Pod Meets Twirl'd: Totally '90s House 106

Pod Meets World

Will and Ryder Strong conclude their multi-episode deep dive into the finale of HGTV's 'Thank God It's Fixed!' 90s-themed season, critiquing how the show

Key takeaways

• The HGTV show initially promised 90s-themed renovations but pivoted to standard design, leaving the hosts questioning its core premise
• Team Curtains (Matt Lawrence and Brian Austin Green) won the finale with a $20,000 budget for two rooms, while Team Mauve took second place

Main topics

• 90s home renovation TV shows
• Interior design trends and color palettes

Notable quotes

"I think they started a pitch one show. Yeah. And then for whatever reason, realized it wasn't working or they had to pivot."

Conclusion

The episode blends sharp reality TV critique with nostalgic brainstorming, offering

Transcript preview

Speaker 7 (0:00) This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. I'm Melissa Jeltsin, host of the What Happened to Her podcast. We're kicking off the season with the Sandra Birchmore story, a case the police wrote off as a suicide in a snowstorm. Her family never bought it, and the man they suspected wore a badge. You Speaker 3 (0:19) never know who that devil is because he's wearing a disguise. Sometimes it's a police uniform. Speaker 7 (0:24) And you can get access to all episodes 100 % ad-free with an iHeart True Crime Plus subscription exclusively on Apple Podcasts, available only to iHeart True Crime Plus subscribers. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. Lisa, tell them about our new show. Speaker 5 (0:45) We have a new podcast. It's called Don't Lie to Me. I'm Lexi Iwano. We're two best friends, 22 years apart, but so close at heart. And I'm Lisa DiGiulio, the old one, which means we have wildly different references, occasionally different opinions. And at this point in my 50s, I've lived it all. Now in my 30s, being the founder of New Shoes, good taste is my business. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 4 (1:14) Hi, this is Kylie Brakeman, Angela Geritana, Speaker 3 (1:16) Jeremy Colhane, Patrick McDonald, and Speaker 4 (1:18) we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists podcast, the Speaker 3 (1:22) improvised character comedy podcast, where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of Eurovision participants. And Speaker 5 (1:31) we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? He winks on Halloween. He Speaker 3 (1:37) gets Speaker 5 (1:37) right up next to the microphone. Speaker 4 (1:38) I hear you can almost hear the eyelashes hit each other. Speaker 5 (1:41) You've never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists every Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (1:54) I'm Lacey Mosley, author, actor, stand-up comedian, creator, and host of Scam Goddess Podcast. The true crime comedy podcast all about robbery, fraud, and those who practice it. Each week I bring on an amazing guest. Speaker 3 (2:06) Ooh, I scammed him. What? I could talk to you for an hour. Speaker 1 (2:09) You're a generational yapper, like me. That's why I had to make yapping a job. And now you can catch full episodes of my show on YouTube. Start listening to Scam Goddess on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (2:24) So like by age 11 or so, at least 70 % have a phone. Speaker 6 (2:29) I'm Dr. Joy, and this is Therapy for Black Girls. We spend our surviving middle school run getting into what's happening inside your kid's brain, the group chats, and their friendships, and what you can do about it. Speaker 3 (2:40) Your child is not doing this on purpose. Speaker 6 (2:42) That's the kind of perspective we've been pulling from the psychologists and psychiatrists who study this for a living. