The good, the bad, the ugly – food moments in television

In honor of our television issue, I’ve decided to reminisce about some great and terrible food-related events in television.

Warning: This is not a comprehensive list. These are just suggestions compiled from my brain and the brains of my friends.

When I asked my friends what they thought was the most iconic moment on TV involving food, half a dozen mentioned the “I Love Lucy” episode where Lucy and Ethel go to work at a candy factory.

The episode is formally titled “Job Switching” and originally aired on Sept. 15, 1952. Besides its slapstick hilarity (speed it up a little!), the episode featured an argument very germane to the times.

The ladies end up in the factory after their husbands challenge them to a gender roles switcheroo. Ricky and Fred encounter similar difficulties with the housework.

Some other retro favorites were the “pork chops and applesauce” catchphrase from “Brady Bunch” episode “The Personality Kid” and Laverne and Shirley’s “Betty Please” incident during the episode where they took up jobs at a diner.

More recent popular moments mentioned were Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi” gag, the episode of “South Park” where Cartman cooks an enemy’s parents into his chili recipe and that crazy Nickelodeon catchphrase we grew up with: “Welcome to Goodburger, home of the Goodburger, can I take your order?” There was also a mention of the Food Network’s Emeril Lagasse coining “BAM!” as a cooking term.

Speaking of the Food Network, its inception in 1993 is arguably – at least for epicureans – the most exciting intersection of food and television in history.

Sometimes I’ll find myself salivating over it for hours, getting grilling tips by day and traveling to Iceland by night to watch Zane Lamprey eat fermented shark meat.

Although cooking shows have long been part of network and cable station fare, thanks to the Food Network viewers can now slake their hunger for delicious programming on an almost continuous basis.

OK, I’m officially through with the food puns.

I can’t end this column without talking a little about a show that did more than any program before it to ruin prime-time television as well as viewers’ appetites.

I’m talking about “Fear Factor,” one of the first in this decade’s explosion of endurance-based reality television shows. Although not exactly scary, the show’s gross-out factor was certainly stratospheric, featuring delicacies such as wax worms on the cob, blended roach iced tea and classic boiled bull’s testicles.

Last but not least, one of the funniest things my friends mentioned was a politician’s gaffe that couldn’t have happened without the help of food and television.

On Jan. 13, 2002, then-President George W. Bush was watching the Miami Dolphins vs. Baltimore Ravens playoff game and enjoying some pretzels when he started choking on one.

He suffered no lasting damage, and the incident became a comic meme that will live with us for years to come.