In another knock-your-socks-off moment on Britain's Got Talent, part-time pizza delivery driver Jamie Pugh conquered stage fright to floor the audience and judges with his rendition of "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables.
Prior to Saturday night's performance the story on Pugh was that he had a crippling case of stage fright. The 37-year-old from Blackwood, Wales, auditioned for last season's show but couldn't muster the courage to even sing for a producer. But Wales Online reports that that's not even the half of it.
Pugh's triumphant performance (judge Simon Cowell even seems to almost well up a bit at 4:47) is all the more poignant after the paper revealed that Pugh's life all but fell apart ten years ago when his wife died of a brain tumor—a fact that he kept from everyone, including the judges, because he didn't want a sympathy vote. But as you can see in the video here (after the jump), Pugh easily made it to the next round on his own. According to Wales Online, "Bookies installed him as the main rival to Scottish spinster Susan Boyle for the show’s £100,000 prize and a spot before the Queen at the Royal Variety Show."
Oh, and you're probably wondering—what pizzeria does Jamie Pugh work for? Domino's, according to this bit in the Sun.
Clicking in to the Slice inbox today, we've got a great piece of pizza TV intel from Tony Muia, the proprietor of the Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour.
I just wanted to give you a heads-up about an episode I taped for the Food Network's Food Detectives, hosted by Ted Allen. The episode tried to disprove the idea that NYC water is what makes NYC pizza so great. They had John LaFemina, the chef from Apizz in Manhattan, make dough with water from NYC, Chicago, and L.A. I was one of the judges, along with Mario Cantone, Joey Ciolli from Grimaldi's in Arizona and John, the chef at Apizz.
It's interesting to note that Joey Ciolli actually has a machine at the Grimaldi's in Chandler, Arizona, which I've seen, that turns Arizona water into NYC water. He actually talks about it in the episode.
The problem is that the show aired last night at 9 p.m. and then at midnight, but the Food Network didn't bother to tell any of us who were on the show. Some of us saw it and some of us didn't. Anyway, they're repeating it again this coming Sunday at 4 p.m. on the Food Network, so keep an eye out for it.
Saturday Night Live finally made the video available for "I Am Your Mother,"the Jeno's Pizza Rolls commercial skit that aired on the April 11 episode. It stars Zac Efron, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis, and Fred Armisen, and its premise is that they're all shooting a commercial for the pizza snack. Like a lot of SNL sketches, it goes on a bit too long, but Armisen is amusing as a mom cooking up an after-school snack for her kids who just can't follow the director's coaching.
Funny enough, this isn't the first time that the idea of a Jeno's Pizza Roll commercial has been mined for humor. In the 1960s Stan Freberg made a parody of a Lark cigarette commercial that subbed Jeno's for smokes.
Marginally pizza-related (and possibly marginally funny) parody phone-sex commercial from 30 Rock. What is that, fresh mozzarella and pepperoni on that thing? I wonder where they ordered it from. [via Eat Me Daily]
NYC - Anselmo's: "Best pizza I've ever eaten," says one poster. I wouldn't go that far, but it's definitely promising. [Chowhound]
NYC - Frozen Pizza from Kesté: Apparently, recently opened Kesté is located in Any Town, Alaska, at least according to this receipt. [Eater]
Don't It Sound Rustic and Charming? "In our postage stamp backyard, we have a shed. In the shed there is a wood-burning bread oven. The owner before us built it, as he was a baker. Last night, as it was raining, we lit the bread oven and decided to make pizza in the shed." [Tongue in Cheek]
Beantown: A look at Upper Crust Pizza, a Neapolitan-style pizza mini chain in Boston. [examiner.com]
Smarts: The web-savvy new owner of the Pizza Party pizzeria in Santa Clara, California, is effectively using Twitter and Facebook to market the joint. [abc7news.com]
Worst Headline of the Week (So Far): "With Diabetes, Eating Pizza Not Always a Treat" [Mayo Clinic]
My answer is no. The last thing I need in my life is to waste an hour of it watching a group of fame-obsessed, sexually confused post-adolescents work out their cringe-worthy issues on TV.
But when one of Brooklyn's favorite pizzerias is involved I can hold my nose and tune in. Unfortunately, the bit at Spumoni Gardens lasts all of 5 seconds, consisting of the cast ordering and eating the square slices the Bensonhurst joint is known for. I've embedded video here, after the jump.
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 2, 2008 at 11:30 PM
I just watched last night's Gossip Girl episode ("It's a Wonderful Lie"), the one where Vanessa has a gift certificate to Grimaldi's ("I'm thinking double pepperoni"). For all you non–New Yorkers, yes, it's a real place (you can read all about it here on Slice), and, yes, it does offer gift certificates (I called to make sure).
Vanessa Abrams
I agree with New York magazine's recap assessment—Vanessa would totally be a "Di Fara diehard." All the way. Why? Vanessa sucks. She's annoying and oppressively self-righteous in that way that only certain chip-on-shoulder Brooklynites can be. If you were unlucky enough to befriend her—or worse, date her—she would totally twist your arm, reverse-snob you, and schlep your ass all the way out there. "OMG, Nate! I totally know this little place that's hidden and has, like, the best pizza ever! None of your Constance Billard or St. Jude's friends would be caught dead there." And then she'd secretly judge you if you grumbled about the long wait or what a mess the dining room was.
"Vanessa had a gift certificate to Grimaldi's? No way would she admit to that. She'd be a Di Fara diehard all the way. Minus 3." —From New York magazine's always hilariously dead-on Gossip Girl recap [And, yes, Grimaldi's does offer gift certificates.]
