A week or so ago, ABC announced the end of the weekly show Extreme Makeover Home Edition. The last regular show will be January 13th. These decisions aren’t made quickly with programming planning and the show’s lead is already in a new show. I watch almost no TV, but Extreme Makeover was one show that I rarely miss. Many of the 759 comments on the show’s Facebook page, reacting to the news of the shows cancellation, reflected my own feelings about the shows end.
The show is not only a clean family show amongst reality shows that are indifferent to young viewers, but the show’s message and intent have been as wholesome and noble as any television show can get. As a matter of fact, the shows positive elements, nearly Christian in their compassion and unselfish motives, have been a true rarity in contemporary television. Helping people down on their luck, or those with terminal illnesses or after the death of the bread winner or with a sick child, is an endeavor that any person should pursue. Finding people who live their lives to help others, but who struggle with dilapidated homes, is another segment of the show’s beneficiaries.
Pennington to switch to daytime
Sure Ty Pennington could be a bit obnoxious at times with his shouting, but even my six year-old noticed a cross hanging from a chain around Pennington’s neck in more recent episodes of the show. Perhaps he saw so much of human goodness that he departed from the Hollywood stereotype. The show has brought smiles to the faces of people who had endured so much sadness or such challenges that without the show, they might have been defeated.
ABC promises the shows fans “four awesome specials” later in 2012. That may be meant to wean disappointed fans from their usual Sunday, and later Friday, routine of the tear-jerking show. Pennington can already be seen in commercials for a new daytime show, The Revolution, that will offer up experts to transform the lives of the woman who will be featured on the show. For now, I’m a fan of Pennington who seemed to be truly moved by the experiences on EMHE and his participation in improving the lives of people who needed someone with compassion.
The end of an era
Also very worthy of mention were the people from the communities where the show built new homes. Those people who volunteered their time to raise a new home in the span of a week are some of America’s best. There were also the show’s sponsors and contributors, the celebrities who appeared on the show and the rest of the cast. They all showed the best of human kindness and charity. ABC claimed that falling ratings was the impetus for the shows demise, but for those of us who were fans, the hope of seeing another similar effort is unlikely.
Helping other human beings and bringing happiness to people’s lives just isn’t as exciting as some cunning competition among unsavory reality stars or the shows that need to bleep out a word in every other sentence. Those shows are what pass for entertainment and they will fill the void left by Extreme Makeover Home Edition for many viewers. My six year-old will be hard pressed to watch TV and see joy triumph over sadness and humans uniting to help others with this show gone. That is what we are left with. That’s what our culture is left with.
© 2011 K Richard Douglas
