The History of Home-Makeover TV: A Rhetoric of Consumption, Myth, and Identity.

The significance of ‘home’ is deeply rooted in our culture's stories. It is setting of limitless spiritual and emotional tales, idealized family values, and maternal acceptance and approval: it is the American Dream. Television is a dominant medium that narrates our cultural myths. After nearly a half-century of turning on living room television sets to enjoy stories of soap operas, crime dramas and comedy serials set in the home, in 1994 Americans were introduced to round-the-clock television programming about the home—that inclusive place that signifies self and the American Dream. The twenty-four hour, seven-day cable network, Home and Garden Television (HGTV), launched from its middle-America home base in Knoxville, Tennessee, skyrocketed in distribution both domestically and globally, and achieved profitability in a record four years to become one of the fastest-growing networks in television history. Key to HGTV's transformational message is its stories that focus on resolution and allow viewers to 'inject' themselves into its struggles and triumphs. To better understand this genre, this paper takes a historical look at mass media’s service to women and domestic consumption in the United States, the media forms that gave impetus to the home-makeover genre, and the creation and influence of HGTV on our cultural landscape. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]