Any one going to watch COLONIAL HOUSE tonight?

Hoop · #81 05/25/04, 06:30 PM

I see admirable qualities in ALL of the people on the show.

The current governor, a most likeable chap, obviously has spent his career in the ivory towers of academia. His strengths are not in the field of homesteading.
The governors wife, who I previously admired as quite a character, has now ceased being an egalitarian person and sees herself as the quasi ruling queen.

The Voorhees are the people that I admire the most. Mrs Voorhees is not at all the typical 17th century female. Her 21st century persona refuses to take a step backwoods into what is expected of 17th century females. Mr Voorhees appears to be the most grounded of all the people on the show. HE doesn't take himself too seriously, is a diligent worker, and even attends church.....just for the sake of "fitting in".

Tonights show should prove interesting.

chickflick · #82 05/25/04, 06:41 PM

OMG!!! Calico.. I just HAD to compliment you on your RECAP!!! Great work!!! I LMAO!!!!

(Didn't you just LOVE the beer impersonation of LayPastor?LOL)

I'm afraid If I was stuck listening to that guy for longer than five minutes at a shot.. I'd have to strangle him!! That is just LAZY to speak that way!!

Anyway.. LOVE your recap!! You should do this for a living!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calico Katie

After much soul searching, Danny Tisdale left the colony.

The Wyers' daughter in Texas apparently became ill and the Wyers left the colony for good. Don Heinz was made governor and Carolyn Heinz, suffering from delusions of royalty, tries to become the Perle Mesta of the New World. With the Wyers gone, it now becomes more apparent that the rest of the colony despises the Heinz duo. (One of the other men, Dom?, does a stellar impersonation of Don Heinz.) Revealing their true character, one of the first actions taken by the new governor and his first lady is evicting Jonathon from their house to sleep in the old governor's house with the other servants.

A new man arrives, Jack Lecza, as a representative of The Company. He immediately looks around at the waste and sloth and determines that things had better change. He takes a walk through the colony and points out several food sources including a wealth of clams available for the digging. While Jack and one of the other men, Paul?, dig clams, Don Heinz skulks some distance from them watching and talking about how Jack is going to find out that it's hard work to dig those clams. The inference I got was that Don thought it better to starve than dig. (Too bad the producers didn't bury kegs of ale, Don would almost certainly have been out there every day with shovel in hand.)

Michelle Voorhees' failure to go to church becomes an issue once again. Her husband tries to talk to her reasonably about this but she insists that they are being persecuted. John Voorhees then resigns from his position with the council to show his support for his wife, even quoting some of her words as though they were his own. Michelle makes a comment to the effect that she hopes the others will understand the statement that John has made by resigning. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to grasp that her husband made this gesture out of loyalty to her. He didn't have a problem with the other men. Michelle even fell back on trying to squeeze out a few tears, telling her husband she just didn't think the others appreciated John the way they should. (I thought a true feminist would disdain such blatantly sexist tactics as crying to get her way.)

Jonathan tells Don and Carolyn that, now that Jack is staying in the former Wyers house with their servants, perhaps it would be more appropriate if he, Jonathan, moved back in with Don and Carolyn since he is their servant. Don, looking extremely constipated, says he undertands Jonathan's point. Carolyn, who looks like she just ate a road apple, stands there looking at Don, saying nothing. They make no response to Jonathan and he leaves, confused and hurt.

Those are the highlights, there was more. If you watch your PBS schedule, there should be a rerun of this.

chickflick · #83 05/25/04, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What's wrong with going to school in TEXAS????

Nuthin' Sweetie... if someone said something... they're just jealous!! LOL!

OD · #84 05/25/04, 07:35 PM

Well doesn't this just keep getting BETTER!!!!
How many governers would have let their gay servant take time off work to learn Ancient Greek?

