MovieChat Forums > The New Yankee Workshop (1989) Discussion > Season 21 (2009) ALL reruns?!

Season 21 (2009) ALL reruns?!

posted 15 years ago by TheCheezWhiz
6 replies | jump to latest

Has anybody found a site a explaining why the entire season will be reruns of past episodes? Putting new intros in front of years-old episodes is such a disappointment. I noticed that the sponsor spot after the intro is only 30 seconds instead of 60 seconds as in past years. Is the loss of a sponsor why we're getting reruns or did a sponsor bail because of the format change?

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RIP #6: "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered."

[–] doorkeeper 15 years ago

One of my buddies that lives in the area says that he's building himself (and his new wife) another house. I forgot where it said it was, I'll have to look through a bunch of old emails and post the town.

[–] TheCheezWhiz 15 years ago

When you say "he's building" do you mean Norm Abram or Russell Morash? My understanding is the shooting location is Morash's home so if he's building and selling (or all ready sold) then the one-day shoot of new introductions to the episodes makes some sense.

If Norm's building then why bail on the show? It's not he does all the work. His main investment in time is during the shoots. Judging by the web videos of the past seasons, it doesn't take all that long to get the entire season of Norm's work in the can.

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RIP #6: "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered."

[–] doorkeeper 15 years ago

It's Norm that's rumored to be building a house - somewhere in the Tiverton - Wickford, Rhode Island area. Probably wants to be closer to his boat.

> Judging by the web videos of the past seasons,
> it doesn't take all that long to get the entire
> season of Norm's work in the can.

You're forgetting the stuff you don't see on camera - first he finds something he wants to reproduce and makes sketches and take photographs, then builds a prototype and after that on the webcam you see him building the 2nd one - that 2nd one takes probably half as much time as the first one because of the patterns, jigs and fixtures he sometimes makes. If I had to guess it's probably a total of about 8-10 days per episode times the 13 projects he does per season and that's nearly half a year of work. Plus, that's not including the segments he does for 'This Old House'. It may not look like it if you're only looking at the webcam, but it seems to me that he probably doesn't have nearly as much free time as you may think.

We've had 20 solid years of 'The New Yankee Workshop' and if Norm want to take a year off I think he has deserved it. I only hope he doesn't take next year off! :)

[–] TheCheezWhiz 15 years ago

You're forgetting the stuff you don't see on camera - first he finds something he wants to reproduce and makes sketches and take photographs, then builds a prototype and after that on the webcam you see him building the 2nd one...

Actually, what I'm taking into account is that the belief that Norm does not build the prototype or the entire final project. He does some of the cuts and even some assembly of the final project but I'll bet the rest is "movie magic." The bulk of the work is done off screen by the crew and interns. That's the only way an entire project could be completed in 1 or 2 days of shooting.

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RIP #6: "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered."

[–] mithrandir-9 15 years ago

Looking through my back issues of Fine Woodworking Magazine, I came across an issue about The New Yankee Workshop from about 1994. It states that (then at least), except for the occasional helping hand from the Crew, Norm makes all of the projects himself, and must make not two but three of everything, the third being one used for photo shoots. The only parts done by someone else are the measured drawings that are sold at the end of the episode. Norm does sketches, then a professional artist makes the finished drawings which he then checks over for mistakes/omissions. Don't believe it if you don't want to, but remember that Norm started out as an Engineer and Contractor, not a journalism grad or T.V. Host.

[–] doorkeeper 15 years ago

>> Norm makes all of the projects himself, and
>> must make not two but three of everything

Norm only made 3 of everything when they were producing the season books with all the plans in them and expanded step-by-step instructions - this was done so that they could take still camera photography without interrupting workflow or adding unnecessary time to days then they were shooting the show. They haven't done these books in probably 12-13 years, so Norm now only makes 2 of everything, but there are exceptions where he only builds one piece... for instance the Cupola, Entrance Door and Kitchen Cabinet series comes to mind and he was also doing Lathe/Router/Table Saw 101 episode that didn't require any prototype building.