Extreme Makeover Home Edition 3/28 - anyone watched this?

Cafe Society
1

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t usually watch television on a regular basis. But last night, my wife was channel-surfing, and we caught the beginning of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and thought it was worth a watch.

For those who don’t know, EMHE is a “Home Improvement”-style version of the Extreme Makeover TV show – the team of designers and builders pick a subject’s home, then have one week to do four months of work, totally redesigning everything inside and out.

The subject of the 3/28/04 show was “Sweet” Alice Harris, a longtime Watts activist who’s been working with homeless people and disadvantaged youths in South Los Angeles for several decades. Her home (as well as most of the other homes on her block) was hit with a flood a few months back, sending water knee-high down the street, destroying her furniture and carpeting, and turning an already-ranshackled house into a disaster aread.

Anyway, the EMHE folks sent her and her family to a spa for a week, then totally redid her place – a new marble bathroom, a jazz-themed bedroom for her grandson (who no longer has to sleep on the floor), two stoves in the kitchen (she cooks meals for 300 during Thanksgiving), security cameras to help her monitor the neighborhood, new gardens for the front and the back yard, all that stuff (“They’ve brought Beverly Hills to Watts!”).

But what really impressed me was that the EMHE folks went above and beyond, and also did a “makeover” of the surrounding neighborhood – new landscaping, new mattresses and beddings, free appliance repair, repainted walls, new cast-iron fences for the homes, a rebuilt neighborhood basketball court, and a redesigned community center, with new computers, books, educational materials, etc.

Again, I’ve never see Extreme Makeover: Home Edition before, and maybe I’m being a big softy, but damn if that wasn’t the most inspirational and uplifting hour of television I’ve seen in a long time. If there’s any proof that the universe isn’t totally chaotic and random, that good things do come to those who deserve them, this was it.

Anyway, am I the only person who saw this? Or did anyone else catch this program, too?

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I really should make a point of watching that show, but since it’s on the one other channel that we get, and it’s a channel that we almost NEVER watch, I just don’t think of it.

I didn’t see that episode, but it sounds so wonderful! The one I saw a few weeks back was a remodeling of a house that belonged to a 3-son family. Her husband was in Iraq, and she was at home to watch the 3 boys, all about 8-12ish, I think.

They redid the entire outside of the house, knocked down a couple walls inside to open up some spaces, and built a whole new bedroom, made a great washeroom…anyways, it was really cool. But the best part is, they arranged for the father to come home from Iraq to help out. The whole time, the mom and kids are saying “Isn’t dad going to FREAK!?” but he’s there doing half the work! They had his parents come by about halfway through the week, and there was a good 5 minutes of footage of them just hugging. His mom berated him for “being here since Sunday, and you didn’t call me??”

They kept sending the family video and phone messages from the dad, making it seem like he had some news, but not much. When they had the family arrive, they toured the house and they loved it. This whole time, the mom was on the phone “to Iraq” talking to her husband as she saw the new house. They went into the back yard, and Ty said that he had a special guest that they wanted her and her kids to meet.

The father came up, wearing a catcher’s mask (the back-yard was a baseball theme) and I swear the mother knew it was him just from the eyes. I actually cried to watch her and her kids respond to seeing the father THERE, in AMERICA, not IRAQ!! They completely forgot about the house. As cool as that was, NOTHING was better than standing there in a group, hugging each other. It was really beautiful.

I have a feeling this show chooses homes based on what kind of “special moments” they can create - frankly, I think that’s the more important part of this show.

3

I watched it. I cried. It was the little girl picking up a doll and asking if they could get her *that doll * for Christmas. (Not realizing that everything in the house was their’s to keep.) <<sniff>>

And then Sweet Alice saying that she never expected them to bring to Watts the same things they took to other places.

Aw jeez, I need more tissues. 'Scuse me.

4

Eh, it’s a chick’s version of Discovery Channel’s Monster House (which I’ve found both men and women to enjoy). It’s a lot more creative than Extreme Makeover, and it actually shows you the building process, as opposed to having the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy wannabes bitching for an hour.

I will say that it’s impressive what they do to the house, but since there’s really no guidelines (ignoring the arbitrary time limit), I’m just not entertained since I don’t care about the builders, the planners, etc.

5

I cried through the whole hour. I hate it when sappy television makes me cry. I’m above that, dammit. Heh.

I have to say, though, that as nice as it was seeing all the supplies, services and hard work provided by the big money donors, it was much more inspiring to know what Sweet Alice does to help her community on a daily, on-going basis. You could tell, when she told them she feeds the homeless at Thanksgiving and they asked her how many people she cooks for, that they were expecting her to say something like, 20 or 30. When she announced that she feeds four hundred people they were completely stunned (as was I). She teaches life skills at the community center and watches over the neighborhood kids, helping them with their homework and just being a positive influence and guiding hand. What she does with the little she has in her life is much more heartwarming than all the dozens of blankets Sears showed up with as a one-time, promotional, “feel-good” kind of donation.

When I grow up I want to be Sweet Alice. She Rocks!

6

Yeah, that really got to me too. And what about the grandson’s prayer? “…thank you, I no longer have to sleep on the floor.” :eek:

Yeah, when she breaks down in the kitchen, you can just feel that she’d never imagine anything like this happening to her… but it is.

I know what you mean, but I find both parts equally uplifting. I mean, the show’s producers could have just fixed up the house and left it at that, but the fact that they went above-and-beyond and did all that extra work for the neighborhood as well – especially the renovated basketball court and the community center – that’s going to benefit the entire neighborhood for a long time, even more than several dozen new mattresses will.

mnemosyne, they did something similar with the Dad-home-from-Iraq last night as well – one of the last rooms was a “Doors” room, and when the family opened it up, inside was Alice’s son, home from college. They didn’t play that bit up very much, but I think it was only because there was so much other stuff they were trying to cram in at the end.

