If You Build It, They Will Watch
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Q How did you get started with This Old House? A It was completely by accident. Back in 1978, I was down on Nantucket building a house for an architectural designer, who introduced me to [WGBH executive producer] Russ Morash, who was looking for someone to build a garage/workshop on his property. I started working on it in the fall,
PHOTO: IMAGE GROUP LA
Q Where did you first learn about carpentry? A My father was a carpenter. The first time he took me out on a job, I was 9 years old, and I remember it like it was yesterday. My father was a great teacher: he taught me a lot about patience, and to never take shortcuts. And those are the lessons we try to get across during the show.
pretty much putting the building up by myself. One day Russ said, “Would you like to be part of a television show about renovating old houses?” I had no expectations of being on television. Little did I know that later he would say, “Put a mic on Abram.” He told me, “You’re going to get up on the scaffolding, explain why the eaves are rotten, how you’re going to fix it, and why it’s going to last longer.” And I thought, “I can do that.” Q How does the dialogue work, with such a hands-on program? A We don’t ever work with a script that’s pre-written. We make it up as we go, because the conditions on the job site change daily, and we like to Continued on other side
Home & Travel Club
orm Abram, master carpenter on This Old House since its 1979 premiere, host of The New Yankee Workshop for the series’ 21 seasons, author of eight books, and all-around home improvement guru, has been called the most famous carpenter since Joseph. He’s inspired millions of homeowners to renovate and restore their homes, and This Old House remains the place Americans turn for expert advice and quality craftsmanship. Along with This Old House creator and original executive producer Russ Morash, Norm helped ignite the home-improvement craze. We recently chatted with Norm about the series, and how he got started.
Home & Travel Club SUMMER 2011 • 617.300.3505 • wgbhclubs@wgbh.org
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TRACY POWELL FOR WGBH / THIS OLD HOUSE
be able to take advantage of those changes. If we see something that’s interesting and it isn’t in the rundown for the show, we will change everything to get that piece to be part of the show or make it part of another show. Q What exciting things have you gotten to do on the show? A We’ve been everywhere, from Hawaii to London. I had a chance to go up to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. We went to the Kennedy Space Center where I got to interview an astronaut, which was really a thrill for me because the space program was something I was always interested in as a kid. He showed me how he trained and the tools he would be using to work on the Space Station.