Jump to content

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 65.25.53.42 (talk) at 01:02, 1 October 2007. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
File:ExMakeLogo large.gif
StarringTy Pennington
Paul DiMeo
Paige Hemmis
Tracy Hutson
Daniel Kucan
Tanya McQueen
Michael Moloney
Constance Ramos
Ed Sanders
Preston Sharp
Eduardo Xol
John Littlefield
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes95 (to date, including After the Storm episodes)
(list of episodes)
Production
ProducerEndemol
Running time43 minutes per episode 17 minutes of commercial
Original release
NetworkABC
ReleaseDecember 3, 2003 (television special); February 15, 2004 (regular series) –
present

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is an Emmy Award-winning ABC reality television series that began broadcasting on November 3, 2003 as a special and as a regular television series since February 15, 2004 (the show also broadcast on People + Arts in Latin America), in which a family's house, including all rooms, exterior and landscaping, is made over by a team of builders and designers in seven days while the family goes off on vacation. It is a spinoff of Extreme Makeover. The series is a production of Endemol USA (the people behind Big Brother, Fear Factor, Deal or No Deal, and other reality shows) in association with Disney/Buena Vista's Greengrass Productions.

The show is one of ABC's top-rated series and has become more popular than the original Extreme Makeover. The fifth season of the show premiered on September 30,2007. [1] Series reruns began airing on TV Land on August 7, 2007.

The show is hosted by Ty Pennington, formerly a carpenter on the show Trading Spaces. It is sponsored by Sears (and their properties, Craftsman and Kenmore), for which Pennington serves as a spokesman and which are prominently featured in the episodes. The series is devoted to rebuilding families' homes when the family is in need of new hope. Some scenes were staged, including the Muppets as guest-stars. During the 2005–2006 season they went to areas hit by Hurricane Katrina.

The show also had a series of specials that later became a regular series during the 2004–2005 television season entitled Extreme Makeover Home Edition: How’d They Do That? It was a short-lived spinoff of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that featured extra behind-the-scenes footage of what had happened in that week's episode.

International versions have also aired, in Greece, Scandinavia, and later this year, Mexico. In the UK (shown on UKTV Style & Five), the network removes a number of segments that would contravene product placement laws including shots of store signs and product manufacturers, if it is unable to edit these out - they are blurred. The audio feed is also edited to bleep, fade or remove unnecessary mentions of manufacturers or suppliers whilst leaving references to the house builder, main furniture supplier and kitchen supplier (if different). EndemolUK's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition UK is also in pre-production.[2]

Format

The majority of episodes are one hour; however, in some instances (mainly if complications are involved) the episode will be a two-parter and will start at 7 PM Eastern Time (one hour ahead of its normal 8 PM Eastern Time slot).

Most shows in the first three seasons begin with a shot of Ty in the team's bus saying "I'm Ty Pennington, and the renovation starts right NOW!" The exception is those episodes which feature a guest host in his place. In the fourth season, the show set a goal of visiting all fifty of the United States. In this season, the opening shot is of Ty in a location iconic of the state the episode was in, and a declaration of what state the episode is in is added to the tagline. Then, the chosen family is briefly profiled; their nomination video is shown to the team (and to the television audience). Ty then brings the team together in a huddle and leads them in a chant of ":Let's DO IT!" Next, Ty and the design team visit the family's home and proceed to give the family a "wake-up call" (courtesy of Ty's infamous bullhorn) by shouting "Good Morning {family's name}!" The team will then go throughout the house, finding out about the family's interests as design inspiration.

The family will then be sent off on a one-week vacation (where applicable, airfare is provided by Southwest Airlines, whose involvement is noted at the end of the show) while the house is renovated or demolished, depending on its condition and the family's needs. (One episode in season three did not include a vacation because the family's daughter was in isolation at a local hospital). Beginning with Season 3 the demolitions have become quite creative -- the team has used falling trees, tanks, and even monster trucks to accomplish the task where needed.

