A SLAP for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

[westytoploader]

I was watching tonight's new episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition about a family with seven kids (9-year-old boy and a set of sextuplets), and they're literally redesigning their house from the ground up. All well and good, so far...what they did on this episode is a big no-no in the classic appliance world...prepare yourselves because this was shocking.

In the kitchen was a BEAUTIFUL 1950's Westinghouse stainless wall oven with bottom-mounted controls, and in a show where everyone is obsessed with new, it wasn't going to stay. They (the designers) had some crazy idea about using the oven door for one of the kids' beds, and of course had to show the camera that they could get it out in less than a minute. Everyone literally JUMPED on the oven door and broke it off, nearly ripping the poor thing out of the wall! What a shame...there aren't very many of these left.

Did anyone else catch this? They deserve a slap 10 times over...

 

[bpetersxx]

And a fast trip to the woodshed!

 

[david]

This show is great for what is does (helping people)

but trashing old appliances like they do is not part of that greatness. While some ignoramuses think it's funny, we don't here. Kind of like when gallagher used to smash veggies and fruits-I never thought that was funny. That was food that could have been used to feed the hungry. Same as with appliances-restored and used again or sold on Ebay and made money to support ongoing projects. This stuff really isn't funny to me. Somedays I think we have it too good in this country. I love America with all my heart, but we are indeed a wasteful folk.

 

[tolivac]

We should promply notify PETA!!!(People For the Ethical Treatment of Appliances)Won't watch that program!!!Boycott its sponsers!!!Any "Appliance" companies sponsering that show??

 

[kenmore1978]

Extreme Makeover

That's why I never watch that show exactly for that reason. Just what I've seen them tear down in the promo spots makes me ill. In a lot of cases, we're not talking about run-down gheto stuff.

Sometimes I when I watch Designers Challenge, they will be re-designing a kitchen or replacing appliances that I'd be proud to have in my house. They'll go into a kitchen and I'll say to myself "wow, that's a nice kitchen" then they tear it out. This isn't to say that some of the kitchens DID need to be re-done.

 

[tolivac]

I don't watch the program-but my question was--How do you make a childs bed from an oven door?? sounds like it would be uncomfortable?and???I must be missing out on something.Perhaps the machine could have been DONATED to someone who would be interested in it.Yes-what is "funny" to them could be distasteful to someone else-mabe they should learn(producer of the program) they are people who like and DO USE vintage machines.-and APPRECIATE them!!

 

[frontaloadotmy]

Be Consoled Westy!!

I concurr; a rotten shame to trash those remnants of bygone days. One of us should write to the producers and have them convey to the principals that there is a market for the retro apps. I am happy to say I have one of those, and the
matching surface unit. Also,I have a newer one from about 1959/1960 that I snatched right out of my Grandparents house
in mid escrow in late 1996. Controls left vertically arranged,
even has a rotisserie and meat temp probe!!!

 

[alr2903]

Westy oven

Westy also had a cool oven that the door was hinged on the side. This would of been around 1967. (built in type unit).

 

[tlee618]

I watch many of the shows on HGTV and here of late I have seen them trash three vintage Kitchen Aid Dishwashers. Makes me want to scream everytime I see it happen. Terry

 

[tolivac]

Don't want to watch the show after hearing these things-Trashing working older machines is despicable!Throw the producers of this show into the compactor and see how funny that would be?Grind them into Soylent Green??Were the three KA washers they trashed still usable??Someone else could sure use them and ENJOY them.

 

[spiralactivator]

This is the reason why I don't watch that type of show. The whole obsession with trends and newness makes me sick. I remember a promo for a show called "Kitchen Accomplished" that showed a rather goregous avocado green kitchen, with a snide voiceover rattling on about how "your kitchen was state of the art...in 1973!" Then it showed the kitchen updated, with commercial stainless appliances and blonde cabinets, no personality, total slavery to what's "in." The update craze indicates a lemming-like obsession with group-think. Don't people have personal preferences anymore?

Sorry to rant, but this is a subject that really gets me.

 

[pulsator-power]

I saw the Extreme Makeover show too- did't see the part about the oven door. They really went over the top with the house. They made the kids room wardlike- with a circus themed room & back yard. A tent like ceiling with stripes would literally make me nautious! The family was in shock. I would be too!
Jerry

 

[bwoods]

Extreme Makeover

Why doesn't someone contact the producers of the show. Tell them about our website and how it's users are committed to preserving classic appliances.

If the producers would be willing to ship these to one of our nearby members, who might be willing to act as a clearinghouse, and collect these. They could then be offered to users of this website.

