The 1900 House is a historical reenactment reality television series made by Wall to Wall/Channel 4 in 1999. The programme features a modern family attempting to live in the way of the late Victorians for three months in a modified house. It was first broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and PBS in America (with American commentary).

The series was accompanied by the book 1900 House: Featuring Extracts from the Personal Diaries of Joyce and Paul Bowler and Their Family by Mark McCrum and Matthew Sturgis. It won a Peabody Award in 2000 for being "an often humorous, always perceptive, series about the realities of life in 1900 that reveals themes of perseverance, human adaptation and family dynamics."

Development

The show's budget was $1.5 million.

The cast

The Bowler family

The Bowler family was composed of six people. The 1900 House aired in the US, where it became a surprising hit. Salon’s Joyce Millman called it "classy voyeurism [that] owes less to “Survivor” than it does to that seminal PBS reality series “An American Family” ", and "an intimate, eye-opening and completely fascinating look at how radically domestic life has changed over the past 100 years".

Australia

  • Outback House – a family running a sheep station in 1861 Outback Australia
  • The Colony – Four families and several individual "convicts" try to live life in New South Wales of 1800.

New Zealand

  • Pioneer House – essentially a New Zealand production of The 1900 House.
  • Colonial House – a recreation of the experiences of typical British immigrants to Canterbury, c. 1850; complete with a Sea Voyage from Auckland to Lyttelton, tramping over the Bridle Path to Christchurch with their children and belongings, setting up house in a canvas Tent, and eventually, building their own house.
  • One Land – Also a recreation of New Zealand in the 1850s. It featured three families, one Pākehā and two Māori, and aimed to replicate the experiences of British migrants and the indigenous Māori of the period. The Māori families were housed in a traditional Māori Pā, and one of those families was specifically chosen for their knowledge of Māori language and customs. This family was asked to speak only Māori throughout the Series.

Germany

  • Schwarzwaldhaus 1902 (Black Forest House 1902) – a family "living" without electricity in a traditional Black Forest house, on rural Kaltwasserhof in Münstertal (August 2001 – January 2002)
  • Windstärke 8 – Das Auswandererschiff 1855 – about an emigration ship for the United States
  • Die Bräuteschule 1958 – teenage girls attending a domestic science school in the 1950s
  • Abenteuer 1900 – Leben im Gutshaus (The 1900 Adventure) – about a noble family and their servants in a manor in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
  • Abenteuer 1927 – Sommerfrische (The 1927 Adventure) – life in the manor from Abenteuer 1900, this time in the Roaring Twenties
  • Steinzeit – Das Experiment (The Stone Age Experiment) – life under conditions of the Stone Age.
  • Die harte Schule der 50er Jahre (Difficult 1950s School) – teachers and students experiencing a boarding school under 1950s conditions.
  • Abenteuer Mittelalter – Leben im 15. Jahrhundert (The Medieval Adventure) – people living in a 15th-century castle.

United States

  • Frontier House – three families live as 1883 homesteaders in Montana
  • Manor House – British family of five and staff of 14 live in a 1900 Scottish manor house (re-presentation of The Edwardian Country House, exactly the same but with bonus footage)
  • Colonial House – set in the American frontier of 1628 (shown in the UK as Pioneer House)
  • Texas Ranch House – set in the American frontier of 1867

Switzerland

  • Leben wie zu Gotthelfs Zeiten (2004 TV series) – about a Swiss family living without modern technology in a traditional Swiss farmhouse as in the era of the Swiss author Jeremias Gotthelf (1797–1854), similar setting as in the German TV series Schwarzwaldhaus 1902, mentioned above

Home video releases

The 1900 House was released, alongside The 1940s House by Acorn Media UK. It was released on VHS on 27 June 2000 and on DVD on 5 August 2003.

{| class="wikitable"

|+ U.S. television broadcast

|-

!#!!Episode list!!Release date

|-

| 1|| A Year to Remember || 28 December 1999

|-

| 2|| The Time Machine || 12 June 2000

|-

| 3|| A Rude Awakening || 19 June 2000

|-

| 4|| A Woman's Place || 26 June 2000

|-

| 5|| The End of an Era || 3 July 2000

|-

|}

References

  • The 1900 House at PBS
  • The 1900 House at Channel 4