Cedar · #85 05/25/04, 08:25 PM

Yeah…the Indians really annoyed me with their little pity party they through. Do they think we actually care that we took “their” land??? The aristocrats in Europe took “our” land. Did our ancestors sit around and boo-hoo about it…no (well, they probably did but that isn’t the point…they did something about it). These Indians talk so much about nature and harmony blah blah blah…they should very well know by now that nature isn’t fair. I see no different between white settlers coming to America and the invasion of a colony of black ants by red fire ants…such is nature and such is life.

If I was one of those colonists, I would have given those Indians the one finger salute and exclaimed, “There is a new sheriff in town…and by the way…get of my land.”

Two choices are to be made…either fight or move. Obviously the colonists couldn’t win the fight in Europe so they chose flight, flight to the new world. Flight to a place where they could win the fight. Do you think the aristocrats in Europe actually cared if these colonists boo-hoo-d about their land being stolen in Europe? Whining does nothing but reveal how weak one is.

HermitJohn · #86 05/25/04, 09:45 PM

I was rather disappointed in last 2 hour. Only interesting thing was they got 50 bushel of corn off their acre plot. Thats actually pretty darn good in that climate. And their explanation for growing it was that this is a valuable trading commodity for furs from the Indians. Makes sense.,

I cant remember if it was this thread or another commenting on the show (I'm too lazy to look), but somebody hit it dead on that Mrs Heinz reminded them of Mrs Bucket/Bouquet on that British sitcom. That woman is extremely irritating in her desire to be queen mum. Even outdistances Mrs Voorhies tantrums.

Might comment that their firewood supply wouldnt get them far into winter. Being green and them having open fireplaces and the houses with mucho air gaps and no insulation. Also seems a rather odd thing to excuse to workers from firewood gathering to learn ancient greek. Seems in real world, schooling could at least could wait until winter, especially that first year.

OD · #87 05/25/04, 09:47 PM

Yeah, the Indians are probably running a casino over the hill on the other side of their thousand acres.

bergere · #88 05/25/04, 11:16 PM

After the first half hour of the third part last night.... lets just say,, I did not bother watching the rest.
This one is not as well done as the others,, and to me anyway.. not worth watching.
All the pettiness was tiring, ....etc.. etc.., if I wanted to listen to that.. all I would have to do is go into town. :P
Ah well to each their own.

#89 05/25/04, 11:50 PM

Whine, whine, whine. These people were the laziest bunch of nothings. It was if they had no clue what they were volunteering to do. I do more work before the sun comes up than they got done in a whole week. I didn't care for thsi group too much. Maybe the next one will be better.

BCR · #90 05/26/04, 06:07 AM

I really wasn't impressed enough to have given them a PASSing grade. They seemed a bit short on a lot of authentic and survival skills. When you sign up for one of these shows you need to be willing to live in the timeframe. I understand that it can be harder than you expected, but certainly you did some research before taking it on.

I would have liked to here follow-up from a few other folks and less from the heinz family. Gosh, they were something. And what was with the 'Flashdance' off-the-shoulder dresses they were wearing around? She even went to greet the Indians with this get-up (WHY did SHE go??? and unarmed?). That drove me nuts.

It is hard to imagine leaving the 21st century behind. I think I'll stick to this century and just take the self-sufficiency skills along with me!

The Indian matriarch sure had her hands full with guys making bad choices like stealing a chicken. And then agreeing not to accept food during the visit on principle and the one fellow is caught eating/drinking with the guys. Geez. I don't think that was totally unbelievable--their not following orders--but I think it might have been more disastrous in that time frame such as killing someone or buring down a building.

Gary in ohio · #91 05/26/04, 07:08 AM

I wondered about that as well. Being that was a big issue in frontier house. What was stacked up that I saw wasnt more than few cords and with open fireplaces, not sure how they would have survived.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HermitJohn

Might comment that their firewood supply wouldnt get them far into winter. Being green and them having open fireplaces and the houses with mucho air gaps and no insulation.

