MovieChat Forums > Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (2003) Discussion > Not very nice to the Volunteers

Not very nice to the Volunteers

posted 14 years ago by princesspie27
8 replies | jump to latest

This might sound bitchy, but my family and I went to the taping of an upcoming episode this last Sunday. My hubby had been a volunteer so I thought it would be cool to go see the taping and what the house looked like. Just on the outside of course I know they can't actually have people stomping through the home interior.

Anyways the taping took quite a long time as the family was running late. Apparently they had just gotten married the same day so thats totally understandable. Its just that having to stand out there so long with the weather being cold especially as the sun started to go down sucked.Texans aren't used to the cold. lol

They only had 2 charter buses and one school bus to shuttle thousands of people from the house to the parking area several miles away. The line was soooo long. We were in about the middle of the line and it took us 2 hours to get on a bus. Everyone was freezing to death. Like an angry mob was about to form with pitch forks and torches lol.

Is is soo much to ask that they have more transportation or something warm for the people to drink. I would have gladly paid for it. There were people out there with little babies and small kids. Not a good situation and very ungrateful.Its a great cause and its great what they do they just could have been nicer thats all I'm saying.

BTW that whole "move that bus" thing is done before the family ever arrives. All the shots of the crowd.We never saw any designers or Ty either. Ah Hollywood magic.

[–] glassrose385 13 years ago

I have read stuff on other sites about the show's producers and film crews not really being nice to volunteers or spectators and about a lot of the moving the bus stuff happens before the families arrive.

[–] superstarlet_04 13 years ago

You were basically treated like an "extra" in a movie. Extras get the worst of the worst treatment. I have been one several times and let me tell you, the movie people could care less if you are waiting in the cold freezing your butt off. The only people that count are the stars of the show who are sitting in their warm trailers, so they could care less about you standing in the background. Extreme Makeover isn't any different than a movie production.

[–] camip14 13 years ago

We just finished a build here. I thought for the most part the volunteers were treated well by the production crew (and I am referring to the crew who do the real work on the show and not the celeb design team who do almost nothing except show up to be filmed at the right moments). I was very excited to get to participate in this build because they family was truly deserving and I wanted to have a chance to do something for a couple of people who have done a lot for other families in our area. And of course it was fun to get an occasional glimpse of the celebs even though they were not around much. One thing I quickly discovered is everything involving filming is at least 2-3 hours behind the scheduled time. This was true all week long. They told people to show up at noon for a 3 pm reveal. They didn't even start filming until 3 pm and the family didn't show up until 6. During the intervening 3 hours they did a lot of crowd shots and had everyone yelling "move that bus" and had a decoy limo there that they filmed driving up and driving away and next to the bus and on and on and on and on. The staff did have volunteers passing out water bottles to the crowd (it was in the 90's) but after 2 hours of waiting I had enough and went home. I had been there since 2 am the night before working on finishing the house and since I couldn't even see the limo or where the family was I dragged my exhausted self home to my air conditioned house, put my feet up, and watched one of the local tv channels stream the reveal on my computer.

[–] tweetygirl77 13 years ago

To start with, the whole show is fake. As for the transportation and such, it really is all volunteers, so depending on what each city does, it could be different. For the one I went to, school buses were used. ABC or EMHE, whichever way you want to look at at, do NOTHING. They dont even provide food for the volunteers, its up to the people that are there behind the build. We had a local Wendy's set up a tent and cooked food for the volunteers. They do sell t-shirts, so I guess that's another way to make a buck. As for the "celebrities", the only ones that even acknowledge the crowd was Ed and the new girl (Didi?) from Australia. (Well, she was knew at the time anyway.) Ty wasnt even there for the build. He was only there for the beginning and the reveal. He was doing another reveal while our build was going on. What does that tell you? They are all about the money. I like when he wipes away the fake tears, that you cant even see!

[–] ungawa-2 13 years ago

No,tweetygirl77, I don't think it's fake at all.

Some VERY skilled EMHE location people hit a town cold, and manage to very quickly rally everybody locally to help.

The EMHE location people must be REALLY good to pull that off...arranging fire permits, insurance, city permits, filming permits, food for the crew, electricity, water, getting locals on board to work, etc., all handled REAL FAST.

The EMHE location people must be like super-project managers, sort of like a civilian version of the Fighting SeaBees. Those location managers and staff surely MUST be really great at their jobs!

[–] tweetygirl77 13 years ago

I dont mean fake, like it never happened. I mean fake that it's all done for show. The people involved, that get paid to do the work, are fake. The volunteers are wonderful, and I am sure most of them mean well. But as for Ty and (most) the designers, they are all in it for the show. They have people around town that specialize in certain things, have them create something on their own time with their own money, then decide not to use it and that person is out all that time and money, no questions asked.

[–] acesoncourt 13 years ago

volunteers will be rewarded in heaven, not on the show or TV

[–] gcward 12 years ago

Give them a break. Of course it is a show for the "stars". This is their job that makes their living. That does not mean that they don't actually care and want to help.