THE VICTORY GARDEN (TV SERIES)

(Redirected from The Victory Garden (television program))
'''The Victory Garden''' is a television show about gardening and other outdoor activities.
The show debuted on April 16, 1975, was originally produced by James Underwood Crockett and was entitled ''Crockett's Victory Garden''. The garden was located at WGBH's studios in Allston, Massachusetts. Crockett died July 11, 1979, soon after the show became successful. At this point, the title of the show was changed to simply ''The Victory Garden'' and over the years, the scope of the show expanded considerably to include all aspects of gardening, including: landscape design, history, growing perennials, annual, vegetables and garden travel.
Bob Thomson hosted from Crockett's death until 1991 when failing eyesight prompted him to step down as host. He died on October 2, 2003, following a battle with Alzheimer's disease.
Roger Swain began appearing on the show in the mid 1980s, and hosted it from 1991 until 2001. In that year, longtime producer Russell Morash decided to end his tenure, leading to a complete turnover in the cast and crew. Swain has differentiated between the show he was on and the current ''Victory Garden'' show: "If you get rid of Ernie and Cookie Monster and Big Bird, you don't have ''Sesame Street'' anymore," he said. "So let's call the new show something else, because whatever it is, it ain't ''The Victory Garden''."
Roger Swain was succeeded by Michael Weishan. A nationally recognized gardening author and landscape designer, Weishan was brought in to update the program's image, which had become widely perceived as old-fashioned and dowdy. With a brand new garden and new cast, including Kip Anderson who had spent the last 17 years as the show's off-camera gardener, Weishan worked to stabilize the program's ratings – the show's numbers had been steadily declining – and to attract new viewers. These goals were largely achieved, and after five successful seasons, including the release of the first new Victory Garden book in over a decade, ''The Victory Garden Companion'', Weishan decided it was time to return to actively managing his landscape design firm, Michael Weishan & Associates, as well as his media production company, The MDW Group, Ltd, both based in Southborough, Massachusetts.
Weishan, in turn, has been succeeded by Australian TV personality Jamie Durie, a horticulturist with a checkered past: he is a former member of the male stripper group Manpower Australia, and in 1994 he posed nude for the art magazine ''Black+White'' alongside former fiancée Terasa Livingstone. It has been publicly speculated in newspapers such as the Boston Herald (August 8, 2007) that his selection as host for the abbreviated 2007 season (only 13 new episodes are planned – down from more than 30 during Swain's tenure, and 26 during Weishan's) is a risky attempt to revive the show's failing financial fortunes. In recent years, funding has been a major handicap for ''The Victory Garden''; several long-time sponsors such as Ace Hardware have dropped out and not been replaced, and competition with cable television for advertising dollars and viewers has been fierce.

Contents

Trivia

External links

Trivia

★ There have been four main Victory Gardens over the show's history; the first beside WGBH's Allston, Massachusetts, studios; the second at Lexington Gardens Nursery in Lexington, MA; the third was at the home of producer Russell Morash somewhere in the Boston area. The fourth garden was also located west of Boston.

External links

★ PBS: ''The Victory Garden''

★ Roger Swain

★ "Michael Weishan's World of Gardening"