On the Sarah Silverman Program, "Steve and Brian threw their backs out in the bathroom (for reasons I don't want to get into). And they're hungry. And there's a pizza in the other room." Video of the scene at Eat Me Daily.
Posted by Adam Kuban, September 25, 2008 at 6:31 PM
Celebrated pizzaman Chris Bianco (Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix) will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight. Bonus "slice" action: Mixed martial arts fighter Kimbo Slice will also be a guest. Perhaps these two slice men can have a throwdown. (Check your local listings.)
Update (1/19/2009): I've posted the video of the appearance below—after the jump) (thanks for the link, Paulie).
First, a confession: I haven't been watching Mad Men. Yes, I've heard it's good. But the last thing I have time for is another TV show to watch. Keep your tsk tsks out of the comments. (We're going to use them for something else.)
Anyway, my coworker here at the Slice–Serious Eats office emailed me these photos after the episode on August 17 ("Three Sundays") aired:
Here are screenshots from the 8/17 episode of Mad Men. After having dinner at Peggy's mom's house, the priest drops Peggy off "by the 4th Ave BMT." Assume Brooklyn. Not sure which stop, I'm guessing it's supposed to be 4th Avenue/9th Street, but not sure. During the earlier dinner scene, Peggy's aunt (?) said she was visiting her son at Greenwood Cemetery.
Here are two high-res screenshots, one where you get a full view of the pizza parlor. I just like the cool neon sign. Any idea where it is?
I have no idea where this is, actually. It looks familiar, but that could be my grease-addled mind playing tricks on me. Anyone out there know if this pizzeria even exists, and, if so, where it is?
The first person to ID it and send in a picture (or a link to a picture) gets an as-yet-to-be-determined pizza-related prize. Either email me the photo and location or leave your link in the comments. A car-free version, after the jump.
So says Jon Stewart: "In fact, Mr. Stewart regards comedy as a kind of catharsis machine, a therapeutic filter for grappling with upsetting issues. 'What's nice to us about the relentlessness of the show,' he said, 'is you know you're going to get that release no matter what, every night, Monday through Thursday. Like pizza, it may not be the best pizza you’ve ever had, but it's still pizza, man, and you get to have it every night. It's a wonderful feeling to have this toxin in your body in the morning, that little cup of sadness, and feel by 7 or 7:30 that night, you've released it in sweat equity and can move on to the next day."
Scott's New York Pizza Tours makes it onto Fox 5 News on Thursday night. I never realized how over the top Tony Senecal is. And Rosanna Scotto and Ernie Anastos are almost as hammy. Video of the segment, after the jump.
For as much as I (privately) grumble about the internet, I love it for stuff like this ...
About 4:10 p.m. ET, I have the following IM exchange with my homeslice Philip G., who appears in the video above, capturing the first-ever videopizza upskirt at Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix on his visit there:
PGTips:bianco was just on oprah NYCSlice: wha? NYCSlice: no way NYCSlice: on the pizza show?
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 27, 2007 at 3:45 PM
Another email from the Slice mailbag. This time from Mark Graban, who built a backyard wood-burning pizza oven at his home in Texas. You'll see why Mark sounds a little miffed. —The Mgmt.
Did you catch the episode of Kitchen Nightmares that featured a restaurant, Sebastian's, in Burbank, California? The idiot running the place had two wood-burning ovens running, and they were just for show. Frozen dough, microwaved crap, it was awful. And, worse, the moron wouldn't take the advice of chef Gordon Ramsay.
Here is what Fear Factor contestant Shelby Smith had to say about eating it:
Between all the coagulated blood and the cheese and the worms, I don't think I could even, at the time, differentiate what was in my mouth. I didn't even feel the crunching. I was chewing so quickly and trying just to get through it. There was so much stuff put together. Once it got inside my mouth and I was just chewing everything up, it really didn't even matter at that point.
"It's like eating a hot circle of garbage." —Kevin Malone
Michael: Good news. Stanley: We get to go home? Michael: Guess who just ordered from your favorite pizza place, Alfredo's? Kevin: Wait. Alfredo's Pizza Cafe? Or Pizza By Alfredo? Michael: Same thing. Everyone: [grumbling] No. No it isn't. Michael: Alright I don't understand when you all talk at the same time. Kevin: Oscar, talk to him. Oscar: Michael, there's a very big difference between these two pizza places, both in quality of ingredients and overall taste. Which one did you order from? Michael: Pizza By Alfredo
[Everyone grumbles] Michael: Alright. OK, OK. What is better: a medium amount of good pizza or all you can eat of pretty good pizza? Everyone: Medium amount of good pizza. Kevin [alone with camera in conference room]: Oh no, it's bad. It's real bad. It's like eating a hot circle of garbage.
Posted by Adam Kuban, September 21, 2007 at 5:18 PM
Well, folks, unless they left me on the cutting room floor, yours truly will be appearing as a blabbing head tomorrow night on the new Food Network show Heavyweights. I'll be on an episode called "The Pizza Files."
The show pits two food industry rivals against one another and has commentators talk about them. The two biggies here: Pizza Hut and Domino's.
The short of it: Airs Saturday, September 22 at 9 p.m. ET. Check your local listings, set your TiVos, take some Tums.
The long of it after the jump, written just after I taped the show on July 6 and excerpted from my personal blog ...
The results are in, and, according to Friend of Slice Tien Mao, they're being aired as we speak (if you're on Eastern Daylight Time). If you're in later time zones, you might still have a chance to watch; check your local listings. I, for one, will look for a rerun and try to DVR. In the meantime, Tien gave me some play-by-play. He's working from home, multitasking with some TV in the background, I assume.
