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Archive through May 25, 2004

The TVClubHouse: Other Reality Shows: Archives for 2004-1: Colonial House - Starts May 17th - PBS: Archive through May 25, 2004 users admin

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Lurknomore
Member

07-07-2001

Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 12:47 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Seems to me this show is ending just about the time I'm figuring most (not all lol) of it out. For them to spend 4 months and have it shown so quickly with such poor explaination just doesn't seem right. When I tuned in I assumed it would be a series not just a couple shows. Those folks sure went through a lot for us to get a little.

I was thinking about it and I think one of the reasons it doesn't seem real is that folks are talking so much about how different their real lives would be that they aren't taking a lot of the 17th century stuff seriously IMHO. Like those horrid scarlett letters. They made a joke out of them, versus us really getting a sense of how hellish they were. Only the voice over guy tried to explain how different it really would have been. Now granted, I'm not saying folks should have been killed or had their mouths sewn shut as they said would have been done, but I just didn't get a true sense of punishment. Same way that guy went wandering out of the Colony and all was fine. I guess I just didn't really see or feel their experience was legit, though if they lived under those conditions some of it had to have been. I am disappointed....I expected more/better.

Riviere
Member

09-09-2000

Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 2:41 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
The thing that spoils it, IS too much of these 21st century participants who made 0 effort to understand the 17th century...
Skipping church to skinnydip, wow! They never would have reached America in the first place with that attitude. They'd have been arrested and executed for practicing witchcraft?
I not could understand people getting into all their 'roles' trying to emulate colonial life, but Baptist preaching was not an option then, either..
IF the 21st century gab was aside and they all followed true history, to show how tough it is following the rules 3+ centuries ago, I'd feel they belong there. It's like most do not even try! Kind of like a Survivor where the gamers refuse to participate in challenges.. Yawn...

Lumbele
Member

07-12-2002

Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 2:49 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
So far I agree with all of you. Perhaps the cast could have been informed that any actions that would have resulted in severe punishment in the 1600's would automatically kick the offending participant off the show.
Does anyone know if they get compensated financially for participating, and if so would it have been enough to make them think twice about bulking?
They should have had to make up for the missed work during their "stock time" rather than letting the others do it for them.
They treated it all like one big joke. Did they think a governor of the times would back down like Jeff did?
I expected Colonial House to be about 21st century ppl trying to adapt to life in the 17th century. Whining, complaining, anger wouldn't have been unexpected, but strikes I wasn't prepared for.
Personally, I found some cast members rather childish for refusing to participate earnestly in an experiment they signed up for.
Just my
ETA, LOL Riviere, you posted while I was typing.

Lurknomore
Member

07-07-2001

Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 3:38 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Excellent points...wow a thread here were we all almost totally agree. That must be a first in TVCH history .

Maybe the real lesson here is showing that the Amish are on to something in refusing to accept 21 Century ways, because if anything, this proves that once we have lived the way we have, there's no going back. Well certainly not while there still is enough control not to. I wonder what would have happened if the Governor ordered doable punishment, such as sitting alone with no one checking on them and no blankets for hours or being put in the stockade etc.

I decided what annoys me the most is the voiceover that tells us what REALLY would have happened while we watch them frolic and laugh about it. I wish I had watched Manor House so I could compare the differences. But one of the reasons I really wanted to see this show was because I heard such wonderful things about it, and I expected this to be done similarly. Ironically, I also wanted to watch to sort of cleanse myself from alleged Reality TV overload...and this just seems like more of the same. ACKKKK. The participants didn't seem to take the rules or traditions at all seriously, and mostly catered to their own agenda's IMHO. Pity. Waste of what could have been an excellent and interesting show.

Riviere
Member

09-09-2000

Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 5:38 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Agree completely with my fellow historians who are let down by the lack of effort to 'pretend' living in colonial times. I thought that was a key to being on the show! See if you can deal with life in 1600s, and not make a 21st century mockery of it just because you can go home to your TV and microwave later.. The Salem witch trials happened decades after the timeframe, and I suspect with this crew something like it would have happened a lot sooner? Buncha slackers...

Dahli
Member

11-27-2000

Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 8:50 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I agree and was even yelling at my TV!! What the heck are you people doing there if you're not even prepared to DO IT RIGHT!! The women had attitude, which was out of place under the circumstances - that bugged me to pieces.

