This Old House
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Template:Infobox television This Old House is a television program on the American public broadcast network PBS that follows remodeling projects of houses over a number of weeks.
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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 and Schlage locks. 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.
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. It was even able to survive a rift with the original host, Bob Vila, who left in 1989 following a dispute about doing commercials and created a similar show.
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 which was also called Ask This Old House. 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 on each episode receive a visit from a specialist from the show to get the project done in the field. There is a regular feature called "What Is It?" in which the regulars try to guess what an unusual tool does.
Trivia
This Old House was the inspiration for the American television situation comedy Home Improvement, in which Tim Allen played a Vila-like character.
The 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.
Cast (as of 2006)
- Norm Abram (Master carpenter)
- Roger Cook (Landscape contractor)
- Kevin O'Connor (Host)
- Tom Silva (General contractor)
- Richard Trethewey (Plumbing and HVAC)
Production team
- Russell Morash (Creator)
- Bruce Irving (Executive Producer)
- David Vos (Senior Producer and Director)
- Deborah Hood (Producer, This Old House)