FOS Tien Mao called earlier today while I was at IKEA picking up some office furniture for Serious Eats, and he said he was working from home, flipping through channels, and just happened to land on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
One of the questions, he said, was something to the effect of "The New York–based website SliceNY.com is a blog dedicated to what food: pies, hot dogs, pizza, pretzels?" (I'm probably getting the foods wrong there, but you get the gist.)
This is a stretch, because who DVRs Millionaire, which apparently airs in the afternoon now, but if anyone out there has it TiVo-ed, could you please send it my way somehow?
AMERICAN EATS The History Channel 10 p.m. Eastern/Pacific, 9 p.m. Central
Order a pizza in and get ready to watch. Or set the TiVo and go out for a pie. From the "New York Times":
The migration of pizza westward — from southern Italy to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles — is the story of mutation, innovation, perversion. And in spite of the documentary's wonderfully nonjudgmental narration, viewers will find it hard not to take sides.
Midwestern deep-dish types tend to see coastal pies as too wan or too fancy. Californians like their Spago-era artworks all fusioned and deluxe; I imagine they silently believe that other kinds of pizza are only for fat people. New Yorkers, who are fundamentally right on this subject, know they have the real thing.
Or almost. One thing this documentary does well is show how importation is always transformation: even when Gennaro Lombardi, the founding father of American pizza, opened his shop on Spring Street in SoHo a century ago, he was tampering with tradition. He had to use local tomatoes, explains the voice-over, "instead of San Marzano tomatoes grown in the volcanic soil of Mount Vesuvius." And atop the local tomato sauce he melted ordinary cow cheese, instead of the distinctive Italian mozzarella made from water-buffalo milk.
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 10, 2006 at 1:38 AM
A tipster tipped us to the fact that Lower East Side coal-burner Luzzo's will be featured on Martha this morning. New Yorkers can tune in to the show on WNBC-4 at 11 a.m. Anyone else, check your local listings.
LUZZO'S Location: 211-13 First Ave. (b/n 12th and 13th streets) [map] Phone: 212-473-7447
On last night's episode of The Office, painfully obtuse boss Michael initiates some male bonding among the white-collar office workers and blue-collar warehouse staff. After totally mucking things up ("I am collar-blind"), he orders pizza to try to smooth things over:
Michael: [singsongy] PI-zzaaa. The great EQ-uilizer. Rich people love pizza. Poor people love pizza. White people love pizza. Black people love pizza. ... Do black people like pizza?
WORDS BY SELTZERBOY .::. Confetti falls in Times Square, the band plays that Guy Lombardo song, and The Honeymooners airs on WPIX. It must be New Year’s.
Some traditions are more well known than others, but for residents of the New York area, something would seem awry without the latter, which ritually kicks off the television year with several hours’ worth of the seminal sitcom.
It’s still easy to appreciate the timeless humor of these 50-year-old episodes, even when you know all the plots and punch lines. And held above the fray of our tawdry popular culture, The Honeymooners assumes a level of sophistication that was probably unimaginable when CBS launched The Jackie Gleason Show in 1952. Equally jarring is how these two couples, who spent $75 to rent a pair of one-bedroom apartments in Bensonhurst (that’s for two apartments, and even after a 15 percent rent increase, which Ralph uproariously protested by living in the street), depict a New York City more realistic than anything on the air today.
With that, Slice has decided to kick off the year with a slice of this landmark show. No, this does not involve Ralph’s ill-fated plan to open a no-cal pizzeria, a scheme cited in more than one episode but one that never made it to script. Taken from the episode in which Ralph learned that Alice was planning a surprise birthday party for him, it involves a diet-conscious Ralph being tempted by Ed’s indulgence in our favorite food. At this point in the show’s run, Ralph and Alice were using a red-and-white-checkerboard tablecloth, making this pizza scene even more tasty. Bang, zoom!
Moby's everywhere I turn the last couple of days. First as the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question on New Year's Day. Then on a couple NYC blogs yesterday as word of his tea shop's renovation spread. And now on the Food Network eating pizza.
But wait. Ain't that dude vegan? You betcha. But the slice he's holding (right) is from Upper East Side healthy-pizza pizzeria Slice.
Last night's Recipe for Success on the Food Network featured the place, and the story was fairly interesting, showing all the hard work and research the majority owner, Miki Agrawal, put into her recently opened pizzeria. It's particularly amazing to see the space as it was several months ago, all gutted before being built out. She took a lot of risks to open the place, and if the Food Network's numbers are correct, they're starting to pay off for her. Good deal.
Maybe she should talk to Moby about turning the recently closed-for-renovation Teany into a second Slice location.
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 2, 2005 at 10:00 AM
On Slice, I'm pretty monomaniacal on what I post about: pizza. Sure, I'd love to rhapsodize about how great the new Battlestar Galactica is (I'm dying for the new season to start). Or the sad, sad cancelation of Arrested Development. But I can't. I've gotta stay on message here.
So until I see Admiral Adama chowing down on a slice between cylon attacks or I run across one of the Bluths ordering a pie on the AD DVDs, I can't go there.
But the fleeting mention of pizza on last night's Colbert Report gives me license to mention this great new Daily Show spin-off. If you're not part of the Colbert Nation, here are your immigration papers. It is simply the best show on Comedy Central these days, spinning the whole fake news concept into an obnoxious O'Reilly-style pundit show that handily eclipses the Jon Stewart joint immediately preceding it.
In last night's Report, host Stephen Colbert brought us up to speed on the design of the medals Italy will be handing out at the Winter Olympics in Turin. What Stephen said couldn't be more truthy:
It was very, very exciting to get my tickets — until I saw the design of the medals released today. Take a look at these [top left]. Congratulations: You've won a giant gold washer. Or a subway token.
