Woman breaks into tears over interior design

[NightRabbit]

From Ruffian’s article:

Still, Wilson was not happy and, on Nov. 15, faxed Cramsey his design for the Herricks’ living room. He gave it a flippant and insulting title that played off the “Nantucket” theme.

[The_Wrong_Girl]

Exactly and (God, I know I’ll be known as Crying Pam’s defender forever on this) she probably didn’t want to upset her friends. And if they told her that they wouldn’t mess with the fireplace, I would believe them, but that’s just me.

And Doug was a total ass, and that was a total poop-themed room. It sucked, I’m sorry–if it was a beautiful room, that would be different, but it was a typical tacky Doug room. Sorry, but I would have cried too.

[Peanuthead]

Look, if everybody was happy with the results the show wouldn’t be any fun. Admit it, we all wait for those unhappy endings just to add a little spice to the program. Don’t you get tired of all those **“Oh my god!”**s?
I actually enjoyed the episode in which the guy got pissed because they removed his ceiling fans after he specifically told them not to.
And if I ever came home to find STRAW(!!!) on my walls I think I would become outright violent!

[Ruffian]

Yeah, what a charmer Doug is. :rolleyes:

[anyrae]

I am a nerd. I posted here twice on accident. Umm, I’m sorry and I’m embarassed. My computer is always trying to trick me into doing something stupid like this! damnit

[Romola]

From her statements, “Crying Pam” obviously wanted the design to coincide with her own tastes and when she didn’t get what she wanted, she flipped out. Some might say her reaction was justified; I think while her behavior might be understandable given her grandmother’s sickness/the holiday weekend/no phone/the new room choice, she acted with very little regard for her friend’s feelings or her husband’s feelings (he didn’t seem to react badly until she started in with the waterworks). Crying Pam simply didn’t understand the adult concept of shouldering disappointment with a brave face for her friends and the viewing audience.

Regardless of Doug’s prima donna antics (imho, the end design, while shoddy, was a clear improvement over what was there before and provided a neutral framework for the homeowners to build off of), when you sign up for the show, you should expect your room to change dramatically, you should expect your room to showcase design elements that are completely opposite of the style you favor, and you should expect your feelings and requests to be rudely trampled and denied. A reasonable person would have watched the show, realized she and her friends had little to no veto power, and either a. sucked it up, did the work, and acted like mature adults or b. realized they weren’t Trading Spaces material. Sorry, no commiseration from me: if she wanted Kuntry Krap, she should have invested in ducks with flowered hats and gingham bows with her own damn time and money and not acted like a petulant whiner on national t.v.

[ivylass]

I think the whole temper tantrum with Doug was staged. After all, he did have all the wood for the facade, so he knew what he was going into, didn’t he? It’s not like he bought paint and had to take it back and rework his budget to buy the facade and design it right then and there.

I do believe it could have been handled better. Doug came off looking like a jerk. He could have said, “I know the homeowners don’t want the fireplace painted, so we’ll do something else that won’t touch the brick.”

I’d heard about the show on the TLC board and watched it, knowing what was going to happen. It was very uncomfortable. I don’t think the room was all that bad, and really, people, if you want a room designed the way you want it, you hire a professional designer. You do not go on Trading Spaces, which is pretty much a crap shoot, and hope for the best.

I want to add that I have NEVER seen a Vern room that I didn’t like. That man has class and style and also looks hot in a muscle shirt.

[The_Mermaid]

Damn I missed it again!

I saw the chicken wire and moss room a couple of days ago and while not repulsive, it was not to my tastes either.

Is there any way of finding out when it is on again in my area?

[Why_A_Duck]

I happen to see this episode twice yesterday. The first time I cauught the last ten minutes of it, the second time I caught the full thing. I thought it was amusing, but I didn’t realize the legends that sprung up around this one.

I loved Crying Pam’s hubby: “She is not happy.” Thank you Mr. Blindingly Obvious.

[Ruffian]

From the TLC message board linked in this thread:

As one of the HO’s from episode 21, I’d like to share some of our “backstory” with you. As my title indicates, 95% of what you see is scripted. The crew arrives with plans in hand, and directs every sequence of film shot. You aren’t seen on film without being told what they expect you to do and say, even where to stand, and how to “open up to the camera”. After reading your comments, the first myth I’d like to dispel is the reveal. Charlie, Laureen, John and I have been friends for over seven years, neighbors for three. We take our children on family vacations, share holidays, make trips to Reno once or twice a year, we’ve even cruised together. In NO way could anything done on the show affect our relationship. Charlie and Laureen are our closest friends, and we dearly love their entire family. In fact, we all watched our episode air last night, and laughed out loud with all of you.

