Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 1 - January 23, 2026
Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 69
In the
filming of American Rehab Charleston, producers needed a hero shot.
I’m not a soldier or emergency person, so I had to be coached up by the showrunner
who said, “You’re the hero here, Trent. You’re the one saving the house.” Restoring
some property no one else seems to care about is hardly worthy of glorified status.
But this person and their crew had been assigned to me and part of showing up required
cooperation, a willingness on my part to go along with what they were trying to
get done.
To be
clear though, not only am I unheroic, but I also wasn’t even the driving force on these
two weeks of work, certainly not like what I usually do on my projects. An
executive producer was leading efforts to create the pilot, and this person had
hired an amazing general contractor named Bob Fleming to oversee all the renovation
activities over and around me. 
Bob Fleming
Classic Remodeling and Construction
It had all started with a programming director reaching out to me before I found,
bought, and then redesign the home, I had dropped way down the list of truly significant. And on the surface, it looked like I was the guy. But below that, to anyone
paying attention for a couple minutes, Bob was the true commander on my house
project. And although I admired the depth of his experience, the respect his
crews had for him, and the commitment he granted toward what was being done on
the house I’d invested in, it didn’t feel great to be sidestepped.
With time,
I could have done what he did for us. I wanted to. Except it would have taken
me months. Producers only had two weeks, and he pulled it off seamlessly. As a
compromise here, since they wanted and needed to bring in someone like Bob, I think
it’d have been best for all if I’d just sung his praises on camera. Nothing
over-the-top or grandiose, just honest acknowledgement that was deserving because
Bob is a true contracting master, perhaps what I could have been, but heights I
came up short in reaching.
This use
of the general contractor may shed some light on the differences between the
production company and HGTV/DIY, something I’d unknowingly stepped into. And
maybe the folks in New York thought I was hunky-dory on this circumstance. Again
though, there’s so much I didn’t know about.
So even though I was the subject of focus for the hero shot in the intro and the series, the real Houdini of the pilot episode house project was Bob Fleming and Classic Remodeling and Construction.
Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 70 - Coming Soon
