A Shark Bite by Any Other Name: Van de Kamp's and Mrs. Paul's Shark Bites (Ep 77)

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What’s in a name? Part two (see episode 76). If the name is Van de Kamp’s or Mrs. Paul’s and we’re talkin’ shark bites, the name doesn’t really matter. This week, this Shark Week: Van de Kamp’s and Mrs. Paul’s Shark Bites.

The story: Van de Kamp's traces its origin back to a 1915 Los Angeles potato chip stand. Mrs. Paul's starts in Philly in 1946 with the infamous leftover crab cakes. Two totally different brands that, decades of corporate acquisitions later, land in the exact same place.

Plus: Chow mein and fries. Jameson vs Jameson. Max’s bouncer fantasy. Jumping the shark emotions, and the surprisingly complicated question of how sharks actually reproduce. Candygram!

In the closing segment: "Let It Go or Keep It, Bro" (or whatever we call it now) returns with frozen shark gummies, a candy that was never meant to see the inside of a freezer.

watch this episode

FROST BITES

The Denny’s That Saved Van de Kamp’s Last Stand. Long before the freezer aisle, Van de Kamp’s was a West Coast bakery empire with 320 locations, each crowned with a giant 40-foot blue windmill. When the bakery went under in 1990, almost every windmill was torn down except one on a Denny’s in Arcadia, California, saved by local outrage. Bonus info: co-founder Lawrence Frank also created Lawry’s Seasoned Salt. So if your fish sticks taste good, thank a 100-year-old potato chip guy.

Holy Mackerel! Mrs. Paul’s founder, Edward Piszek, the self-proclaimed Fishcake King, had a wild résumé. He bought Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips in 1979, which sparked instant franchisee mutiny, but his personal life was even bigger. A dedicated philanthropist, Piszek was close personal friends with Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, better known as Pope John Paul II. Moving from frozen barroom freezer case to the Vatican is quite the career arc.

Megalomistep. Shark Week hasn't always stuck to science. In 2013, Discovery kicked off the week with Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives, a completely fake "docufiction" special using paid actors as scientists to claim the extinct predator was still alive. Marine biologists went nuclear, and the massive backlash forced Discovery to publicly pledge off fake docs by 2015.

Stopping by Air Fryer. When Darren dropped "give something a shake to see if there is some mistake" mid-air-fryer debate, he was channeling Robert Frost’s 1923 poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. (He gives his harness bells a shake / To ask if there is some mistake). Literary scholars interpret the poem as a quiet flirtation with death—a pretty dramatic backdrop for deciding whether to shake or flip your fish nuggets. Bonus conspiracy: Frost's very next line is "the sweep of easy wind and downy flake." Hmm, suspiciously close to Downyflake waffles from last episode's Froze or Fake game. Zero coincidences, right?

Monday, Tuesday, Happy Days. "Jumping the Shark" comes from a 1977 Happy Days episode where Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli literally water-skis over a caged shark in his leather jacket. According to Ron Howard, co-star Donny Most read the script and muttered, "He's jumping a shark now?" The phrase circulated for years before jumptheshark.com launched in 1997 to catalog TV’s worst stunts. (RIP to the website, which TV Guide bought and killed off years ago.) Dropping an episode about eating shark-shaped fish nuggets during Shark Week isn’t a stunt for us though; that’s just the way we (barrel) roll. (Check out page 6 in that link for a sick flip.)

YOUR COLD CUTS

What's your go-to dip or sauce for fish sticks? Someone tell Darren he’s not alone in hating tartar sauce.

Great white or hammerhead? Which shape do you eat first?

And most importantly, how do you pronounce Jameson’s? We’re siding up! Hit us up on the Let's Chill page and let us know!

ENJOYING THE POD?

BUY US A COLD ONE

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