TV shows that make your job harder

[Reyneth]

We've done commercials, have any tv shows made you want to scream because you know it can come back and haunt you soon? Sitcoms, reality shows, whatever!

Let's "Improve" this photo!

This one was tonight on a interior decorating show. To fit the "Victorian" theme they were creating in a bedroom, an old photo of the husband's grandma was made to look like the cameos from that time period.

The problem? The designer took this photo, in pristine condition, and ripped the edges off to form a rough oval and then spray-mounted it on to their canvas! This was an original photo probably about 60-75 years old, and she destroyed it! Ok, grandma was still ok in the photo, but do that to a copy, not to an original of that age!

I get people bringing in photos even 20 years old full of cracks and bends and tears that I do restoration work on at my photo job. It's costly, it takes a lot of time, and it's never quite as good as the original. So to deliberately destroy something that is really rare and valuable - a photo that old in such good condition really me. I hope nobody else tries it and messes up and then expects me to fix it!


Isn't technology Great?

The second really notable thing happened years ago. It was another design-type show, but about cleaning out and organizing and stuff. The host sent the couple to a hotel (it was a 2-day show) with a box of stuff to do - including organizing photos.

Ok, no biggie - except he told them to throw away the negatives because "you don't need those any more!"

Wanna bet? It's going to cost you four times more to make a photo from a print instead of a negative (unless we take pity on you) and the quality is never quite as good. Dust, color, fingerprints, wear and tear, not to mention the fact that you are copying what is a copy. Please, save your originals - the negatives!

[jb17kx]

Gah!

*dies*

[Aressel]

My girlfriend enjoys home decorating, etc. and so many of those "interior decorating" shows make her want to scream with rage and frustration because of some of their methods. One that comes to mind was the designers cutting the posts off of a 4 poster bed as part of the project.

[Sofar]

Ah, ruining antiques is the thing to do these days. My friend works in a lovely antique shop slash carpenter's shop. They sell antiques, and you can bring anything you've bought there back for repairs later. So, he sells a woman a lovely Queen Anne "occasional table," as he called it. The finish on the thing was in horrible condition when he bought it, but only water damage, no scratches, no gouges. Otherwise everything was peachy. So, he refinished it. Two months later, she brings it back to have a peg glued back in, she drags it in and it looks as though someone whipped it with a chain for a few hours and left it in the gutter. It was like it had aged twenty years. He asks, "What the Hell did you do to my occasional table?" and she tells him she gave it a "distressed finish." The reason? "It looked too new."

[Reyneth]

Oh, don't get me started on the designers painting nice (sometimes hand-crafted!) wood pieces. I want to track them down, call them up and scream "What are you THINKING?"

Problem is, they're not - don't see the value in those things.

It makes our jobs so much harder when these people who really don't know much about various industries spread misinformation like that.

[ladyklack]

Ok, no biggie - except he told them to throw away the negatives because "you don't need those any more!"

*Goes into convulsions, has kittens, dies.*

[lordlundar]

He asks, "What the Hell did you do to my occasional table?" and she tells him she gave it a "distressed finish." The reason? "It looked too new."

Ah yes, distressing furniture, because an antique dealer isn't going to notice the marks are from chains or that it's been left out to rot for a period of time when that's the kind of thing they're specifically looking for.

Hope you told her that she maybe will get a penny on the dollar for it at that point, if she's lucky.

[TNT]

News shows are what can really ruin a day in cable...

Anchorman: And now, our consumer advocate is going to tell you how to lower your cable bill while keeping the same services.
Consumer advocate (loosely translated): Well, it turns out there's a secret discount given to people who call in and ask for it. The first representative you talk to may not know about it... so keep calling until you find someone who does.

I can only recall two occasions that I ever gave a discount that wasn't a legitimate promotion...

The first was a caller who made a huge order... and then:

Caller: I'm not paying that price and I want a discount. I don't care if it's a dollar a month... I just want to be able to say 'I negotiated the price down.'
Me: Tell you what I'm going to do... I'll give you a two dollar a month credit.
Caller: Let's schedule the install.

The second was a caller who may well have been our "best customer ever"... though, of course, he never said that. He'd been with us forever, he had the ultimate package, plus extra boxes, etc... and he'd never, ever, been late with a payment.

Caller: I love your service. Unfortunately, I messed up my finances and I'm going to have to drop to limited basic for two months. Then I'm going to call and order everything back.
Me: Would you mind holding for just one moment?
Caller: Sure.

