Texas Ranch House

2006 · 60m · Reality

Texas Ranch House is an PBS American reality television series that premiered in May 2006. Produced by Thirteen/WNET New York, Wall to Wall Media Limited, and PBS, the show placed fifteen modern day people in the context of 1867 Texas. Show participants attempted to run a ranch for two and a-half months using 19th century tools and techniques. The historian Alwyn Barr, professor emeritus at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, was the consultant on the program.

Episodes

▶1. A Home on the Range60m · The first episode opens with the arrival of the vaqueros, or cowboys, at the 1867 bunkhouse where they will be living for the next three months. After meeting the Cookes, the vaqueros get right to work learning about the taxing manual labor required on the ranch such as digging post holes and hammering fencing. Their foreman, Stan, nicknamed “The Colonel” , introduces them to the difficult tasks that lay ahead.▶2. The Good, the Bad & the Colonel60m · While the cowboys are out rounding up the cattle, the women are learning about the drudgeries of domestic life on the ranch. As tensions come to a head, Mr. Cooke has to make some decisions regarding his ranch hands, and ultimately decides to fire someone.▶3. The Cookie Crumbles60m · The cowboys awake to another difficult day on the ranch as they discover that 10 horses have been stolen, horses they desperately need for the cattle drive. Food becomes a matter of contention between the vaqueros and the Cookes which leads to another firing.▶4. The Great Divide60m · The viability of the Cooke ranch is in question as only one quarter of the required cattle have been claimed so far. Cowboy Shaun takes over duties as the new cook much to the delight of the vaqueros. A delivery of food and mail arrives at the ranch. Mr. Cooke receives good news – he may have a buyer for his cattle.▶5. Showdown at the Cooke Corral60m · Mr. Cooke assesses the cowboys' performance and a new cowhand arrives. Mr. Cooke’s decision to send Maura, “girl of all work” to cowboy training angers the vaqueros.▶6. Lord of the Plains60m · The cowboys find several of their stolen horses as they have a run-in with a camp of Comanche Native Americans. The Comanches take one of the vaqueros hostage and it is up to the Comanche leader and Mr. Cooke to negotiate his release. The Cooke girls are busy tending to five new baby goats and Maura and Robby come to an agreement on her position as a cowhand.▶7. Blazing Trails60m · The cowboys have culled 131 head of cattle from the herd for the cattle drive, leaving the rest to restock the ranch. The long 12-hour day in the saddle is exhausting and the cowboys’ spirits dampen at the thought of eight more days on the trail. Meanwhile, back at the ranch the Cooke women are battling a fly infestation.▶8. The Reckoning60m · The cattle drive comes to a close as the cowboys reach their destination of Fort Santiago. The drive is a success but tensions boil over as the group returns to the ranch. The assessment team gives their review of the participants and delivers the answer to the big question – would the ranch have been able to survive another year?

More Like This

MTV's The 70s House

2005 · ★ 9.5

MTV's The 70s House is an American reality television show created by Aaron Matthew Lee. The show premiered on MTV on July 5 and ended September 6, 2005. The show featured twelve contestants who thought they were participating in a The Real World-type reality show, but instead were thrust into a 24/7 simulation of the 1970s. They were required to part with all modern technology including cell phones, laptops, and MP3 players, as well as all modern clothing and lingo, only to adopt their cultural equivalents of the 1970s. It was billed as a competition to see who can "be the most 70s." The twelve contestants were: Andrew Severyn, Ashley McCarthy, Corey Hartwyk, Geo Herrera, Hailley Howard, Jami Stallings, Joey Mendicino, Lynda Khristine, Lee Wireman, Peter, Ruben, and Sarah Bray.

More info →

Electric Dreams

2009 · ★ 8

A family of six and their home are stripped of all their modern technology to live a life of decades past. In each episode, the family lives through a given decade at a rate of a year per day. They have their own Technical Support Team to source and supply them with the vintage technology that would have been available to British households during the decade.

More info →

Time Crashers

2015 · ★ 9

Ten celebrities are about to leave their 21st century lives and everything they know behind to become time travellers. Our ten intrepid travellers will crash into six very different eras of British history and have no idea where – or when – they're going. They will spend a day immersed in each era, living, working, dressing and eating as the ‘lower' classes did whilst attempting to follow orders and fulfil a task set by their superiors. Will they be able to survive history and will they be able to leave their smartphones behind?

More info →

The Edwardian Country House

2002 · ★ 7

An Edwardian Country House in Scotland is to be brought back to life. One family will take on the mantle of privilege and 12 individuals the yoke of service. For the next three months they've volunteered to immerse themselves in a world of social inequality and rigid class distinctions as they move through time from 1905 to 1914. Everything is quintessentially British: a magnificent house and boating lake, model dairy and tea room, croquet and tennis in the garden, a stable full of horses and carriages - and a group of people utterly divided and ruled by class.

More info →

The 1900 House

1999 · ★ 7.3

The 1900 House is a historical reality television programme made by Wall to Wall/Channel 4 in 1999. The show is about a modern family that tries to the live in the way of the late Victorians in 1900 for three months in a modified house. It was shown on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and PBS in America. The series was accompanied by a book titled 1900 House: Featuring Extracts from the Personal Diaries of Joyce and Paul Bowler and Their Family by Mark McCrum and Matthew Sturgis.

More info →