Hello fellow Normites,
After a few trips to the New Yankee Cam when nothing was going on, I finally was able to see Norm working on something today. I saved some of the pics and put them here.
Frank Ketchum
looks like in pic # 17 the chair is all minwhacked & polly'ed lol I hope when i see the show I am wrong. in the later projects norm resorted to some more tradional methods of finishing. ie shellac
Leo
Certainly a fat wallet is a pain in the ass.
-Jack
Thanks for posting those. I seem to find myself to busy to drop in at the times they are in shop and I've wanted to see them. It was nice of you to go through the trouble.
Don
The Sears deal came along after the flap that caused Vila to depart TOH. At the time, Vila signed on as the spokesman for Rickel. Since Home Depot was underwriting the TOH broadcasts on many PBS stations throughout the South, they squawked. Bowing to that pressure, PBS then made Vila choose between TOH or his endorsement deal. And he followed the money. Left without a show to host, Vila came up with "Home Again," his own replica of TOS. He probably offered it to Rickel first but they went down the dumper, and that's when Sears entered the picture. And the rest is history.
Lee
One more observation:
Lots of the photos in the first half or so show him standing around while 2 or 3 other people are discussing something or other, then...
Sometime after 2:30 or so everyone leaves. _Then_ Norm gets to work. :)
Now I understand why so many of his shows have him saying: "I stayed late last night and turned all the spindles / glued up the other 3 panels / etc..." ;>
Informative, but not something I'll be watching on a regular basis...
Michael Baglio Chapel Hill
Yeah the no toolbelt is a different look for Norm, but we may have made a discovery. Think about it. With as high-tech as the New Yankee Workshop is becoming (webcam and all) I bet Norm hasn't worn a toolbelt in years. They just add it digitally in post production.
Frank
As I said, maybe there is (another) real story ... Thanks, Paul Harvey.
I like it. And, if Norm starts looking buff, then it is confirmed.
Good
day!
Lee Gordon spaketh...
Many folks complained about Bob Vila because he asked too many dumb questions of the contractors working on the show, but I always thought he asked those questions because "I" would have. I'm no housebuilder and so the stupid questions were for my benefit. Steve Thomas is a nice narrator, but he seldom brings the type of insights that Vila did, I also think he is boring.
...donning flame retardant suit
Well I finally cleared space off my personal web page to put one of the two time lapsed videos of the NYW web cam. Go to
Wow. At one point, there are about 15 people in the shop. Who are all these people? Is the NYW now "filmed in front of a live studio audience"? Now I see why the shop is so big. If that many people were in the Woodrights shop, Roy wouldn't be able to flail around like he always does.
How can Roy do all those projects without a manufacturer-sponsored laser-guided chop saw? He gets sweaty and winded trying to finish in his half hour while Norm spends half the time in meetings. Is there any wonder about the weight differential?
-Jack
No wonder it takes Norm almost a half hour to complete most of his projects. It would slow me down also with all those people to walk around. Maybe they are there to find lost tools?
Grrrrrrr ........ grrrrrrrrr........
Jums
:-)
"Frank :
I was going to say that filming a national TV show does take a lot of people: director, producer(s), camera, lighting, sound, etc. And perhaps some of those people where fulfilling those roles (I particulary like the sweepup person at the end), but I'd say, there WAS an audience of people watching Norm at work. They might have been production staff of a magazine or his local PBS station or even contest winners(?). Other shots that I've seen, there never was a crowd like you captured.
Thanks for doing this, can't wait until the next season starts up!
MJ Wallace
Nice job, Bill. Enjoyed the timelapse a LOT more than pushing F5. :)
Off-topic question, since you obviously know more about the mpg thing than I:
Is there a (preferably freeware) mpg viewer that I can use that will allow me to scroll through Norm a frame at a time? I wanted to slow down at certain points but whatever program it is on Windoze that plays your file scrolls an hour at a click. Pretty useless...
Anyway, thanks for going to all the trouble, it was entertaining. (And yeah, who ARE all those people??? ;> )
Michael Baglio Chapel Hill
If you watch the credits at the end of the show there are quite a few names on the list. It take more behind-the-scenes people to put on a TV show than most casual viewers would suspect.
Lee
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