The 1900 House: An Extraordinary Living Experiment [VHS]

The 1900 House: An Extraordinary Living Experiment [VHS]

The 1900 House:  An Extraordinary Living Experiment [VHS]
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Product details

Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: NTSC
Release Date: 2000-06-30
Audience Rating: Unrated
Publisher: PBS (Direct)
Studio: PBS (Direct)

VHS Movie Reviews of The 1900 House: An Extraordinary Living Experiment [VHS]

Movie Review: Still not here yet... it's been almost a month now...
Summary: 1 Stars

I can't really review this because I still haven't received it. Don't order from these people if you actually want to get your video sometime within this century.

Movie Review: King of the Reality Shows!!!
Summary: 5 Stars

The 1900 House This is the absolute BEST (and original) reality show ever! Watching the Bowlers try to adapt to the lifestyles of a hundred years ago is amazing. No matter how many times I sit through it with my students, it never gets old, and each year's students appreciate as much as the previous ones.

Movie Review: If you like history, you'll enjoy this show
Summary: 4 Stars

After watching 1900 House, I realized that life in Victorian times is very different than life in 2009, however this is mostly the case for women and not men.
The show does a good job of indicating how the family lives their day-to-day lives and the kinds of technologies and gadgets they had in those days. But one draw back is that the show tends to degenerate into a 'call to action' for feminism which detracts from the entertainment value of the show.
If you like history, you'll enjoy this show, but if you are annoyed at being preached at about the role of women in society, the last episode might annoy you.

Movie Review: FASCINATING! COULDN'T STOP WATCHING
Summary: 5 Stars

I see that some other reviewer had a difficult time with the complaining of the Bowler family, but to me that wasn't a problem (perhaps I'm so used to hearing people complain, it doesn't make much of an impression anymore). I'm currently watching "Manor House", and conclude that "complaining" is part of the appeal of this series. Deep down inside many people enjoy hearing complaints (perhaps a touch of schaudenfreude). It keeps an emotional attachment going to watch people become worn down from overwork and lack of physical comfort waiting to see how long they can endure.

I enjoyed this show completely and would gladly see it again and again.

Movie Review: I would have signed up in a heartbeat!
Summary: 4 Stars

The biggest issue I had is the same that other reviews have stated. I think the Bowlers were the wrong choice for this project. As a reenactor, I enjoy using past techniques as learning tools on how things have changed in daily living. I heard from someone who had auditioned for Colonial House that the producers of the shows prefer people who would be "fish out of water" instead of people more inclined to adapt to the new environment. The belief is that it would make for interesting television with the learning curve involved. Of course, I still got tired of the whining from the oldest women here, if you didn't want to wear a corset then a viable option at the time was the new uncorseted new natural line but it didn't catch on. There are "working" corsets also without at much boning but with proper support and "modesty" as needed.
I would have loved to see Mrs. Bowler try to make her own soap as my Grannie used to do with a big iron pot out in the back yard. I would love the chance to try this for a few months, especially with the safeguards of local health care/fire department within reach. No television or computer but I could manage with a telephone (they were around).

Summary of The 1900 House: An Extraordinary Living Experiment [VHS]

Viewers time-travel vicariously in this four-part "docu-soap" that transplants a modern family from 1999 to 1900. The series clearly evinces the radical changes in domestic life wrought by the scientific and technological innovations of the last 100 years. The Bowler family are taken back in time to the spring of 1900 in Greenwich, a suburb of London, England. For 3 months, they live as a family in 1900 would have lived.
Who hasn't longed for the simplicity of times past, when life was less convoluted, without the complications of cell phones, e-mail, and chauffeuring kids to soccer games? Well, one episode into PBS's reality series The 1900 House will have you rethinking your romanticization of days gone by.

Take one modern 1999 family, insert them into a Victorian London house redesigned to exact 1900 standards, focus a camera on them for three months, and you have The 1900 House. The Bowler family is a typical family of six (actually, seven--the oldest daughter remained in 1999 to take care of the house): 9-year-old Joe is a computer games addict, teenage Kathryn is a club hopper, and preteen twins Hilary and Ruth are still young enough to be the most mature people in the family. Add mother Joyce, a school inspector on hiatus, and father Paul, a Royal Marine who takes his head-of-the-household role a bit too seriously, and you have an immensely likable family living under incredibly strained circumstances.

The first of four episodes focuses on the rebuilding of the house: the removal of the indoor plumbing and electricity, the installation of the coal-burning stove, the planting of the Victorian-era garden, and such. The subsequent three episodes follow the refreshingly fascinating daily life of the Bowler family as they navigate cooking, cleaning, entertaining themselves, and even personal hygiene (Paul learns to cope with a straight-edged razor, and Joyce and Kathryn get a lesson on womanly issues of 1900). Tight editing condenses the three months into four hours, keeping the series fast paced and humorous. Whether you're a reality-TV junkie or have an honest interest in a documentary on Victorian life, The 1900 House will certainly delight. --Jenny Brown

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