Think about it. You've been training since you were three. Your parents had to separate so you could live with your coach. Your brothers and sisters couldn't go to college so you could go to luge camp. You finally win the gold, and they put this around your neck.
Now apparently it's supposed to represent a piazza [top right], which the Olympic Committee calls "a great symbol image of Italy." That's an elegant translation. You know what another great symbol image of Italy is?
The pizza. And you know what a pizza [above] looks like? An Olympic medal.
Premiering tonight at 9 p.m. on the Discovery Times channel is Short Takes: Pizza, a documentary about "America's favorite food." From what I understand, it's a British-based production, but part of it was filmed here in New York City in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge neighborhood.
Rocco's, on Fifth Avenue and 79th Street, will be featured. There's going to be a debate on Chicago- vs. New York–style pizza, and Rocco's will get a "pizza makeover."
Hey, as long as Ty Pennington's not involved with the makeover, I'm there. For those of you who can't catch the airing tonight, it will repeat several times tomorrow. Click below for the full schedule.
If you live in New York City, subscribe to Time-Warner Cable, and have a high tolerance for hot air, you can tune to NY1 between 6 and 7 p.m. tonight or tomorrow to catch this site's editor & publisher on the air. NY1, for those non–New Yorkers reading this, is like a CNN for the Big Apple. The all–New York-all-the-time channel will air a segment on Google Maps mash-ups in which I appear blabbing about how neat the tool is.
Slice, of course, uses the function in our recently released Slice Pizza Map, which plots all the pizzerias that we or our correspondents have reviewed since this site's inception.
If you didn't see or don't end up catching the piece, you can read and watch the online version here. All in all, it was pretty painless doing the quick, five-minute interview. NY1 technology reporter Adam Balkin did a great job on the editing, making me sound coherent while adding just the right screen shots that illustrate the points I was trying to make. Thanks, Adam!
Almost a year ago, this site's editor and publisher, Adam K. (that's me), was called upon to serve as a judge in the annual Best of Long Island Pizza Contest. Contest organizers told me that the judges would be sampling 25 slices of pizza—five pizzerias competing in five categories. They told me that the Food Network would be there, taping for the show All American Festivals. They also told me not to eat breakfast.
This site's roving reporter, E-Rock, joined me on the journey to Farmingdale (that's who I'm consulting with in the screen capture at right), and our antics and recap of the day can be found in this entry from October 06, 2004. What concerns us today is the fact that I've finally gotten my greasy hands on a digitized, web-based streamcast of the All Americanepisode depicting the L.I. pizza bash. (Watch it here.)
I appear in it for a total of about 2 seconds. E-Rock, maybe 1 second. I'll tell you who does get some serious airtime, and that's Miss Long Island (above). Host Jim O'Connor paid a heck of a lot of attention to her for a man wearing a wedding ring. But I'm not so naive as to think he'd actually want to talk to this dirtbag when the more telegenic Miss L.I. was just to my left. I mean, hey, sex sells, and what do I know about pizza anyway? Alright, have a look at the video. E-Rock and I appear a little over 9 minutes into the show, if you're interested.
The episode touches on a bit of pizza history and technique before highlighting a pizza-eating contest and a children's meatball toss (I don't know either), both of which served as welcome respites from eating. The funny thing about the show, or the contestants, rather, was something even my mom picked up on when she watched the episode some months ago—and she's by no means a pizza purist. "They're all so concerned with winning the speciality pizza division," Ma Slice said, "but you'd think the real honor would be in the regular pizza or even the Sicilian contest."
My thoughts exactly. I'd hazard a guess that most of a pizzeria's sales are on plain or modestly topped pies and slices, not those monstrosities with salads—or a Tyson chicken factory—dumped on them. So Ma was right (once again) when she said, "If you focus on the basics, the rest will fall in line."
Anyway, that's that. I encourage you to check out the Food Network video. Not only that one, but I produced a short film highlighting the day, too. It's set to Kiss's "Any Way You Slice It," and it rocks. Hard. Chekk it.
Like a decent number of Slice readers, I'm sure, I was saddened to learn of the death of James Doohan, a.k.a. Star Trek's "Scotty" or "Mr. Scott." I grew up watching Star Trek and enjoyed the cantankerous commander and his declarations—that he was doin' all he kin, cap'n. That she, the ship, canna take no more.
As is the case here at Slice, when a beloved public figure dies, we hit the Internets and see if the dearly departed had any connection to pizza. Mr. Doohan apparently did not, but we came across this page that posits what toppings Trek characters would order on their pizza.
Scotty's? "No more anchovies, cap'n! The tastebuds cannae hold it!"
Not that funny admittedly, but worth a chuckle or two.
Slice has a bulletin board forum dedicated to pizza. It's called The Pizza Peel. I've got mixed feelings about the continued usefulness of this site feature, but every now and then, something pops up on it that catches my eye. Like this message from a TV producer. I thought I'd highlight it here on the main part of the site:
I’m looking for passionate pizza chefs for a Discovery Times Channel series called '15 Films About Pizza'. I need a pizza chef that believes the Chicago deep dish is the one and only- and a New Yorker that believes the NY style rules!
I'm also looking for a pizzeria brave enough to make pizzas for our global pizza taste challenge. We'll supply the recipes - but who will be brave enough to make curried cabbage pizza?!
This is all good fun- at goes out to 35 million viewers.
Finally I’m also looking for a pizza addict! Can’t go a day without a delicious pizza? Then get in touch.
