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10/17/2006: "Extreme Makover - Redondo Beach Edition"

At any given time, I have a half-dozen home improvement projects at different stages of completion. I'm always fiddling with something around the Home Office, so I enjoy watching people who actually know what they're doing. I'll watch any home improvement show, but I have a soft spot for ABC's Extreme Makover - Home Edition. You know the show - it starts with "Good Morning So-and So Family" and ends with "Move that bus" and a lot of tears.

Each week, viewers meet a family for whom life has dealt a stinky hand. Whether death, disease, defect or whatever, each family is battling steep odds when Ty and the crew roll up. One week and a nice vacation later, they have a new home, and a new beginning. It's a schmaltzy, tear-jerking, product-placing orgy of television, but some good things are being done.

As I write this, the EM-HE team is working just a few blocks north of here. Kristina Ripatti was on patrol as an LAPD gang officer last June when she was shot by a gang member. Her husband Tim Pierce, also an LAPD officer, was one of the first on the horrific scene. Her spine severed by the slug, Kristina - mother of 20-month old daughter Jordan - is paralyzed from the chest down. Their little house in North Redondo isn't exactly ADA-compliant, and a wheelchair just won't fit. So they're getting a new home, courtesy of ABC and a whole lot of volunteers.

I actually stumbled on the site accidentally over the weekend. You just can't believe the amount of activity. The production crew has taken over Anderson Park to stage the construction, and both LAPD and Redondo Beach Police are on site providing security. They even rolled out the LAPD battering ram on Friday to knock down the house. I can't imagine the number of people who had to be bought off ... er, compensated ... for the interruption to the neighborhood. If they have any compassion at all, they won't care a bit.

The show claims to build each house in a week, but I was always sceptical. Even considering the time saved via pre-fabbed construction, I figured it was probably like one of those cooking shows where the host puts the cake batter in the top oven and "through the magic of television" pulls a completed cake out of the bottom. But Ty and his bullhorn surprised the family last Wednesday morning, and they're coming back from their vacation in Cabo San Lucas this Wednesday. Amazing!

The show is scheduled to air in November.