Sons of a Bitches

Those bastards.  I am referring to the Creators and Producers of Extreme Make: Over Home Edition (hello Tom, Julie & Denise).  As far as I can tell, this show exists for two reasons and two reasons only:

1.  To help less fortunate families get back on their feet with a solid roof over their heads.

2.  To make me ball uncontrollably.

I DARE you to watch this show and not cry.  It is impossible.  Last night my wife, two daughters (ages 2 & 5) watched the 100th episode and had tears streaming down our faces the entire time.  Screw therapy, if I need to unburden my self of pent up emotion I will just turn to Designer Paul DiMeo who seems only slightly more fragile than I do.

My favorite episodes are the ones where the design of the house is tailored to a family's need.   For example, a boy with brittle bones was given a padded room in case he fell.  A girl allergic to UV rays was given a UV protective skylight so she could lay in bed and still see outside.  THAT to me is truly giving someone a new life.

My only gripe, besides some of the cutesy schtick, is the making over of the bedrooms.  A kid mentions they rode a bus once so...there entire room is made to look like a bus!  The bed is made of old toxic tires, the vents spew exhaust!  Or a kid happens to have a fondness for cupcakes.  It doesn't mean her bedroom has to be a perfect replica of Betty Crocker's commode.  You ever think someone gets a look at their new room and thinks, "Fuck, I said I liked baseball but for Christ's sake!"

This isn't anything I didn't tell the producers when I interviewed there about 2 years ago.  No shocker I didn't get the job.

The are other things I am curious about.  A lot of these families live in very poor neighborhoods.  They tear down their near-condemned shacks and put up these beautiful mansions....in between their neighbor's condemned shacks.  They hardly ever show the adjacent houses in the wide shots.  Is this for privacy or because they look like where Steve Martin was born in "The Jerk?"  Do these new houses become targets for crime because these bad neighborhoods now know the house on Blank Street has 12 flat screens and a waterfall shaped like Reggie Jackson?

Also, have they ever gone back to a family's house for a follow up and realized that the family totally fucked up their new house as well?  I remember in Queer Eye they would do follow ups only to find the man they made into Mr. GQ quickly grew his mullet back when not babysat by the Fab Five.  Has anyone put a painting of dogs playing poker over the $10,000 marble fire place the design team built by hand?

Just wondering.

Keep up the good work fellas.  I joke, but who can knock a show that does that much good.