With all the recent pope talk going on, Slice can't help but be reminded of Father Guido Sarducci's "Finda da popes in da pizza" bit on Saturday Night Live. From a transcript of the bit, which appeared as part of a 1979 Weekend Update segment:
It's amazing to me all the interest in the Pope last couple weeks. I think it's because of John Paul's visit, personally, but, you know, whatever the reason, people are buyin' these posters that show all of the Popes and people want to know what their names are, what their real names are, when they was livin', when they died, all that stuff. And, going along with this papal mania, I've kind of designed a contest about the popes. [holds up a large photo showing a close-up of the surface of a pizza] It's called "Find the Popes in the Pizza." All two hundred and fifty-four Popes, they're in here. And, what we're gonna do in about one minute, we're gonna put a close-up of this on your screen and, you at home, all you have to do is get some, like, wax paper, any kind of paper you can see through and paste it to your screen -- or tape it, whatever you want—and all you gotta do is get a pencil and draw a circle around every place you see a picture of a Pope. And, while we're doing this ...
Well, I think what I'm gonna do for the prize, whoever wins—you know, finds the most Popes—they'll get to have a button that I designed myself. I noticed on the tour, the best selling button was this. [holds up button] It says, "I Got a Peek at the Pope." And I designed a button that I think even more people can relate to. [holds up another button] It says, "I saw the Pope on TV." This is what you win. And now, I think, we're about ready. So while you're looking at the pizza for thirty seconds, I'm gonna play a cut from Pius XII's album. Here is Pius XII singing "On the Sunny Side of the Street." And now find the popes in the pizza. Good luck to you. All two hundred and fifty-four.
[A jazz recording of the old pop song "On the Sunny Side of the Street" plays as we dissolve to close-up of the pizza: mostly a red mass of tomato sauce, but also cheese and one rather large image of a Pope sitting behind a desk in the lower right hand corner. The other Popes are invisible to the naked eye. A clock ticks off thirty seconds in the upper left hand corner as Father Sarducci's voice chimes in with occasional helpful hints.] Some are easy to find, some are hard. ... Here's a little clue for you. Most of the Popes have red faces. Here's another clue. One of them is in the right side of the screen. Behind the desk.
This reporter isn't going to say much about the selection of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as pope, as I don't know much about him. He's got a tough act to follow. I mean, will the new Pope Benedict XVI hold a special mass for pizzamakers? We have yet to see.
I've never seen an episode of Survivor. Never been interested. (Well, I did see the last half hour of the first season's post-series reunion special.) Put pizza on Palau, however, and you've piqued my curiosity.
On last night's show, the individual immunity challenge involved standing on little perches above a lagoon. The last contestant standing on his or her platform would receive a bye in the next kick-'em-off round. It would be one thing if players had to stand there until dropping of exhuastion, but host Jeff Probst was also tempting them with goodies.
After one hour: donuts. Two players chow down. Hour two: chocolate chip cookies and milk. Four players take the dunk. At hour three, with three remaining survivors posing on their perches, Probst proffers pizza. Two of the three slice through the water toward shore and devour the pie with an abandon we at Slice both fear and admire.
Was it worth giving up immunity for? A million reasons say no. But judging by the looks on the contestants' faces (see photos, above), something stronger than filthy lucre hooked them, proving that the simple things in life—cookies and milk, a slice of pizza—are sometimes more gratifying than wealth.
Special Delivery: Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) feeds Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan) a slice of pizza in a scene from the inexplicably (at least to us) popular spy-girl series Alias.
Slice-reading Alias fans are no doubt looking forward to that show's season premier tonight (9 p.m., WABC, Ch. 7). While we don't mind looking at the show's star, Jennifer Garner, the editors of this weblog have remained immune to the Alias fever that's swept the rest of America and have largely ignored the show's inanity.
That said, we do love the series Lost (why isn't the fat guy, Hurley, losing weight!?), also an ABC vehicle, so we've been subjected to numerous Lenny Kravitz–backed commercial promos for Alias Season 4 while following the exploits of Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and that hobbit dude from Lord of the Rings.
In one of the Alias promos, we noticed Ms. Garner's character, spy-girl Sydney Bristow, sitting on a gentleman's lap, feeding him a piece of pizza. We instant messaged our friend "JXM," a huge Alias fan, asking what's up with the pizza thing. Turns out that it's a code between Sydney and her CIA handler, Michael Vaughn (played by Michael Vartan). See, Sydney has an unsuspecting roommate (are they paying spies so little these days that they can't live alone?), so Vaughn can't very well just call and say "Let's meet." Instead, he calls and asks for "Joey's Pizza," which is Sydney's prompt to go meet him somewhere. Where? Slice doesn't know! Didn't I say we don't watch this show?! Anyway, a typical encounter with the "wrong number" might go like this, from Season 1, Episode 15:
VOICE: Joey's Pizza?
FRANCIE [Sydney's roommate]: You know, this is Joey's Pizza. You want to hear our specials?
(They hang up.)
FRANCIE: Hello? Seriously, we need to think about changing our number.
SYDNEY: I know!
FRANCIE: Thank you.
SYDNEY: I'm going to go get a bottle of wine for tonight. Do you need anything while I'm out.
FRANCIE: No thanks.
Doesn't the roommate notice that Syd leaves whenever there's a wrong number for Joey's? I guess spy-girl picked the perfect roomie for her unique situation—one as dense and as senseless as a deep-dish pie.
UPDATE: My Alias-loving friend, upon reading this entry, was all like, "inexplicably popular?" and "Joey's Pizza is over, and Francine's dead. That's all seasons 1 and 2." All I can say to that is, for the umpteenth time, YOU KNOW I DON'T WATCH ALIAS!
