What the Hell Happened to the Food Network?

As I mentioned years ago, the Food Network turned from something I love to basically showcasing hot chicks with great tits. Which is why I was pretty thrilled to see this article listing great cooking shows that indeed include many of the early greats, before food shows became less about cooking and more about game shows and titties. I agree with just about every one, and it's nice to be reminded that at one time Emeril Legasse wasn't just a punchline, but the Elvis Presley of food tv.

Shows from this list I love:

Home Grown with Justin Wilson
Molto Mario
Early Tyler Florence
Emeril Live!
The Naked Chef
Two Fat Ladies

"But Xmastime", you say in the voice of Craig “Ironhead” Heyward from those soap commercials (RIP), “don't you have other favorite cooking shows?"

Sigh. Yes, faithful readers. Yes. In no order:

Cookin' Cheap!
Culcina Amore
Anything with Julia Child
Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsay (UK only, NOT THE US!!)
Gordon Ramsay's The F Word
Good Eats
America's Test Kitchen
Sara Moulton's Cooking Live

and of course one of the originals,

The Galloping Gourmet!  

I'm sure I'm forgetting some; meanwhile here's my "Fuck you!" letter to the Food Network from 2008:

You can accuse me of becoming a snob about this since me and Gordon and BFF now, but after almost nine years together I am officially breaking up with the Food Network. If you've noticed, and I know you have, I've removed it from my links. Back when I started watching it was great chefs demonstrating how to make great food. And no, "great" never meant "fancy." Now it's new show after new show of "Look at my tits!" wherein we learn how to open a package of Toll-House cookies. The nadir being this fucking "At Home with the Neelys" show, where a fat black couple try to out-sass!/out-black! each other, showing us how down home! they are while making sweet potatoes over and over; apparently their contract states they cannot go longer than 4 minutes without remarking that something they're making is gonna make everybody wanna slap their mammas. Great. Also big offenders: Paula Dean's sons who slimed their way into taking over her show. Wow, yet another "let's drive around and look for the best cotton candy!!" show. Thanks, total fucking assholes.

There's way more better shit on PBS nowadays anyways; just right now there's a 3-hour run of BBQ University/In Julia's Kitchen/The Complete Pepin/America's Test Kitchen (super-slice!)/Simply Ming/Lidia's Italy, for instance. Sara Moulton's got a show there now. And with YouTube, you can look up anybody/thing you want anyways.

What started out as a wonderful thing ended up turning itself into MTV. Is this now an inevitability for every thing that starts out great?