This show has fallen from memory, but it was an attempt to address nutrition and consumer issues and it was produced by the Children's Television Workshop. Mac's Place was focal point of action for the show, but there were also musical interludes and sketches, in other words, the structure was similar to "Sesame Street". Two of the recurring characters were the cook who brown-bagged his lunch instead of eating at the diner and a perpetually sweaty middle-aged fellow who wore a warm-up suit in a vain attempt to get back into shape.
One customer came in to Mac's who did not care for his Mother-in-Law. After ordering a burger, he then went on to question the quality of the ingredients, all of which were sub par. He asked to make it "to go" and asked if he was going to eat it, he said no, he was going to give the burger to his Mother-In-Law.
One recurring segment had a person read out the actual ingredients on various malevolent foods, such as (I think) "Imitation Lemon Extract". He listed the ingredients, such as MSG, the various dyes, the sugar and the corn syrup and after reading it, he looked at the camera and said, "So, what did you expect? A lemon?" Joan Rivers was one of many cameos. She did a spot about buying used cars. She sang, "Roll out the mileage!" and honked the horn and then talked about signs of tampering, such as the tenth number on the odometer jiggling. This merited a rebuke from my older brother who said that odometers didn't have ten numbers (it is, of course, the number that increments by tenths of a mile). Another segment had a person tell what was wrong with EVERY part of a burger and fries and after lambasting it, he said, "So, what can you eat on this plate? The parsley!"
Also, they ran several faux ads for their stereotypical bad fast-food chain, "Bun and Run" ("You have won/At Bun and Run!")
Songs that I can recall were an ode to walking (as opposed to jogging), "Depreciation Blues", "Supermarket Rag"("It's a pain in the shopping bag!") and "Too Many People I Love"("'cause there's just too many people I love/Too many people that matter to me/Not to take care, not to be sure, not to dream of/'cause there's just too many people I love"). One of the composers listed on the show (and one of the major reasons I watched) was Stephen Schwartz ("Wicked", "Godspell") A great show, which went off far too early.
One customer came in to Mac's who did not care for his Mother-in-Law. After ordering a burger, he then went on to question the quality of the ingredients, all of which were sub par. He asked to make it "to go" and asked if he was going to eat it, he said no, he was going to give the burger to his Mother-In-Law.
One recurring segment had a person read out the actual ingredients on various malevolent foods, such as (I think) "Imitation Lemon Extract". He listed the ingredients, such as MSG, the various dyes, the sugar and the corn syrup and after reading it, he looked at the camera and said, "So, what did you expect? A lemon?" Joan Rivers was one of many cameos. She did a spot about buying used cars. She sang, "Roll out the mileage!" and honked the horn and then talked about signs of tampering, such as the tenth number on the odometer jiggling. This merited a rebuke from my older brother who said that odometers didn't have ten numbers (it is, of course, the number that increments by tenths of a mile). Another segment had a person tell what was wrong with EVERY part of a burger and fries and after lambasting it, he said, "So, what can you eat on this plate? The parsley!"
Also, they ran several faux ads for their stereotypical bad fast-food chain, "Bun and Run" ("You have won/At Bun and Run!")
Songs that I can recall were an ode to walking (as opposed to jogging), "Depreciation Blues", "Supermarket Rag"("It's a pain in the shopping bag!") and "Too Many People I Love"("'cause there's just too many people I love/Too many people that matter to me/Not to take care, not to be sure, not to dream of/'cause there's just too many people I love"). One of the composers listed on the show (and one of the major reasons I watched) was Stephen Schwartz ("Wicked", "Godspell") A great show, which went off far too early.