It was really frustrating and kind of confusing.... like what was the agreement and the rules etc etc????

Penpoint
Member

03-27-2001

Thursday, May 20, 2004 - 10:45 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Regarding the duration of the show: There are actually eight episodes, one hour each. However, PBS is showing them as four two-hour episodes.

Regarding the "cast" and their ability to fit into 17th Century living: Sorry folks, but I guess I'm the dissenting voice here. Seeing how difficult it is for these real 21st Century people to live and think as colonials is far more interesting and shows far more how different life was than if the cast had been composed of compliant "actors" performing their roles. That would have been a dry documentary, the sort of thing I remember as educational films in grade school.

Lurknomore
Member

07-07-2001

Friday, May 21, 2004 - 8:16 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
YaY Penpoint one good thing is it just wasn't feeling right here with EVERYONE agreeing lolol . I've been around here quite awhile and I swear I can't recall ever coming this close about anything. Ever. LOL.

I guess my problem with the points you make is it wasn't so much that I saw them having problems living with 17th century rules. What I saw was them just blatently and instantly refusing. They went to one church service and the Vorhee's (sp ok? Too lazy to look em up) said NOPE don't wanna, let's go frolic in the sea next week. Doing so to little repercussions and behaving in the sea NOT like colonialists but folks today playing with each other. So let's make the Sabbath a day of 21st century relationships. Tired of being here...think I'll stroll into town and go to a pub and wander around a bit. It wasn't that I saw a lot of complaining about wanting their dishwashers, cars and jacuzzi's, as much as I saw them just saying NO I won't adhere to these rules even though I knew they were the rules of the day when I signed up. And to me that doesn't really create a living experience where I can see how it really was.

Funny you mentioned those dry school films because that's what all those educational voiceovers have felt like to me, when they tell us how it really would have been in the 17th Century. I get that same glossy feel where my mind goes numb and they are just words. This situation could have SHOWED us, and to me that visual is always stronger.

Like I said in an earlier post, I would have had NO problem if they had a portion of each show set aside where they spoke to each villager and they compared life then and now etc. But to me to keep living a 21st century life and attitudes while parading around in 17th century garb make it seem like far more of a play than a real experience. JMHO.

Auntiemike
Member

09-17-2001

Friday, May 21, 2004 - 9:12 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I totally agree Lurk. I, too, feel that if they signed on for this experience they would give it their all with regard to adapt to the 1620's ways with less intrusion of 21st century life.

I don't think they can ever completely recreate the 1628 scenario but they can sure try harder!


Spunky
Member

10-08-2001

Friday, May 21, 2004 - 9:44 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Well, 8 episodes is not much but maybe it's better this way if the show continues to be as the first 4 hrs.

I agree with both views, that re-enactement would have been like a documentary, and that the participants are not making a bigger effort to truly experience the hardships and harsh laws of 1628.

The voice over is not that bad as it puts emphasis on just how much these 21st century people are not willing to adapt in many instances. It's also a refresher on that past history.

One movie that I'm reminded of while watching this series is The Scarlett Letter, with Demi Moore. Many disliked that movie but I liked it. You did get a sense of the forbidding nature of laws and beliefs of those colonial times, especially the punishments seemed horrendous.

So, I can't really blame these people for finding it so difficult to relive those times but then the whole experiment seemed to me a bit too presumptious. You just can't have a genuine experience when so much distinguishes the present and the past. Kudos for trying though..

Penpoint
Member

03-27-2001

Friday, May 21, 2004 - 4:30 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Could it be that this show is revealing more about the modern American attitude than about the colonial attitude? You know, "Gotta do it my way!"

Lurknomore
Member

07-07-2001

Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 10:31 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
yeah but was that the point?

Penpoint
Member

03-27-2001

Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 4:04 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
No, Lurk, that probably wasn't the point of the show, but it is a byproduct. I think that by casting modern people in this "experiment" there is no way that you would come up with the kind of show that most of the folks on this board think they want to see.

I can't imagine that the show's creators didn't want real 21st Century people to act the the way they naturally would when thrown into a 17th Century setting. They cast the Voorheeses because they wanted to see the reaction of a modern, liberated, non-Christian family. They cast the conservative minister and his family and the more progressive Heinz couple to see what sparks would fly and to contrast their approaches. They cast some independent single people to see how they would react to the restrictions imposed -- and we saw how one just went off on his own adventure. They cast blacks in roles that blacks would not have had in the 1628. They cast a gay man.

