Phil Rosenthal on His First ‘Somebody Feed Phil’ Food Poisoning, Where He Wants to Go in Season 5
Phil Rosenthal is proud to say he made it through three seasons of “Somebody Feed Phil” without ever once getting food poisoning. But the “Everybody Loves Raymond” creator can no longer boast about that achievement after the Friday launch of Season 4 the Netflix docuseries, in which Rosenthal details his “bouge-gush” experience — as he puts it — while shooting the San Fransisco episode.
“That is the first time in all our travels that that’s happened,” the “Somebody Feed Phil” host told TheWrap. “And it’s dangerous for the show because if I can’t work, there is no show. And we’re there and we have a week. And I could be out the whole. Luckily, I was out for a day.”
In Season 4, Phil hits up San Fransisco, Hawaii, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore and the Mississippi Delta, and he’s been to other domestic and exotic locales like Marrakesh, London, Seoul, New York City, Venice, Buenos Aires, Bangkok, New Orleans and Tel Aviv, just to name a few.
“Of all the places I’ve been, I’ve been all over the world now, I’ve been to many places where you would go, ‘I can’t believe he’s trying that off the street cart, who knows how clean that is.’ And I never got food poisoning once. And where do I get it? In an American city,” Rosenthal told TheWrap.
“Somebody Feed Phil” producer Richard Rosenthal did not make the experience easy on his star, forcing him to get on a boat the next day — but he has a personal reason for being so rough on him.
“He’s an a–hole, that’s why,” Rosenthal said. “He’s the best producer in the world. He happens to be my brother, so he laughs when I’m in pain.”
Also Read: 'Somebody Feed Phil': Phil Rosenthal Tells Us What Nobody Can Feed Him
As TheWrap previously reported, Seasons 3 and 4 of “Somebody Feed Phil” were shot back to back, with the third season launching May 29 after production was completed on both installments in January. All of this was before the world was rocked by the coronavirus pandemic. And though the show has yet to be renewed for a Season 5, the Los Angeles-based Rosenthal says he thinks about where he’d like to go for possible future episodes “all the time.”
“Life is only worth it if you have stuff to look forward to, right? So I’m looking forward to traveling some more, hopefully doing more episodes of this show, which is my passion and my love in life. And I’m so grateful that the people like it, and hopefully I get to do more. I haven’t been to India yet, that’s huge. I’ve go to go there. I haven’t been to Australia yet or New Zealand. In Asia, I haven’t been to mainland China or Shanghai. I haven’t been to Moscow on the show, that would be interesting. There’s a lot. In America, I haven’t done Philadelphia or Boston or Portland. All of these great food cities in America.”
Should “Somebody Feed Phil” get picked up for a fifth season by Netflix, Rosenthal tells us if “COVID is still a factor” he has “absolutely thought about how we incorporate it.”
“I think the show might have to now be called, ‘Somebody Feed Phil al Fresco,’ to take the safety into consideration. But you can still explore many different cultures and meet people and stay safe at the same time. And if that’s the world we’re in, that’s what we should address. People should not be afraid and sit in their houses, there’s ways to do it safely.”
“Somebody Feed Phil” Season 4 is streaming now on Netflix.