Frontier House on PBS

[eastbayguy]

Everyone,

 

Since a lot of people here are in to Survivor, I thought I'd point out this very fun program on PBS called "Frontier House". Just imagine Survivor produced by Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of Little House on the Prarie.

 

The idea of the program is to take three modern families and transport them back in time to 1883. The families were trained for a couple of weeks, then relieved of their modern trappings. They were given a familiy history, period clothing and so forth and transported to government issue sized homesteads in southern Montana. Then, for several months, with PBS crews watching, they lived like homesteaders.

Two of the families have kids, and watching the kids is just delicious. Some of the kids immediately take to life in 1883, for the very surprising reason that life in 1883 offers challenges not present in modern life.

 

This series, only six episodes long, is just a hoot. Has some of the same drama themes present in all the reality shows. But, with mom cooking dinner over an open fire every night, and everyone visiting outhouses and so forth, there is an element of raw reality and survival becomes a real issue.

 

Frontier House gets all possible plaudits and thumbs up from me. Best thing I've caught on TV in ages. Truly, this is TV worth watching. Check it out, you won't be sorry.

 

--EBG