively hosts and two judges who are both warm and encouraging even when they're delivering bad grades. Mary was the sole saving grace for me. Even so, I'll keep watching with hope that it improves in the three remaining weeks.

[QuinnM]

I read somewhere that they were rushing something together for the holidays.  I think that might explain the 'top' bakers that were chosen.  The other bit is that with the British version everyone went home and practiced their bakes all week.  How are these folks doing it?  Do they get to practice?  Is there a week between bakes?  If they are staying in a hotel with their recipes in a suitcase that would explain alot.

[Bobcatkitten]

I don't remember finding the British contestants charming and full of personality during the first episode. I think we watch and get to know them over time and by the end we love them and that is asking too much out of the introduction episode. Also, the final showstoppers of the recent season were horribly bad so I'm not sure about the expertise being that much higher.

[AllAboutMBTV]

I dunno, I found this replicant clone a bit creepy. I totally heart the British original, and I think its charm comes largely from the fact that everyone concerned is British. I can hear our accents any ol' time. (If this version aired in the UK, would they find the variety of Amurkin accents charming or nails-on-blackboard?) Plus, these six just don't appear to be as talented as amateurs. (That was a lot of sloppy piping, even on the pagoda.) And with only six of them, we don't get a chance to know them over several weeks (which may be OK...).
 

Back to the replicant-ness: I mean, it was beat for beat from the parent show. A few of the words may have changed, but, really, it was a carbon copy, even down to similar camera angles (when they announce the challenges, the camera is above and behind the judges' and hosts' right shoulders). The same artist did the drawings of the contestants' proposed bakes. The same tent was in the same estate park, and they just took down the Union Jack bunting and put up some (cheap) Christmas swag. And it was awfully green in the park for a "Christmas" show. (Which makes me wonder: Do the British producers rent out the tent and facilities for any licensed spin-off that wants some UK authenticity? If there's a Great Swedish Holiday Bake-off, does the Stockholm team come in for a month when the original British show isn't taping?) And the lighting/camerawork seemed muddier than the original, not quite as bright and crisp. I certainly don't want all of the show's British heritage lost, but they could have set up a similar tent on one of the lawns of the mansions in Newport, RI, and given this series a more American feel (granted, perhaps a prohibitively expensive idea). Although we might have lost Mary to transatlantic travel...
 

Thankfully, there is still Mary, and she's still a delight. Johnny... bugs a bit? He's toned the swagger down; I noticed his sleeve tattoos were completely covered. And his hair looks covered with dye (see also: Jeff Probst). I'm sure Nia and Ian are lovely people, but, well, you know. (And to think Mel and Sue bothered me no end at first.)
 

I'm not sure I'll continue watching. It's not ruining the original for me, but it's an awkward (if exact) copy. I'm going to blithely assume PBS is giving us the most recent British season in January as the Downton lead-in and look forward to that.

[Eliza422]

Argh, a really hot button with me is TO GIVE vs TO GIFT!!!   There's absolutely nothing wrong with using either but please, in the right situation.  Mary didn't "gift" the ingredients for the first challenge -- she GAVE them the ingredients.  Makes me absolutely nuts turning nouns into verbs but in the case of "to gift" I grit my teeth as long as it is used in relation to giving an actual gift.

 

Interesting start: these people don't seem very experienced.   Oh, and why didn't they just have Mel and Sue be the hosts?  The "who the hell are these people" American hosts were a waste of space. (and ps the woman host looks like she's never eaten a cookie/biscuit in her life)

What I don't like is the use of "bake" as a noun. I never heard that use until I started watching the British show.

[backgroundnoise]

Is it a positive that they filmed in England?  I thought the backdrops looked suspiciously like, well, backdrops, even to the sides of the tent.  And the outdoor shots looked like canned footage from the original British version to me.

[morakot]

The production group is the same as for the British version, and I am 99.9% sure that they filmed in the UK.

[shandy]

I really enjoyed this, I wish they had more bakers, 6 seemed too few. In the first episodes I always like the busy busy feels.  I soon forgot they didn't have brit accents.

 

I too was really disappointed they didn't showcase the setting. Wiki tells me Welford Park  is famous for spring flowers and there's even an American munitions base next door. They could have some cute clips of air force bakers saying what they make to remind them of home. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I dunno, I found this replicant clone a bit creepy. I totally heart the British original, and I think its charm comes largely from the fact that everyone concerned is British.

