On Golden Pond

I admit that I missed the episode of Home & Garden Television's Lakefront Bargain Hunt filmed here in Oshkosh when it premiered on Sunday night.  Seeing as how it was on opposite the Badgers Basketball game, it could have been hosted by Kate Upton and Crissy Tiegen in their bikinis and I still would not have flipped over.  But a co-worker here at the Radio Ranch--who has misplaced priorities--did tune in and filled me in on the episode.

He says that Oshkosh was portrayed as a quiet, peaceful lakeside town.  The houses the couple was shown--the husband being a big fisherman--weren't the fanciest on the lake but they were decent (remember the premise is to find a "bargain") and just required a little bit of work to be better--although the wife was made to appear hyper-critical of pretty much everything she saw.

What I find interesting is that the show chose to film here in Oshkosh in October.  I'm told that there were plenty of shots of colorful trees along the lake (and interestingly enough, they were apparently still leaves on the trees and no snow on the ground when they came back "two months later" to see what the couple had done with their new house--apparently they fudge on the "two months" thing).  But wouldn't it have been a lot more interesting if they had filmed the show along Lake Winnebago at some other times of the year?

Suppose they came around Mother's Day weekend in May when the HUGE lakefly hatch was underway.  Wouldn't it be fun to watch the realtor and the perspective buyers sprinting from their cars to the house--with their hands covering their mouths and pinching their noses to keep the bugs out?  The camera crews could focus in on the clouds of lakeflies that threaten to block out the sun.  The viewers could try to guess the color of the house underneath the thick layer of bugs coating the siding.  And when they come back to see what the couple had "done with the house" they could show them sweeping up the huge piles of dead lakeflies on the porch and in the driveway.

Or they could have filmed in early April after a big gizzard shad die off and when the turnover on the lake sends all of the dead fish to the surface and along the shoreline--where they pile up and rot in the sun.  Another good time would have been during a late July or early August heat wave when there is a blue-green algae bloom and people are told to keep themselves and their pets out of the lake to prevent toxic poisoning--and it smells like someone opened up a sewage pit in their backyard.  Another good time to film that episode would have been in late February or early March when the ice shoves are forming along the shore.  You don't think people living in Florida or California wouldn't enjoy watching giant piles of ice crushing the boathouse and the shed?  that's ratings gold!

So hopefully Lakefront Bargain Hunt can come back to Oshkosh during a more "interesting" time of the year--if for no other reason that to re-assure us "In-land" bargain hunters that we made the right decision.