Like so many episodes of shows I recently noted that have not been seen in decades (here in fifty-one years), I have no real knowledge of what the show was like. However, I can explain what it is about.
In the age of Theodore Roosevelt, the American public rarely discussed the standards of food preparation that faced daily. Food could not be refrigerated in most homes, unless there was some type of ice box - wherein you had to purchase blocks of ice to slow down deterioration. Most people could not afford this. There was also the question of what got into the food. Certain poisons frequently were put into food to improve the food's appearance.
The first time the public really became aware of these issues was in 1906. That year the novelist Upton Sinclair wrote his classic novel about the meat packing industry, THE JUNGLE. It had a powerful effect on the American public. President Roosevelt was reading it, when supposedly his breakfast was served, including some nice pork sausage. Roosevelt got so disgusted he threw the plate of sausage out of the window.
William Allan White (the editor of the Emporia Gazette of Kansas - and model for Joel Barlow Stone in TEACHER'S PET) spurred national attention to the slow poisoning we had from our food. He was assisted by Dr. Harvey Wiley, who helped push the legislation known as the Hepburn Act of 1906, which is known the Pure Food and Drug Act. That is the beginning of the higher standards for our foods and medicines that we supposedly have now.
In the age of Theodore Roosevelt, the American public rarely discussed the standards of food preparation that faced daily. Food could not be refrigerated in most homes, unless there was some type of ice box - wherein you had to purchase blocks of ice to slow down deterioration. Most people could not afford this. There was also the question of what got into the food. Certain poisons frequently were put into food to improve the food's appearance.
The first time the public really became aware of these issues was in 1906. That year the novelist Upton Sinclair wrote his classic novel about the meat packing industry, THE JUNGLE. It had a powerful effect on the American public. President Roosevelt was reading it, when supposedly his breakfast was served, including some nice pork sausage. Roosevelt got so disgusted he threw the plate of sausage out of the window.
William Allan White (the editor of the Emporia Gazette of Kansas - and model for Joel Barlow Stone in TEACHER'S PET) spurred national attention to the slow poisoning we had from our food. He was assisted by Dr. Harvey Wiley, who helped push the legislation known as the Hepburn Act of 1906, which is known the Pure Food and Drug Act. That is the beginning of the higher standards for our foods and medicines that we supposedly have now.
