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American Morning
Learning Channel May Have Another Makeover Hit On Its Hands
Aired July 17, 2002 - 09:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: Following their own do-it-yourself TV blueprint, the Learning Channel may just have another makeover hit on its hands. It's a spin-off of the channel's popular series "Trading Spaces." I love this show. It's called "While You Were Out." Now in this show, while the homeowner's away, a TLC crew gets to play. They remake a room, or an outdoor space, and surprise the owner with the results.
Stephen Saint-Onge is one of the designers, and I talked with him about the show's creative concept.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NEVILLE: All right, now, Stephen, the big -- two big questions here: first how does the show work, and how do you get on it?
STEPHEN SAINT-ONGE, "WHILE YOU WERE OUT": "While You Were Out's" concept is, it's not two homes; it's not neighbors switching homes. It's actually one home, and it's a couple, focusing on a couple, how well they know each other. So one partner, one spouse writes in, and says, I want to makeover my den -- our den for my husband, or I want surprise them with a new master bedroom. So what we're doing is we're really trying to please the homeowner by giving them what they want.
NEVILLE: OK.
SAINT-ONGE: That's the bottom line, not shocking them, giving them what they want.
NEVILLE: And you keep it under the same budget, though. What, it's $1,500?
SAINT-ONGE: $1500, 48-hour turn around. We get them out of the house. Has no idea.
NEVILLE: Where do they go? They stay at the in-laws? Where do they go?
SAINT-ONGE: Well, send them away on fishing trips, for example, or he goes on a golf trip with his buddies, and there's a secret camera crew that's filming him while he's away. Here's an example of one that we did. This is the premier episode a couple of weeks ago where they did a sort of Adirondack lodge room. They transformed this porch on this townhouse into this, and since the guy was a fisherman, he loved to be out with the guys, and so we did this space in 48 for him and surprised him, and I think he was pleased.
NEVILLE: What if they're disappointed?
SAINT-ONGE: Luckily, it's about really trying to make them happy, and give them something that is really going to fit with their taste and their likes. We're not going to, you know, drive them crazy by when they walk in and see something that's completely not them. Hopefully, it's going to be all about what the spouse said he would like, or she would like.
NEVILLE: On a recent show, you redid a basement in Long Island, right?
SAINT-ONGE: Right. Sports theme. This was the before and the after.
ZAHN: Oh, this is nice.
SAINT-ONGE: And he had a room in the basement that was just for him. He really wanted to have the guys room, watching the games. Yet we didn't want to be so different than the rest of the house, because he and his wife had similar taste, but he wanted something that was much more masculine for him. We built a bar for him.
NEVILLE: You got the baseball caps hanging up, very nice touch.
SAINT-ONGE: Yes, we had the Jets paraphernalia all over the place. And he was surprised. When he came in, first off, he didn't know, who are all you people in my house.
NEVILLE: No.
SAINT-ONGE: He comes in at the end, and he's on a business trip or a weekend with the guys, and he comes back, and there he comes to his wife there with camera guys standing in his house, and this is after-shot of the space.
NEVILLE: It's great. I think we have this guy's reaction on tape.
SAINT-ONGE: When he came down the stairs and saw us all standing there, he said, "Who are you people?"
NEVILLE: Let's share that with everybody.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go downstairs. Go take a look.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the hell is going on here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go downstairs and take a look.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who are you people?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go. Go look. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name is Anna. This is what happened while you were out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. Holy, cow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome to the bar.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm shaking. What the hell -- who did this?
You didn't do this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And Jennifer decided she wanted you to have your dream room...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is unbelievable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... so we designed it for you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want with the country theme that you like.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you do to my T-shirts.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't think you would mind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't care.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Isn't that neat?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is pretty cool.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEVILLE: So you took the T-shirts and used them as covering, and reupholstered the chairs.
SAINT-ONGE: What we like to do during the course of the program is do some things that people can do themselves, because love those crafty bits where they can just go and after the show's done, do it in their own space. That's what we try to give them as with well. But his reaction to some of the things we did was great. I mean, he noticed every single detail, and he was so appreciative.
But he was just in shock. I mean, The poor guy comes home, and he walks in and sees all of us there. But I think that's the whole thing, is that you come home, and it's your house and your spouse. The bottom line is your spouse, or your partner, has done this for you, and that's the really the nice part about it all.
NEVILLE: Now you did something else, too, a porch.
SAINT-ONGE: Right.
NEVILLE: ... in New Jersey. I want to take a look at that right now. Tell me about this. What did you do?
SAINT-ONGE: This was actually not my project. This was Chase Dakotas project. She's one of our other designers on the show, and she took this room, and transformed it, because he was a fisherman and loved to go away to the Adirondacks or to a lake house, transformed it into one of those rooms, and she did a great job. There's actually a boat concealed underneath that bench they built in 48 hours, with a $1500 budget. And I think she did a great job.
NEVILLE: OK, now let's see reaction to the hubby when he showed up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a surprise for you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What? What's going on?
What's with the cameras?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a early anniversary present, I guess.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on in. Come on in to your house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is Chase. This is Anna.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of my new friends.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot happened since you were last here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's going on?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on in and see it. Jennifer did something for you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy cow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEVILLE: Holy cow is right. This has to be rewarding for you guys as designers, to make people happy.
SAINT-ONGE: It really is, because you don't know the person. I mean, you are only hearing about them from the spouse and the partner, and you just don't know too much about them, but as the 48 hour progresses, I mean, you are in these people's home, you become like family, and you get to know more and more about them, the dynamics of the relationship, and then when you finally meet them, it's actually great fun, because you feel like you know them and have no idea who you are.
NEVILLE: Running out of time, but yes or no? Are you neat at home?
SAINT-ONGE: I like to throw everything in the closet.
NEVILLE: Yes or no.
SAINT-ONGE: Out of sight.
NEVILLE: All right, Stephen Saint-Onge, thank you so much. Nice to see you,
SAINT-ONGE: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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