Sunday, January 20, 2008

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Whoever writes the incidental music for this show is a genius. Seriously. I mean, I'm a sap to begin with, and I would probably cry watching it on mute, but honestly, I probably cry every 90 seconds when I watch an episode of this show. Incidental music is supposed to manipulate your emotions, and man, this composer takes the cake.

My favorite memory of this show is watching it at the Oakland Airport while waiting for an 8:00 flight on a Sunday night. There were a bunch of other people watching it in the waiting area, and we were all looking up at the plasma screens with glassy, teary eyes and that "I'm about to cry" lip quivery look on our faces. I knew not ALL of these people could be as intrinsically sappy by nature as I, so I lay all credit/blame upon the incidental music composers: Randy Guess, Eric Allaman, Rob Cairns, Brad Chiet, and Anthony Echegoyen (via imdb).

Funny story about this show...to the best of my knowledge, it originally started off as a spin-off from Extreme Makeover, a makeover show like any other, except the makeover included plastic surgery, lasik eye surgery, etc. Kind of sick. I previously had my facts mixed up and combined Extreme Makeover with The Swan, which was even sicker. The Swan (a FOX production, naturally) is just like Extreme Makeover, except once the women get a plastic surgery makeover, they THEN compete in a beauty pageant. I cannot even go into how twisted and awful that is. "Sorry, lady. Even after complete re-constructive plastic surgery, you're STILL not pretty enough!" Gross. Thank god neither of these shows is on the air anymore.

Anyway, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (commonly referred to as Extreme Home Makeover, which is really what it should be called) is a welcome departure from the original show. I think. It's a good concept, though I've heard that the homes' quality aren't that great (when you build a mansion in a week, what do you expect though, I guess). I don't know. Superficially, anyway, it seems like a good thing. And the music and these families' stories make me cry. And that is all.

3 comments:

  1. So, I am definitely kind of slow because I JUST noticed your comments on my blog haha...kind of new with the whole blog thing. I´m enjoying reading yours now!

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  2. its true--most of the work on those home-build shows is done by scenic carpenters like me (behind the scenes--you didn't think the families in Trading Spaces did the work, did you? the people on the shows do a tasteful first coat, first stitch, first whatever, and then the work gets handed off to the union boys). frequently i've watched these people build furnishings and the like with staples where nails would be more appropriate, or not measure properly and build something wonky..on screen! its sadly predominantly a façade--scenery. would do better on stage. looks nice until the first rain. but that's what "as seen on tv" will get you.

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  3. omg, the extreme makeover home edition always makes me cry too!!

    i couldn't take the original show either. it was usually plastic surgery for women who really needed it, like they had scarring from abuse or birth deformities or stuff like that (from the two partial episodes i watched). of course they always had to throw in a boob job, which i think is just rude.

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