I am not quite sure how, but the other night, trolling around the vintage blogosphere, I spotted a reference to this BBC series — 1940s House — and now I have my DVD set from Amazon on the way. Pretty much every day I get into a conversation with someone about whether “times are worse today than they were for our parents and/or [fill in the blank to any decade past]”. I have my *opinions*, but I have not dug up actual facts to support my own personal hypothesis. Even before I would, though, I’d want to discuss: What specific aspects of life are we going to measure to determine what may be *better*, exactly, or what may be *worse*? We need to have a discussion around these assumptions and parameters first, I think, to then be able to measure and compare now vs. then.
Anyway: In that vein, I love the concept of this TV series. I guess you’d call it a retro-reality show: A family is put into a constructed environment recreating what it was like to live in the midst of WWII England — housing, food, amenities, technology … or lack thereof. They must deal. I can’t wait to watch.
Gavin Hastings says
The spoiler is when the participants in these shows are not commited to the project. In just about every one of these series someone cheats or starts “whinging and grousing”…(as they say…..).
KM says
I think they deliberately select for a family where at least one member is grossly unprepared for the exercise. In 1900 house the mom had a meltdown on Day 3. Meanwhile, I’m sitting there saying “Seriously, you don’t know how to hand wash something?” It makes for better TV if there’s some disconnect between their abilities and the requirements.
Barbara says
I agree – the 1940s house mom nearly lost it when she couldn’t get her requisite amount of cigarettes. I finally stopped watching because she was so whiny throughout the series. Why audition for a show you have no skills for?
pam kueber says
Yes: Conflict makes for more “entertainment”, I guess….
Miranda says
What I liked about 1940s House, vs some of the other series, was that the family involved really tried to stay true to the experiment. During Frontier House, for example, some of the people involved were discovered to be “cheating” by salvaging modern items from a dump or buying meat from outside sources.
The family in 1940s house, by contrast, really maintained the spirit of the project and seemed to take the most with them back to modern life. I wonder if this isn’t in some part, due to the fact that they got to interact with people who actually lived during the Blitz, etc.
JamieAbe says
I LOVE these series! I watched Frontier House when it was on t.v., and the 1900 House on loan from the local library. It’s hard to believe what all people had to go through on a daily basis (especially in the 1900’s). I wouldn’t been able to keep a clean house without producing about 12 kids. Well, that makes since now. I particularly loved the Frontier House. I loved the one dad that lost a ton of weight by the end of the show. I think we forget how much hard labor was involved in their daily lives. I think that should be the new diet here in American. Work and eat like a pioneer, it would do us all some good.
Sheri says
I loved that series. It was eye opening!
K says
Except for what I think was the last show, the “upstairs, downstairs” version, I loved this series. I especially liked the Victorian House and the 1940s House.
Jenny says
We watched Frontier House with our kids and it was good. We really got a feel for the hardships these pioneers faced, especially the first cold, dark winter for which they were ill-prepared. We thought it would be good for our kids because we’ve been working our way through the Little House on the Prairie series and wanted to point-out that it wasn’t quite as “cozy” as the show sometimes appears. J likes to stop the DVD and say things like “see how easy you kids have it with your video-games and central heating? I’ve never made you drop out of school to help me harvest the back 40.” They laugh at that but watching Frontier House sort of put things in a little more perspective. One thing I didn’t like, and I’m not sure if 1940’s house does this, was the MTV “Real World” style interviews with the participants, which gave it a bit of cheesy reality TVness, i.e. talking about each other, griping, etc. I will definitely check-out the 1940’s house series, though. That sounds interesting and makes for good family viewing.
Nicole F says
Even better–this is available right now on Netflix instant if you have it!!!
pam kueber says
Thanks for the tip! I’ll check for the other series’, too!
natalie says
it’s not showing on the instant on mine, only DVD 🙁
Kate H says
I liked this show — it was all about rationing, as I recall. It showed how incredibly creative you had to be with menus, shopping, etc. There is a great exhibit at the Imperial War Museum in London about life in wartime Britain which shows how much food, clothing, etc. people received from the time rationing started during the war until the early 50s. Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without!
I have my grandmother’s old cookbook which has a rationing supplement in it that includes menus and substitutions so you can cook without buying on the black market.
Whether things were better/worse then, I don’t know. I think there was less materialism because there was less to obtain, and houses from that period show this in the lack of closet space. Food choices/portions were likely better for you (although: aspic. Yikes.). I wouldn’t like living in a segregated society. I wouldn’t like not having air conditioning, MMR vaccinations and polio vaccines, either.
Desirae says
I totally agree especially on the materialism. I live in the 1950s (in my mind) and often think about that. Even in that prosperous decade, they didn’t have as much as we have now. I look at tv shows like I Love Lucy, and she wore the same dresses many times throughout the series. In one episode it showed her closet, and they were the same dress I had seen in several shows. I don’t think it would be easy for me to live without as much, because I am used to everything I have now (and a huge closet). This does sound like an interesting show, and I wouldn’t mind be part of an experiment like that.
Gavin Hastings says
I once read that Lucy purposely limited herself to 8 daytime dresses….as that was the average wardrobe in the 1950’s
pam kueber says
very interesting….remember this one: The Century in Shoes
Jana (Berniecat) says
Gavin, I think you are correct. I have the I Love Lucy series seasons 1,2,and 3 on DVD and both Lucy and Ethel repeatedly wear the same dresses during each season.
Just another Pam says
Into the 1960’s you could still order food parcels from the Sear’s Christmas catalog to send to people in England. Every year when I was little I wished we could send some, odd child.
Max says
(Longtime lurker here – couldn’t resist this post!)
BBC did this several times: 1900s House, 1940s House and Frontier House.
The concept is delicious – a submersive environment which requires the participants to live without most or all of the things they are accustomed to. There is one flaw with the series – it takes modern people and puts them into an antique environment. They react differently to the stimuli than people who lived through it – the subjects know of something different/better/other than what they are experiencing, whereas the people who lived through the time period (in this case, the 1940s) didn’t.
It becomes harder for us to judge if we’re better off now than then because we have a different perspective. People from the 1940s might actually have considered themselves better off. It becomes a very personal experience for everyone involved, and only you can decide which you think is better.
pam kueber says
Welcome out of your lurking status, Max! I can’t wait to watch the video, and it sounds like I need to rest of the series, too!
Jeremy says
This show was a sequel to 1900 House (which IMHO was better) and is part of the multi-national “House” franchise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1900_House