There would be no real story lines, no real drama, no real interest if the cast could in some magical way erase their own real lives. It should then have been a scripted drama to show the customs and hardships of colonial life -- and that's not what the show is or, I believe, what the producers had in mind.

The 21st Century is equally as important in this setup as the 17th Century: 21st Century people in a 17th Century structure.


Vsmart
Member

02-10-2003

Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 1:45 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
The most interesting episode of Frontier House was the last one that showed how difficult it was for the participants to readjust to our time.

Ark
Member

07-10-2001

Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 3:46 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I just spent my afternoon watching the first four hours and I have to agree with Pen. If I wanted to see actors do a documentary, I'd watch the History Channel. I found it fascinating to watch people with 21st century beliefs and freedoms, struggle to conform to a 17th century lifestyle. I know that if I were considering doing something like this, my first thoughts would be; Could I work that hard? Could I kill an animal? Could I skin it? Could I make meals from nothing? Could I darn a sock? I would be thinking about the physical things that I would have to do. It would be nearly impossible for me to envision what the mental aspects would be because I've always lived during a time when women have a voice and choices. How can you imagine what it would be to be a woman with freedoms that is suddenly told to shutup and get dinner on the table? I might think that I know how I would feel but because I've never been put to the test, I really have no idea what kind of rage or depression I might feel. For the most part, I think these people are doing a great job. Rules aren't as strict as they really were but do we really want to see someone's mouth sewn shut? I don't!

I had no problem with the guy that wandered away for a couple of days. He was a Freeman and would have been able to leave the colony for a couple of days, without restrictions or punishment. Hopefully a real Freeman would have brought back food or something else of value so that his colony mates wouldn't have thought that he was out loafing while they were toiling away.

I didn't understand the gay guys need to come out to everyone but maybe if I was gay, I'd get it. In order to make it a more true to life experience, I guess he could have been sent immediately away, instead of actually killing him. Because of my 21st century mind set and the fact that these are real people, as opposed to actors, I don't think I would have felt good about it.

Tishala
Member

08-01-2000

Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 4:32 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I'm watching this now, but I have a question the PBS site doesn't really clarify for me. Is this supposed to be an anonymous colony or is it supposed to be a specific one, like Plymouth Plantation or Mass. Bay Colony?

Tishala
Member

08-01-2000

Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 4:55 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I should amend my post to say that I realize many people who work at Plimouth Plantation also worked on COlonial House, but I don't know whether this is supposed to mimic that society or to be a generic early 17th C culture.

Alisons
Member

01-10-2003

Monday, May 24, 2004 - 4:24 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I think the problem with this was that there was no real ostracizing of the people who broke the rules. During the real colonial timeframe, people who skipped church like that would have been shunned, would not have been invited to communal dinners, etc. On this show, no one really cared and there were no procedures in place to punish the entire group in some way if someone did not go along. For example, if they had done the scarlet letters AND taken away food or blankets or whatever, you would have seen more of the typical REACTION from the others that you would have gotten back in the early 1600s. That is what was missing, IMHO. And BTW, the Salem Witch Trials were in 1692 (someone had mentioned that).

Whoami
Member

08-03-2001

Monday, May 24, 2004 - 7:02 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
So far just finished the first half of tonight's installment. Not liking it at all....

OK, I know they did what they had to do in those times, in the matter of killing/eating livestock. But, did they have to show it? That turned me off of even wanting to save the tape I was making of the show. Rewound the tape from last week, and am already taping another show over it while I finish watching the rest of tonight's installment.

Don't like the new gov. I get the vibe from him (and especially his wife), that they are quite superior to the rest of the people in the colony, and should have been running the show all along. In my experience, those who felt they are best suited, aren't.

Lurknomore
Member

07-07-2001

Monday, May 24, 2004 - 7:51 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
This show should be renamed "Wizard of Oz House." MY, people come and go so quickly around here ToTo.

