The "Good Old days"?

[steven c newman]

Way back when...when PBS had all those woodworking shows on..every Saturday.....had to get up early, didn't want to miss The Router Workshop....then This old House, New Yankee Workshop, The American Woodshop, The Woodwright's Shop, there was also a woodworking shop version of Shop Notes. They took a "break" for Lunch, to allow The Victory Garden and Julia Child their time. Then about an hour in the afternoon, before the Travel shows came on.

Nowadays? Even CreateTV is skimpy...other than the one hour This Old House Hour....

Used to even see David Marks now and then....

yep, the "Good Old Days"

[Ray Newman]

"Nevva" cared for This Old House. But I did watch New Yankee and some times, the American Woodshop and Woodwright. Router Workshop wasn't broadcast for too long. As I enjoyed that series, I never could understand why it was dropped. A few years ago, I tried to watch Paul Sellers but my interest faded for some reason. I thought about the Woodsmith show, but never pursued the idea.

[Tony Wilkins]

The New Yankee woodshop got me interested in woodworking but also intimidated the heck out of me. Didn’t figure I’d ever have the 17 large machines that seemed to be needed to ‘do woodworking’. Didn’t watch Roy regularly then but I watch him over and over now. Kinda sad that locally the only one left is the guy in Ohio with all his pocket screws.

[Michael Schuch]

I loved watching Norm as I was growing up. I enjoyed This Old House but New Yankee Workshop was my favorite. I often watched them both with my dad. Roy's Woodwright's shop was amusing but I never found it as informative. I do have memories of when Bob Vila hosted this old house. I don't know if those memories are first run or rerun shows.

My first job in helping my father in the garage wood shop was drilling dowel holes with a General doweling jig. As such I found Norm overly reliant on biscuits and brads at the time. To me woodworking did not include nails or brads.

My father had a collection of NYW tapes that someone gave him. Being able to watch NYW in a condenced amount of time made it very interesting to see how both Norms shop, shop tools and skills progressed over time. In the first season Norm had a radial arm saw that he used, I think it might have been a Craftsman. I would love to find another affordable set of all the NYW shows.

What was that show where the ambigoisly associated female and male hosts built new construction from beginning to end? It seems like her name was Joann? I remember one episode where the male host built an entire office building from beginning to end in a single show all by himseld... it was amuzing.

[Jim Koepke]

Most of my watching was of The Woodwright's Shop. Candy watches a lot of programs like Holmes on Homes and other building programs the are sometimes also watched by me.

Ray likely hit on the why:

interest faded for some reason.

Broadcasters pay attention to what is being viewed. If it ain't bringing in the viewers, it ain't bringing in the dollars.

jtk

[steven c newman]

That would be a show called "Hometime"

[Michael Schuch]

That would be a show called "Hometime"

Yep, that is the one I was thinking of. Not the best of the bunch by any means but was occasionally amusing.

[steven c newman]

Joanne would be Joanne Liebeler (sp) I hear she moved on to her own show.

[Stephen Rosenthal]

Speaking of the good ol’ days, I have almost every episode of NYW on videotape which I view from time to time on my VCR. Remember those prehistoric devices? Norm explained everything in an easy to understand manner. I also enjoyed the TOH episodes that primarily featured Norm and Tom Silva. Never watched Roy but I do now, more for entertainment than learning anything new.

On YouTube I watch everything by Doucette and Wolfe, Bench.Talk.101, Chester Spier, and the occasional Rob Cosman episode.

[Stew Denton]

I had taped a lot of the NYW episodes, but pitched them, and a lot of other stuff, when we moved following retirement. My wife also pitched a ton of VCR tapes, far more than I had. We virtually had to get rid of some stuff before moving. I liked the show, as well as Roy on the Woodwright's Shop. I also enjoyed Crocket's Victory Garden a lot, which was my favorite program at the time. Now that I am retired I am planning to have a big garden again (but that's another story), and Lord willing, a shop is finally in my future as well (a 40+ year dream for me).

I read an article in a vintage copy of PW (I think...maybe FW?) about one of the editors of spending a week on the NYW location with Norm, building a chair, if memory serves. He was there to be able to write an article for the magazine about Norm and the NYW. Whether he was also featured on that particular show or not, I don't know. The article was a lot about Norm, the program, the shop, how Norm worked, and also quite a bit building the chair. He and Norm each built one of the chairs.

