Why, on-camera recipes? WHY? Here's your answer. Every page features step-by-step recipes illustrated with tiny television screens. The point, it seems, was to prove that if such a dish could be created under the harsh unblinking gaze of the camera, it could surely be done in one's own kitchen, away from the lights and commotion of a studio. Such was the trust of an age that believed the phrase "As Seen on TV!" conferred some sort of legitimacy on a product. Then again, so were the Watts riots and the Vietnam war.

They needed a camera on a dolly for those tracking action shots. You never knew when Gel-Cookery mayhem would break out, and when the man in the booth yelled CLOSE-UP! CLOSE-UP! you had damned well better be ready to roll.