The Woodwright's Shop

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Roy Underhill

The Woodwright's Shop is a traditional woodworking show hosted by Roy Underhill on PBS. It is one of the longest running "how to" shows on PBS. Since its debut in 1979 the show has had over 200 episodes. Initially only broadcast on public TV in North Carolina, the show was "nationalized" in 1981. It is still filmed at the UNC-TV (University of North Carolina Center for Public Television) studios in Research Triangle Park, NC.

The show is filmed in one take with no editing and as a result, the host is often out of breath by the end of the 24 minute program. Underhill frequently cuts himself, a testament to the sharpness of his tools. The first incidence of a self inflicted hand tool injury was on the third show in the series, Dumbheads in Action.^{[citation needed]} The dumbhead refers to the clamping fixture on a foot operated shaving horse used to hold unseasoned ("green") wood.

Roy has had a wide range of woodworking professionals as guests on his show from many different fields of woodworking, Frank Klauz, Nora Hall, Steve Latta, David Calvo, Michael Dunbar, Dan Mack, Don Weber, Wayne Barton and Curtis Buchanan as well as many less well known woodworking specialists in the fields of tinsmithing, spoon carving, cooperage (barrels, buckets, canteens), lutherie (stringed instruments), whirligigs, archery, puppetry, basket making, spinning wheels and blacksmithing. Roy's wife and children have also appeared on various shows over the nearly 30 year span of its production.