Has anyone been watching PBS's Victory Garden this season? Everyone from last season except Kip (the gardner) is gone. The new hosts are just horrible. The programs seem to be all over the place and most of them have not been worth watching. There was one where the host spent almost the entire post bending metal for a potting design. What a waste!
PBS had a great program in the Victory Garden but, IMO they ruined it. They need to go back to the good old days when they had great hosts and spent their time on interesting gardening subjects.
Yes, I am that old. :) And back then the show was ALL about gardening. In the last few years it has taken quite a different direction. Less gardening and a lot of other stuff that I don't watch a gardening program for.
once Crockett left I couldnt stand any of the subsequent hosts. why the hell dont they
rebroadcast Crockett's series and/or
find a woman in the mold of what's her name from that gardening show she would soundly thump pots to get the plants in or out, she was messy, sorta the Julia Child of plants. after all, most gardeners are women!!!
they need to find a host by doing a reality show format. have all the contestants compete for who will be the show's host, with the viewers calling in to vote for their favorite. because these guys on the victory garden really turned me off, especially having somebody's wife cooking vegetarian everything and doing it in such a smarmy way ... blech.
I dont know why I am so turned off since Crockett, whether it is they are talking down to people, they entirely lack any humor, they just look sour, smarmy, they are so obviously obsessed with organic, organic, organic. And they got this pretend "hick" thing going with the Oshkosh by gosh bib overalls. Excuuuuuuuse me!!!
It really turned me off that they ran these "contests" where the people obviously DID NOT do their own work. Well it is nice to have an unlimited supply of money to construct and maintain fabulous gardens, but it does nothing for me at all ...... garden as competition as sign of conspicuous consumption just turned me off.
They need to do some demographics and find out who their viewers are, what the level of "tastes" are and what they want to see.
Now it is very true that I have such a small garden area that most of what they are going to offer isnt going to be of interest to me, but IF it is entertaining, then I might watch. But not somebody pretending to be a hick, nobody treacle sweet or smarmy either. Ingrid
"Australian TV personality Jamie Durie, a horticulturist with a checkered past: he is a former member of the male stripper group Manpower Australia, and in 1994 he posed nude for the art magazine Black+White alongside former fiancée Terasa Livingstone. It has been publicly speculated in newspapers such as the Boston Herald (August 8,
2007) that his selection as host for the abbreviated 2007 season (only 13 new episodes are planned ? down from more than 30 during Swain's tenure, and 26 during Weishan's) is a risky attempt to revive the show's failing fortunes."
I really should keep my copy in a fire safe. And, it's one of the few books I'd never loan to anyone, unless they were prepared to die if they lost it. :-)
The Victory Garden hasn't been the same since PBS sold it to Time-Life. Roger Swain told me that's when he left, he knew they would ruin it, and they have.
Me too. I stopped watching it when the guy with the goofy laugh took over. HE WAS HORRIBLE.
While I like shows that are tours of private or public gardens, the only show I've seen recently (that might even go back a year or more) that is truly a gardening show is Gardening By the Yard. And he cheers me up most days.
The old guy before Crockett was not too media wise but he seemed to have useful info. Perhaps I was a newbie but conveying wisdom in such a manner was like talking with extended family. Worth watching him too bad I was out trying to extend my gene line at the time. I'd like to see these PBS shows on DVD but alas I must settle for "Hot Fuzz".
I mentioned the Victory Garden book to one of my neighbors recently. She said "But that book's so old".
tap tap tap.....
Similar: My son told me that a girl in his dorm ordered some clothing for herself from LLBean or some place like that. Several kids were chillaxin' in the lounge with her when she opened the package. She had ordered gift wrapping for the item. She said she wanted it to be a surprise.
I liked Roger Swain. He knew what he was doing. It was easy to believe he actually gardened.
The new Australian host is wretched, and with episode themes running the gamut from "Wet," "Dry," "Up," "Down," etc., the show can't help but suck. The worst part is that Kip is virtually nonexistent this season.
The program has deteriorated into something like contemporary cooking shows. It seems aimed toward people who like to have gardens rather than grow them, just as cooking shows are now suited for those who want huge kitchens with expensive professional accoutrement but are indifferent to preparing food.
Not old enough to remember him (LOL). There was this quirky show from Michigan - two old rosarians with all sorts of interesting info. Loved watching it - never for one second did I believe they did all the work - like burying the canes for the winter.
BTW - I googled Hot Fuzz. Another case of the BBC exporting their worst bits of TV and the US lapping it up?
"Crockett's Victory Garden" was published in 1977. Believe he died of cancer 2 years later. Wife was lucky to win a copy of his book at a garden center nearby. I often refer to it.
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