I'm getting dizzy trying to keep up with who is leaving and why. The Governor's daugher (who never returned when the family came back after the poor other daughter lost her fiancee)is faced with some mystery hospitalization, yet they don't seem to explain that to anyone just say it's time to go be a family? I still am wondering why she didn't return with the family-- they never told us did they? The black Freeman is leaving because he saw what history had in store for black men? (Um he didn't know that?). And they send us a scary looking CEO Governor, who isn't all that bad but I have to see his bare butt and a sheep murdered???? EEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. I needed

This was so bad I was flipping over to The Swan pagent. I seriously couldn't decide which was worse.

Goddessatlaw
Member

07-19-2002

Tuesday, May 25, 2004 - 6:00 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Well, I missed the first 1/2 hour of this last night and had no clue why the Wyers left, but I planned to catch the first 1/2 hour again on the replay. This didn't happen. I made it about 15 minutes into the second hour and went into a coma on the couch (worn out from trial all day). Colossus came home from the Pacers game and tried not to wake me up, but the show was still on and he was so irritated by it he took me up to bed so he could change channels with impunity. LOL.

From what I saw, the Heinz's were true to my original impression of them - superiority complexes ago-go. All was apparently as it should have been all along once Mr. Heinz was raised to his rightful position as governor. Their own servant, who's gotten fairly attached to them, really got his feelings hurt when they threw him over to live in someone else's dormer. I would rather drink dog water than be forced to listen to Mr. Heinz during the 20 meetings he calls every day - I LOL'ed at the two freemen? who got drunk and did Mr. Heinz impersonations instead of going to the meeting. Mr. Voorhees got dirted on, too, by not being named assistant governor (and I agree that was probably because he's not a thumper). What I loved even more was the new merchant showing up to kick the Heinz's around (and everyone else, too, but mostly the Heinz's). He's a pretty cool addition to the show. Who is the new mouth-breathing blond chick? Every time the camera caught her she looked like she was catching flies. Sad to hear Daniel Tisdale is leaving - I heard he and the girl who left last week are dating in real life now, though. Anyway, I'll watch the rest tonight and flip back and forth to AI. I'll be interested to hear what the assessment of the colony's potential is.

Luvmyjrt
Member

09-18-2003

Tuesday, May 25, 2004 - 7:58 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I got the vibe from the new gov that he was quite superior as well! Sure showed him doing a lot of "managing" and very little "working". His wife is the one who really raises my hackles though. Listen to her wax poetic about how during those times not going to sabbath isn't an option and how dare those Vorheese's ..... um, I think you sitting outside the council meeting to be sure that your statements were passed along is pretty against the code as well, dontcha' think??? Her voice, her teeth and her generally indicated how whipped the dear governor is are really getting on my last nerve!

Sorry to see the old governor and his family are experiencing yet again another crisis. I have to give kudos to Bethany though......what a trooper to handle things as she has.

The new Company Merchant sure is a kick in the pants! I love it! Mr Governor certainly has lofty opinions of his abilities now, doesn't he? I think the new treasurer is gonna turn things inside out on him!

Ark
Member

07-10-2001

Tuesday, May 25, 2004 - 8:18 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Lurk, I read at the PBS site that the second daughter stayed home to help take care of the son that had been in the car accident. No mention of her hospitalization though.

Dahli
Member

11-27-2000

Tuesday, May 25, 2004 - 9:44 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I missed the beginning too, and curious as to why they left... I undertand the first time they left, but is the second time connected to the first time or another reason? Was it clear to anyone and is it just us who 'snoozed' that are lost?

Lurknomore
Member

07-07-2001

Tuesday, May 25, 2004 - 10:27 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Dahli...to the best of my knowledge I didn't snooze and I still have no clue LOL. If anything they appeared to give contradicting reasons. I'm beginning to think the show Producers are the ones that truly blew this. A viewer should never be this confused.

And thanks Ark..were we ever told about another son OR a car accident? Ironic given what happened to poor Bethany. And I agree...what a well spoken and lovely person she seems to be. As someone who lost a boyfriend in a car accident my heart especially went out to her, and I could relate to her appreciating a place to sort of hide out from the reality of it. I hope it served as a buffer to give her some time to regroup....and I think she did an amazing job all things considered. Others there double her age would have been using it as an excuse, whining etc. She should be quite proud of how maturely she handled herself!

In the beginning I was upset that it wasn't a longer running show. Now I'm glad, because I couldn't take any more of it