Alaiyo
January 25th, 2003, 01:15 PM
This is what I posted earlier today at Mysticwicks. I think we should do it. It would be fun. Ken...farming in the colonial period. Hunting bar' and shooting at some food...
It looks like PBS is looking for a new crop of victims...I mean volunteers to do Colonial House. Below is the link which has the necessary info.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/colonialhouse/index.html
I still want to do it though it is a five month commitment. (I noticed that the commitment for the participants of the British productions are just about 3 months, including Surviving the Iron Age. I wonder why that is unless it is the farming aspect of the American projects that makes it a longer commitment.)
I'm still waiting for "Surviving the Ice Age," which is what I was calling "Surviving the Iron Age" for the longest time.
I think that this one will be more interesting to me whether I participate or watch it at home. The life of the pioneers on Frontier House was not a revelation to me because we have so much written and visual record of that period. One can argue the truthfulness of them but there were no real surprises except for the drama that happened within the little community as it were which would have taken place especially between the Clunes and the Glenns in the 21st century.
The picture most people have of colonial life tends to be not unlike the view of Victorian life, which is that of a class of people who were the 1% or so of the population. Regular people, especially females, are always depicted in their everyday lives and then only sparingly as background to some "epic costume drama."
Education I think was a great leveler. People like Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote the Little House books in the 30s and 40s were the beneficiaries of spirit behind the implementing of public school education, no matter how rudimentary that took place in the 19th century. Education and hard work were the tools to getting ahead and poor men from Tennessee and Kentucky could go on to become President of the united States (Jackson and Lincoln who today would just be able to get a job at McDonald's which the amount of formal education that they received.) In Laura's time, women were being educated, perhaps they didn't receive the opportunities that their male counterparts did but it was an improvement over the last century where the rule usually was that women did not need "scholarly" education. It was okay to have skills that would make her a good wife and caretaker but those who left behind any written record were very fortunate to have "enlightened" parents. The value that the Little House Books provided was the women's side of the story of daily life in contrast to the cowboy/soldier life that stories of the frontier usually focused on. First hand accounts from the 18th century are rare if you are not speaking of the privileged.
I think the series will be a pleasant surprise, not unlike the shock of kids that visit the Plimoth Plantation and discover that the Pilgrims (puritans) did not all dress in Black and Dark violet and White). I hope that the screening process will be better this time too. If I wanted to see a family on the edge, I can always watch Jerry Springer or something like that.
Although I would love to see Robin Williams do it.
That's it! They do the projects and they have celebrities do it. That's a concept PBS and the BBC should go with. The Royal Family in Surviving the Iron Age, complete with Camilla. Too bad Margaret Rose and the Queen mother died. Diana too. Can't use the Bushes because Dubya would find a way to do Frontier House in which there would be a lot in his favour. The Clintons in either house would be interesting. Especially if Anna Nicole were around. The Osbournes in any house would be awesome. Can you imagine Ozzy making iron "Sharon! I cahn't get this f****** thing to start! Where's the f****** button?" , Kelly milking a cow, Jack being the conservation chief in 1940s , Sharon weaving cloth and the family setting down to dinner in the 1900s House?
Or The Osbournes, Bushes (both generations), The Clintons and the Royal family, Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, Margaret Cho, Oprah, Dr. Phil and his family and yeah and Camilla too in either Surviving the Iron Age or Frontier House or Colonial House ?
Okay I got carried away but the tragedy is that people would tune in so quick to the program because of celebrity and may or may not learn something.
Good luck to those who may apply!
It looks like PBS is looking for a new crop of victims...I mean volunteers to do Colonial House. Below is the link which has the necessary info.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/colonialhouse/index.html
I still want to do it though it is a five month commitment. (I noticed that the commitment for the participants of the British productions are just about 3 months, including Surviving the Iron Age. I wonder why that is unless it is the farming aspect of the American projects that makes it a longer commitment.)
I'm still waiting for "Surviving the Ice Age," which is what I was calling "Surviving the Iron Age" for the longest time.
I think that this one will be more interesting to me whether I participate or watch it at home. The life of the pioneers on Frontier House was not a revelation to me because we have so much written and visual record of that period. One can argue the truthfulness of them but there were no real surprises except for the drama that happened within the little community as it were which would have taken place especially between the Clunes and the Glenns in the 21st century.
The picture most people have of colonial life tends to be not unlike the view of Victorian life, which is that of a class of people who were the 1% or so of the population. Regular people, especially females, are always depicted in their everyday lives and then only sparingly as background to some "epic costume drama."
Education I think was a great leveler. People like Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote the Little House books in the 30s and 40s were the beneficiaries of spirit behind the implementing of public school education, no matter how rudimentary that took place in the 19th century. Education and hard work were the tools to getting ahead and poor men from Tennessee and Kentucky could go on to become President of the united States (Jackson and Lincoln who today would just be able to get a job at McDonald's which the amount of formal education that they received.) In Laura's time, women were being educated, perhaps they didn't receive the opportunities that their male counterparts did but it was an improvement over the last century where the rule usually was that women did not need "scholarly" education. It was okay to have skills that would make her a good wife and caretaker but those who left behind any written record were very fortunate to have "enlightened" parents. The value that the Little House Books provided was the women's side of the story of daily life in contrast to the cowboy/soldier life that stories of the frontier usually focused on. First hand accounts from the 18th century are rare if you are not speaking of the privileged.
I think the series will be a pleasant surprise, not unlike the shock of kids that visit the Plimoth Plantation and discover that the Pilgrims (puritans) did not all dress in Black and Dark violet and White). I hope that the screening process will be better this time too. If I wanted to see a family on the edge, I can always watch Jerry Springer or something like that.
Although I would love to see Robin Williams do it.
That's it! They do the projects and they have celebrities do it. That's a concept PBS and the BBC should go with. The Royal Family in Surviving the Iron Age, complete with Camilla. Too bad Margaret Rose and the Queen mother died. Diana too. Can't use the Bushes because Dubya would find a way to do Frontier House in which there would be a lot in his favour. The Clintons in either house would be interesting. Especially if Anna Nicole were around. The Osbournes in any house would be awesome. Can you imagine Ozzy making iron "Sharon! I cahn't get this f****** thing to start! Where's the f****** button?" , Kelly milking a cow, Jack being the conservation chief in 1940s , Sharon weaving cloth and the family setting down to dinner in the 1900s House?
Or The Osbournes, Bushes (both generations), The Clintons and the Royal family, Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, Margaret Cho, Oprah, Dr. Phil and his family and yeah and Camilla too in either Surviving the Iron Age or Frontier House or Colonial House ?
Okay I got carried away but the tragedy is that people would tune in so quick to the program because of celebrity and may or may not learn something.
Good luck to those who may apply!