Customer Reviews

"This brought up a lot of emotions for me. It's a very good documentary. The documentary was started about 4± years ago. Long. In-depth. A lot of background. Some things are repetitive. I think it could've been tightened to maybe 3 or 4 episodes. It does give insight into the man. Unfortunately, only 1 family member agreed to be interviewed. Neither of his children were interviewed. The absence of his children from his life and this documentary is stark and, to me, exceptionally sad. There were interviews of several of his victims as well as the reporters who reported on the scandals and alleged crimes. "Alleged" because the statute of limitations had expired for those crimes. His assistant, "Craig," with whom he co-authored and gave co-billing on one book/series, was not interviewed. The assistant who was hired after Craig's departure was interviewed. I wonder where his children stand in all this. A deeply troubled man with a very complicated legacy."

"Fairly and equally represented sides of a sad story. So many lives ruined, and for what?"

"Very well done. Neutral approach. Told by those who knew him the best for better or for worse. I purchased because I support independent projects that deserve attention. I hope there is another in the pipeline."

"This documentary was fair to both sides. At no time were the accusers lessened as victims, nor was the subject glorified as above the law. I remember watching The Frugal Gourmet but do not remember this "scandal" at all, probably due to my age (19) at the time."

"I watched the entire series (something I rarely do). It was fascinating, easy to watch, well shot, nice lighting, interesting & reasonable friends/ reviewers. The film left us too draw our own conclusions. I felt depressed afterwords, that such a fascinating & enthusiastic person was so oppressed by the times that he had to resort to immoral acts on teens. I remember Jeff from UOP. I can still recall his voice in my mind. Glad to see the film, interesting times. No excuse for his behavior, but interesting to see the responses to his conviction. His fandom couldn’t accept that he had done anything wrong."

"showed the story from before he was famous through his work success"

"I thoroughly enjoyed this documentary!!! It really showed you the conflict of knowing someone a watching them for so may years and then finding out the truth! It was very, very sad. Hoping Chris makes some more of these for us to enjoy!"

"The documentary was good but long. Everything was covered from the beginning to the end. The doc answered many questions for me."

"I’d watched the Frugal Gourmet as a kid and was curious how & why it went away. That curiosity, some 50 years later, has been assuaged by this thorough and thoughtful documentary. A sad reality whose relevance in today’s world is that those with wealth & power aren’t faced with the same rule of law as those without. We’ve known that but it leaches out in our society in far larger amounts now than in the past. Thanks for a revealing documentary about Jeff Smith. What’s the next project?"

"This was an excellent documentary! I honestly had no idea about Jeff Smith's downfall. Very interesting information and commentary from people who worked with him and (unfortunately) those who were victimized by him."

"Really enjoyed this docuseries (binge watched in one afternoon). Production quality seemed exceptionally high; if I were told it was a Netflix series I wouldn’t have doubted. Pacing of the story was really well assembled and kept my attention nicely. I’m a millennial and while I have seen pictures of Jeff Smith I never knew too much about him so I found the content very appealing. Overall 10/10. Hope there’s more in the pipeline! The only critical feedback I have is that it would have been nice to have an app to stream through (Roku in my case) but I assume that would be time consuming and prohibitively costly for just one piece of content. The AirPlay workaround performed just fine for me and still was a pretty low barrier to entry. - Randy"

"Having grown up watching the Frugal Gourmet, it was difficult to hear about the allegations against Jeff Smith, because I enjoyed his show so much. What is even more difficult is to hear him justify his actions by hiding behind his so-called “Godliness” while ruining the lives of young men. This was a very well done documentary, and I loved hearing both sides of the controversy. Kudos!!"