Rest In Peace Russ Morash

Although I did not know him, I adored Russ Morash, who died on Thursday. Morash was the creator of four of the biggest TV shows on PBS, The French Chef, This Old House, Victory Garden and Ask This Old House. He was the one who thought that Julia Child could host a cooking show, when other’s did not. Cooking shows did not even exist. This Old House, was the first DIY home show and thanks to Morash we have Food TV and HGTV. He was years ahead of everyone else and he made superior TV shows on a PBS budget.

It was my Russ, who really turned me on to the other Russ. When we first got together he insisted we never miss an episode of This Old House. This was back in the days of live TV because no one really knew how to tape shows on their VCR’s. Through my whole marriage we have seen every episode of This Old House at least three times. We started with Bob Villa as host, moved to Steve and now Kevin and I have to say we like Kevin best. They were all thanks to Morash.

He has been retired from WGBH in Boston, home to these productions, but the shows lived on and in very similar ways to his original programs. Get likable experts to teach real skills, have a non-expert host who can ask all the pertinent questions so the audience had someone they could relate to and do good projects was his model.

I didn’t always love the houses, or the homeowners, but I always learned what was the best way to do home renovations and repairs. This knowledge has served me well in life. I often can fix things myself, thanks to This Old House, I learned what I should not attempt to fix and I gained the vocabulary to talk to repair people so they can’t bamboozle me.

One example was the time we got a new gas cook top to replace an old one. The exact same size cooktop was no longer made. I bought one that was very close to the same size. When the installer came and discovered that the cook time was 1/2 an inch too shallow for the opening he looked at me and said we would have to replace our beloved 70 year old stainless steel counter tops.

That was not even a consideration. I told him that I would just go get a folded edge piece of stainless steel that could be a filler and he could install the appliance on top of it. It worked perfectly. No one who comes to my house notices that the folded piece is not part of the stove.

That kind of creative problem solving in home situations is exactly what I learned thanks to Russ Morash. I am thankful that he stayed at WGBH for his whole career and made good shows that stand the test of time. Rest in peace Russ Morash.