Gary in ohio · #92 05/26/04, 07:10 AM

I have to agree. There needs to be some requirement that the partipants act like they fit the time period. The producer should have some say so in how things are run. Servants learning greek, give me a break.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bergere

After the first half hour of the third part last night.... lets just say,, I did not bother watching the rest.
This one is not as well done as the others,, and to me anyway.. not worth watching.
All the pettiness was tiring, ....etc.. etc.., if I wanted to listen to that.. all I would have to do is go into town. :P
Ah well to each their own.

Gary in ohio · #93 05/26/04, 07:14 AM

I know I would not have give them a chance of survivial, regardless of the profitability issues.

Again more period task should have been covered. While I know they cant hunt on the land, They should have been required to remove a "hunting" party from the work force for a few hours then let them bring back food from the hunt (as provided by the producer). They did this with the fishing but why did it take 6 people to fish and after several failures, why did they continue to waste this manpower?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BCR

I really wasn't impressed enough to have given them a PASSing grade. They seemed a bit short on a lot of authentic and survival skills. When you sign up for one of these shows you need to be willing to live in the timeframe. I understand that it can be harder than you expected, but certainly you did some research before taking it on.

mpillow · #94 05/26/04, 07:36 AM

Maine Indians dont have a casino over the hill yet but they are trying!

Fir tips for tea indeed. Also fir chewing gum from sap gobs.

Blueberries are very high in antioxidants so a wonderful source for preventing ills.

Wood would definately be needed. 20-30 degree weather from Nov. to April. At the coast it doesnt get below zero often but the wind doth blow! They would have been smart to all sleep in one house for body heat!

I dont know about the apple trees...

Incidentally the summer that they filmed was quite cool and rainy for May/June here in Maine.

They would have needed a buck to keep their milk supply as well.

I almost had roadkill turkey this morning.....they are everywhere in Central Southern Maine again!

#95 05/26/04, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cabin Fever

So in last night's episode, did Carolyn Heinz remind anyone else, besides me, of Hillary Clinton?

:haha: uh yes

whiterock · #96 05/26/04, 08:18 AM

The only reason I could see for them getting a passing grade was the fact that the graders were ignorant as well.

HermitJohn · #97 05/26/04, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary in ohio

I wondered about that as well. Being that was a big issue in frontier house. What was stacked up that I saw wasnt more than few cords and with open fireplaces, not sure how they would have survived.

Its amazing how much wood an open fireplace takes and be lot worse with green wood. I caretake an old ozark vacation house for family in TX. They come up for couple weeks every Xmas. They burn more wood in fireplace those two weeks than I burn to heat my house the whole winter and my house is warmer.

limhyl · #98 05/26/04, 08:50 AM

I think the decision to let the colony continue had and would have had back in 1600's very little to do with how the colonist actually performed their activities of daily living. It was purely a business venture and as long as the company saw some raw materiels produced (the logs and the corn for potential fur trading for example) they probably would have given their approval. As has been mentioned it is debatable weather they had enough fire wood to keep warm but I'm sure that didn't figure heavily into the decision to let them stay. I think the bottom line was that they saw in this group of people the ability to pull together when they needed to and the growing ability, with the help of the company man, to feed themselves and probably survive. Whether they would be alive and productive in years two, three and four, well that's a harder question. Theresa.

#99 05/26/04, 09:03 AM

I was having my own version of Colonial House last night and didn't get to watch the last episode thanks to a timely five and a half hour power outage. Reckon I'll have to wait for the DVD.

Thank you, Florida Power.

.....Alan.

flutemandolin · #**100** 05/26/04, 09:12 AM

As I was watching the part about the Greek lessons, I was wondering if the equivalent in colonial times would have been teaching the servants to read and do math. Those skills would have been useful enough in furthering the colony to warrant the time taken. Sure, Greek may not be useful but since the modern day servants already knew reading and math it was probably a symbolic substitute.