Damn, if every episode is this emotional, I’m either going to have to avoid it all together, or watch it regularly with an extra-large box of Kleenex nearby…

7

Not every episode is so emotional, but a couple of them have been. I didn’t like last week’s episode, where a mother was pregnant with triplets. I thought the mother, especially, felt rather entitled about the whole thing.

I don’t know why, that’s just the impression that I got. Like, she was so special for getting pregnant with natural triplets (like cats don’t do it every day) that she deserved all the work and money these people poured into her house.

I have to admit, I am addicted to the show, and this week was the closest I came to crying my eyes out. The thing about the doll got me, sure, but what really hit me was the WHOLE neighborhood, out singing and having bbq and laughing as the rain came down at the end.

I know that the end of the show is not at all the “happily-ever-after” they try to make it, but I really think this thing they did might have changed some of those people’s lives. I think it was worth it, and I loved watching it.

However, I would really appreciate less bitching from the “design team.” What a bunch of prissy whiny losers! However, the guy who did the piano bed ROCKS. Love him!

8

I love this show.

Sweet Alice was wonderful. Another favorite of mine was the single Hispanic mom who had worked to earn a college degree and became a social worker. She had a daughter and two adopted boys. And she helped kids out from time to time by letting them hang around and sleep over. Her daughter was a heart-melting princess who loved the ocean. Her oldest son was a big fan of hip-hop. And her middle son was interested in astronomy.

The house was a hovel, cluttered but clean. It was tiny and cramped. The back yard was a poison ivy infested wasteland with a murky and lifeless goldfish pond. The oldest son had an old beat up jalopy that his mom said he could drive only when he got a job and got his license.

Well… :slight_smile:

When the family came back from a week at Disneyworld (courtesy of ABC), their home was now two stories! It was beautifully transformed into a charming Cape Cod style. Inside, the living room was absolutely stunning. The kitchen was stocked with every conceivable 21st century convenience. The lady shrieked when she saw the brand new computerized washer and dryer. No more trips to the laundromat for her.

Then they went upstairs. She now had a master bedroom suite, complete with jaccuzi. The oldest son’s room had an urban-themed mural that was itself an artistic masterpiece. He also had a set of turntables, a new sound system, and just an incredible room overall. An interesting part of the show for me was the designers learning about the hip-hop culture as they planned his room. The guy at the music store explained that hip-hop was about finding ways to use what resources you have to make your life better. How appropriate. The son, 18, cried when he realized what he had.

When the middle boy, 15 years old, walked into his room, he found an astronomer’s dream world. The designers had bought an old industrial panel and refurbished it as a sort of Star Trek engineering station. It actually controlled his new entertainment equipment. His ceiling was painted like a night sky. On his new desk was a computer that was connected to a telescope mounted on the roof. Software was already installed that would allow him to aim it at famous objects in space or anywhere in the sky. And then a real live astronaut came into the room. The boy was speechless and star-struck. The astronaut, who had walked in space, gave him a very special commemorative framed collection of photos and artifacts, including a patch that he had worn on a mission.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, they all went into the little girl’s room. My goodness. It had been designed by experts from Disneyworld. It was an undersea fantasyland. Bubbles floated all around the room, coming from a statue in the corner. The color theme, of course, was aqua-marine, and there was a big aquarium with exotic fish. The little girl naturally was ecstatic. Then they showed her mom their new room for sleepovers, complete with comfortable bedding for three.

When they went out into the backyard, there was a beautiful rock-bed stream, flowing like a river diagonally through the yard and splashing into a brand new fish pond, populated with fish. The family loved camping, and the far corner of the yard had a tent with lounge chairs, sleeping bags, and all the stuff campers need. A beautiful new BBQ grill complented the new patio.

Wow. How could it get better? Well, remember the oldest boy’s beat-up jalopy? When they came back around to open the new garage, there it was. His car had been restored by the guy who designed the Batmobile and the 007 cars for James Bond movies. What used to be a junker was now a classic restored to mint condition and customized to be one hell of a gorgeous car. He, already emotionally spent from everything, simply flipped out. Ty handed the keys to his mom and told him that when he got a job like his mom said, she would hand him the keys. He nodded with delight. “I will find a job,” he beamed.

And then. Oh, Lord, and then. I started balling all over again, my face already soaked in tears, as the husband and wife who owned the construction company that did the work on the house offered the boy a job. Offered the boy a job! Complete with all necessary training and tools that he would need. He gratefully and instantly accepted, and now all he needed to drive his car was to get his license.

I just love this show.

9

Sweet Alice and her family’s home transformation made me cry, too. The kitchen scene was the killer–I had been holding back and then Sweet Alice started to break down in the kitchen. I was also proud that they helped the neighborhood out.

What I thought was truly inspiring was how happy the community members present for the housewarming were for Sweet Alice. There wasn’t any kind of jealousy it appeared. She must be a special woman.

If this show could continue to do these types of makeovers in places like Watts, I’ll watch it every damn week and write letters if they try to take it off the air, donate if they say it’s too expensive…whatever. There should be more shows like this on TV IMHO.

10

There should be social programs like this.

I mean, dang, I know ABC is in this for the ratings, and they aren’t doing this solely out of the goodness of their hearts, but I’d gladly sell my eyeballs to Sears and ABC and all their advertisers every week if it meant getting more “social makeovers” like this on a regular basis.

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There *are * social programs like this. They’re just myopic and heartless, and have a legacy of failure.

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That’s why we need the television version – if the program screws up, the ratings fall, and there’s a built-in incentive for the program to get better.

There’s a germ of an idea here somewhere…