Last week I gave you some fun facts about one of the longest running shows on the Food Network, “Chopped”. As promised, this week we have some fun facts about another long running and popular show, “Diners, Drive Ins and Dives”. Hosted by Guy Fieri, the show has been on since 2006 and visited more than 1,000 places in that time frame.
- The red Camaro is never driven by Fieri. It is shipped top every location and Guy is only seen opening or closing the car door. It is his personal car worth over $100,000. The opening and closing clips you see of him driving it are from the first 2 years before they realized how valuable the car would be with all of it’s special features and customized engine.
- The restaurant owners never meet Guy ahead of time. They meet only with the producers to set everything up. They first meet when they are ready to film the on air segment. He does that so that everything comes off natural, spur of the moment and not pre set or rehearsed.
- It takes the crew two days to film the short segments. They do a lot of the interviews with customers, go over things with the chef and owner. On the day of filming, the people in the restaurants are specially invited by the owner.
- Owners have to submit a list of their best sellers and favorites to the producers. Then Guy goes over it and selects which dishes will be featured in the segment. All the ingredients for the dishes must be portioned out and ready for filming to save time.
- On every show, Guy makes sure that a child and his family from the Make-A-Wish Foundation are present and in the restaurant when they film the segment. He is very much involved with the foundation. That also holds true for his “Guy’s Grocery Games” show as well.
- Two things are never to be used on the show as Guy does not eat them and that is liver and eggs. Of course he realizes eggs are a part of recipes, but we are talking about eggs like at a breakfast.
- Because he will be sampling a lot of food during filming, Guy drinks lots of vegetable and fruit juices throughout the day to keep his energy level up. In some instances they will film segments in two or three restaurants in one day.
- Restaurant owners do not get paid to be on the show, they foot all the expenses necessary. However, the spike in business from an appearance can jump as much as 500% following an airing. Many see another spike in business if their segment happens to be on a rerun of the show.
- After filming is done, Guy will often give chefs some suggestions and ideas to make some dishes even better. He also tries to stay in touch with many of them and has invited many of them appear and compete on his “Guy’s Grocery Games” show over the years.
- There is a script you have to follow. Because the story arc is sculpted before by the producers before the production crew rolls in, there’s a tight script to follow. But Guy is known to improv and say things off-the-cuff to keep the show interesting. So the laughter, looks and reactions are all real.
- How do you tell if Guy really likes your food. Throughout the seasons, fans have learned how to decode Guy’s true feelings about a dish. The dead giveaway is whether or not he takes an immediate second bite, which is the unofficial sign of an A+ dish on the show.
- Don’t use Guy’s catchphrases. The best on-screen interactions are with chefs who can serve up witty banter right along with Guy. But mind his catchphrases, like “Flavortown” to “funkalicious.” Those are for the host to bust out when appropriate.
There is a lot more that goes into making this show a hit and we will post the link so you can see everything that takes place to make this show a success. The research and planning process take months, but once it’s time to shoot the show, the crew hits the road and films nonstop. Executive Producer David Page says that they usually shoot seven restaurants in every city that they visit. Needless to say this is one very busy crew and host.
For more go to: https://www.delish.com/restaurants/g33388878/diners-drive-ins-and-dives-restaurant-rules/?slide=34 Now, enjoy the show, we sure do.
Art Koch national Features & DVD Editor, NightMoves magazine and AAN