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 18, 2004 at 11:59 AM
RELATED READING Grimaldi's on Law & Order: Legendary Brooklyn Heights/DUMBO pizzeria Grimaldi's played an important role in a Briscoe-Curtis L&O episode called "Tabula Rasa," about a man who had fled New York and started his life over. This is one of our favorite posts, as it was the first entry of ours to be mentioned by major blog, thereby putting Slice on the radar.
I was cat-sitting a friend's tabby and missed the show, but Tien took these photos of the TV for me. I'm not even quite sure how Joe's figured into the investigation, but here's a synopsis of the episode, from Jen:
"PUBLICITY-SEEKING RADIO PERSONALITY MAY BECOME VICTIM OF HIS OWN 'STUNT MUGGINGS' — JOE PISCOPO GUEST-STARS — A street thug-turned-radio personality (guest star Jose Zuniga) who had a penchant for attracting headlines through "publicity stunt muggings" is thought to be faking again when he's shot and almost killed. However, when other bodies start to stack up, Detectives Fontana (Dennis Farina) and Green (Jesse L. Martin) now must believe the danger is for real. Joe Piscopo (NBC's "Saturday Night Live") guest stars as a martial arts movie star. Sam Waterston, Elisabeth Rohm, S. Epatha Merkerson and Fred Dalton Thompson also star."
And the award for Best Supporting Location in a Music Video goes to World Famous Ray's Pizza in Ted Leo/Pharmacist's "Me & Mia." [Watch the video here.] Though the pizzeria's on-screen time is brief, it steals all the scenes it appears in and transforms an otherwise straightforward montage of band practice into an almost-narrative video.
World Famous Ray's, located at 595 Sixth Avenue, sneaks into the picture 22 seconds in, though only sharp-eyed viewers will note it, as the shot's focus is a walk–don't walk sign in the foreground. After a minute of footage that shows the band in what appears to be a large, ample-windowed practice loft, the camera quickly cuts back and shows that Mr. Leo and company are playing directly above World Famous Ray's. This is followed by some more band-action footage and then by a scene in which a taxi pulls up next to Ray's, drops off Mr. Leo (but wait! He's upstairs practicing!), who heads in to order some food.
We see Mr. Leo yell something to an employee there, and not long after, he's sitting at a table eating what appears to be, sadly, pasta—not pizza.
The song itself is catchy power-pop and reminds me that I should probably pick up Mr. Leo's latest record, Shake the Sheets, seeing as how I enjoyed his previous two, Tyranny of Distance and Hearts of Oak.
For more info on Ted Leo/Pharmacists, see the box above.
The 2004 U.S. Pizza Team will be competing in this year's event March 29–30.
Sunday evening's programming will feature regular Food Network shows, but with a pizza focus. Here's a run-down:
ROKER ON THE ROAD 6 p.m. Al goes on patrol with the only US Pizza Policeman.
GOOD EATS 6:30 p.m. Alton Brown claims we won't be satisfied with pizza until we take matters into our own hands. Venture through the world of yeast, lay new tiles in your oven and meet a peel named Emma.
TYLER'S ULTIMATE 7 p.m. Pizza has conquered the planet. In NYC, Tyler takes us to John's in Greenwich Village for the classic we know and love. In Naples, Giavanna Raffoni shows Tyler how to make pizza Southern Italian style with lots of tomatoes and lots of love.
CIAO AMERICA WITH MARIO BATALI 7:30 p.m. The crust can be thin and crisp. Thick, soft and slightly chewy. Or doubled. Pizza has come a long way. Mario's off to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles to see and taste how this humble Italian street eat has become an American food icon.
EMERIL LIVE 8 p.m. Basic Pizza Dough; Smoked Salmon and Goat Cheese Pizza Bites; Stromboli; Parmesan Pizza Crust Topped with Kicked Up Chicken Caesar Salad; Nutty Cinnamon Twists.
WORLD PIZZA CHALLENGE 9 p.m. It's a high-flying, dough-tossing extravaganza as Italy throws the world's biggest pizza party and six American chefs are invited. Does Team USA have what it takes to beat the Italians in their own backyard? The World Pizza Championship awaits!
THE BEST OF 10 p.m. Pizza Places Vicolo Pizza - San Francisco, CA; Grimaldi's - Brooklyln, NY; Waldo Pizza - Kansas City, MO; Buddy's Pizza - Detroit, MI; Jumbo's Seafood and Pizza Eatery - Wildwood, NJ
THE BEST OF 10:30 p.m. Best Pizza Tacconelli's, Philadelphia// John's Pizzeria, New York// Lou Malnati's, Chicago// Johnnie's NY Pizza, NY// Info Segment-'Pizza Tossing Tips' at D'Bronx Deli, Kansas City
UNWRAPPED 11 p.m. Pizza Unwrapped Take a cross-country pizzeria tour from the first pizzeria in America locate in NY to the "windy city" for a look at what makes a pizza "Chicago-style". And visit the California Pizza Kitchen & Find out how your pizza can be "designer" as we learn the secrets behind flavored frozen dough.
TOP 5 11:30 p.m. Incredible Expos Imagine having to sample the most scrumptious candies imaginable. The most delectable cakes and gourmet delights. All the pizza, fried chicken and chocolate you can eat. Checking out the latest foods finds and what food expos are all about.
The chief executives of California Pizza Kitchen, Larry Flax and Rick Rosenfield (pictured at far left in photo), will be turning in their Armani suits to wear chef's hats for a day. A new "reality" series, Now Who's Boss?, which premiers March 8 on TLC, will feature corporate hacks working in the trenches for five days. If you find yourself really bored on March 29, tune in to see these two moneybags stick their hands in the flour bag for a spin at making a few assembly-line pizza pies. No word if they'll be trading in their salaries, too.
