Popular Mechanics:
Vila’s job was that of a new kind of storyteller. On This Old House, the iconic home-renovation program he hosted from 1979 to 1989 that continues today on PBS and has won seventeen Emmys, he had a unique role: to describe, to kneel and peer into a crawl space with a flashlight, to pull at the decaying lath, to illustrate the dangers of moving forward with the work. To translate detail and describe the difficulties contractors, and homeowners, sometimes faced.
Throughout This Old House, Vila leaned in on the personality, capability, and vision of the tradesmen and contractors who came to each worksite. Bob Vila’s interview subjects were always real, sometimes odd; Vila was always Bob. He shared the camera with them wisely. They were often older, somehow wizened, had regional accents, and offered up hard-won, homespun lessons. This was the furthest reach of reality television back then, and Vila was well suited to it.
How many of you are old enough to remember Bob Vila? As a kid, I loved his version of “This Old House” (I never liked the episodes after he left) even though I have no skill or even interest in construction or carpentry. Vila made it seem effortless and easy.
I actually like the post Villa This Old House better. Villa was definitely one of the pioneers, though.
New Yankee Workshop is Norm Abram, but I agree that tool selection used in those projects is amusingly far beyond the means of non-professional craftsmen.
I stand corrected, Bob was the Builder, and Norm Abrams was the master carpenter.
Vila helped create a variety of reality television I rarely got tired of, even when it profiled homeowners who had more money than sense.
The shop was actually the personal shop of the show’s creator, Russell Morash. And yes, the power tool companies were major sponsors and expected that their gear would be featured. Norm sometimes offered alternate methods that didn’t use specialized, expensive, equipment.
Then, of course, there were the rec.woodworking flame wars between the “Normites” and the Neanderthals!
I always appreciated “This Old House,” having lived in four of ’em, (still in #4, a brick ranch, circa. 1967) and would often watch the show with my dad. Bob Vila gave the show it’s soul, and solid expertise. But being solidly middle-working class, we were often unimpressed with some of the indulgent makeovers and their several hundred thousand dollar budgets. “We’ll be replacing these beams with custom cut redwood timbers from northern California.” Harrumph. We’ll be using pine 4×8’s from Home Depot.
But Norm Abrams follow-up show “New Yankee Workshop” was a little disheartening. Behind his unassuming little cape house was a Hangar sized barn of a workshop with every bench and power tool known to man, supplied by Stanley, DeWalt, Black & Decker, and the shows other sponsors. He could build a freaking Armoire in an afternoon. “We’ll just take this to the offset reciprocating joiner… ”
Sum BITCH… I’ve got a sabre saw and hand chisels here!
LOL I used to make the same joke about Norm’s show “Today on New Yankee Workshop I use my newest $5000 toy to make something…”
The early years of TOH were the best, because they focused on stuff we could do in our own houses, not the hugely expensive makeovers they’re airing today.
(also my old house:1954..gotcha beat! 🙂
After Bob left the show turned into an endless commercial for gentrification by high priced contractors on high priced restorations sold to gentrification a-holes.
I remember the earilest seasons of This Old House. In the first season, Bob spent most of his on-screen time talking to experts in particular tasks. In each successive season Bob, having learned from those experts, was demonstrating them more and more himself. The building of his own expertise in front of our eyes was as fascinating as the work done on the homes themselves.
Great show. I wish they would bring back the older episodes on iTunes or Amazon or even PBS Video. It think I read somewhere you can subscribe to some of the older seasons of TOH, NYW & ATOH, but don’t know the cost, quality, sans commercials, etc.
If you join the This Old House Insider program on the This Old House website you can see the whole back catalogue. It’s not bad. The cost is around $80 a year which isn’t cheap, but I enjoy supporting the show.