How Hollywood views kitchen renovation projects is quite hilarious. Generally the way that kitchen remodeling projects are portrayed in the movies and on television are as comedies. The reasons are obvious. Everything you need for a good comedy is present-power tools with points, demolition and the possibility of accidents and the chance that someone is going to fall off of a ladder. While do it yourself kitchen remodels may cause one to put a lot of things into perspective, Hollywood is not going to make a serious remodeling movie unless it is a parody.



During the 1930's and 40's Americans were in desperate need of comedy. With the Depression that occurred after the stock market crashed and World War II, everyone was looking for a way to escape reality. The best way to do that was to go to the movies. Comedy teams like the Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy would begin repair jobs somewhere in the house and make a complete mess of everything they came across. For a small price Americans would pile into movie theaters and find relief from the turmoil that surrounded them. These movies mocked the renovating exploits of the comedy teams but the instances were funny because they could occur in real life.

Home Improvement is one of the most popular television shows in recent history. This was a comedy show that was based on Tim Allen's stand up comedy routine. Allen was the star of the show and the premise of the show was that the star was on a television show that helped people learn how to complete home improvements. Of course, the projects never were completed without trouble. The character's relationships with his family and neighbor go much smoother than his home improvement projects. Viewers enjoyed the character and found themselves connected with him the way that viewers of the past connected with The Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy.

During the summer of 1987 we had some work done on our house. It became the Summer of Construction Workers. Our kitchen remodel was botched and had to been redone a couple of times. Once the workers were gone we celebrated the finished project by watching a movie that we relate to, The Money Pit. Tom Hanks gave a great acting job in this funny and very realistic movie. The Money Pit is about a couple that finds the house of there dreams. As soon as they buy it the house begins to fall apart. Things get worse and worse as the movie goes along. Everyone else in my family thought it was a hoot by I was traumatized by it. It came a little bit too close to home for me.