Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: Melani
Date: 06 May 02 - 12:54 AM

Nice music, oj. Chanteyranger said a friend of his played fiddle.

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: SharonA
Date: 06 May 02 - 12:37 PM

I was able to watch only bits and pieces of this series, but one thing that struck me was the attitude of the woman from Tennessee toward the Clunes. Early on, she condemned them (in a statement to the camera) for not being willing to accept help from the other families, and she said that if they couldn't live in the wilderness without that give-and-take between families they ought to go home. Later on, when the Tennessee family got a second cow and calf, and evicted the Clunes' cow and calf, the Tennessee woman condemned them for complaining about it, and said that if they couldn't be more self-reliant they ought to go home. She seemed to have a pre-conceived notion about the Clunes because they came from California and were more well-to-do than her family, and apparently in her mind the Clunes couldn't do anything right. Maybe I missed some part of the program where the Tennessee woman realized her prejudice?

Not that the Clunes were such great people or anything; even in the short time I watched the program, I tired of hearing the mother and the teenage daughters complaining about how this or that was "unfair". Who ever told them that pioneer life, or any other life for that matter, was fair?

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: GUEST
Date: 06 May 02 - 01:19 PM

I believe this series was based upon a CBC (Canada) series called Pioneer Quest. In the Canadian version there seemed to be less of the competetive aspect and they did stay the winter . It was a very good series. I liked the PBS one less because they did not stay the winter and I did not really care for the people except for the young newlyweds. The other families spent too much time navel gazing to be serious about survival.

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: nickp
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 04:59 AM

Frontier House has now made it to the UK. Started last night on Channel 4. Rereading all these comments after seeing the first episode is a bit like reading the end of a book first but it helps having other peoples opinions - whether or not I agree with them (don't know yet - one episode only really gets you into the theme).

What really makes the difference to me is catters' family reminiscences which add to the background. Thank you all.

Nick

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: SharonA
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 12:58 PM

Coincidentally, the PBS station in my area (Philadelphia PA environs) is rerunning the series this week. Check your local TV listings, US 'Catters; it may be coming back to your station, too.

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 02:48 PM

The C.F. Martin company has been building guitars in the US since the 1830s. Martin came here to get away from the restrictive crafters guild system in Europe. Washburn has been in business since the 1880s. Guitars were around, and they were plentiful, although smaller instruments like the fiddle and banjo were more popular in the mid-19th century.

I don't recollect what kind of guitars they were using on the show - but the 1880s guitars are more like what we play now, than earlier guitars, which were smaller and narrower. One man theorized to me that the evolution of musical instruments has always had to do with volume, volume, volume - how can we make this thing play louder? Thus bigger guitars, steel strings, resonators on banjos, etc.

I had some gripes with this show, as did a lot of other reenactors, but on the whole I thought it was good. It could have been better, but I thought they did very well with what they had.

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: SharonA
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 03:45 PM

Reenactors? I was under the impression that "Frontier House" wasn't a reenactment but an experiment of sorts, done mainly to contrast the hardships of frontier life with the current way of life in America and to point out how we've "gone soft".

I daresay that reenactors, already well-studied in the habits and attitudes of the late-nineteenth century, would have fared better in the experiment than the volunteers chosen. So would people from the Amish sects that spurn all modern conveniences – the "plain folk" – people who already understand and exhibit the community spirit necessary for survival in such an environment as the one depicted in the program.

It must have been difficult for the participants in the experiment, especially the children, to take on the mindset of 1880's frontier folk when they were constantly reminded of the modern world they'd left by the presence of a videocamera crew, literally "in their face."

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 04:43 PM

That's just it, Sharon, they didn't want reenactors, they wanted fish out of water. And they were supposed to do EVERYTHING like it would have been done in 1883, so it was a reenactment of sorts. A living history immersion, as it were.

The biggest gripe most of us reenactors had was the women going around in their underwear. Yeah, you bet it's hot - they didn't have SPF 15 in those days, but they did have sunburn, so when you went out in the sun to hoe the taters, you covered up. Head to toe. And you wore that corset because it's a back-supporting (and bust-supporting, for them what needs it) garment.

I would have loved to have tried it. But they wouldn't have taken me. :-(

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 07:32 PM

Kim C: You're perfectly free to try it, whether anyone "takes you" or no! All you need is some land. And nobody cares if you cheat!

And if corsets are so practical, why didn't men wear them?

But you're right about the history of the guitar. It's a point that is emphasized in an exhibit I saw at the Experience Music Project in Seattle. See it if you get the chance.

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 09:48 AM

I have tried it, just not for six months. I do have bills to pay. And if you're going to cheat, what's the point?

