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'''This Old House''' is a magazine and television program which is aired on the American public broadcast network PBS that follows remodeling projects of houses over a number of weeks.

Contents

Overview

History

''Ask This Old House''

''Inside This Old House''

Cast

Current cast

Previous hosts

Production team

Trivia

External links

Overview

''This Old House'' and its sister series ''Ask This Old House'' are often broadcast together as ''The This Old House Hour'' (originally known as ''The New This Old House Hour''). Both shows are owned by This Old House Ventures, Inc. and are underwritten by GMC and The Home Depot. ''This Old House'' is also underwritten by Andersen Windows, and State Farm Insurance. ''Ask This Old House'' is also underwritten by Toro lawnmowers/snowblowers and Bellawood Floors, a division of Lumber Liquidators. Other underwriters throughout the show's tenure included Parks Corporation (featuring its line of Carver Tripp paint thinners/sealants/wood stains and treaments), Glidden paints, Ace Hardware, and Kohler plumbing.
The third series to share the name is ''Inside This Old House'', a retrospective featuring highlights from previous episodes. Old episodes are also shown under the program name ''This Old House Classics'' and were formerly shown on The Learning Channel under the name ''The Renovation Guide''. Only the episodes with original host Bob Vila aired under that name. As of 2006, ''Classics'' is also carried on the commercial non-broadcast DIY Network.

History

Begun in 1979 as a one-time, 13-part series on the Boston PBS station WGBH, it has grown into one of the most popular programs on the network. It has produced spin-offs (notably ''The New Yankee Workshop'' hosted by Norm Abram), a magazine and for-profit web sites.
In its earlier seasons, the series focused on renovating older houses, including those of modest size and value, with the homeowners doing some of the work, as a form of sweat equity. The series covering the renovation of the Weatherby house became something of a cult classic because of an escalating dispute between the hosts, Vila and Abram, and the homeowners over the direction the project was taking. Vila remarked at the end of the Weatherby series that the owners could have contributed more "sweat equity." As the show evolved, it began to focus on higher-end, luxury homes with more of the work done by expert contractors and tradespeople.
Bob Vila, the original host, left in 1989 following a dispute about doing commercials and created a similar show called ''Bob Vila's Home Again''.
Steve Thomas took over hosting duties after Vila's departure, remaining with the program from 1989 to 2003. Kevin O'Connor is the current host. Before O'Connor joined the cast, he was a homeowner who appeared on ''Ask This Old House'' having problems with wallpaper removal.

''Ask This Old House''

''Ask This Old House'' began in 2002 and was spun off from a section of ''This Old House Magazine'' of the same name. Readers of the magazine or viewers of the show submit questions about various home repair or improvement projects, which are answered by the experts. The regulars on the show are O'Connor, Tom Silva, Richard Trethewey and Roger Cook. Guest experts appear to answer more specialized questions. The show takes place in "the loft" of a rural barn somewhere in the Boston area. Most of the questions are answered in the loft, but one or two homeowners in each episode receive a visit from one of the show's three tradesmen, who assist in either starting or completing the task with the homeowners' help. There is also a feature entitled "What Is It?" in which three of the four regulars try to guess what an unusual tool is used for. The adjudicating fourth regular reveals the actual use.
The opening credits feature a pick-up truck towing the blue ''Ask This Old House'' trailer around Boston and rural Massachusetts before reaching its final destination, the barn. The short, twenty-five-second version shows Silva, the passenger, picking up four coffees from a drive-through, while the driver in the longer, forty-second version is shown to be O'Connor. In both versions, after pulling into the driveway beside the barn, the footage cuts to Cook handing out the coffees to the other three regulars.
Prior to O'Connor's installation as host, the driver was Thomas, the host for the show's first year.

''Inside This Old House''

The most recent spin-off of the ''This Old House'' franchise is ''Inside This Old House''. It is shown primarily on the A&E Network. The show is very much like ''Ask This Old House'': it is shot mainly in the "loft", hosted by O'Connor and features the regular experts listed above and also Abram (master carpenter). However, unlike ''Ask This Old House'', usually one or two experts are used throughout the episode and a specific theme is discussed. The theme is usually a particular topic (i.e. landscaping, installing doors, etc). Along with the in-house expert, and sometimes a guest expert, clips are shown of past episodes of ''This Old House'' (mainly the original episodes with Vila) to further illustrate the point, as well as revisiting past projects undertaken over the previous twenty-five years to see what the homeowners have done since airing. A segment called "Inside Out" features one of two guest commentators (Jimmy Dunn or Doreen Vigue), or one of the experts, with a brief and comedic overview of what was discussed on the show.

Cast

Current cast

As of 2007, the cast is as follows:

★ Norm Abram (Master carpenter)

★ Roger Cook (Landscape contractor)

★ Kevin O'Connor (Host)

★ Tom Silva (General contractor)

★ Richard Trethewey (Plumbing and HVAC)

Previous hosts

★ Bob Vila

★ Steve Thomas

Production team

As of 2007, the television production team is as follows:

★ Russell Morash (Creator)

★ David Vos (Senior Producer and Director)

★ Deborah Hood (Producer, ''This Old House'')

★ Chris Wolf (Producer, ''Ask This Old House'')

Trivia

★ The original theme song for ''This Old House'' was "Louisiana Fairy Tale", composed by Haven Gillespie, Mitchell Parish and J. Fred Coots and performed by early 20th-century jazz artist Fats Waller. The theme song was changed after This Old House Ventures acquired the series from WGBH. The current theme song is "This Old House '97" composed by Peter Bell.

★ ''This Old House'' was the inspiration for the ''Tool Time'' show-within-a-show on the American television situation comedy ''Home Improvement'', in which Tim Allen played a Vila-like character. Bob Vila also guest stars in ''Home Improvement'' as Tim's rival and archenemy. A secondary character on the series, Al Borland, is also based on Norm Abram.

★ Seattle's skit comedy show ''Almost Live'' did a parody called "This Here Place".

★ Fox's ''In Living Color'' also ran a parody titled "This Old Box" which starred Damon Wayans.

★ The Disney Channel's ''Mickey Mouse Club'' did a parody called "This Old Home", which featured a house with wood, bricks, and so forth, made out of candy.

★ ''Saturday Night Live'' has parodied ''This Old House'' occasionally, notably in a 2004 episode with Liam Neeson and a 1989 episode with John Larroquette.

External links

★ ''This Old House'' official website

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