Dean Johnson - Famous Serial Monogamist

Tom Watson · 2005-12-04T14:46:32+00:00

On the House | Marking two decades of no-frills home how-toBy Al HeavensInquirer ColumnistI'd always assumed that Dean Johnson's TV persona was the same as hisreal-life personality: the knowledgeable next-door neighbor who helpsyou drywall the family room and will accept nothing more than a beerfor his work.And after spending part of a day with the Hometime host, includingdinner at which we had to forgo the beer for a couple of glasses ofwine, my assumption proved more than correct.Come January, it will be 20 years that Johnson, 53, has been hostingthe show, a coproduction of his company, Hometime Video, and WHYY-TV(Channel 12). Its ratings have never approached those of This OldHouse in that show's heyday. Neither has Johnson succumbed to thescreaming-meemie syndrome of such shows as Trading Spaces and ExtremeMakeover: Home Edition.Instead, Hometime has preferred to stay just below the radar, stickingmostly to its home base of Minneapolis-St. Paul; staying away, for themost part, from This Old House's multimillion-dollar makeovers; andregularly participating in Habitat for Humanity projects instead ofsobby giveaways designed to boost ratings.But Johnson is too nice a guy to criticize the other shows."Russ Morash [This Old House's producer emeritus] always maintainedthat his was not a how-to show," Johnson said.Hometime is a how-to show, however. Like the 24-hour conveniencestore, it's there when you need it."I know most people haven't been watching us every week for the last20 years," Johnson said. "But we do know that when they are interestedin what we are doing, they tune in."Then there are the Hometime videos, which Johnson acknowledges arevery popular. I learned to tile from one of them, watched many, manytimes.Of course, as Johnson also acknowledges, these videos deal withstandard situations. When I had to install and grout tile under animpossible-to-move cast-iron tub, I was pretty much on my own."I'll have to look at that video again," Johnson said, "just to...

Dec 04, 2005 24 Replies

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Robert Bonomi 20 years ago

Because he is cruel *and* Hartl-less. *groan*

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squarei4dtoolguy 20 years ago

Thank you for just accusing me of cruelty, did you see whay they were trying to say about Robin's gender? Sheesh!

Tom in KY, Hart-less.

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Robatoy 20 years ago

that's more like it...

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Larry Jaques 20 years ago

On Thu, 15 Dec 2005 23:55:37 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Robatoy quickly quoth:

The things we'd do for tools...

-- Vidi, Vici, Veni ---

formatting link

Comprehensive Website Development

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Kevin Craig 20 years ago

Just go to Horse Cave. That's Hart County. ;-)

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