Homeandgarden: HGTV builds a fall lineup

HGTV builds a fall lineup

Nine new series will make their debuts on cable's Home & Garden Television.

By PAMELA DAVIS

All of you out there who are addicted to cable's Home & Garden Television (and you know who you are) should be pleased with the channel's slate of new shows. Starting Monday, HGTV premieres nine new series. Check your local cable listings for what channel HGTV is in your area.

Here are brief descriptions and premiere and air dates for the new offerings:

Our Place

Premieres: 9:30 a.m. Monday.

Airs: 9:30 a.m. weekdays.

The weakest offering of the bunch, this slow-moving show stays mostly in the studio (versus one that goes on site for interviews and information). Our Place offers advice on home decor projects. Wood staining and shelf making are demonstrated in the first episode.

Help Around the House

Premieres: 6:30 p.m. Monday.

Airs: 6:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 9 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

You will love host Henry Harrison and wish he were your next-door neighbor. Harrison goes to people's homes and helps them tackle common home maintenance and repair problems, but he doesn't do the fixing; he shows the homeowner how to do it step by step. Included with each project is a chart showing the cost, time and labor intensity of each project.

Old Homes Restored

Premieres: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Airs: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays; 6 p.m. Sundays.

Don't be misled by the title. Old Homes Restored isn't anything like PBS's This Old House series. Instead, it offers advice on restoring all sorts of houses, including vintage 20th century homes such as the art decos in Miami.

Tuesday's show includes homeowner interviews and a visit to the Restoration 2000 trade show in Boston. Instead of focusing on a single restoration project, the show skips around the country, highlighting all sorts of issues and architecture. Those living in new homes may not get much out of it.

Weekend Warriors

Premieres: 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Airs: 10 p.m. Tuesdays.

This is one of the more useful of the new offerings, although it would be an even neater addition to HGTV's weekend lineup. Those of us who visit Home Depot every Saturday will relate to the real-life people and situations presented each week.

The first episode watches a couple remove their damaged linoleum floor and replace it with ceramic tile. It sounds a lot easier than it turns out to be. There's no host to intervene in the process, so viewers are able to watch the homeowners fail or succeed on their own.

Going Home

Premieres: 10:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Airs: 10:30 p.m. Tuesdays.

This show isn't about renovations or expensive decorating; it's about the real meaning of "home." It follows the story of people returning to their hometowns and reuniting with the friends and family they left behind. It turns that out Thomas Wolfe was wrong. This show proves that you can go home again.

Going Home is HGTV's version of reality TV. Like the Real World, Survivor and Big Brother, the human subject is constantly on camera, and the viewer is treated to a documentary of his or her average life. The first episode finds an expectant mother returning to her childhood home to attend a baby shower given by her family.

Designer's Challenge

Premieres: 9:30 p.m. Thursday.

Airs: 9:30 p.m. Thursdays.

Anyone who tunes in to HGTV's home decorating lineup each Saturday night will probably be a fan of Designer's Challenge. This is a fresh approach to a home decorating show and gives viewers a chance to see what happens when an interior designer shows up.

Each show offers a design dilemma, miniprofiles of three designers who want the job, presentations from those designers and the result. In the first episode, a 15-year-old needs her room redecorated to satisfy her teenage taste. The designers are given a $3,500 budget to get it done.

Dream Drives

Premieres: 10 p.m. Friday.

Airs: 10 p.m. Fridays.

If you've ever driven along Tampa's Bayshore Boulevard, gawked at the expensive homes and wondered what they are like inside, you'll enjoy Dream Drives. The series profiles well-known streets (the first episode focuses on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans) and takes viewers on tours inside three homes there.

Fantasy Open House

Premieres: 10:30 p.m. Friday.

Airs: 10:30 p.m. Fridays.

Here's your chance to peek into the homes of the rich without having to put up with obnoxious Robin Leach. It's probably no coincidence that Fantasy Open House airs right after Dream Drives. Once they have you salivating over all those fancy homes, why not stay with the theme?

What you don't learn is why these fabulous mansions are for sale. Did a dot-com deal go bad? Fantasy Open House is a far cry from the Buy Owner TV show, but the homes are on the market, and the host does sound a bit like a real estate agent.

World Garden Tour

Premieres: 3 p.m. Oct. 8.

Airs: 3 p.m. Sundays.

This isn't your backyard variety garden fare. Each episode of World Garden Tour, which is narrated by actor Stockard Channing (Grease, The West Wing), profiles gardens in three different countries. Locations covered this season include Bali, China, France, Japan, Spain and Sweden.