Back to the replicant-ness: I mean, it was beat for beat from the parent show. A few of the words may have changed, but, really, it was a carbon copy, even down to similar camera angles (when they announce the challenges, the camera is above and behind the judges' and hosts' right shoulders). The same artist did the drawings of the contestants' proposed bakes. The same tent was in the same estate park, and they just took down the Union Jack bunting and put up some (cheap) Christmas swag. And it was awfully green in the park for a "Christmas" show. (Which makes me wonder: Do the British producers rent out the tent and facilities for any licensed spin-off that wants some UK authenticity? If there's a Great Swedish Holiday Bake-off, does the Stockholm team come in for a month when the original British show isn't taping?)

I have watched several iterations of the Bake Off shows (Irish, Australian, South African) and most of them imitate the British version to some extent from the music and the camera angles to the illustrations and having the two hosts yell, "BAKE!" together.

There are a few exceptions here and there: the new season of the Australian show is in a shed as a nod to the Aussie heritage, the Irish show does only two challenges per episode, etc.

The older versions of the shows tend to stray further from the original recipe (the Irish version has only one host, for example). The newer versions seem more similar, which I'm guessing is due to the recent surge in popularity of the British version. The first season of the Australian show used a different theme song and used pop music during the show. It was not renewed for a second season. Then the British show exploded and the Australian version was resurrected for a second season. They did away with all the changes they originally made in the first season (the British theme music is used, they did away with all the pop music). The biggest and most surprising change they made was eliminating the iconic tent (which they had in S1) and replacing it with the Aussie shed.

I certainly don't want all of the show's British heritage lost, but they could have set up a similar tent on one of the lawns of the mansions in Newport, RI, and given this series a more American feel (granted, perhaps a prohibitively expensive idea). Although we might have lost Mary to transatlantic travel...

The first season of the American version was filmed in Georgia. They used the white tent but definitely gave the show a more American feeling. There was darker wood, and the decorations were very Americana (Route 66 sign). In lieu of the British bunting, they used little American flags along the inside of the tent. My guess is that the revamp for S2 was to eliminate the more American elements and make it conform more closely with the British series to cash in on the GBBO's popularity on PBS. The rationale is probably that S1 of the American version didn't do well so they want to use the familiar elements of the British show to maximum effect.

According to one article I read, filming this holiday miniseries in the UK was specifically so they could have Mary as a judge, as she didn't want to be gone for several weeks.The smaller number of bakers is probably related to the length of the series - more bakers would mean more episodes and since this is a holiday show, they wouldn't want to start in October. I would bet that the powers that be wanted her as a familiar face (and I'd guess no one wanted to revisit Paul's affair on the previous version).

Edited December 1, 2015 by ElectricBoogaloo

[AllAboutMBTV]

Thanks for all the background intel on the show's various iterations, ElectricB -- much appreciated!

[Writing Wrongs]

Every time I see them make Brandy Snaps on these shows, I want some. Can you get those in the US?

[meep.meep]

The production group is the same as for the British version, and I am 99.9% sure that they filmed in the UK.

They are using the same ovens with the weird doors - must be UK.

I was underwhelmed by the bakers. The woman who got Star Baker and the one who made the Eiffel Tower are the best by a mile.

[Crucial]

This was a strange episode and I think it's because of the hosts.  They are awful and every time Nia did the background speaking - just creepy.  I wish Jeff Foxworthy was the host.  He was on the Great American Baking Championship.  Maybe I just need to get used to them.

[DHDancer]

Every time I see them make Brandy Snaps on these shows, I want some. Can you get those in the US?

 

They are essentially Florentines without the nuts and chocolate.  If you rolled florentines as soon as they came out of the oven and filled them with sweetened whipped cream, you'd have brandy snaps.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Thanks for all the background intel on the show's various iterations, ElectricB -- much appreciated!

Ha, finally watching all these bake off shows proves semi-useful!

[Britty]

Ugh, this show is making me think things I never expected.  I miss Jeff Foxworthy.  There, I said it.  I really enjoyed the version he was part of a couple of years ago, and I really liked those contestants.  I'm not so sure about any of the bakers on this round.  They all seem dismal when compared to the UK contestants.  Maybe they will surprise us.  Mary Berry is always delightful, but Johnny not so much.  Nia Vardalos was annoying as hell.  I've never had much opinion of her, but she was awful on this.  Ian Gomez always treads the funny/annoying line, but he was ok.  I'll admit that I can't stand Sue Perkins from the UK version, either.  To me she comes off as forced which is how I saw Nia. 

