From: Harv@cup.portal.com (Harv R Laser)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: This Old House (again)
Date: Wed,  7 Oct 92 16:32:53 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: world
  <718409078snx@apusapus.demon.co.uk>

[regarding impressions of seeing PBS' This Old House in the UK]

>The quality of the recording is much lower than we expect here. The image
>is slightly out of focus. This is unusual for any programme that has been
>bought in from a US production company. With the hegemony of American TV
>companies over our channels here means that we are used to seeing very high
>quality images despite the differences in our broadcast standards. WGBH (*)
>has provided many excellent productions here but this is way below their
>usual standards. This is particularly interesting given that this is going
>out on prime-time TV; however, the broadcasting company (Thames) recently
>lost its broadcasting franchise which might explain their acceptance of
>lower (technical) standards.

Well that's odd... I watch both This Old House and its sister program
(same producer, also comes out of WGBH Boston) New Yankee Workshop
every weekend, and in fact I watch both of them twice (different
episodes) because I get two different PBS (Public Broadcasting System)
channels on cable and each of them runs a NYW and then a TOH separated
by an hour) and I've never noticed any of the episodes of either show
to be "slightly out of focus." In fact in NYW, there are often
extreme closeups of various wood-working power tool settings and
pencil marks that Norm (master carpenter) has made on his lumber and
they are always crystal clear.  There must be some kind of 
denegration of the video quality going on as the show travels
to you folks in the UK. :shrug:

>The interplay between the (US) presenters is very amateurish, especially
>given that those guys had been doing the programme for sometime. To borrow
>a word from a well-known English Princess it is "Naff". The most
>professional one is the English builder; I think that he has appeared on
>British TV before---he comes across much better than the US crew.  The
>Brit doesn't appear to be scripted but his manner of presentation is very
>good. In comparison the US team are repeatnig things parrot fashion and
>their occasional off-the-cuff comments fall flat on the sidewalk. 

Steve Thomas, the new host, only joined the show what, a year ago
or so, replacing Bob Vila who was the host for many years. Vila
was ousted by the producers due to his rather close relationship
with Sears Roebuck & Co. (he had been doing tv commercials for them)
and he later surfaced on his OWN home building show called Bob
Vila's Home Again (which my local CBS station chooses to broadcast
at the ridiculous hour of 7:30am on Sunday mornings). 

Thomas is annoying, isn't he. His voice has a real sing-songy 
quality to it and often I find him downright embarassing to 
watch. He sometimes approaches his subject with a kind of 
Mr. Rogers' "Gee Whiz" lilt to his voice. On the other hand
Norm Abrams, the show's "Master Carpenter" (and the host of
New Yankee Workshop) I find a treat to watch and listen to.
He always has something interesting to say, and the man is absolutely
a Maestro of power tools. 

I have no idea if Thomas and Abrams are friends off the set or not,
but at times I get the feeling that Norm just puts up with 
Steve as though he really doesn't have much choice.
>
>However, I will continue to watch the remainder of the series (they are
>only showing four in total). I hope that we get to see more---so Charlton
>TV if you're reading this go buy more.
>
Saturday afternoon PBS television, at least in the Los Angeles
area, is packed with interesting "do it yourself" type shows.

Besides This Old House and New Yankee Workshop we also get
Motorweek - a half hour of car road tests and info
Hometime - a half hour of a male/female team doing various 
 homebuilding products
Frugal Gourmet - a half our with a host named Jeff who cooks up
 all kinds of interesting stuff and really makes cooking fun to
 watch, and he has a wonderful command of the English language.
Plus various and sundry other shows about drawing, painting, 
and other artsy-craftsy stuff. 

And the beauty of all these PBS shows is that they are shown
without commercials , although they all have "corporate sponsorship"
and somehow the corporate sponsors all seem to get to sneak
in longer and longer blurbs about their companies at the head and
tail of each show. 
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>Trevor Jenkins                                   Radio: G6AJG

Harv
TeeVee critic at large ;-)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv