# "1900 House," "Frontier House"—what next? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 30, 2002, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495 "2002-04-30T16:48:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BalmainBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@BalmainBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BalmainBoy)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/21 "2002-05-01T08:04:57Z")
Mud hut. Pointed sticks. OG SMASH! 'nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![Payne\_N.Diaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Payne\_N.Diaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Payne_N.Diaz)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/22 "2002-05-01T16:04:50Z")
Trailer House, where they get to park in the front yard, and sit on the broken couch all day eating Doritos and watching Jerry Springer on a color TV with funky colors. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/23 "2002-05-01T16:59:26Z")
Channel 4 here in the UK have just started screening the “Edwardian Country House”. This is real “Upstairs Downstairs” stuff with a very large country house containing one very privaleged family and an army of servants. Like the other series the participents must be as authentic as possible. Already two girls ,playing the scullery maids, have quite because of having to wash endless pots in nothing but washing soda and having to heave great sacks of coal for eighteen hours a day. This is in episode two out of six.The “upstairs” players seem to be enjoying the whole experiance. I wonder why ? ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/24 "2002-05-01T17:07:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LurkMeister \* > \*\* > > Sounds like one of the dorms at my college. \*\* You have sabertooth tigers in yoru dorm?! :eek: :eek: Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/25 "2002-05-01T18:31:39Z")
Oh. My. God. Rayne Man, I would KILL to be the Lady Marjorie in “Edwardian Country House!” I hope to comes to U.S. TV. Hell, I’d even kill to be the Lady Prudence Fairfax! —Eve (who never wears diamonds in the country) ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/26 "2002-05-01T18:38:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zev\_steinhardt \* > \*\* > > You have sabertooth tigers in yoru dorm?! :eek: :eek: > > Zev Steinhardt \*\* You never met the soccer jocks I went to school with. :rolleyes: GOVERNMENT HOUSE: Everybody gets paid for sitting around talking about their kids and the soaps, occasionally looking busy when the manager comes by (but since you can’t be fired you don’t have to look TOO busy). ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/27 "2002-05-01T18:58:44Z")
Boat House–good swimming skills a must. Can you make it across the English Channel? Wackiness ensues. Dog House–a family of 4 must share a small dog house with a family of 4 Rotweillers. Wackiness ensues. Hell House–a group of 4 college students must share quarters with Stephen King, & survive his attempts to “test out new plot devices” on them. Wackiness ensues. Bunker–4 teams of 4 people each try to hold off the ATF assault forces. Wackiness ensues. Longest holdout wins! TV Station–try to create even more banal programs than the ones on now! Find new uses for the phrase “Wackiness ensues.” 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/28 "2002-05-01T19:07:10Z")
\*\*Fibonacci \*\* This is absolutely genius. (How similiar our homes were…) It would only help our children to understand the depth and range of true emotion to have animatronic replicas of ours ( yours/mine) parents that had pre recorded prompts of the familiar parental unit lectures: “Eat your dinner, there are children starving in Africa…” “What am I made of money?” “Do that one more time and I’m gunna give you something you are really gonna be sorry for…” It is also imperative to have the interactional characters of :Grandma and Grandpa before the hearing and knee went, the neighbors ( does anyone actually know their neighbors anymore?) and the visits from the Ice Cream Truck and the Scissors Sharpening Guy that does the neighborhood once a summer. Also, in this interactive diorama it is imperative that the set has only one car. Something with tailfins is usually required, or a station wagon with wood paneling. A third seat in back that is perfect for kids to lob things out of the \*all the way down \* rear window at the mack truck behind is necessary. The sheer hell of no cup holders, no cassette/cd player and talk radio on all the time will just make any kid go insane. Selt belts are optional. Baby seats are nonexistant. No drive thru window at any fast food restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/29 "2002-05-01T19:08:54Z")
Oh, and the thrill of sending the smallest/skinniest kid through the milk box to unlock the house when mom locked herself out (again) ---
**Author:** ![jessiecarol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e79b87/32.png) [@jessiecarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jessiecarol)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/30 "2002-05-01T19:14:58Z")
hey, hey, hey - I lived the 1970’s show. Don’t forget that we drank Tang. ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/31 "2002-05-01T19:42:06Z")
> [@](#): > > - Originally posted by Payne N. Diaz\* > Trailer House, where they get to park in the front yard, and sit on the broken couch all day eating Doritos and watching Jerry Springer on a color TV with funky colors. YEEEHAW!!! They gone put mah fambly on the teevee!😃 Cours’n they gone have to drank em a few six packs to make it look reel. ---
**Author:** ![Fibonacci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df788c/32.png) [@Fibonacci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibonacci)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/32 "2002-05-02T00:18:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest \* > \*\*Oh, and the thrill of sending the smallest/skinniest kid through the milk box to unlock the house when mom locked herself out (again) \*\* We never locked the house back in the 50’s. We didn’t have seat belts in our car, but we did have the tubular steel child seat with the steering wheel and squeaky horn that you hooked over the top of the front seat (bench, of course.) The steel dash board would get about 200 degrees in the sun. I remember when I was 7 and my brother was 8, we’d take the bus by ourselves a half hour into the city. Catch the subway at 8th street and ride it out to the 69th Street terminal to go see a movie, then meet our dad for a ride home after the show. If we got there early enough we’d sit through 2 or more screenings of the movie. (Remember the expression “This is where I came in.”) A Bonomo Turkish Taffy usually could last you through the movies. I can’t even begin to imagine letting my 13 and 10 year olds do something like that today. I remember the Fuller Brush man coming and having a few cool things to offer. Interactive Television was Winky Dink, where you put a clear plastic sheet on your tv screen and use the Winky Dink crayons to trace along. You actually had a tv repairman come to your house with a tool chest full of various tubes he’d try out to get it working again. Oh, and doctors making house calls. What a concept. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/33 "2002-05-02T03:38:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*Teletubbie House"—a family of four is put into TeleTubbie outfits, eatsnothing but Tubbie Custard and Tubbie Toast, and spends their days frolicking insanely around a bright-lit meadow. I give 'em two days before they snap. \*\* > [@](#): > > \*\*Doll House > A family lives in a scale replica of the Fisher-Price Little People House. The only furnishings are scale replicas of Fisher-Price Little People Furniture. Additional furniture, appliances, etc. are painted on the walls. Neighboring family lives in the Fisher-Price Little People A-Frame House. \*\* Okay, these two made me laugh out loud. Continuing the kid-theme, how about “Blue’s Clue’s House” Contestants must live with new host Joe in his house with Blue the dog and play endless games of Blue’s Clue’s to figure out what the damned dog wants to do. I give it two days before someone throttles the dog. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/34 "2002-05-02T05:23:52Z")
What is “1900 House” and “Frontier House” ? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/35 "2002-05-02T11:43:55Z")
> [@](#): > > What is “1900 House” and “Frontier House” ? “Reality” shows on PBS where families are required to live in the fashion of 1900 London and 1883 Western America, respectively, with no modern amenities, for a month or so. I’m suprised they don’t crack from culture shock. How about **The Big Blue House** – family members are required to dress up as Muppets and have half-hour adventures with social lessons. Dad or Mom have to wear the Bear suit, sing with the moon, and can’t really use their right arm, which is connected to the left arm by fishing line. **Blair Witch House** – A collection of film majors are given cameras, video recorders, and inaccurate maps, and are picked off one by one over the course of a month. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/36 "2002-05-02T14:21:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > \*\* > > How about > > **The Big Blue House** – family members are required to dress up as Muppets and have half-hour adventures with social lessons. Dad or Mom have to wear the Bear suit, sing with the moon, and can’t really use their right arm, which is connected to the left arm by fishing line. > > \*\* This one, and delphica’s Fisher Price Little People house, are my faves. If I can rip off delphica’s idea, how about the Barbie Dream House? Everything is pink, and each room is on one floor and the family has to use a crappy one-person rickety elevator just to go get a drink of water. They live in fear of fire and also of heights, since there are only walls on two sides. You thought cooking was hard in 1900’s house? Try cooking when the stove, sink, and fridge are merely painted on the wall! ---
**Author:** ![Mooney252](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7c8e57/32.png) [@Mooney252](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mooney252)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/37 "2002-05-02T15:25:34Z")
Fibonacci, Shirley – this is the stuff of genius. Having a teenager, we need to find a way to act out some of what we lived through – > [@](#): > > The Garry Moore show being a highlight of your parents’ choices. clearly Fibonacci came from a much more intellectual family than ours, where ‘The Lawrence Welk Show’ dominated Saturday night TV. Some additions to the atmosphere: – parents are both smokers, who light up after dinner and stub the butts out on the plates. – eating dinners in the basement during a heat wave because it was 15 degrees cooler down there – starched shirts kept in the fridge until there was time to iron them – mandatory dress code for going downtown or to church: - fedora and a suit for boys - taffeta dress, gloves and patent-leather shoes for girls – city chicken (a skewered collection of veal and pork parts) – late-night AM radio (that was the only kind), with carrier-wave signals from far-off stations in New Orleans or Minneapolis – canning vegetables in the fall – a push-mower – sending the kids to the store with a note to buy cigarettes – blue laws: meaning nothing but milk was sold on Sundays – the Cleveland Indians out of the AL race by June. Oh wait: we don’t need to go back in time for that – domestic medicines: aspirin, Vicks Vaporub and Musterole. We were spared the castor oil. – Reader’s Digest in the bathroom ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/38 "2002-05-02T16:47:09Z")
Why not **Igloo**? Instead of the next “Survivor” involving _tropical_ survival skills, let’s see a total change of setting. **Survivor: Inuvik**. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/39 "2002-05-02T18:24:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > \*\ ***Mad** magazine did a spoof last year called “2000 House” – a family must live the same way a family in the year 200 would have lived, with dot com investments and other vanished ways of life. > \*\* they had dot coms in the year 200? why those Romans were far more advanced than we give them credit for! 😉 but on that note: lets go back in time further, shall we? Macbeth House (this one will be mad cap, I am sure!) House o’ Hamlet The house that Flavian built. The Pyramids Aztec Family ---
**Author:** ![mrblue92](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@mrblue92](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrblue92)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495/40 "2002-05-02T21:39:14Z")
**The White House** - Joe Goober gets to be leader of the free world for 16 weeks. Watch as he plays with the button while flirting with interns and vetoing the Energy Bill! **She’s a Brick… House** - Residents try not to go insane while being forced to listen to the same song played at 90 dB from a car out front 24/7. The volume increases as the weeks pass. **The Big House** - Players lose if they catch a shiv or well… they drop their soap. Game continues until the winner gets paroled. **Existential House** - Players roam free in a forest and must determine if the house actually exists. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1900-house-frontier-house-what-next/106495.md?page=3)