Dinner for Five

Dinner For Five

Cover of 1st Season DVD
Created by Jon Favreau
Starring Jon Favreau
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes 48
Production
Running time 30 minutes
Release
Original network IFC
Original release July 6, 2001 – June 24, 2005

Dinner for Five was a television program in which actor/filmmaker Jon Favreau (Swingers, Made, Iron Man) and a revolving guest list of celebrities eat, drink and talk about life on and off the set and swap stories about projects past and present. The program seats screen legends next to a variety of personalities from film, television, music and comedy, resulting in an unpredictable free-for-all. The program aired on the Independent Film Channel with Favreau the co-Executive Producer with Peter Billingsley.

Format

The show format was a spontaneous, open forum for people in the entertainment community. The idea, originally conceived by Favreau, originated from a time when he went out to dinner with colleagues on a film location and exchanged filming anecdotes. Favreau said, "I thought it would be interesting to show people that side of the business".[1] He did not want to present them in a "sensationalized way [that] they're presented in the press, but as normal people".[1] The format featured Favreau and four guests from the entertainment industry in a restaurant with no other diners. They ordered actual food from real menus and were served by authentic waiters. There were no cue cards or previous research on the participants that would have allowed him to orchestrate the conversation and the guests were allowed to talk about whatever they wanted. The show used five cameras with the operators using long lenses so that they could be at least ten feet away from the table and not intrude on the conversation or make the guests self-conscious. The conversations lasted until the film ran out. A 25-minutes episode would be edited from the two-hour dinner.[1] (The one exception to the standard format was Favreau having a conversation with Martin Scorsese, done in a more traditional interview style.)

The show was canceled by IFC in favor of The Henry Rollins Show because the network felt that "four years in, we needed to make a change, and we needed to make a bold statement."[2]

Netflix and the Independent Film Channel produced a special 50th episode of Dinner for Five, which premiered on IFC February 1, 2008 and is available on Netflix starting February 4, 2008. The 50th episode features Favreau and Vaughn, as well as Peter Billingsley, Justin Long and Keir O'Donnell, who appear in Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show.

A DVD was released by Fox Lorber in 2004 of the complete first season. Subsequent DVDs were released by Fairview Entertainment in 2007 as "manufactured on demand when ordered from Amazon" discs. The Fairview DVDs aren't programmed as complete season, but under the aegis of "Jon Favreau presents his 10 most memorable moments/segments" from the series. These bear the titles "Favreau's Favorites", "Best Directors", "On The Road" and "Producer's Picks".

Guests

References

  1. 1 2 3 Pogrebin, Robin (April 14, 2002). "So Five Actors Go Into a Restaurant...". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-01-20.
  2. ↑ Aurthur, Kate (June 11, 2006). "IFC Steps Up Its Commitment to Original Programming". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-01-20.
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