I was, indeed, upset during our reveal. Many factors played into this, and lest you all think I’m whiny, as well as weepy, I’ll try to briefly share them. One, our living room was not the room which we intended for the makeover. We had originally requested that our family room be used, but due to logistical filming issues the room was considered too large by the location scout. WE then suggested our bedroom, HE selected our living room. Not wanting to disappoint Charlie and Laureen, we agreed to go forward as long as the fireplace remained untouched. Please understand that we do not think our fireplace is the most wonderful thing in the world–we actually had plans to change it ourselves. However, we had just watched the beaded fireplace episode and were more than a little concerned about the quality of the work done on the show [more on that later].

Two, there is a written contract that must be signed prior to appearing on the show. Item 6 warns the homeowner to remove any objects from the room which are not to be touched, and allows you to list immovable items which are to remain unchanged. We listed the fireplace insert and brick. Further, during the filming of the episode, I was repeatedly told by various members of the crew that everything in the contract was honored.

Three, you are requested to turn off the phones (ringers) in your home so that filming is not interrupted, and are not allowed to have cell phones on your person. The night before shooting began, my Grandmother suffered a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital. While the producers allowed me to have a cell phone, it was kept with the seamster (tailor) in Sewing World (their name for where all the actual sewing takes place). I went into the reveal believing I would need to finish filming and immediately leave to pick up my daughter and Laureen’s son from my mother, who had been taking care of them, in order for her to be with my Grandmother as she was transported to another medical facility.

Finally, you all need to know what you see on TV is not always exactly the way things happen… in other words, seeing is not believing! Editing can do, and did, some pretty amazing things. Entire sentences, words, and yes, tears, can be removed, replaced, and/or reformatted.

Now on to that “professional” work some of you mention. At any given time, two to four production assistants are working with the homeowners on the room. These are not professional painters, maskers, upholsterers, etc. The quality of the work varies dramatically, and is certainly not a concern for the producers unless it can be discerned by the camera. Trust me, the camera is quite forgiving in this area. Our fireplace facade was not as easily removed as you may think. Not only was it nailed into place after tipping over and hitting the producer’s head, it was caulked both at the ceiling and onto my carpeting. I now have sculptured carpet where it had to be cut out when removed (Thank goodness I planned on buying new!). My ceiling also has permanent damage and will need to be re-textured. What really concerns me is that upon removal of the piece --which had to be done to allow us access to the emergency gas shut off valve and fireplace controls which were enclosed within it!!-- we found bare wires from the lighting fixtures, and so much sawdust trapped from drilling the holes for the wiring, that it had begun to combust from the heat of the fireplace being on during the filming of the reveal and after shots! We have photos of actual charred wood chips!

For all of you who seem to be very thorough viewers, I can’t believe you missed that the plans Doug showed Ty for his sudden inspiration of a fireplace surround instead of paint were dated 11/15 (That’s two weeks prior to filming!). Also, that the title of the room had been erased from the plans. It was called “****ett Nantucket”, which for phonetic readers is a long way from “Denim Deluxe”.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience working with Frank. He is exactly what you see on TV, a wonderfully funny, generous and immensely talented man. John and I were privileged to work with him. From our camera man, Mark, and sound guy, Eric; both purveyors of arcane TV trivia, to production guys, Ron and Gary, John’s new homies, all were terrific. They made us laugh and enjoy ourselves even as we were chagrined by our lack of acting ability. We got so close to one of the locally hired production assistants, “Cousin Jean” as we affectionately call her, that even she cried. She left the shoot with my “Trading Spaces” shirt as a gift for all her help throughout the shoot.

Well, that’s a long story for a little behind the scenes info. Hope you all enjoyed it. By the way, we love the living room now. Charlie and Laureen helped me paint over the brown with the same red as was used in their house. We took out the furniture and replaced it with some in a green and cream check, and repainted the coffee table. My father helped me repair and replace some of the wainscoting which was not properly measured, and to install new baseboard and ceiling moulding.

To top it all off , we have an original painting from Frank on the fireplace mantle. Thanks again!!!

