Laban Johnson

Earl Laban Johnson Jr., is the creator and late host of Cookin' Cheap. He hosted the show alongside Larry Bly between 1981 to 1999. Johnson had experience with cooking on local TV shows, as well as poking good natured fun at a local, humorless host. Although he admired TV cooking show hosts such as Julia Child, he became frustrated when many of the ingredients her recipes called for were unavailable locally. It was from this he got the idea for his own cooking show, one in which all the ingredients could easily be obtained from any ordinary grocery store.