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 2 (3:04) Welcome to Podmeets World, a podcast that has taken two men from ballroom dancing to murder mysteries, to tropical islands, to watching strangers get married. But finally, we've arrived at a reality show we are uniquely qualified to discuss, because this time it's the 90s. Specifically, Totally 90s House, a home renovation show dedicated to answering the question, what happens when you take the decade of inflatable furniture, sponge-painted walls, CD towers, and enormous entertainment centers, and try to make it work in today's world? or I guess maybe just ignore the 90s, renovate a show, or renovate a house to make it look better. I don't know. We are Wilfred L. and Ryder Strong, two men who didn't just live through the 90s. We contributed to them. We had the hair. We wore the clothes. We inhabited the sets. We helped create the very cultural debris now being excavated and called aesthetic. And for once, this is a reality show we actually could have been on. So join us as we revisit the taste, the trends. the deeply questionable design choices of the decade that made us, and ask the terrifying question, were the 90s actually cool or are we just old enough to miss them? This is Pod Meets Twirled. Thank God it's fixed. I feel like my intro set up more themes than this show. Speaker 8 (4:15) Oh, I agree. I'm amazed they even mentioned the 90s this time. Yeah, Speaker 2 (4:19) we really got away. So the most 90s part of this show was the way the houses looked when we first saw them. Speaker 8 (4:27) Oh, I was going to say Joey Lawrence. But yes, other than that, for the houses themselves, yes, that's the most 90s thing. Speaker 2 (4:34) And that first episode, I was curious about trends that were like house trends that were very 90s. Big tubs, pickled wood. Glass block. Glass block. I have learned nothing since. Speaker 8 (4:48) Well, that's not entirely true. You did at one point learn about a black scalloped sink. True. That's why I think that was episode two. You're right. But that just kind of fell by the wayside. Yeah. Speaker 2 (4:59) And the nod to the 90s, man, just disappeared. It disappeared. It just became, let's renovate this house for these homeowners, which was a nice little emotional renovation story. It was great. Speaker 8 (5:12) They spent six episodes making a very nice house. I didn't, by the end, I didn't, I didn't kind of agree with a lot of it. I also. There's a big difference in size of house. I know they each had to pick their house, but it seems like they should at least have had like both your houses are around 4000 square feet. Both your houses are. I mean, whatever. It seemed like the big, more grand house is the one that won. And I'm not necessarily sure I agree with that take. You mean Mauve? Team Mauve. Speaker 2 (5:39) Yeah, they really had an advantage with their house. Speaker 8 (5:41) Team Mauve had the bigger house, the bigger they had the wet room. Yeah. You know, that bathroom or team curtains they had, whether it's like, yeah, you had a small closet and the top of it was the attic. Speaker 2 (5:51) Yes. And the upstairs bedroom wasn't great. It was like small. Speaker 8 (5:54) And yeah, it was a much smaller bathroom. Speaker 2 (5:56) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was like, I mean, I think the one judge even said it at one point, he was like, you were architecturally more limited. Yeah. But that seemed like kind of a big deal. Yeah. But I also just kind of reached the point with the show where I'm not sure what it was trying to say about the 90s. Were we saying that the 90s were cool? Not really. We were talking about how ugly everything was or no longer functional or, right? Speaker 8 (6:22) Nothing. It ended with no 90s. Remember, it started with, it was like, it was as if the show thought it was one thing when it started and by the end was just like, ah, forget that. I mean, remember, remember, like, we're only using electronics from the 90s. Okay, there was nothing about that in this episode until he said at the end there, oh, yeah, and we're going to. have a little nod to the 90s. I thought they'd given that up at one point. Like, it was just kind of seemed like, it seemed like everybody was like, let's just finish the houses and let these people move back in. Yeah. It just seemed more like that than anything else. Speaker 2 (6:54) Yeah. Yeah. And ultimately it was just sort of like, what would it be like to have your house reanimated by 90s TV stars? Yeah. Which, fine. Sure. I am a 90s TV star. I don't know if my design taste should be put front and center. Speaker 8 (7:10) Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm a 90s TV star and I can guarantee you you don't want me doing your shit. So, yeah, it's that same kind of thing. Right. Yeah. So