Men did wear corsets! In the 1830s, when the narrow waistline was in vogue for gentlemen's wear, there did exist a waist-cincher-type garment to help one achieve that look. However, the biggest reason men didn't wear corsets on a daily basis is------ no boobs. Contrary to popular belief, the main function of a corset was to support the bust in the days before brassieres. :-)

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: Alice
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 08:12 PM

The front page article of our local paper on Sunday was about Mark Glenn returning to the area (after divorcing his wife) and working on the ranch near the cabins of Frontier House. You can read the article at www.gomontana.com, the date July 21, 2002, the title "Back To The Land" with sub heading, 'Frontier House' alum Mark Glenn didn't want it to end.
The article says he is working part time on the ranch while working on a book about his experience. An agent lined up lecture on the university fall and winter circuit. He says his message will be to simplify your life and "understand the banality of pecking orders and status systems".

Alice

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: nickp
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 04:31 AM

interesting but awkward to find - try this and maybe some kind person can make it a clickie

http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?show=archivedetails&pnpid=311&om=0&ArchiveID=808267

like the bit about not turning the tv on - its the only way I can squeeze enough spare life in...

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: SharonA
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 09:32 AM

Wow, thanks, Alice. I haven't seen parts 5 and 6 of the "Frontier House" series yet (my local PBS station is rerunning it – those episodes air tomorrow!), but based on the first 4 parts, I didn't think Mark Glenn was going to stay in that marriage.

IMO (again based on the first 4 parts only), Karen Glenn left the trappings of the 21st century behind when she joined the "Frontier House" project, but she didn't leave her attitude behind long enough to even try to role-play as a wife with 1880's attitude. I remember that, at one point, Karen Glenn said that something-or-other that she was doing was "the Christian thing" to do... and yet, a Christian woman of the late nineteenth century would have been expected to be obedient and submissive to her husband, instead of publicly debasing him as Karen did.

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: Alice
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 11:24 AM

Back to the land: 'Frontier House' alum Mark Glenn didn't want it to end

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: nickp
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 11:33 AM

Thanks Alice - I'll learn clickies one day!

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: Alice
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 11:34 AM

Since many around the country and now in the UK have seen this series, now you know what my part of the world looks like. I live just west of where it was filmed.
What do you think of the scenery? (Bill Sables can testify.)

Alice in Montana (and Les B. lives in the area, too)

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: nickp
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 11:37 AM

As a Brit it beats most of the UK - but I still have a soft spot for western NC!

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: SharonA
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 03:24 PM

Alice: The scenery's gorgeous, simply gorgeous! (Y'mean the PBS folks didn't airbrush those mountaintop clouds – they come that way? *BG*)

I'm still trying to figure out what that article writer meant about the Clunes letting the teenage girls "go feral". As I said, I haven't seen the last two parts of the series yet; still, I have a hard time imagining those girls – who were typically concerned with their appearance and bemoaning the absence of makeup – turning into wolf children!

Actually, Gordon Clune and even Adrienne, have kinda grown on me, in spite of the difficulty they had adapting to the change in lifestyle. Their idiocy is laughable and their "not-fair" complaints are infuriating, but I'm sure their feeling of being fish-out-of-water was typical of many homesteaders of the period. I'm finding their mindset a lot easier to take than Karen Clune's "everyone's an incompetent idiot except me" attitude.... even more so when I see on this thread that the Glenns weren't judged to be as well prepared for winter as the Brookses!

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: Kim C
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 05:01 PM

They did turn into wolf-children! ;-) They had a little secret camp-thing in the woods and ran around in their chemises and smoked pipes. Mister said it was like Lord of the Flies. :-D

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 10:26 PM

As usual I'm off the thread sorta;

Alice, where in Montana? I just came back from visiting my cousin, Sue in Big Timber, went up to the Crazys and down to the falls on the Boulder River. Just one incredible view after another, no wonder my cousin stays there in spite of the winters. I'm reading Alice Gleason's writings: Starting From Scratch. She lived in the Choteau area near the Teton river, A.B. Guthrie was a friend of hers and a neighbor.

And KIM C you do re-enacting? what period? could you and/or Alice PM me? My ladyfriend and I are slowly inching our way West. Spending next summer in the Yellowstone if we can get jobs there.

Went to the Medicine Wheel, slept at Porcupine campground, only one there, what blessed silence!

As a "Fur Trade" re-enactor I had a few laughs over frontier house. We kept saying, "waugh, they got it MADE!" try doing that under canvas or an oilskin "tarp" or dug into a creek bank! Brother bill and I go off into the Boone Wildlife area. Nothing but nature, absolutely NO "improvements" Take a ground cloth, hardtack biscuits, some bacon and a squirrel rifle and a gourd canteen and some salt. Stay a night or a month, the place is wild and peaceful. The Missouri country can support a person forever if they have common sense and love the silence. I don't know if folks who "went West" would have been as green as that, maybe in the LATE 19th century. The pilgrims who didn't cut the mustard usually died.

CB

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: SharonA
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 08:06 AM

Kim: That settles it; I'll be glued to the tube tonight to watch the "feral" teens. Bizarre! Ah well, I guess kids that age will find some way to rebel, regardless of the environment in which they find themselves....

Subject: RE: Review: PBS series 'Frontier House'
From: Alice
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 11:23 AM

CB, Frontier House was filmed right where you visited, in the Boulder River area near Big Timber.

Alice