Hosts With The Most
This Old House Magazine|September/October 2019

Bob, Steve, and Kevin share stories and memories from their years on This Old House

Kate Wood
Hosts With The Most

Bob Vila

(Seasons 1–10)

This Old House’s first on-air host actually started out as its first homeowner. In the never-aired pilot for what eventually became This Old House, Bob and his wife showed a Boston Globe reporter around the circa-1840 Newton, MA, house the couple had restored.

One year later, Bob got a call that a totally revamped version of that pilot had been green-lighted. “I was restoring brownstones, and thought it would be good publicity for my company,” he says. “Plus, I thought it would be fun.” The show’s first season, with the Dorchester House, debuted on Boston’s PBS station, WGBH, in February 1979.

A degree in journalism, as well as his experience as a contractor, came in handy for the hosting gig. “I wasn’t intimidated by a camera; I’d been trained as a journalist,” Bob says. “But before This Old House, nobody had really been interviewing people like electricians and plumbers.”

This story is from the September/October 2019 edition of This Old House Magazine.

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This story is from the September/October 2019 edition of This Old House Magazine.

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