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 24, 2004 at 12:52 PM
Di Fara Pizza got major props on the WB11 last night. The Warner Bros. affiliate station is highlighting the best of New York this week, and it has deemed Dom Demarco's pies top of the pops.
The ever effervescent Toni Senecal was on hand last night for a live broadcast from the Midwood pizzeria, where she claimed to have eaten six slices.
Mr. Demarco, his daughter, and one of his sons looked a bit overwhelmed by Ms. Senecal, who, while it can be said displayed no lack of enthusiasm, seemed a trifle condescending toward our favorite pizzaman.
We felt a little sorry for Mr. Demarco, who looked like he just wanted to go about his business, but he did get some "Toni Time" in the form of "baci, baci" ("kisses, kisses"), which we certainly wouldn't have minded (that's what's going on in the vid capture above).
Ms. Senecal at one point cried "bravissimo!" in reference to the pies, and twice used the phrase "That's what I'm talkin' about," which is one of Slice photographer E-Rock's favorites.
I thought I spied one of my friends in the background for a split second—hiding behind Ms. Senecal's head. But it couldn't have been her because she would have called to tip me to this event. Right?
Anyway, we've noticed from our SiteMeter stats that a lot of you are arriving at Slice after doing web searches for Di Fara, no doubt in response to last night's broadcast. Rest assured in the knowledge that Di Fara's truly is remarkable pizza. This is one story that broadcast news didn't get wrong.
Bart and Milhouse are riding Bart's souped-up bike. Bart flips the switch to turn on the "motor mimic," a device that makes the two-wheeler sound like a motorcycle. Chief Wiggam and Lou, roadside in police car, hear the fake motor. Wiggam: Sounds like a motorcycle gang. And we don't have back up. [Pulls out pizza-delivery sign to cover bank of lights on top of car]. Better lay low. Lou: But, Chief—what if they like pizza? Wiggam: [Pulls out "Dominoe's" sign and affixes it over police shield on passenger-side door] Way ahead of you, Lou.
Sadly, that was perhaps the funniest bit on The Simpsons last night. I haven't watched the show in ages, and now I know why. It seems to have jumped the shark.
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 10, 2004 at 2:09 PM
Any of you who are Ween fans may already know this, but back in Aught 2, the band was hired to do the jingle for Pizza Hut's Insider pizza. As you might recall, that was the pie in which The Hut hid the cheese inside. Says Ween:
Earlier in 2002 we were hired by the largest advertising firm in the country to write music for a Pizza Hut commercial. Pizza Hut had hired them to come up with a whole new image to promote their new Pizza, "The Insider" which had all the cheese inside the crust. In keeping in line with their new cutting edge image, the agency hired Ween to do the music, and we delivered in a big way. Unfortunately, they didn't like a single piece of the 6 tunes we submitted and they had us rewriting the song every day for a couple of weeks before they hired someone else. In my opinion, it is one of the best tunes we wrote all last year.
New York Times: "Discovery [Channel] also has greenlighted a 13-episode series called 'Big,' in which a team will band together to build humongous versions of everything from a light bulb to a pizza pie. 'Big' will premiere in June on Tuesdays at 9 p.m."
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 29, 2004 at 12:13 PM
Jessica Simpson has given a hint at what will transpire in the Pizza Hut commercial in which she'll star with various Muppets:
"It's very cool and Pizza Hut is the best and The Muppets are an American icon. I've watched them since I was young and Miss Piggy is in a cute little Juicy sweatsuit and has bling-bling so it's fun."
"The concept is very cute. The Muppets are fighting and I'm trying to calm everybody down with this amazing new pizza from Pizza Hut." [From Albany's WXXA-TV, Fox 23.]
While watching a DVRed episode of South Park Wednesday night, I caught a Daily Show Newsbreak that mentioned pizza:
Jon Stewart: Good evening. The detection of mad cow disease in America prompts over thirty countries to ban U.S. beef imports. Making matters worse, grain imports have also been halted after some American pizzas tested postive for crazy bread.
The Daily Show's a bit late, treating the BSE scare as a first-day story. (And no, it wasn't a rerun; the actual show, later in the evening, featured the latest Mars rover, Spirit, which touched down earlier this week.) The holidays must have put this fine fake news show behind schedule.
Speaking of South Park, here's Eric Cartman on pizza. We couldn't agree with him more. [Warning: Audio file contains language that may be inappropriate at work.]
"Are you having any special cravings?" asked Nancy.
"They keep changing. I went through a big, health cereal with blueberries phase, where I was eating it three times a day. Then, I went through a fast food burger phase. Now I'm settling into pizza pretty well. I'm liking that," revealed Debra. "I'm also liking grapes these days."
One of last night's reruns of Law & Order on TNT contained a Grimaldi's reference. In the episode "Tabula Rasa," detectives Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) and Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) are investigating a suspect who claims he's never been to New York before. After obtaining his credit-card receipts, they find he has visited Grimaldi's—alone, no less.
Lieutenant Van Buren: [reading list of card charges] United Airlines, TKTS, Museum of Modern Art Bookstore, Barneys, Grimaldi's Italian Restaurant. Briscoe: Grimaldi's in Brooklyn? Van Buren: You know another one? Charge was for twelve bucks and some change. Briscoe: [with the wisecrack] You can't feed a family of four mice on that. Van Buren: So he was by himself. Curtis: Guy's never been to New York before and he manages to find the best pizza in the five boroughs? Van Buren: Right. Check it out.