 

I'll watch again, but so far I'm not cheering for anyone.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

There was a discussion about these ovens and the awesome sliding doors in the GBBO forum but the short answer is no, they aren't available in the United States.

[ParadoxLost]

If they filmed this in the UK then that alone explains the contestants.

 

For the British show, they get professional bakers and students from a pool of the entire country. 

 

For a US version their pool would be limited.  They aren't going to pick from the US and give them a trip to the UK.  I bet they selected from ex-pats who are living in the UK.  So they end up with home bakers instead.

 

The other thing that is a clear problem is that the UK production did not realize that they gave technical challenges on baking items that are not familiar to Americans.  I heard a lot of echoes of my question 'what is a brandy snap?'  Look it up on wiki and the US is not listed as a place where its popular. Its UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, etc.  I was literally wondering through the whole challenge how you can bake something you've never seen with only partial instructions.  Either the one baker that had heard of it helped off camera or the recipe got supplemented with a picture off camera.

 

Home bakers plus non US baking tasks is going to be a problem.

 

On the bright side, French toast casserole with bacon topping is going to be a breakfast this holiday season.  I looked it up.

[Rickster]

If they filmed this in the UK then that alone explains the contestants.

 

For the British show, they get professional bakers and students from a pool of the entire country. 

 

For a US version their pool would be limited.  They aren't going to pick from the US and give them a trip to the UK.  I bet they selected from ex-pats who are living in the UK.  So they end up with home bakers instead.

 

The other thing that is a clear problem is that the UK production did not realize that they gave technical challenges on baking items that are not familiar to Americans.  I heard a lot of echoes of my question 'what is a brandy snap?'  Look it up on wiki and the US is not listed as a place where its popular. Its UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, etc.  I was literally wondering through the whole challenge how you can bake something you've never seen with only partial instructions.  Either the one baker that had heard of it helped off camera or the recipe got supplemented with a picture off camera.

 

Home bakers plus non US baking tasks is going to be a problem.

 

On the bright side, French toast casserole with bacon topping is going to be a breakfast this holiday season.  I looked it up.

The British show specifically does not use professional bakers. They are all amateurs and are not culinary students either.

I would find it extremely hard to believe that these contestants were ex-pats. So they faked all their backstories?

[BW Manilowe]

I dunno, I found this replicant clone a bit creepy. I totally heart the British original, and I think its charm comes largely from the fact that everyone concerned is British. I can hear our accents any ol' time. (If this version aired in the UK, would they find the variety of Amurkin accents charming or nails-on-blackboard?) Plus, these six just don't appear to be as talented as amateurs. (That was a lot of sloppy piping, even on the pagoda.) And with only six of them, we don't get a chance to know them over several weeks (which may be OK...).

Back to the replicant-ness: I mean, it was beat for beat from the parent show. A few of the words may have changed, but, really, it was a carbon copy, even down to similar camera angles (when they announce the challenges, the camera is above and behind the judges' and hosts' right shoulders). The same artist did the drawings of the contestants' proposed bakes. The same tent was in the same estate park, and they just took down the Union Jack bunting and put up some (cheap) Christmas swag. And it was awfully green in the park for a "Christmas" show. (Which makes me wonder: Do the British producers rent out the tent and facilities for any licensed spin-off that wants some UK authenticity? If there's a Great Swedish Holiday Bake-off, does the Stockholm team come in for a month when the original British show isn't taping?) And the lighting/camerawork seemed muddier than the original, not quite as bright and crisp. I certainly don't want all of the show's British heritage lost, but they could have set up a similar tent on one of the lawns of the mansions in Newport, RI, and given this series a more American feel (granted, perhaps a prohibitively expensive idea). Although we might have lost Mary to transatlantic travel...

Thankfully, there is still Mary, and she's still a delight. Johnny... bugs a bit? He's toned the swagger down; I noticed his sleeve tattoos were completely covered. And his hair looks covered with dye (see also: Jeff Probst). I'm sure Nia and Ian are lovely people, but, well, you know. (And to think Mel and Sue bothered me no end at first.)

