Have enjoyed Norm over the years in the past when he had his own show. Built a couple of his projects. The plans always were complete and great. Mission style grandfather clock now over 15 yrs old, a mission style king bed, about 10 years ago. Both working great.

Miss his shows.

 

Watched him a lot as a kid with my Day.

I'll never forget all the "galoo" and the brads to hold things in place while it dried "p'that, p'that, p'that"

He made things look easy.

 

I know his one-time co-star, Bob Vila, never gets mentioned…ever. Is there bad blood between him and the PBS family?

 

There was bad blood between This Old House and Bob Vila since the 1980s.

 

Bob Vila used to drive me crazy. He would say now to do the floor tile, lay down one section of tile (the kind glued to a fabric web) and say "and that's how you do it". Norm was a kind soul, didn't watch him much but what I saw I liked.

 

IMO Bob Villa is an idiot.

Last time I caught him on a show, he was "helping" build a brick wall. They left a gap in the wall for him to put in the last brick. He buttered the bottom and slapped it onto place, but forgot to butter the sides.
He stepped to the side and mentioned how easy it was to get "pro" results easily. You could see the brick layers staring at the gaps on the sides of the brick crack smiles when he made that comment.

 

Bob got fired after going over budget for the umpteenth time and I suspect finally PO'd the right person. He was a talker, not a doer and talk is cheap. Norm was almost too stoic in the shop rarely cracking a smile. I was really hoping they'd put together a bloopers reel of Norm whipping a hammer through a window after smacking his thumb or having his wide belt sander kick back a giant beam mantle through the engine block of a diesel truck parked outside, even a good ole fashioned tablesaw kickback that sends a thin, long board through a few walls before it finds a stud. Nothing that hurt anyone but something dramatic. I suspect nothing like that actually ever happened though if Norm was overseeing safety protocol. He studied engineering at MIT so by all accounts, he was a pretty smart cookie.

 

I don't know Yeti, I've known some grads from some pretty prestigious colleges and universities that couldn't common sense their way out of a box lol

 

Reminds me of one Wood Whisperer video. He had this new-to-him router table and he wanted to profile the edge of a long, thin strip.

Set the bit away from the fence so the strip was between the two, begin the cut….

Before I could scream "Nooooooo!" the strip shot across his shop.

Norms incessant safety intro (read, understand, and follow…) has always stuck in my head, but common sense isn't so common.

I would have enjoyed seeing Norm get pissed off and smashing something up 8^)

 

havn't seen this old house much in the last 15 years but was a big fan of the new yankee workshop.some woodworkers put him down as being too simple,bur he was the average woodworkers hero.i loved how he always did a procedure a different way each time,he showed there were many ways to do something.i hope he is healthy and able to continue his passion. i agree about villa,he was an idiot.

 

A few years back Vila was on an anniversary show. I enjoyed the very first episodes as they were geared towards remodeling for the common folk. Norm was always great and did more for our hobby than any other modern maker.

All in all, I would take either's broadcast over 95% of the crap on TV these days.

 

I just remembered something about Bob Vila….As far as I know, he violated his contract with PBS for accepting payments from Sears for promoting Craftsman products. PBS found it unethical for its staff to accept compensation from private businesses.

 

Another Bob Vila story. I'm from the Boston area and contacted a roofer to replace my roof. In conversation, the roofer told me that his company had done a roof for a TOH show and that afterwards Bob V asked for a kickback because he figured that the roofer had gotten free advertising by working on the show.

 

I once built a flag pole from one of his New Yankee Workshop shows.

 

This old house was right on time for us buying our first fixer upper. Really liked Norm in both shows. Little bit of GlOOOO stuck with me also. My favorite Norm quote "What's a duchman? Its a PATCH!"

Vila was pompous in my opinion.

TOH taught me how to do a lot of things way before the internet.

 

IMO Bob Villa is an idiot.

Last time I caught him on a show, he was "helping" build a brick wall. They left a gap in the wall for him to put in the last brick. He buttered the bottom and slapped it onto place, but forgot to butter the sides.
He stepped to the side and mentioned how easy it was to get "pro" results easily. You could see the brick layers staring at the gaps on the sides of the brick crack smiles when he made that comment.

- splintergroup

Bob Villa is no idiot..

 

Sholy agree - that son is worth 70M!

 

I don t know Yeti, I ve known some grads from some pretty prestigious colleges and universities that couldn t common sense their way out of a box lol

- Mosquito

If it were a related arts or the like course of study or from any of the more touchy Feely universities, I would put far less faith in his ability to do something constructive with his education. Another thing to remember is he would have been attending at a time when there was far less emphasis on something like CRT and far more on objective math and science.