The scene then cuts to Grimaldi's, where Briscoe and Curtis grill someone at the pizzeria. (It's not Patsy, that's for sure. He might be the guy who bought the place from Mr. Grimaldi, but I don't know what he looks like.)
An alert Domino's employee helped spare two little girls from further neglect at the hands of their mother, TV station KATC reports. The mother had left her daughters, ages 8 and 10, alone for several hours with nothing to eat in a roach-infested, feces-strewn trailer. After the girls tried several times to order pizza, the employee became suspicious and called authorities, who discovered them.
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 13, 2003 at 11:31 AM
The Sun takes a look at the diets of six television characters and notes that pizza plays prominently in the eating habits of Homer Simpson and Tony Soprano.
About Homer: "With his couch-potato lifestyle and ability to munch his way through a dozen doughnuts, pizzas, Krusty burgers, pork chops and beer in one go, middle-aged Homer should really be heading for his death bed..."
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 11, 2003 at 11:57 AM
The New York Daily News today gives some choice quotes from Art Carney's Ed Norton. Among them: "If pizzas were manhole covers, the sewer would be paradise."
Halloween night's Larry King Live featured an interview with Ted Rowlands of KTVU and Laura Ingle of KFI radio, who were in the courtroom for day three of alleged wife-and-baby-killer Scott Peterson's preliminary hearing. (Nancy Grace was guest host; Mr. King was out scaring trick-or-treators.)
Grace: Well, let me ask Ted Rowlands a question, speaking of his urgency, his concern—yes, it may have wiped out his mind what he was fishing with, but am I correct? Was it in the testimony today, Ted Rowlands, that when he got home, saw his wife's vehicle, the pocketbook, the keys, the wallet, and so forth, he ordered or ate a pizza?and took a shower and changed clothes before he called anyone?
Rowlands: I don't know that that was in the testimony today. I was out of the courtroom for a brief period of time. I didn't hear that in the record today. Maybe I'm wrong. But we've heard that before. What we did find out, what Sharon Rocha talked about, which she thought was glaring, was that when Scott Peterson called over to the Grantski house and asked them if Laci was over there, he right away offered up the fact that she was missing. And she said—and we've heard that before—that that stuck with her as being strange, especially in retrospect. And then she detailed it from there. The other thing that—the first—for the first time, we did see some emotion in the courtroom. At one point, Jackie Peterson broke down. A lot of Laci's friends were crying through it when they talked about Laci herself. And actually, there was some camaraderie between Lee and Scott. When Lee sat down to testify, he gave Scott a wink and told the court that he was proud to be Scott's father.
Grace: You know, let me go back to you, Laura Ingle. Maybe you were in the courtroom when Ted was taking a break. I'm referring specifically to the testimony of Detective John Evers on the shower and the pizza?portion of the testimony. Were you there for that?
Ingle: I was there for that, and he did bring that up. And he said, I asked Scott, you know, what did you do when you got home? And he said, well, he said he was hungry, so he went and got a cold slice of pizza?out of the fridge, and he did take a shower, you know, because he's been fishing. So he took a shower and he washed his clothes and then started making the calls. So that's where that timeline lays down.
Matt Kennedy Gould, the unwitting dupe of Spike TV's fake reality show Joe Schmo,isn't upset after learning the program tricked him into believing he was starring in a real reality show. Heck, the law school dropout and former pizza deliveryman won $100,000, a trip to Tahiti, and a flat-screen plasma TV. One wonders how many tips it would take to make that kinda scratch schlepping pies.
Though I'm not a huge sports fan and probably won't watch the show, I do salute ESPN for naming its new morning news show Cold Pizza, obviously alluding to the cold-pizza-for-breakfast bachelor lifestyle of the show's target demographic.
Posted by Adam Kuban, October 13, 2003 at 12:36 PM
Newsday reports on a Travel Channel special that will air tonight 10 (Time Warner channel 88). Called "Pizza Wars," the show gives the rest of the nation a primer on New York's storied parlors (and mentions some of that stuff Chicago passes off as pie).
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Tomorrow morning on the Today show: segments on America's best pizza. 7 a.m. ET, NBC
On the Sarah Silverman Program, "Steve and Brian threw their backs out in the bathroom (for reasons I don't want to get into). And they're hungry. And there's a pizza in the other room." Video of the scene at 
Hope you got yr barf bag ready, peeps, cuz I got the NASTIEST slice of pizza you could ever hope to run away from.
Here is what Fear Factor contestant Shelby Smith had to say about eating it:
Remember when Rachael Ray was 
Some traditions are more well known than others, but for residents of the New York area, something would seem awry without the latter, which ritually kicks off the television year with several hours’ worth of the seminal sitcom.
On Slice, I'm pretty monomaniacal on what I post about: pizza. Sure, I'd love to rhapsodize about how great the new 
Like a decent number of Slice readers, I'm sure, I was saddened to learn of the 
Well, I think what I'm gonna do for the prize, whoever wins—you know, finds the most Popes—they'll get to have a button that I designed myself. I noticed on the tour, the best selling button was this. [holds up button] It says, "I Got a Peek at the Pope." And I designed a button that I think even more people can relate to. [holds up another button] It says, "I saw the Pope on TV." This is what you win. And now, I think, we're about ready. So while you're looking at the pizza for thirty seconds, I'm gonna play a cut from Pius XII's album. Here is Pius XII singing "On the Sunny Side of the Street." And now find the popes in the pizza. Good luck to you. All two hundred and fifty-four.
The 
The chief executives of 
A pregnant Debra Messing, from 
Halloween night's 
Matt Kennedy Gould, the unwitting dupe of 
