Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Rich G on HGTV's "Tough Love"!!!

Disclaimer: I check in to PW from time to time and looked to see if this has been discussed already. Didn't find anything. If I'm repeating someone else's post, I apologize.

Hi, All:

I just finished watching a rerun of "Tough Love with Hillary Farr" on HGTV (Season 1 Episode 07 "What Do You Live in a Barn? 2022). In these programs, a homeowner has the interior of their home redesigned by Hillary Farr.

In this episode, the homeowner Hillary is working with has one of those old square pianos from (I think they said) the late 1800's in her house. The homeowner tells Hillary the piano is a sentimental piece she does not want to part with. Nevertheless, Hillary comes up with a redesign of the house and tells the homeowner there's no place in her design for the piano; and remains steadfast that the piano must go.

Alternative plans for the piano are discussed.

One of Hillary's alternatives is to have her guy repurpose the piano by taking it apart piece by piece and using parts of it in some other piece of makeshift piece of newly created furniture. (At this point I groaned and said to myself "Time to get rid of Hillary!" You can see where my sentiments lie.)

To HIllary's credit, she comes up with a few more ideas and makes phone calls in an attempt to come up with an agreeable solution.

At one point, Hillary has someone come in to take a look at the piano to assess its condition and value. (I was not watching the TV every moment, was doing other things, but this part caught my attention and when I glanced over, I was very pleasantly surprised and pleased to see who "That Guy" was who was giving his opinion of the piano - its condition and value (a Steinway, BTW) and exclaimed to myself: "Hey! That's Rich - of Cunningham Piano!" Hi, Rich!)

I won't reveal the final outcome, what happens to the piano, in case PW members would like to view this program on their own. This program is available "On Demand" from HGTV on my cable service (Comcast) and hopefully other providers, as well.

So, hey, everyone, how cool is this?! Rich, on national TV!

Congrats, Rich!

Watching this episode has me thinking, makes me wonder how PW members would feel about this kind of thing, keyboards and pianos with sentimental value...

Fellow PW Members: Would you be OK having one of your no longer playable pianos taken apart and repurposed as something else, as Hillary offered to do?

That feels to me like it's ripping the heart out of the piano - and very possibly myself at the same time.

Jeanne

Congratulations, Rich!

Of course, Rich Galassini was a well known celebrity before he was on the "Tough Love" TV episode.

Rick

About Rich already being a well known celebrity, yes, Rickster, I was thinking that as well.

Jeanne W

Jeanne, I don't have access to that tv show, can you share the outcome? Or PM me and I'll post it with "spoilers" to hide it.

Re your question... If I had a sentimental piano, or just about anything else, I wouldn't take kindly to someone else telling me I needed to get rid of it! It's one thing if you say "I know this needs to go, but it breaks my heart, what can I do" but it's another entirely for someone else to come in and try to force you to get rid of it....

Interesting! I cut cable a few years ago. Between my two daughters, we have multiple streaming services. I'll have to check to see if any of them has HGTV on demand.

We watched a lot of HGTV whenever the late Mrs. Retsacnal was hospitalized. It seems to be the default channel in most medical places, including my dentist, doctor, and nearby Patient First clinic. She tended to prefer the cooking channels though.


I'm getting deja vu of having suggested a reality show about piano rebuilding. Cunningham would be perfect, but I can't imagine Rich storming in to the shop each episode to yell at the guys about budget overruns and impending deadlines (in keeping with "reality" TV's mandatory friction points)!

Don't knock Hillary offering the idea to "re-purpose" the old piano. It's not the worst fate that could happen to a nearly-worthless old square, Steinway or not (unless it's a very rare, early S&S, maybe).

Yea, I hear you, Retsacnal. I just can't imagine Rich being rude, hateful, condescending, and abusive to his employees, or anyone, reality show or not.

This is just me, but I always hated that reality show "He**'s Kitchen", with Gordon Ramsay, and only watched it sporadically while surfing channels for something worth watching. The way Gordon Ramsay treated the other chefs, got all in their face, yelled obscenities, name calling, and such, was beyond my tolerance for how people should be treated, on TV or not. The chefs on the show were certainly NOT treated with respect and dignity. And, to think it was a highly popular show, with such verbal abuse, hostility and mistreatment of others as the norm. A reflection of society in general, perhaps?

Gordon Ramsay may be a nice fellow in real life, but I have absolutely no respect for him, based on the actor he played in that reality show. And, I do not watch his other TV shows. But, alas, it was just a TV show... but my opinion remains.

Pardon the vent... but the morning coffee has me wound up a bit.

Rick

I haven't seen the show, but piano or not, my off-the-cuff response is, making a house look good to the detriment of the homeowner's wishes is not doing them a service. If the homeowner has an heirloom with sentimental value, a decorator's job is to make it work.