I will say this for our friends that were on the show. They're way better at this than I am. Me too. Or would ever be. I think so. Yeah. I mean, I don't know any of this stuff. So, yeah. Speaker 2 (7:31) All right, final episode. It's Mauve or Curtains. Mauve has been racking up the wins. Surprise, surprise. Jaleel sends them a page. Over at Team Mob, Brian Austin Green is on a treadmill. Speaker 2 (7:44) I guess the treadmill's a very 90s thing. Didn't quite realize that. And they go get their package of VHS tape. They insert it. Jaleel asks them how they're feeling, and they try and answer, and then he tells them he's on a VHS. But he's not. You can tell it is not. Come on, man. Well, this week, it's the double whammy. Two rooms. They will do the formal dining room and the formal living room. This seems like a lot. Especially for the budget. For $20,000. 20 Speaker 8 (8:12) grand. That's a small budget. Speaker 2 (8:13) Can you remember the budget for the previous, for the bathroom, for the kitchen? Well, I Speaker 8 (8:17) mean, the kitchen was 75K. Yeah. Because I remember distinctly thinking that's cheap because we had just redone our kitchen and kitchens are very expensive. right um i think the bathrooms were third i think they were they i think we've slowly been coming down like yeah you know if the show went another another three weeks they'd have a fourteen dollar budget Speaker 2 (8:36) kitchens always cast cost the most though right kitchens and bathrooms that was where the main money went because i mean this is actually the most amount of space they have to cover it was two rooms big rooms um and the least amount of money but given that we never see how much anything costs I don't understand the budget. Speaker 8 (8:55) No, I don't either. My other question as they were leaving because they staged the whole house, do they get to keep everything that was staged? I don't know. Are the beds theirs now? The furniture Speaker 2 (9:04) alone would have been $20,000 for like that table. That huge table, Speaker 8 (9:07) do they keep all? I mean, obviously the built-in cabinets and stuff like that they get to keep. So do they get to keep all the other stuff, all the tchotchkes and the little things that made it look so cool? Do those stay or do they're like, all right. And cut. Thank you. Strip everything out. Here's your house. Thank you very much. I'm curious how they do it. I Speaker 2 (9:22) know. They imply because they end up making that one. I mean, they put their photographs of the families in there. There's like the one photo of the phone that they put in. So it seems like part of it was like intentional stuff that they were gifting them or saying this is part of your house now. Speaker 8 (9:37) But like the couch part of that is the bed part of that. I imagine it would be. Speaker 2 (9:42) I don't know. I Speaker 8 (9:44) don't either. Speaker 2 (9:44) Would this have changed the quality of the show? Speaker 8 (9:47) No. Speaker 2 (9:48) Probably not. But I'd Speaker 8 (9:49) like to know. Speaker 2 (9:49) I think if they were struggling with the budget, like if they were truly struggling with the budget. Yes. And I wonder why they didn't decide to make that a part of the thing. Because isn't that a part of other design shows where they're like. I think so. Where it's like, we can't do it. We don't have the money. Speaker 8 (10:04) We Speaker 2 (10:04) just don't have the money. In this case, I wonder if they were like, we can find the money. So you're thinking the budget Speaker 8 (10:10) for this show is like the clock on traders. It just kind of doesn't Speaker 2 (10:14) matter. Yes, yes. That's exactly what I'm thinking. And because of that, don't do it, you know? Speaker 8 (10:22) HGTV shows generally do not allow homeowners to keep the stage furniture and decor for free. That's from Google, apparently. Oh, Speaker 2 (10:29) so you know what? They probably give them like an optional bill. They're probably like, you can keep all this furniture for $150,000. Or we take it all back. Right, you think? Yes. And those poor people are then like, well, we got a free renovation. I guess we'll just buy the stuff or some of it. Or Speaker 8 (10:50) we'll put our old furniture back in. Speaker 2 (10:52) That's not going to look