A pet hate of mine is renovation TV. I was indifferent to harmless lifestyle TV like Better Homes and Gardensfor many years but became increasingly unsettled around the millennium when in morphed into a mad spruikfest. As I wrote in The Great Crash of 2008 (co-authored with Ross Garnaut):
IN 1997 A LOW-BUDGET Australian movie dominated the national box office. The Castle cost $500 000 and took nineteen days to shoot. The movie’s title was drawn from the platitude ‘Each man’s home is his castle’. Its major theme was an examination of the rights and value pertaining to home ownership.
The lead character, Darryl Kerrigan, was an iconic figure of Australiana: working-class, egalitarian and down-to-earth, someone who might have been described as a ‘good bloke’. He was played by the lanky, laconic Michael Caton, whose moustachioed credulity encapsulated Australia’s most adored self-image. The film held an ironic mirror up to Australia. On display were those dimensions of the nation that did not fit with its selfimage of giving everyone a ‘fair go’.
The Castle’s launch coincided with changes that curtailed the realisation of traditional, passionately held goals of home ownership. That great Australian (or American or British) dream was mutating into volatile and dynamic asset trading. There is no better symbol for this shift than the subsequent career of Michael Caton.
After the success of The Castle, he was recruited to host a major television series called Hot Property. In a case of life ignoring art, the man behind Darryl Kerrigan, the embodiment of passionate owner-occupation, became the face of asset speculation. The program offered tips on how to buy, renovate and sell property. This theme grew so strong with passing seasons that in 2000 it was renamed Hot Auctions. This was the very opposite of the quaint owner-occupier culture venerated in The Castle.
Some of you may know that last night Australia added another program to its lineup of bubble TV though happily it fizzled somewhat. From the AFR:
Leading television network Seven has suffered a rare disappointment, as the debut of its property renovation showHouse Rules attracted only an average 803,000 capital city viewers on Tuesday night.
The program, which was the 11th most popular show for the night, was designed as a competitor to Nine’s long-running hit property show, The Block, which pulled an average 1.3 million metropolitan viewers on Tuesday.
Ian Macfarlane one mentioned that he saw the rise of such programs as an indicator that he should to step on the bubble. If the program fails it will be a much better indicator of economic health than if it succeeds.
