Candid Off-Camera - Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 62

Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 1 - January 23, 2026

Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 61 - June 12, 2026

In some ways, my deficiencies in the world of television were compounding, with the first big mistake from 2013—no network written agreement—now spilling into where I found myself at the end of 2015 after American Rehab Charleston earned us a chance to do more. This hole in my capabilities was like a dark cloud, following, hovering, sometimes sprinkling and other times pouring down rain. My ignorance, my inability to take the right steps left me ill-positioned to focus as needed on my next thing, another weak area for me: effectively making my points clearly understood for producers in other parts of the country.

Even though I’d beefed up my efforts, I came up way short again. Too many of my calls to action went unaddressed. I’m pleased to remember times when my attempts to motivate have hit marks consistently. But not this time. They mostly fell flat, touching down inconsequentially like led balloons. I was hoping folks would dig into what I saw as urgent necessities. But I was unable to adequately stress the win-win-win of my viewpoints, how it was in everyone’s best interests to heartily consider how my input would benefit them big-picture. I was open to counterpoints, compromise or rebuttal leading to other steps that were better than what I felt strongly about. Yet I mainly found myself with good listeners, that were perhaps more inadequately supported and equipped than I imagined.

As I’ve mentioned throughout this series of posts, the producers I worked with were impressive. They were experienced, well-traveled, and talented. I overheard them mentioning household name celebrities, politicians, and entertainers they’d worked with. This was presented mundanely, while they were simultaneously discrete and professional, leaving me holding them in even loftier regard.

Yet being candid, I was surprised with how skittish many in vital positions seemed over the notion that we all could move up and ahead together, something I had wrongly considered more commonly understood than it was. This exemplifies some of my inexperience or perhaps overly wishful thinking. They came across as suspicious that I may be casting some sort of Jedi-mind trickery on them. I’m not sure if this was industry wide, just critical folks I’d been matched up with, or simply me in my own head too much. We would all be missing out, but since it was my big chance, it was on me more substantially.

I needed to rally the Scripps assigned troops and I wasn’t moving the needle. At least not nearly or quick enough. This might be me excusing my own inabilities, trying to sooth ego or conscience, but I began to form an impression that they’d been trained to think more win-lose, as if me and others they were working with needed to benefit measurably less in order for them to achieve worthwhile success.

Since I felt strongly that I knew better than these amazing people, at least in this critical area, this was tough for me to accept and move through. And in this period, I was left feeling powerless, outnumbered or outmatched once again, for some means of inspiring them on the importance to at least think about the key details that would help get us on track and make the most of this opportunity we had been given.

Rightfully so, it was more important to me than it was for them. They didn’t live near in or around Charleston. Their lives, families, and friends were spread throughout other parts of the country. They were going to keep working in TV regardless and I was in no position to help them see how it was in their best interests to get ARC on HGTV in Charleston and be more renovation minded with us all leaning into organic authenticity as a team.        

It’s unnecessary to write this in a way that might make a reader hopeful that I would eventually right this ship since most know it ran aground.

Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 63 - June 17, 2026

Authenticity is Better Than Fashioned Spontaneity - Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 54

Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 1 - January 23, 2026

Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 53 - May 27, 2026

Warning: Soapbox Rant Up Ahead

Making both American Rehab Charleston and Restoring Charleston was a cool experience that spanned three years of our lives. And with streaming TV, it’s lasted longer than most could have expected, which has been a neat surprise.

I suppose, what I’m stepping into here, along with pointing out my own awareness, is educating in the form of some reassurance or alternate view to those on the home improvement television side. If you don’t have a big budget, there’s another way. And in the end, it might just be the best road to high ratings.

Early on, someone mentioned having the secret sauce, how this was needed to make a show that documented the renovation of a house, and that producers of ARC would be ready to pour on this goop. In my opinion, authenticity is the most important ingredient for this sort of recipe, and the more of that sprinkled or even dumped in and on, the better. However, not everyone is pitching their tent in this camp.

As we filmed the test reel, I said something I believe wholeheartedly. I think Charleston, South Carolina is proof that my statement was and still is valid. It was previously thought out, shared within a post on this blog long before I’d even started speaking to the networks. And this likely helped this conviction roll off my tongue easily while I was being recorded. In part, this remark, and the attitude and honesty that went with it, helped to get me the initial four-episode series. I explained how the Holy City had put in the effort to save its old homes and buildings, leading to all the attention that it has been given, and subsequently the tourist dollars that come with it. And the point I made then, what I’m getting to now, is that it wasn’t easy, but it was worth it. In my opinion, what I said in the clip that was eventually included in the pilot episode, was that what Charleston has worked hard to preserve is “better than brand new.”

I have lived in older homes that someone else renovated. I have also lived in project houses that I have reworked myself top to bottom. I’ve called new construction that others built my home too. But I’ve also been able to move into a home I designed and oversaw, starting with foundations I dug, and engineered with rebar I tied myself. Now I subbed out the big scopes, but it was my plan and I managed it start to finish, same as my own rehabs in most cases. Through this I’ve come to understand that I prefer to live in a home that’s been renovated, and ideally, one I’ve worked on and throughout myself. That’s the best scenario, at least for me.   

This is all being spelled out here and now because of my experiences renovating my houses for television and what I grew to understand, what I see as the value, the TV gold, that is authenticity. This is my opinion, but it’s a seed that was planted back in 2013 by the production director and it blossomed somewhere after. The network encouraged me to just be myself, a continuation of where I’d settled while filming the test reel. But they hired a production company that had a different take, knowing how hard that sort of television creation is. And if done wrong, more of a truer documentary style filming and producing can be a budget gobbler. Ringing close to that tone captured in the introductory episode of ARC, authenticity in home rehab TV isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. And in my view, it’s better than something plotted out and assembled creatively, yet inorganically.

I had glimpses of the production side. But it was here and there by way of breaks and gaps. I witnessed and certainly benefited from an extensive pre-planning. As I’ve already mentioned, yet perhaps inadequately, this was all quite impressive and something I saw as extraordinary. It could be said that this was all needed for things to run smoothly, and I don’t disagree. But the case could also be made, that this effort toward scheduling and coordinating, were means to the ends equated to justifications for money allotted, more than an honest to goodness necessity.

Genuineness for a TV show about a home being saved, reborn, needs people with experience doing this sort of documenting and storytelling. And that team must have eyes and ears ready to pivot when something is discovered in the walls or when a neighbor or local preservationist introduces some attention-grabbing history. These are blessed gifts if they’re used. But when ignored due to a time crunch created by the demands of preapproved talking points, then it’s like tossing a handcrafted door to be replaced by an off-the-shelf hollow core or taking a sledgehammer to antique brick work to make way for concrete block or modern tile. Planning and prepping for what will happen is surely easier than the effort required to accept the unexpected, but as I see it, not superior.

I can understand how someone might think that reality is expensive. But that’s a larger issue when the right experience is absent. People who know when to start watching closely and how to spot what can be used, from doing it and being in there—that can be the nuggets that pay viewers back heartily for watching. The proof is in the pudding, the realization that it’s either a wash or a money saver. Yet, if you don’t have the confidence of stumbling onto the amazing, yet-to-be-discovered unknowns, you will most likely wince at the thought of this approach, considering it too much of a risk.

Authentic home rehabbing TV is not easy, but it’s worth it and in my view, that tactic is better than fashioned spontaneity.

Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 56 - June 1, 2026