Abstract
Holmes on Homes is a Canadian home improvement television program and the centrepiece of HGTV (Home and Garden Television), featuring Mike Holmes as the series’ star contractor and host. This paper argues that by looking back at earlier incarnations of film and television melodrama, we can determine the way in which Holmes on Homes reinvents the home improvement subgenre. By playing out reality TV’s central tension between fiction and non-fiction, Holmes on Homes reveals its larger themes of justice and redemption, which befit its unique position between the documentary and the classic melodrama.
Highlights
When specialty network Home and Garden Television (HGTV) Canada applied for its broadcasting licence in 1996, the “nature of the service” it would provide was described as follows: The licensee will offer a 24-hour-a-day specialty service devoted to programming that presents practical, hands-on advice and instruction about homes and gardens
Was the renovation television program craze in full swing as Holmes entered HGTV’s spotlight in 2001, but the network and show benefited from the 1999 Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) policy changes to broadcast content that offered “more flexibility, diversity and programming choice” (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, 1999)
What’s in store for our superhero, Holmes? The 2006-2007 ad campaign I referenced earlier in this article suggests that Holmes on Homes is well prepared to transform again for future re-purposing
Summary
When specialty network Home and Garden Television (HGTV) Canada applied for its broadcasting licence in 1996, the “nature of the service” it would provide was described as follows: The licensee will offer a 24-hour-a-day specialty service devoted to programming that presents practical, hands-on advice and instruction about homes and gardens. Television advertisements for the show have depicted Mike in animated form, garbed in his signature costume—brown overalls and white undershirt—rescuing a damsel homeowner in distress This image is intercut with live-action shots of “real” “rescues.” While all of the sound-bite testimonials suggest that clients are satisfied with the renovations, the most compelling of these, I think, is the woman who says, “I do have faith in Holmes on Homes.” 4 while Holmes has transformed from good-guy contractor to superman over the seven seasons of the show, his work has not ended there. Like the virtuous protagonist of melodrama, identifies his highminded goal and the obstacles in his path, but he has another mission that is important to the success of the program: to repair the image of reality television. He is the “new man”: comfortable proving his manliness or just sitting back as an object of appreciation
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