Head 'em up, move 'em out... Texas Ranch House

Rawhide!

Tomorrow night, Monday, May 1, PBS will be premiering its newest reality-based step-back-in-time program, Texas Ranch House, which takes place on a recreated 1867 Texas ranch. Here is a description from the PBS web site:

Transplanted into the actual living and working conditions of the era, outfitted with period tools, technology and clothing, a brave family and a diverse group of cowboys-at-heart discover how the myth of the American West meshes with reality -- and what the saddle-sore, rope-burned, and sun-blistered ranch life was really like.

Boy, that sure sounds like fun…

I really enjoyed previous versions of genre of programming that PBS has shown in the past, such as 1900 House, 1940s House, Manor House, Regency House Party (I would have loved to have taken part in that one), Frontier House and Colonial House. I refer to this programming as "reality TV for history nerds." Basically, participants are taken from their modern lives and are transported into a different historical period. They have to live, work, eat, etc. exactly as folk would in the time period that they have agreed to be placed in. The thing that I have always found surreal, is, yes, they step back in time, but they are being constantly documented by camera crews. Because of this… maybe not such a “pure” experiment. But, it is AWESOME to watch, and I guess that is the whole point. Texas Ranch House airs on PBS May 1-4.