 

I found both TOH and NYW to be incredibly informative and to build confidence as I started my journey as a DIY'er and a handyman. In this age when anyone and everyone can post a TikTok or Youtube video and profess to be an expert, we forget that the few people on TV 30 years ago were the only source of inspiration and information for many of us. Norm was a keystone in the foundation of transforming woodworking from something passed down on a jobsite or a workshop to something that many people felt they could try. The thousands of influencers making a living on social media stand on his shoulders.

BTW, Norm went to U Mass, Amherst, not MIT (per Wikipedia), studied mechanical engineering, switched to business, and didn't quite graduate. I agree with Mosquito; being an engineer doesn't mean you can solve practical problems. As an engineer, I know - lol.

 

IMO Bob Villa is an idiot.

Last time I caught him on a show, he was "helping" build a brick wall. They left a gap in the wall for him to put in the last brick. He buttered the bottom and slapped it onto place, but forgot to butter the sides.
He stepped to the side and mentioned how easy it was to get "pro" results easily. You could see the brick layers staring at the gaps on the sides of the brick crack smiles when he made that comment.

- splintergroup

Bob Villa is no idiot..

- JackDuren

your right,as petey said, he was a pompous ass !

 

I actually had no idea that he was still on. Kind of assumed he'd retired decades ago. I only tend to watch the newer shows on HGTV etc. lol

 

well that congratulatory thread went in the pishatoo pretty quick.

hope Norm has time to finally enjoy all he's work for, and health, happiness, & peace follow him wherever he decides to go in life.

 

well that congratulatory thread went in the pishatoo pretty quick.

hope Norm has time to finally enjoy all he s work for, and health, happiness, & peace follow him wherever he decides to go in life.

- secharles

really ? well with only 39 posts i guess you dont know how threads evolve here ? heck i thought it was going pretty smooth ! ;-))

 

First of all, congratulations to Norm on a well-deserved retirement!

Thanks for being the inspiration and giving me the confidence to try to do both home improvement and woodworking. I miss the 25 minutes I spend with you on Saturday mornings, and I have not found a suitable replacement.

You took me from someone who hung on every word and technique to someone who would question the technique you chose. Take this as a compliment as you taught me how to think through the challenges of the piece and come up with a solution.

Farewell my TV friend and mentor.

 

well that congratulatory thread went in the pishatoo pretty quick.

hope Norm has time to finally enjoy all he s work for, and health, happiness, & peace follow him wherever he decides to go in life.

- secharles

really ? well with only 39 posts i guess you dont know how threads evolve here ? heck i thought it was going pretty smooth ! ;-))

- pottz

Norm is awesome. He single-handedly inspired a generation of woodworkers.

On the other hand, guys like Russ Morash and Bob Vila are parasites sucking at the public broadcasting teat. After all, Morash fired Vila for trying to horn in on his gold mine, so Vila started his own scam. He had a stake in most of the projects on his show-if not all. As I recall the "banana house" belonged to his sister, which he never disclosed on the series.

The New Yankee Workshop existed on Morash's property. Those tools were his. Recall how there was always a prototype for each project? One of them wound up in Morash's house each time.

I'm not faulting profit from productions like those, I fault the use of PBS funding for personal gain.

 

Welp I don't think they ever made a whole helluva lot off PBS! PBS paid Vila at $250/episode in the beginning and later raised it to $800/episode. Bob mainly agreed to do it because he thought it was good advertising for his then mainline construction company. He later left when he began being the Sears frontman for Craftsman tools and started his own show that he retained all the residuals from. Hs current net worth is close to 70M. And that is what really garners respect and endears Norm to me as a national treasure - god knows what PBS was paying him but he stuck with it for 43 years no less and yet amassed a net worth of only 2.5M - or about 58K/year!

 

well that congratulatory thread went in the pishatoo pretty quick.

hope Norm has time to finally enjoy all he s work for, and health, happiness, & peace follow him wherever he decides to go in life.

- secharles

really ? well with only 39 posts i guess you dont know how threads evolve here ? heck i thought it was going pretty smooth ! ;-))

- pottz

Norm is awesome. He single-handedly inspired a generation of woodworkers.

On the other hand, guys like Russ Morash and Bob Vila are parasites sucking at the public broadcasting teat. After all, Morash fired Vila for trying to horn in on his gold mine, so Vila started his own scam. He had a stake in most of the projects on his show-if not all. As I recall the "banana house" belonged to his sister, which he never disclosed on the series.

The New Yankee Workshop existed on Morash s property. Those tools were his. Recall how there was always a prototype for each project? One of them wound up in Morash s house each time.

I m not faulting profit from productions like those, I fault the use of PBS funding for personal gain.

- Rich

yes all true my friend.but morash was the creator and did deserve the reward.without his creative drive there would be no TOH today,nor new yankee workshop.villa was a leach that morash simply scrapped how his leg.villa was merely his puppet,not even a good one.i doubt he was missed by many.surely not by me -lol !

 

My impression of Bob villa is he will endorse anything for a buck.