I know this is a wild idea, but it's a wild show and the producers might like it's a neat twist. Would give this website some free publicity and let people know the value of classis appliances and that there are people out there who want them preserved.
'

 

[peterh770]

I can't stomach that show anymore because it is one big Sears and Ford advertisement. God bless them for helping people in need and all the donations they get for those families, but they don't have to make us jealous with a new garage completely outfitted with Craftsmen tools, 2 HE4t sets, a new F150 and a 500 sedan. That's a pretty crappy message for some people out there who are just looking for a way to defraud the system. Yes, sit on your butt, come up with a sob story, live like a pig and then they will come and rebuild your house brand new for you.

Oven doors for a bed? That's pretty sick on a number of levels. Handsel and Gretel? I hope the family wasn't Jewish.

 

[westytoploader]

I think they overloaded the last house with appliances as well. Yes, they might be a family of eight, but do they still need two Kenmore Elite tall-tub dishwashers?

Regardless, I still can't get over the fact that the designers didn't like the Westinghouse oven. They re-did the kitchen in stainless anyway; what difference would it have made?!?!?

 

[tolivac]

Questions on the "Extreme Makeover" program-If they "donate" tools and appliances to worthy causes-how 'bout "donating" the old machines removed from "Makeovers"to folks who could use them?
Maybe they should redraw their storyboards to be like this-Family has old kitchen and appliances and they want to remodel.They do so and SAVE the old machines.Now they show the new kitchen and the folks enjoying it.Next the OLD machines are advertised as available to someone who would want them(metal cabinets as well from GE or whatever)Family "B" answers Extreme Makeovers request on the old units. They are then sent to them-installed in their kitchen and we see scenes of them using and enjoying the old appliances in their NEW home! Could someone from Applianceville contact the Extreme Makeover group and request means of getting the old appliances BEFORE they are slaughtetered?

 

[tolivac]

Minor concern-could that family that was on the program in 3-6 afford to pay the utilities and taxes to run and own those new machines?Looked up the program on the web.The charactors on the program seem to "makeover" homes of less well to do folks or those that suffered some sort of problem.Are the owners of the home in charge of the "Extreme Makeover" crew-I would think they should be treated as "contractors" and the homeowners are still the boss as to what is done to the building or what goes in it.I wanted to see film clips of the show but the video player doesn't work for my computer or they won't let you see it since it ran on regular TV.I was trying to access the scenes of that poor nice "Westy" oven being brutalized for no reason.

 

[Designgeek]

I agree, gleefully destroying useful things of any kind is disgusting. It's basically the same spirit as overt vandalism and/or looting.

I have some doubt that you could get the producers of that show to arrange for orderly donations of old appliances on their own. Too reasonable, too deliberate, not chaotic enough. Remember, chaos makes "good television."

However, I can think of a way it *might* work. There is a practice that is common in major construction projects, whereby if you find something of archaological relevance, you contact the local university, and they send out the graduate students who literally go in just ahead of the excavators to remove and map what they can. It's work under time pressure, because delays can add huge cost-overruns to construction projects of those types (skyscrapers, highways, etc.), but it does the job: artifacts get saved, sites get mapped, much is learned and preserved.

So how 'bout this. Offer to set up a "salvage squad" that could deploy to these TV home renovation sites on short notice, and remove the vintage equipment as quickly as possible without visibly slowing down the show. It might even get you on TV. Here you have three appliance geeks quickly unscrewing and carting off the wall-oven, unbolting the Bendix washer from the garage floor and getting it into a pickup truck, taking the old turquoise-enameled steel kitchen cabinets out and handing them out the back door like a bucket brigade, etc.

If you do it often enough you'll start to look as well-choreographed as a ballet or a basketball game. That will make for good TV.

As for "what to do with the stuff." Widely-publicized auctions, no. Those would only have the effect of causing a generalized price increase for these things, putting them out of the reach of many folks such as those on this site who don't have bottomless budgets. In my estimation one of the criteria for a good hobby is that the entry price isn't impossible, so folks who enjoy buying a couple of vintage pieces and restoring them for use shouldn't have to pay "antique mall" prices.

More interesting I think, to try to arrange for some kind of trade or donation, whereby it's one old machine for a comparable new one; or perhaps direct donation of the old ones to poor folks who want the retro look (after all, why should being poor disqualify someone from having a few nice things anyway?).

This could also turn into "good TV" by having the show say, at the end (for example), "And all the old stuff that came out of this kitchen is now making the Smith family of Midville Nebraska very happy!" and show a quick still-photo of the Smiths in their newly-remodeled vintage kitchen.

 

[retromom]

Terrific Idea!

Designgeek:

A wonderful idea! Wouldn't it be great to have a "Recycling Squad" on hand to get these useful appliances? If someone in our forum can't use them, surely Habitat for Humanity or another organization can. I'm sure the Texas contingent would join forces here.

I have to admit, it was painful (very) to watch Ty and his group jump on that oven door to try to remove it. What a waste. Why didn't they go to the junkyard and get a hood off of a small car if that's the look they wanted to simulate for the young boy's bed? What a gorgeous oven to destroy. Austin and I were both justifiably enraged >:0