Some of the interesting information about the program contained the following points of interest, assuming memory serves me well (highly questionable.........that "my memory" business):

1. Not all of the tools were the newest and finest, a number of the tools were ones that were well used. Many had been Norm's for a long time I think.
2. Norm owned hand tools and was proficient with them, but he told the PW editor that given the amount of woodwork that had to be done each week and limited time for each broadcast that there was simply not enough time available to do much with hand tools, you simply had to use power tools most of the time.
3. I think the building used was in the back yard of the producer, and belonged to him. His office, and I think Norms as well, were in the upstairs of that same building. That same building was one used in "Crockets Victory Garden" I think, but again, my memory may be suspect.
4. There was not room for all of the power tools used in the show to be out in the shop all of the time, so when not in use many of the power tools were rolled into one corner of the shop.
5. Norm's background was carpentry, not furniture or cabinet making, but when the producer had the idea for the show he asked Norm to be the builder, and said that he was absolutely certain that Norm could do the job well.
6. The article said Norm built a prototype of each project and then built the final version of the project that was filmed. He put in a LOT of hours each week.
7. Norm was quite a sailboat fan, owned a sailboat, and sailing was a main hobby. He said a little about that hobby, and added that it was also a good way to throw away a lot of money.
8. Norm did all of the building by himself. There was no hidden crew of other woodworkers also working on the project.

At any rate it was an interesting article. Number 8 was an interesting point to me. The guy could flat get a lot of woodwork done in a relatively very short amount of time. (At least compared to me.) Back in the early 90s a friend and I were discussing a TV home improvement type show (back then there weren't many at all on TV), and all you ever saw was basically about 5 or 6 craftsmen, and that included the host and interior decorator/designer. We wondered how in the world could they get that much carpentry, etc. done in one week. (I worked for a carpenter when young, and I could not believe that they got that much done.)

My friend read up on the program on the program web site on the internet, and asked me what the actual size of the crew that put on the program was, but I had no idea. He found out that the crew was actually 43 people. This included writers, camera men, producers, etc., but it also had a bunch of carpenters, cabinet makers, and other craftsman that you never saw on camera. If I had a crew of 20 (?) or so carpenters, plumbers, painters, electricians, etc., working on our current house remodel, I could get a lot done in a week too.

At any rate, yes, I think the programs on that channel were really good, and I wish they were still on.

Regards,

Stew

[Michael Schuch]

The internet lore that I heard was that the produce hired norm to do some construction and after Norm finished the construction the results were so good and the left over scrap pile was so small he was impressed enough to build the show around Norm.

Some TV personalities are hard to get comfortable with. I always liked Norm and never got the impression he was a TV personality rather than a real tradesman.

I also remember Norm mentioning on one show that he had a soft spot for various routers and a bit of a router collection. Too many to store is I think how he put it. I also suffer from this affliction. I can't pass up a good deal on a used router and the pile seems to always be growing.

I didn't know Norm didn't have a staff of workers doing the prototypes. That is impressive that he did all the work himself.

[Richard Coers]

I had pizza with Norm, when in the early days he traveled to PBS affiliates and local sponsors. A local Hardwood Supplier was a sponsor and they invited me to the pizza dinner. I sat across from Norm and it was a very easy meal with great conversation. He single handedly developed the pin nailer industry. Before him a rebuild Duofast pinner cost me $100. Now you can buy them for $20 at HF. I was at odds with Norm in the early days. He ignored wood movement and designed some real disasters for longevity. He came around and even promoted designing for wood movement before his show was pulled. YouTube and social media have made shows like that obsolete. Now you can watch pros and hacks 24/7 on YouTube and really learn how to do it right or really screw some things up! And beginners can't really tell the difference. That's very unfortunate!

[joe maday]

What about the David Marks shows.....was on for a short time.

[steven c newman]

I remember a photo from way back when. A fellow was standing in a Hardware Store, checking out a new Disston handsaw....with a FULL display on the wall behind the counter..with the store clerk looking on.

Can you just imagine such a Store display now a days? The one in the big box stores just doesn't match up, does it?



Or, maybe the shelves filled with boxed up NEW Stanley hand planes, and other such tools....while a glass display case of a counter, showed all the latest models....you had to ask the Store clerk to get a tool out of that case, so you could stand there and "feel the Quality". You made your pick, clerk hands you the boxed up version(s), and then you walked up to the front to pay for it. They might even wrap that box up in "Butcher's paper" and some twine off the big spool by the Cash Register to tie it up.

Yep, the "Good Old Days".....

[Mike Burke]

I was watching an Old episode of Wood Wright show the other night.. It was a Dovetail episode and Roy was explaining and show all the different kinds of Dovetails.
He was explaining how to lay out the tails and how to mark the pins,

Roy grabbed a dovetail saw and used it in the saw kerf to mark the location of the pins....just like Rob Cosmans technique....I was surprised to say the least. I don't know how old the show was but it looks like the saw marking technique has been around for some time.

Interesting

the 13:48 point

https://www.pbs.org/video/woodwright...il-variations/