Bob Vila

Bob Vila
Born Robert Joseph Vila
(1946-06-20) June 20, 1946
Miami, Florida, U.S.
Education University of Florida (Journalism,[1] 1969)
Website bobvila.com

Robert Joseph "Bob" Vila (born June 20, 1946) is an American home improvement television show host known for This Old House (1979–1989), Bob Vila's Home Again (1990–2005), and Bob Vila (2005–2007).

Biography

Early life

Vila was a native of Miami, Florida. Growing up, his father built the family home by hand.[2] Vila graduated from Miami Jackson High School (1962) and studied journalism at the University of Florida.[3] After graduating, he served as a volunteer in the Peace Corps, working in Panama from 1971 to 1973.[4]

Career

Vila was hired as the host of This Old House in 1979 after receiving the "Heritage House of 1978" award by Better Homes and Gardens, for his restoration of a Victorian Italianate house in Newton, Massachusetts.[5] On This Old House, Vila appeared with carpenter Norm Abram as they, and others, renovated houses. In 1989 he left the show following a disagreement arising from his involvement with outside commercial endorsements for New Jersey-based Rickel,[6] and the subsequent retaliatory pulling of underwriting from Rickel's competitor Home Depot and lumber supplier Weyerhaeuser.[7] He was replaced by Steve Thomas.

After leaving This Old House, Vila became a commercial spokesman for Sears, and beginning in 1990 he hosted Bob Vila's Home Again (known from 2005 on as Bob Vila), a weekly syndicated home-improvement program. The series ran for 16 seasons in syndication before it was canceled by distributor CBS Television Distribution due to declining ratings; the series remains in reruns.[8] Vila also appeared on various episodes of the situation comedy Home Improvement as himself, where main character and cable TV host Tim Taylor (played by Tim Allen) saw him as a rival and went to great lengths to try to beat Vila at things, which he never succeeded in doing. Vila also made a cameo in the 1993 comedy spoof Hot Shots! Part Deux.

Vila has written 10 books, including a five-book series titled Bob Vila's Guide to Historic Homes of America. As of 2006, he still appears regularly on television. He can also be seen on the Home Shopping Network, selling a range of tools under his own brand.

Other productions

Bob Vila's less widely known productions include Guide to Historic Homes of America (1996), In Search of Palladio, (1996) for A&E, and Restore America for HGTV.

Historic Homes of America

Guide to Historic Homes of America (1996)[9] included two-hour segments on each of four major regions of the United States: the Northeast, including New England and the Mid-Atlantic States,[10] the South, the Midwest and the West.

The Northeast
The Mid-Atlantic States
The South
The Midwest and West

In Search of Palladio

In Search of Palladio (1996) is a three-part, six-hour study of the work and lasting influence of the 16th-century architect Andrea Palladio. Palladio designed various types of buildings, but the series concentrates on his domestic architecture. (See also: Palladian Villas of the Veneto).

I. Villas of the Veneto
II. The Palladians in England and Ireland
III. The Palladian Legacy in America

Restore America

Restore America consists of 50 one-hour segments which explore historic preservation and building restoration in each of the fifty U.S. states. Anticipating the turn of the 3rd millennium, it was first broadcast on HGTV between July 4, 1999 and July 4, 2000.[22]

Bibliography

Bob Vila has written two dozen or more books, which include:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bob Vila settles into ARCOM chairman’s role | www.palmbeachdailynews.com
  2. ↑ "Biography channel".
  3. ↑ Bob Vila : Trusted Home Renovation & Repair Expert
  4. ↑ http://www.parade.com/news/slideshows/editors-pick/famous-peace-corps-volunteers.html 9 Famous Peace Corps Volunteers, Parade magazine, accessed August 22, 2011
  5. ↑ Bob Vila: CBS Cancels Home-Improvement Series | TV Series Finale
  6. ↑ Some Cracks Show Up on the Facade of Tv's This Old House : People.com
  7. ↑ The Modesto Bee - Google News Archive Search
  8. ↑ "A Very Special Goodbye: TV Exits," Washington Post, April 25, 2007
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Bob Vila's Guide to Historic Homes of America". A&E Network. 1996.
  10. ↑ "Bob Vila's Guide to Historic Homes of the Mid-Atlantic". A&E Network. …some of the most magnificent architectural treasures in the original colonies of Maryland, Delaware, and Washington D.C.
  11. ↑ Tylers' Travels (photograph). "Rosalie, Natchez, Mississippi". The white picket fence is of unusual construction, in that no nails exist in its entire structure. Rosalie is now the State Shrine of the Mississippi Daughters of the American Revolution. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ↑ Old And Sold Antiques Auction and Marketplace. "John Henry Belter and His Rosewood Furniture".
  13. ↑ Natchez City Cemetery. "Builders of antebellum mansions". From England came Captain Thomas Rose who gained Natchez experience to design and build Stanton Hall in 1857.
  14. ↑ StantonHall.com. "Stanton Hall & Longwood". Built for Frederick Stanton, wealthy cotton commission broker, Stanton Hall was completed in 1857 to the designs of Natchez architect Thomas Rose. Longwood, the largest octagonal house remaining in America, is a superb example of the mid-19th century “villa in the oriental style.”
  15. ↑ Texarkana Museums. "Ace of Clubs House". According to local legend, money to build the Ace of Clubs House came from the winnings of a poker game won with the draw of the ace of clubs.
  16. ↑ Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation. "Tor House: The Story Behind Granite Walls".
  17. ↑ Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio. "Villa Pisani - Montagnana". Francesco Pisani, powerful and influential Venetian patrician, was the patron and friend of artists and letterati, from Paolo Veronese to Giambattista Maganza, from Alessandro Vittoria to Palladio himself … a villa on two floors: the upper floor for the seigniorial apartments; the lower for everyday life, where business is conducted [with] the tenant farmers (both city palace and country villa).
  18. ↑ "Queen Square". The Bath Net. Queen Square was the first of John Wood's urban set-pieces, laid out following his return to his native city in 1727 and the first significant expansion beyond the medieval walls. Pevsner declared the north terrace to be one of the finest Palladian compositions in England before 1730.
  19. ↑ Charles T. Lyle. "A Brief History of Boscobel: A House Museum of the Federal Period". boscobel.org.
  20. ↑ Thomas Gordon Smith. "Vitruvian House".
  21. ↑ Duncan G. Stroik. "Villa Indiana". In his innovative designs Palladio created a new type by combining the summer house or castello with vernacular farm buildings and by wedding them architecturally to the agricultural landscape.
  22. ↑ "Restore America With Bob Vila". HGTV (includes detailed descriptions of one-hour segments for each of the fifty U.S. states). July 4, 1999 through July 4, 2000. In celebration of the 3rd millennium, Bob Vila led viewers on an enlightening, year long, 50-state tour of hundreds of historic homes, public buildings, gardens and neighborhoods across America. Vila explored the nation's flourishing restoration boom, celebrating the people working to preserve the best of this country's rich culture, heritage and history as host of HGTV's "Restore America." HGTV periodically rebroadcasts this programming. Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

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