Last Call: Alton Brown's Good Eats Returns In August

Everyone favorite bespectacled TV scientist—no wait, second-favorite—returns to Food Network with Good Eats The Return on August 25. It's been two years since Brown announced the show's comeback, making it five years since the original Good Eats went off the air.

What is it America loves about Good Eats? It was 1999 when the show premiered on Food Network, and its food science-meets-practical home cooking approach, plus the unorthodox cinematography (camera in oven, or a continuous, tracking one-shot take) made for food television that resembled few other shows. These days, with The Food Lab and Modernist Cuisine, the scientifically rigorous cooking angle is covered, but Good Eats was undoubtedly a mainstream pioneer.

Beyond the nerdiness, the show was chock full of practicality. Take his tips for French toast: why to use stale bread (and just how long "staling" bread really takes), the advantages to setting custard overnight, and why he recommends pan-frying before baking. Or his suggestion of making popcorn in a metal bowl instead of a pot, because the rounded sides push cooked popcorn up the side, rather than stay on the bottom and possibly get scorched.

As we await the show's return, the original full episodes are on YouTube for $1.99 each.