A local home builder (sometimes two builders) and community volunteers begin basic work (electrical, plumbing, roofing, and if the house is demolished framing a new one) while the design team begins designing the creative aspects of the house. Once the basic work is completed, the design team then will add the finishing touches. Ty selects a portion of the house to be his "Secret Room" (except in the case when the secret project takes place in the backyard), which no one is allowed to view prior to final reveal (with one exception in Season 4, which involved a commercial kitchen; the health inspector had to approve the kitchen and issue the permit before it could be used). Shows often feature design team members making a trip to a local Sears store as well as special guest appearances.

At the end of the week, the family returns to their home, to see cheering crowds and the view of their home blocked by a bus (for larger projects, two buses block the home). When Ty and the family give the order, originally "Bus driver, Hit It!" and later "Bus driver, move that bus!!" (or "those buses!!"), the family sees the end result of the team's efforts. Ty's "secret room" is usually the last item featured on the show. Often a child's bedroom (usually to a special-needs patient), the parent's master bedroom, or a business, the room receives Ty's special attention. Some episodes feature special gifts given to the family by outside parties.

Cast

File:Tv extreme makeover home edition tyy.jpg
Ty Pennington being interviewed during the episode with the Muppets

Spin-off

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How'd They Do That? was a short-lived spinoff that featured extra behind-the-scenes footage of what had happened in that week's episode.

Criticism

The show has been criticized for glorifying excessive suburban lifestyles, such as in a Mother Jones article that questioned giving a 6-bedroom, 7-bath, 7-television house to a family of 4.[3] The article did not mention that the house is a functioning bed and breakfast inn.

In an e-mail sent March 10, 2006, from an ABC employee to network affiliates, the program's casting agent details the exact kind of tragedies and rare illnesses being sought.[4]

Five children have a lawsuit against ABC after they were evicted by the family that had taken them in before the show came to renovate their house. The five kids “say that the producers took advantage of the family’s hard-luck story and promised them new cars and other prizes to persuade them to participate in the program,” according to the LA Times. On July 17,2007, Judge Paul Gutman ruled against the siblings stating that the plaintiffs failed to prove their case. [5][6]


Questions arose when Theresa "Momi" Akana was picked for the Extreme Makeover program for Hawaii. The Honolulu Advertiser investigated their tax records and found out that both she and her husband made over $100,000 each in salary. Denise Cramsey, the executive producer of the show, responded with "I think Momi certainly fits the bill." She defended the pick, stating that they look beyond financial situation, and look into other factors, including family plight and contributions to the community.[7]

  • A skit on Sesame Street featuring Grover and Fat Blue was called Outrageous Makeover: Home Addition. The skit featured Grover (with a megaphone, à la Ty) and his construction crew adding as many as four front doors to Fat Blue's house (without him even wanting it), then eventually removing all of them, including the original one.
  • Saturday Night Live did a spoof of the show, which mocked the fact that many of the show's chosen families have health problems.
  • Mad TV also did a spoof on the show, and the family's house looked like a teacup.
  • On the episode Hook Up My Space of the show That's So Raven, Ty was replaced with a person named Sly, who had a television show called Hook Up My Space and did construction on people's houses.
  • At the end of the film Wild Hogs, a fake episode is shown, where Ty and his team build a new bar for the Del Fuegos, which exploded in the film. This was done completely in Extreme Makeover: Home Edition style, including interviews with both the film's characters and the team.
  • In "The Boondocks" episode The Real, the Freemans (mostly Riley Freeman) trick the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition team into renovating their house by pretending that Granddad is both blind and running a homeless shelter out of his house.

See also

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ http://www.childliverdisease.org/news?id=104
  3. ^ "This New House". Mother Jones. March 2005. Retrieved 2007-06-04. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition recently gave a 6-bedroom, 7-bath, 7-television house to a family of 4.
  4. ^ "ABC's "Extreme" Exploitation". The Smoking Gun. March 27, 2006. Retrieved 2007-06-04. Makeover show loves sick kids, cancer patients, hate crime victims {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Dehnart, Andy (August 11, 2005). "Orphans sue ABC, family over Extreme Makeover: Home Edition episode". Reality Blurred. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "Judge rejects `Extreme Makeover' lawsuit".
  7. ^ Fassler, Kim (July 2, 2007). "'Makeover' home recipient earns $100K". Honolulu Advertiser. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Extreme_Makeover:_Home_Edition&oldid=161435040"