I went to my supervisor...

Me: I'm firmly convinced he will get everything back in two months... but he's been great, and I don't want to take a chance that in two months, he may decide he doesn't want all those services after all.
Supervisor: I agree. Do whatever you need to do to keep him at his current level and I'll approve it.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Oh, don't get me started on the designers painting nice (sometimes hand-crafted!) wood pieces. I want to track them down, call them up and scream "What are you THINKING?"

Problem is, they're not - don't see the value in those things.

Ugh, what really pisses me off is when the homeowner says "Please don't touch suchandsuch piece of furniture" for whatever sentimental-value reason. And the designer spends the next 2 days arguing with the homeowner's friend about how great it would be to do some drastic treatment to that piece of furniture. If I were going to be on Trading Spaces I'd remove anything I didn't want them to touch and get it out of the house altogether.

Several years ago my aunt found some old pictures of my grandfather as a child. My brother scanned them into his computer and touched them up in Photoshop and then printed them on photo paper; they came out really nice and the originals were not harmed in any way! And now each of my mom's siblings has a decent-quality copy. (Funny story: My cousin's son, who was about 8 at the time and not much older than my grandfather in the pictures, thought it was a picture of him but couldn't remember ever wearing those clothes...)

[Kiwi]

The worst one I have ever watched was a trading spaces show, the woman did a purple and pink room. I shit you not! It was barbie pink and purple for a dining room no less. Dont even get me started on Colin and Justin YUCK

The only one I semi trust is Sarah from Design inc, but I would only use her if I wanted a white on white room as thats all she seems to do. Kenith brown seems to be the only one who actually listens to the clients needs, and his rooms take 5-8 months to do!

[Gurndigarn]

The only one I semi trust is Sarah from Design inc, but I would only use her if I wanted a white on white room as thats all she seems to do.\

What is it with white that makes it so popular with people these days? I like a bit of color in my house; why do real estate agents tell people to paint everything white?

(And why can't they add "with quality paint" and "tape off woodwork, remove outlet and switch covers, and for crying out loud, USE A DROPCLOTH!" Oh, well, that meant that the house we ended up buying cost us about $10K less than it should have cost when we got it a day before foreclosure. It's been a long haul to get it to what I consider acceptable, but it's been worth the lower cost for us.)

[justZu]

Ok, no biggie - except he told them to throw away the negatives because "you don't need those any more!"

I remember seeing that show. I was cursing at the TV. My negs are stored in negative sleeves, in order by date. They go back almost 25 years. If someone ever told me to get rid of them, I'd...well it wouldn't be very pretty, that's for sure.

As for most of those designer shows, they make me cringe. If it's not Trading Spaces with Hildi-Hay-for-Walls, its Changing Rooms with Lawrence Llewellyn-Zebra-Bordello. I am firmly convinced these designers are not trying to create beautiful rooms, they are merely trying to shock people.

[zzapp the witch]

I've got you all beat. Some idiots got ahold of one of our historical houses in Roseburg, Oregon, and "restored" the kitchen to look like the galley from "The Good Ship Lollypop." I shit you not.

I have yet to see any one of these "design" shows do something that hideous. I swear the walls looked like pink striped ribbon candy on a very large scale. Willy Wonka's chocolate factory would have been a huge improvement.

My favorite designer show? It was featured on E!'s shocking moments. Its the show with that big, boisterous black gal in charge and they painted this poor lady's interior ORANGE or similar. They do the reveal, she's in shock, crying, trying to fall into the floor, and tells them how much she HATES it. When I saw it, I didn't get the "bitchy priss" vibe off of her, I felt they finally got someone who was telling them the truth.

By far one of my favorite episodes, ever.

[JustADude]

Only designs how I'd EVER want touching my place is Monster House. They get actual ing builders, engineers, and electricians in, who are getting a $3000 payday (in tools) for one week of work, they build the house around the tastes of the people who live there, the construction meets CODE, and they have an interior designer come in to put the finishing touches on it.

[Broomjockey]

My favourite home renovation show? Holmes on homes. Amazing. This guy takes a week to a month depending on the size of the job. He helps people who get dicked around by the original contractor, fixes the problems, and then makes it so much BETTER! My favourite part is always watching him rant about the cruddy job the last guy did.

On the topic of TV shows making work harder: there's not really any shows that depict movie theatre workers, so I never had a problem with people having bizarre expectations of what I would do. You know, beyond standard SCisms.