Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 1 - January 23, 2026
Response
to TV Show Viewers: Post 67 - June 26, 2026
Early into my TV phase, filming a scene for American Rehab Charleston, the showrunner pulled me aside, and delicately said, “You need to stop saying 'we'.” As previously described, off camera was an army of tradespeople and designers and producers working hard each day for months.
What had
made it feel somewhat typical were these usuals, beginning to end. I’d measured
up the house after becoming the owner. Then I reworked it on paper before planning
out how to take it on, with much of this thinking going on organically as I cleaned
out and organized anything left behind.
Throughout
filming I began to understand all of the parts and scopes of the project that
would be excluded. And this allowed me to get a handle on the finishing and buttoning
up of loose ends after everyone else left. Overseeing the last leg until I sold
also felt like familiar territory, a pattern all my project houses shared.
As always,
I was solidly tuned in to what help I'd need to restore the property
completely, but since I narrated the project and progress on camera, my actual role
was diminished substantially, even more than I’d expected or realized going in.
And since I was doing so much less than usual, I considered saying “we” as a compromise,
a stretch on what I felt was normal and what was truly going on around me each
day or off and away filming off site.
Back to
this moment of directions from the showrunner. After laying out my points, making
it clear how I felt more comfortable using we, this producer explained
it in a way that was close to something like, “I hear what you’re saying, but
you’re the only one on camera. Viewers aren’t going to see anyone else. So, you
need to try harder to say, ‘I’ and ‘me’ instead of ‘we’ and ‘us’.”
In my
view, giving deserved credit was not just the right thing to do, in a business
sense it was prudent. As I fully understood, genuine appreciation, recognition,
and acknowledgement inspires people. Giving due credit was another form of
payoff; currency paid out to the skilled craftspeople we desperately needed. It
was the sort of thing that fueled the necessary willingness to keep grinding.
In the
back of her mind, I think the producer understood this and she astutely added, “It’s
okay. Everyone gets it. They understand what we’re doing here.”
With effort,
I got better at all of this, but it was a private, unappetizing battle. I’m not
sure which was worse, the moment I accepted credit and had it recorded, or
watching these scenes play out on the television screen months later.
The thing
is, everyone is an absolute. And since there were dozens of people
impacted, it was an overgeneralized embellishment. Everyone didn’t get
it and I couldn’t blame them. Who wants some home rehabbing blogger in spic and
span clothes accepting their deserved glory? Who would want to watch a show with
their families where I’m being celebrated for their efforts after months of coming
in early or staying late, missing time with them, friends, and neighbors?
The
producers weren’t contractors. They sincerely didn’t understand what they were
asking or how it might have made the tradespeople feel. I did and I should have
worked harder until the TV creators understood.
To me, going
along with this credit taking approach was just another misstep on my part. I
suppose I was trying too hard to accommodate producers. It was such an amazing
opportunity, and I didn’t want to seem difficult, as if the break had gone to my
head or that I was ungrateful. This expectation was just another beyond my navigational
skill level.
This
serves as another example of my failed leadership. I could have called a
meeting with the producers, maybe even brought the contractors in. This sort of
air-clearing heart-to-heart would have gone a long way to ease heartburn. And it
would have paid dividends the production company was unable to understand but benefits they surely would have felt.
In my opinion,
with no TV experience backing it up, it would have been better if I’d done the
normal thing on camera: pointed out how the tradespeople had come through for
all of us. Just the normal attitude as a customary way of thanking them for
their parts.
And just because
those on the construction side were getting paid, that didn’t lessen the sting
of me getting all the acknowledgment. Financial compensation is not a legitimate
bandage, not when someone like me knows better, or should have been in a better
position to do right by those with the utilized skills and talents.
As I’ve steadily
admitted, I didn’t know television. But my career in construction and renovating
meant something. Other than HVAC work, I’ve done most of the other trades and
scopes at least once. And except for plumbing and electrical, they’ve been solo
missions. But that didn’t qualify me to be recorded as if I was the site superhero
with all the answers. Part of the fun of each project is learning, growing as a
renovator, and adding onto my own cache of knowledge and skills.
What I’m trying
to make clear is that not “everyone” got it because that’s not how it was. And believing
something like this is nonsensical. Producers expect to be mentioned within a production’s
end credits. Contractors deserve appreciation as well and my part, even though
I was being cooperative, is/was the opposite of this gratitude, what is a vitally important ingredient in any construction effort when it’s genuine.
