The PBS Historical House Series: Where Historical Reality Succumbs to Reel Reality

Abstract

THE PBS HISTORICAL HOUSE SERIES: WHERE HISTORICAL REALITY SUCCUMBS TO REEL REALITY INTRODUCTION: When PBS aired first of British-themed and produced historical series, 1900 House, in June 2000, network described project as classy voyeurism and place where the sci-fi of time travel meets true-life drama.1 The success of 1900 House has since led other Anglo-American productions, including 1940s House (2000), Frontier House (2001), Manor House (2002), and Colonial House (2003), and even PBS 's own version of reality dating (albeit in corsets and wigs), Regency House Party (2004) and paying homage romantic ideal of American cowboy Texas Ranch House (2006). Determined distinguish series from other reality programs aired on commercial networks, PBS producer Beth Hoppe insists that this is only one something offer. We're exploring history. No one else is doing that.2 But these experiments in time travel involve much more than re-enacting particular moments in British and American past. As families and individuals who volunteer for these series quickly discover, they cannot leave behind their 21st century mindset, nor do producers want them to; after all, that is what makes these programs true life drama and entertaining and accessible TV for which critics have praised them. Indeed, as Hoppe explains, ensuing tensions between participants, as they struggle adapt unfamiliar living conditions and values, come[s] from modern people with modern ideas trying put themselves in a time in history when things were very different.3 The PBS reality house series (also described by Hoppe as hands-on-history) is part of an on-going trend of Heritage Industry in popular culture in which public can safely revisit, critique, and learn lessons of past. For example, tourists can explore 19th century industrial villages in England; sit in a trench or air raid shelter in London's Imperial War Museum, or witness how New England lived by touring Plimouth Plantation. For a few hours, history buffs can indulge their nostalgia for these sometimes hard but good old days. But these interactive museums also present a very distinct and tidied picture of these pasts, sans rats, smallpox epidemics, falling bombs, and other historical dangers. What makes PBS reality house experiments more authentic than such interactive museums is total immersion process and length of time volunteers spend in their historical contexts, ranging from three five months. In these televised experiments, volunteers do have struggle for their subsistence, submit authority, rely on older medical remedies, and abandon their modern dress for uncomfortable, and oftentimes dirty, period costuming. Despite these inconveniences, volunteers are surprised by ease with which they take up their assigned roles-the submissive lady's maid, class-conscious butler, domineering husband. Yet, volunteers never fully become their roles, as they adapt their historical identities their 21st century mentalities and experiences, as exhibited by servants of Manor House mouthing off their master or colonists in Colonial House refusing cheat their Native American trading partners. Heritage critic Robert Hewison argues that what is created by historical reenactment projects (and we can include historical House series in this category) is simulacra, i.e., image rather than reality.4 Similarly, David Lowenthal notes that more past is appreciated for its own sake, less relevant or real it becomes. In fact, ultimate goal of series is not revere past but rather to enlarge our sense of contemporary at expense of realizing its connection with past.5 Manor House producer, Caroline Ross-Perie, attests this intended outcome. …