However, given the name of the show is "Tough Love," I suspect the premise is convincing the homeowner to part with poor design decisions/elements in a "this is for your own good" kind of way? Operating within the hypothetical, then yeah it makes sense to bring in an expert to talk about the objective value of an item in contention!

It's a sad testament of society, that what "works" on reality TV is lots of friction and ruthless cruelty.


Junior and Senior are locked in the storeroom and have come to blows over their differences. Junior feels his creativity is stifled, while Senior demands things be done by the book.

Meanwhile, the crew has discovered verdigris in the action, and a crack in the pin block.

The customer expects delivery in the morning...

We'll be back after these messages from our sponsor!

I'm getting deja vu of Rich posting about a square recently. I wonder if this is that piano. Or if I'm mistaken altogether...

Come to think of it, there used to be some seriously rancorous cage match threads here between certain industry players (none of today's regulars, of course).

And people wonder why Will Smith walked up on stage at the Oscars recently and slapped Chris Rock and then yelled obscenities at him, live, and on world-wide TV. And, it was not a reality show... it was reality. Maybe Gordon Ramsey is giving Will Smith cooking lessons...

Rick

Gombessa, that’s hysterical!!!

Gombessa: I agree with ShiroKuro!

ShiroKuro: I will private message you.


Jeanne W

The part of the show featuring Rich is available on the Cunningham YouTube channel:

Rich is very matter-of-fact about the instrument and it’s condition, both its positive and negative attributes, but there’s no interaction with the owner in this clip. It seems to be the definition of an unplayable piano. I don’t know Hillary Farr from Adam, but she does come across as somewhat insensitive and rather hostile towards pianos (although I can understand being frustrated with the owner’s attachment to something in that state of disrepair/neglect).

I have watched a decent amount of HGTV in the past, including "Love it or List it" with Hillary and a few episodes of her "Tough Love" show. While being direct and somewhat brash is her brand, I've never noticed her opinion toward pianos one way or the other. I can't remember another instance of her having to work design elements around a piano. Calling Hillary "hostile to pianos" is a bit much with no other evidence (and I have seen hours of her on TV) to support that statement.

To be honest, I love pianos and even I would be hostile to that ugly wreck of a thing that was featured in this clip and wouldn't want it in my house. But I love pianos for their musical possibilities and that old S&S has zero musical worth currently.

A few random thoughts…

[Quote by Retsacnal]:

"It's a sad testament of society, that what "works" on reality TV is lots of friction and ruthless cruelty."

I agree. I've only seen a few episodes of "Tough Love…". I have, however, seen many of the "Love It Or List It" programs in which she previously starred and am therefore familiar with the manner that Hillary typically delivers her design decisions to the homeowners she is working with.

My impression is she typically stands firm in her presentation of design ideas and it's not unusual for her to come across (at least to me) as delivering the news in a somewhat brash, even combative manner. She could present her ideas in a more courteous, pursuasive way.

HGTV has apparently further "bought into" ramping up rudeness and conflict by naming her new program "Tough Love…" thinking this will increase viewership. Well, that doesn't work for me as I am not a fan of rude, crude, conflict (nor of shocking, violent - shall I say evil?) entertainment.

I therefore hesitated from watching any of the "Tough Love…" programs. I have, however, out of sheer desperation of finding something worth watching on TV, seen a few of these episodes and actually been somewhat pleasantly surprised by Hillary's behavior.

In the few episodes of "Tough Love…" I've seen, Hillary, yes, is as usual somewhat rigid in wanting to keep her design plans intact, but she also shows a softer more empathetic side in specific scenes in which she discusses with homeowners what is happening in their life, empathizes with them, and discusses how her designs can help. That is a refreshing change for the better.

Moving on to other things, regarding the piano in this episode… As I said, I was not watching the TV intently, I was doing other things with the TV on. I'm therefore not 100% certain but believe what I heard is the homeowner was given the piano by her mother. Hence its sentimentality.

Plenty of people have PSOs (piano shaped objects). At least this PSO would have been present for a reason other than someone who is just attempting to impress people as being "refined" or whatever by having a piano in their home.

Violarules: "You are right. There are certainly worse fates that can happen to a piano than it being "repurposed"!

[Quote by Rickster]:

"And people wonder why Will Smith walked up on stage at the Oscars recently and slapped Chris Rock and then yelled obscenities at him, live, and on world-wide TV."

It seemed to me most all of the media discussion focused on how wrong it was for Will Smith to have done that and what his punishment should be. Much less discussion about how so much of today's so-called "entertainment" goes "over the top" to rude, crude, cruel places that I believe should be socially unacceptable. That's just me.

What ever happened to the idea of a "kinder, gentler world"?

Jeanne W

HATE that Phony Show - obnoxious hosts - I refuse to watch - bad acting!
tho I must say they did KNOW to go to the right person!

LOVE CUNNINGHAM PIANOS & RICH G!

just sayin'

Congratulations Rich - great publicity for Cunningham, and that's always a good thing!

brdwyguy
Joey