regarding hosts: steve thomas was a boat geek, but i liked his approach to
hosting the show. he was knowledgeable, but only showed it in spurts,
instead allowing the others to show their expertise (sometimes at the cost
of his own appearances). but when you watch enough of his work you realize
that he's just asking questions that the average person might ask. he also
had a strong command of the language and talked about architecture with
grace.
kevin o'connor was originally on ask this old house as a homeowner with a
wallpaper problem and eventually got hired as the new host. his role is
essentially that of an apprentice who is learning the trade. he asks the
obvious questions and, as time has gone on, has learned more and more about
the trades which has made his commentary and questions even better. steve
was my favorite, but i think that kevin is coming into his own.
-c

"aemeijers" wrote in message
...
Anthona wrote:
Years ago when Bob Vila was in the Old house, he left because he said
that he didn't like the way the show was going..building and repairing
luxury homes only. I agree then and still agree, the way they show how
perfect they can make million dollar homes look great is sickening.
How many of us can afford such luxury? Maybe they felt some guilt and
now show another show right after that, "Ask this old house"...which
is fine. But so far i have never noticed them visiting someone in a
city, like NY or Chicago...its always a private home in some boon
docks areas.

IIRC, Vila got booted because he was trading on his fame from the show
getting an endorsement contract with Sears. From various interviews and
reports since then, the rest of the cast and crew considered him an idiot
anyway. (That agrees with my impression from watching TOH back then, as
well as his own copycat show. I grew up in the business, so I knew a lot
of what he was spouting was pure BS.)The first replacement was okay, but
really more of a boat geek than a carpenter. He is pretty watchable on his
current series with some other channel, about historical buildings. The
current puppy of a TOH host, pretty much of a look-alike for #2,is no
expert, but he doesn't pretend that he is, and thus acts like a stand-in
for the viewer.

They have heard all the people bitching about the show becoming 'This Old
Mansion', and are trying, sort of, to get back to their roots this season
with the New Orleans arc.

---
aem sends...