Editors Blog

Mark Skaer Senior Editor. E-mail him at markskaer@achrnews.com.


Skaer-Tactics: More of Tim Taylor or Ty Pennington?

May 12, 2008

I have said it here before and I will say it here again: Since the average child watches 1,680 minutes of TV per week, we need to get an HVACR-related TV show on the boob tube. The idea here is to capture the attention of young ones to this industry.

[I asked for some input before, but no one responded. Unfortunately, this is par for the course in this industry: Not enough people take an active role in getting things accomplished. But more on that another time.]

Unless I am completely overlooking something here, the only TV show that came close to addressing HVACR was “Home Improvement,” which aired on ABC, 1991-1999. You can still catch reruns on cable.

I liked the show. Who could not like Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor (played by Tim Allen)?

He was always accident-prone and loved teasing his co-host, Al Borland (played by Richard Karn). (And, yes, I did like Tool Time girl Heidi Keppert!)

However, I am not so sure if having a situation comedy series on the air would be the best way to show what HVACR is all about.

I think it has to be more of a serious show, something like “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

Funny, but this show tells of all that goes into the building of a home, but not much time is spent, if at all, telling the details of the HVACR system. Again, since air is not visible, it is not given its due.

Maybe we can get host Ty Pennington to do a spin-off with an HVACR-only show. Know of any contacts in Hollywood?

TV Reality Show

Mark I. Clemons
May 15, 2008 12:27 PM
How about a reality show which targets extremely bad HVAC systems and does a complete makeover to create a new environment in a building/home? Highlighting all the problems and possible effects of a bad HVAC system and then what it takes to create a clean/healthy/comfortable environment sounds like a hit to me. This could also emphasis the education and training it takes to both recognize such a situation and then to cure it. People often laugh at my examples of bad duct systems on my site www.LearningHVACR.com so there could be both comedy like aspects and serious environmental issues. Maybe we could put something together and post it to YouTube or some such. We need to do something to bring awareness of the HVACR world to our young people.


Comment regarding TV reality show...

Mark Skaer
May 16, 2008 10:57 AM
Mr. Clemons, I am all for your idea. This appears to be a strong fit for A&E Network, which has such shows as "Flip This House," or maybe The Learning Channel, which features "Trading Spaces." I'll see if I can get in contact with either of these two networks. Please do the same. In the long run, though, to reach the young audience, we still should hit the Big 3 networks: ABC, NBC, and CBS -- and, we could include Fox. This show will have to attract a youth following...especially the grade school, middle school, and high school kids. At this age, we have to make them aware of this industry. They are not looking that way right now.


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