Is Roy Underhill still shooting the Woodwright?

[Bob Glenn]

All I have seen lately are re-runs, nothing new for quite a while.

[steven c newman]

No funding = no shows being made.

[Tom M King]

I thought maybe there was someone at State Farm who was a big fan, and that fan retired. I never did see it as a lucrative advertising venue for them.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

His show has not been out local PBS stations for almost two decades. At one time, I even gave money to PBS to help keep the show on. Their line up has changed a lot over the past 20 years and mostly for the worse. I understand that there comes a point at which nearly every possible subject has been done. I watched this old house for a couple years, but watching a show about some yuppies spending two million dollars on a $500,000 old house gets old real fast too.

[David Bassett]

All I have seen lately are re-runs, nothing new for quite a while.

If Wikipedia is correct, the last new episodes were first broadcast in late 2016 and there was a short late-summer 2017 season that was completely reruns. Nothing listed since then.



His show has not been out local PBS stations for almost two decades. At one time, I even gave money to PBS to help keep the show on. Their line up has changed a lot over the past 20 years and mostly for the worse. I understand that there comes a point at which nearly every possible subject has been done. I watched this old house for a couple years, but watching a show about some yuppies spending two million dollars on a $500,000 old house gets old real fast too.

Here, in the age of cable, the PBS stations seem to split up content. The Woodwright's Shop, and all other woodworking shows, aren't on the main PBS stations (I can/could get over the air). However when I search on our providers directory, all/most of them show up from a small PBS station north of here.

[Jim Koepke]

Reruns are shown sporadically on Saturday afternoon by the PBS station in Portland, OR.

jtk

[Bob Glenn]

That's a shame, I think he brought a lot of us into the fold.

[Tom M King]

I met him his last year in school, when I just happened to be walking past his house in Hillsborough-maybe 1977. He was teaching a shave horse making class in his backyard. I walked up, wondering why so many people were making shave horses. I thought that anyone that needed one would just make one.

He took me into his house, which looked a lot like the set on the TV show, and was surprised that I knew what everything was. He let me try out his springpole lathe, and I made a few scratches in a piece of wood.

We exchanged a few jokes, shook hands, and haven't crossed paths since.

[mike v flaim]

I believe the new CEO of State Farm didn't see the value of sponsoring his show so they stopped. I'm SHOCKED no one has started a Go Fund Me page to get his show back on air.

[Kevin Hampshire]

I wasn’t aware that State Farm had pulled the plug on funding the show!

They filmed the episodes in a single take with minimal cameras and the exact same set for decades. How much could that possibly cost them to keep the WoodWrights series going in today’s age?



When Popular Woodworking came out with all his videos, I bought and watched nearly every episode. The last several years were by far the best. The format with different guests was interesting and seemed to facilitate introducing stuff with a new spin. The quality and level of information had also improved.



FWIW, If you log into PBS on the web, you can stream episodes from the last several years of the series. So far, there’s no charge for viewing.

[Jim Koepke]

FWIW, If you log into PBS on the web, you can stream episodes from the last several years of the series.

Maybe if enough people watch via streaming they will consider making more episodes.

The other thought is does anyone know of alternate ways of contacting Mr. Underhill? Maybe he is wanting to retire from TV so he can do more classes or fishing.

jtk

[Nicholas Lawrence]

The other thought is does anyone know of alternate ways of contacting Mr. Underhill?

He is running a school now in Pittsboro, North Carolina. They have a website with contact information.

[Megan Fitzpatrick]

If anyone is in the Cincinnati area (or wants to drive in), Roy will be at the Lost Art Press open house this Saturday (April 13, 10-11:30 and 1-5) hanging out and talking – and showing pre-industrial tools, of course! https://blog.lostartpress.com/2019/03/29/meet-roy-underhill-at-the-april-13-lap-open-house/