I'm not sure I'll continue watching. It's not ruining the original for me, but it's an awkward (if exact) copy. I'm going to blithely assume PBS is giving us the most recent British season in January as the Downton lead-in and look forward to that.

I don't know if the most recent season will be airing on PBS in January or not. As I said in (I think) a different thread, I just spent the last 2 weeks of October in the hospital, for an infection which also necessitated surgery. Thanks to a more limited channel package on the hospital's TV provider compared to my home TV provider, I caught the final 2 eps of what I assumed was the most current season of the British version on my local PBS station on the 2 Sunday nights I was hospitalized.

[rereader2]

I liked it very much! One caveat: Rugelach, which Lauren made as one of her cookies in the first challenge? That's a traditional Jewish pastry, and they are yummy, but they are not cookies.

[Zahdii]

If anyone finds this available online, I'd appreciate it if you let me know.  ABC has it, but only for people who have paid TV.

[Athena]

Thanks to a more limited channel package on the hospital's TV provider compared to my home TV provider, I caught the final 2 eps of what I assumed was the most current season of the British version on my local PBS station on the 2 Sunday nights I was hospitalized.

 

I think you caught the recent airing of GBBO BBC Series 4 (2013) which PBS has made their Season 2 because the demand for GBBO has been high. BBC Series 6 (2015) has not aired in the USA yet to our knowledge. If it has, the many US viewers would have found a way to see it on their TV in the GBBO forum.

[Pjxf99]

If anyone finds this available online, I'd appreciate it if you let me know.  ABC has it, but only for people who have paid TV.

It's on hulu...which probably doesn't help you. Sorry!

[Kromm]

This show proves that the balance achieved on TGBBO is a fragile and delicate wonder. The producers have hewed quite closely to the form and script of the British original, but they just miss the mark. The contestants were perfectly nice, but lacked the energy and charm of the British competitors. I'm not sure if it's editing or haphazard recruiting or the natural charm of the Brits for American viewers, but this bunch was oddly flat to me. And I totally agree that as bakers most of them couldn't hold a cookie to their British counterparts. Mary had to dig deep to find something nice to say to some of these bakers.

I agree it's not quite as good, but I think it's FAR better than it had any right to be under the circumstances. The commercial break points don't really bug me, other than it resulting in a shorter show (which means a tighter edit on the rest of the show which could be a bit off-putting). The bakers themselves I don't think are bad because they are crass Americans or even cast quickly, but I think simply because they were cast at ALL from an American casting agency. Who are evil... and I doubt actually care about how well these people can bake but rather what metrics they meet and what boxes they check for casting.

 

The hosts are fine. And I mean that in the middling "they didn't offend me" sense of the word, where the only annoying thing they really did was badly recycle Mel and Sue's lines. They weren't SO bad they were intrusive.

 

I actually think Johnny Whatshisname, who was previously on Top Chef Desserts, was better than I remember him on that show. He annoyed me there, but maybe he or I or both of us have mellowed. He did okay. Paul really IS the less interesting of the two Brit judges to me, I'm starting to realize, and I think seeing that Johnny didn't bother me proved that (to myself at least). 

 

With a 1.2 18-49 demo rating, if this is ever back depends an awful lot how cheap it is to produce (this assumes it holds a roughly equivalent demo score for 3 more weeks). If it is, I suppose it will also depend on if they can persuade Mary to do the same thing (stay home and do a few weeks extra work) or somehow talk some US big name (like maybe Martha Stewart or if they really want a pastry chef, maybe someone like Elizabeth Falkner) into it. It won't be the same of course without her... which is kind of the point of dragging the whole production across the Atlantic. Paul and his penis had their chance already and people weren't interested.

Edited December 2, 2015 by Kromm

[Kromm]

I dunno, I found this replicant clone a bit creepy.

Okay, the "soggy bottom" line was a bit too far. but the exact cloning of the title graphics, all of the music cues, the pastoral setting, the exact episode structure, the two host banter structure, the older woman/younger man judge pairing...

 

See... I'd have to refer you to YouTube to look up clips of the many International Bake Off adaptations (Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and apparently about 20 more countries I haven't seen actual footage from...). Anyway, at least the ones I HAVE seen copy as much of that as possible. They're SOLD the rights to use the exact titles and music as part of the bundle, I guess, and copy as many of the other elements as possible voluntarily, it seems.