INTERVIEW: CuriosityStream buys some real estate with ‘The History of Home’
Photo: The History of Home is a new three-part series narrated by Nick Offerman. Photo courtesy of CuriosityStream / Provided by press site with permission.
The History of Home, the new three-part miniseries on CuriosityStream, explores the ins and outs of living spaces around the world and throughout history. Hosted by Nick Offerman, the series takes a deep dive into domiciles both extravagant — think Downton Abbey, think the Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island — and more quaint and livable.
The first episode premiered on the streaming network Thursday, June 18 — no doubt a proud day for executive producer Sarah V. Burns, of Roller Coaster Roads Productions.
“Essentially, my co-director, Alex [Sherratt], and I did a series called The History of Food before The History of Home, and what we loved to do and what we loved about this kind of anthology series that we started to do for CuriosityStream was that we could take these really big topics like food or home and boil them down into really interesting ways and appreciate them in a new light by diving into the history of these big topics,” Burns said in a recent phone interview. “So The History of Home kind of came about when we started thinking a couple years ago about some topics that we could dissect and make new, and so we just happened to finish it right as everyone was getting to know their home a little bit better than they thought they would.”
It is coincidental and somewhat prophetic that The History of Home is premiering during a global pandemic, when many people have been ordered to stay at home and self-quarantine. The ins and outs of many apartments and houses throughout the world have been explored — perhaps unwillingly — by residents.
“We took inspiration from everything from our travels around the world meeting all these incredible people in their homes to great books like Bill Bryson’s At Home to a lot of other kinds of inspiration to just kind of dive into this exciting story,” said Burns, whose credits include Showtime’s The Circus and Discovery’s Finding Escobar’s Millions.
The first episode covers the foundations of the home — the actual building blocks — and for this exploration the team looks at magnificent structures such as the Marble House in Newport, which was built by the Roosevelt family.
“There’s like 16 different types of marble, and the whole thing is just festooned in all this incredible marble,” she said. “[Then there’s] the humble log cabin in the Faroe Islands that has been around for 1,000 years.”
The second episode takes audiences inside the home, room by room, looking at how hallways and kitchens are constructed. They investigate some historical examples, like the grand Viking halls of yore and the simpler halls of today’s domestic spaces.
“In the third episode, we go upstairs to the bedroom, the bathroom and the study,” Burns said. “Then we turn our eye to the future of home. We really explore the ins and outs of the home throughout the series, and we visit almost 10 houses in every single episode. So it’s really actually a fast-paced jaunt through history as we explore these different facets of the home.”
The research for the series was extensive and constantly driven by the framework for each episode. They had a small checklist of certain spaces that they knew they wanted to tackle, such as a lived-in cabin. For this entry, they turned to that memorable property on the Faroe Islands; this house is actually more than 1,000 years old.
“The family living in there has been there for 15 generations,” the executive producer said. “This guy and his family are living in this house, and his family has been there since the 1500s. I don’t know where my family lived when they were in the 1500s. It’s just a matter of pulling at those threads and knowing the framework.”
Another house is Highclere Castle, aka Downton Abbey, which was made famous by the beloved PBS series. For this segment, Burns and the team turned to the Carnarvon family, who live in the house today. “[Let’s] see what their life is like, and why this home is so special to them,” she said.
Burns added: “I think the beauty of the subject matter is it can be evergreen because it’s going to live on CuriosityStream forever, and hopefully as their success continues so will great programs like History of Home or History of Food. … We really tried in making this show to make it evergreen and also appeal to audience’s needs for more fast-paced shows, so we tried to really have an energetic jaunt through history and really take people to a lot of places to keep them engaged, keep them excited.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The History of Home, executive produced by Sarah Burns, is now available on CuriosityStream. Click here for more information.
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