Take it or leave it as you see fit.

[airdisc]

I thought the room was amazingly bad. Anyone who could possibly say it was the least bit good is obviously blind. Brown walls, with nice white stripes to make it look like the last stall in a bar in Mexico. For a while I thought they were going for the “goatse.cx cannon” effect. I completely understand Pam’s reaction. If anyone did that to my living room, I would go to the designer’s home, bend over, and shoot a liquid jet of crap to let them know how I felt.

And Doug came off as a complete jerk. They said leave the fireplace alone, SO LEAVE THE DAMN FIREPLACE ALONE. I thought it looked good as it is. Instead, he tap-danced around that, just so he could have his way. I thought you were supposed to outgrow that crap when you turned 5.

[Guinastasia]

*Originally posted by Myrnalene *
**Guin, if you’re talking about the fireplace, they covered it. They didn’t paint it.

The best part is when the husband bitches, “I see one piece of furniture that’s the same.” Yeah, that is the general idea of the show. :rolleyes: **

Oh, okay. I figured as much. I’m just saying that would be the reason for do not PAINT the fireplace.

[The_Wrong_Girl]

I think it’s just a case of bad things happening all around, bad decisions, bad situations, and bad feelings. I’m in the livejournal Trading Spaces community, and I always have to steel myself when they start talking about this show, calling Crying Pam a bitch and unappreciative, so I think that’s why I reacted as strongly as I did.

Saying that, airdisc is right–the walls looked like a bathroom stall.

[Zyada]

I don’t watch the show, but now I want to see what this room looks like.

I’ve been looking at some of the transformations from this page: Before and After but I can’t find any rooms like the one described.

I have been checking out Doug’s work especially, and damn but some of his stuff is awesomely horrid. One room looks straight out of a cheesy 50’s sci-fi movie.

[Myrnalene]

Zyada, it’s Seattle: 137th Street.

[Zyada]

Thanks! The color’s pretty horrid (what’s with the dark colors on the walls? But it’s not as evil as the red&white bedroom I saw in there.

[anyrae]

Ok but did anyone notice the floral sofas that he made halfway decent slip covers for? The floral pattern was dirty and worn off in butt sized sections. It was really gross. That alone would have been a huge improvement in that room. I think that basically, you should be a good sport if you are doing anything like this. How many of us get to hire an interior decorator (even if he does suck) and have our room re-done for free and be on TV. It seems like the end result wouldn’t really be the biggest issue.
And in that little article by Pam, I’m so sure they like voiced over and added more sobs, or is she saying they took the sobs from another part of the program and put them there? Please. Don’t go on TV and show your ass as well as your nasty dirty furniture.

[PunditLisa]

There was another episode where some chick painted smurf blue stripes on this poor woman’s hard wood floors!!! I wouldn’t have cried. I would have throttled her.

On an unrelated, completely irrelevant note, I thought the former hostess was beautiful. I think her name was Alexandra…

[grendel72]

I watched the show, this is the first episode I’ve seen. I must say that Doug was a complete dick. That “no paint” sign was the most childish thing I’ve ever seen.
What is wrong with you people who are calling the homeowner names- she has to live in that house, I don’t blame her for being upset when the interior decorator ignores their instructions and then acts like an ASS toward the people he’s supposed to be helping.

[Myrnalene]

*Originally posted by grendel72 *
**What is wrong with you people who are calling the homeowner names- she has to live in that house, I don’t blame her for being upset when the interior decorator ignores their instructions and then acts like an ASS toward the people he’s supposed to be helping. **

Look, the point of the show is not to simply give the homeowners a free room in the style and design of their choice. It may have been marketed as a “Do you trust your neighbors to redecorate your house?” kind of deal at first but anyone who regularly watches the show would realize that it is very much driven by the designer’s plans. The neighbors who help in the other person’s house are basically used as labor and the wishes of the homeowner may be ignored outright. Anyone who agrees to be on this show is damn well aware that they are rolling the dice and taking their chances. And I don’t care how much she hated the room, nothing excused Pam’s behavior to her neighbor at the reveal. Add this to the fact that she came of as very controlling and borderline abusive to her husband in the segments with Frank and maybe you can see why some people are not brimming over with empathy for her. She could have gotten hay on her walls! Hay, for Christ 's sake! Get some perspective, lady!

[sub] Pam that is, not you, grendel.[/sub]