Colonial House

This series is *much* weaker than either "Frontier House" or "Manor House". None of the volunteers ever really tried to act colonial. The participants had no clue about teamwork, unity, or community. Mostly, they spent valuable time whining and bickering.

The women griped about the lack of women's lib. The atheists griped about church. The "colonists" slept until 10.00am every day, drank, and cursed. A gay guy came out of the closet (a death sentence in the 1600's).

These fools would have either starved or murdered each other if they were *really* in the 17th century. The concept was good, but the volunteers ruined the experiment.

I enjoyed the program. Something different and fun to watch; especially Don Wood. Great attitude and hardworking man...etc. Does anyone know what he does now and how he is? Dana DeLaplante

If this show was supposed to have modern folks live and recreate "living" during Colonial times, well, it's a failure on all counts. The people are mostly annoying and don't seem to care about living and becoming their historical roles. The whole set-up is haphazardly enforced. The show makes for dreary viewing.

I'm not a fan of reality shows, like SURVIVOR or BIG BROTHER. So when I heard about this show created by PBS, I thought "This one has potential to be interesting". Well, I thought wrong.

BTW, Oprah was invited to participate for a couple of days. Her appearance was probably thought up by some producer (most likely a friend of Oprah or a friend with a producer of the Oprah show) because they knew the show wasn't working and they needed someone to help keep the whole project from falling apart.

What's with all the female 'sexy' shoulder flaunting? A bit hard to believe with all the terror of vanity back then they'd be digging that. Waited awhile figurin someone would call her on it and BIG penalty but no everyone's fine with it🙄

The colonists, especially Mrs. Vorhees seemed focused on living as 21st Century folks without modern conveniences, instead of acting as period people. For example, if she had gotten to know the lay-preacher better, she would have seen he was play-acting as a Bible thumper. He may have even been willing to explore some of her views. Instead, she saw this as a forum for her opinion, rather than playing along with the experiment.

If I were in charge I would have applied post-industrial revolution division of labor. I would have found the best sawyer, and had him cut it all--firewood, marine spars, etc. The field work would have been divided also, and I would have bucked the rules and plowed in rows instead of mounds. And speaking of farming, would not goat dung have acted as a viable fertilizer?

Okay, back to the people. I thought the people should have been more focused on the economic part more than on personal comforts. Jeff seemed too concerned about his leadership rather than the economics. He should have taken the trade with the indians, and not stonewalled them. Also, as someone suggested on this website, it was a waste of time and talent to build the separate house for the new family. That could have waited (or been done along side the production of spars). The divided labor could have said "Ten spars, ten beams for a house . . ."

Overall, I liked this one better than the others--the worst being Manor House (which was also filled with whiners, especially the chef and kitchen crew). Anyway, I think I could adapt to the circumstances of these shows if I was single. However, with a family it would be very difficult.

Bruce