good. Speaker 8 (10:54) Yeah. Yeah. Nico's going Speaker 2 (10:55) to get rid of that desk. Speaker 8 (10:57) I Speaker 2 (10:57) didn't like that Speaker 8 (10:58) desk anyway. It was Speaker 2 (10:59) a Speaker 8 (10:59) small desk. Oh, I like it. No, Speaker 2 (11:00) I Speaker 8 (11:00) thought I agreed. I like the desk itself, but I agreed with that. It looked like a wee little desk in front of these two giant things. Oh, I Speaker 2 (11:05) like a wee desk. I'm sitting at a wee desk right now. But you're sitting at a wee desk in a wee house. That's the thing. You're in a little wee house right now. Speaker 8 (11:13) Yeah, you are. Aye, sir. The Speaker 2 (11:15) bigger the desk, the bigger the... Let me think. How do I put this? I like a big desk. No, the thing of, I like a modest, small, I think the bigger the desk, the more you fill it, is what I was going to say. I'm trying to, you just throw crap into your desk. Like, if I have drawers, they are filled with crap. So like, my desk is literally just like an open, like it's like a school desk. It just has the open one giant. You have a Speaker 8 (11:44) duck and cover desk. Speaker 2 (11:45) Yeah. Because I do not want, if I have places to put things, I just put them there, forget that they're there, never access them. Speaker 8 (11:51) I'm the same way. I have a very tiny little built-in desk here, and on my right is my filing cabinet. If I grabbed any random file, it would be something from 1997 from a house I don't even live in anymore. Speaker 3 (12:04) It's Speaker 1 (12:04) never Speaker 8 (12:04) cleaned out. It's just there. But, yeah, no, I like a desk that fits the room well. And that desk seemed a little small. Speaker 2 (12:13) Be honest with you. Speaker 8 (12:14) Well, Speaker 2 (12:14) Nico and his wife talk about how they can't wait to have their house redone. Nico's the homeowner who recently had a cancer battle, but they have never brought that up since episode one. Nope. Speaker 8 (12:25) And Speaker 2 (12:25) instead, he's bringing it up now. Happy wife, happy life. Happy life. Speaker 8 (12:29) Are you a happy wife, happy life? I hate that Speaker 2 (12:31) saying so much. I do, I Speaker 8 (12:32) do too. I hate it so Speaker 2 (12:33) much. I find Speaker 8 (12:34) it so infuriating. I agree with you a thousand percent. Because Speaker 2 (12:36) the implication there is that your happiness is somehow like, distinct from your wife's happiness and implies that like you you couldn't possibly understand her happiness and it's like the the point should be that your happiness is like intermingled with hers do you know what i mean so like the saying undermines the values itself Speaker 8 (12:56) i agree it's also that your wife's your wife's happiness is all that matters in the relationship and yeah sure we like to say sue and i always like to say happy spouse happy house there you go Because we both care about each other's happiness. Yes. Speaker 2 (13:08) Because Speaker 8 (13:08) that's our happiness. Yes. So, yeah. I think Speaker 2 (13:11) it's a pretty, I think it's like, it's sexist in a weird way. I agree. It sounds like it's being supportive, but when you think about it, you're like, because who understands women? Yeah. They're so crazy and I just got to keep her happy. And then Speaker 8 (13:25) I'm fine. And Speaker 2 (13:26) then Speaker 8 (13:26) I'm fine. I can go out with the guys as long as my wife's happy. It's like, oh yeah. Speaker 2 (13:31) Team Curtains checks out Patty's dining room that they have to redo. They know that this is important to her. The Lawrence brothers high five and hug it out about how they had dinner all the time growing up together. Yeah. Thought this was sweet and I believe it. Speaker 8 (13:45) Oh, yeah. They're a close family, you can tell. Oh, my God, Speaker 2 (13:47) yeah. Patty talks about how much she desires a welcoming home. And Curtains says, since they gave Patty a living room last week, their aim is to convert their two rooms into one big... Dining space. Bold choice. Yeah. Bold Speaker 8 (14:03) choice. They also distinctly say, though, that she has told them that she does not use that room. Right. So it'd be one thing if she's like, this is my favorite room of the house. And they're like, tear it out. We're going to make a big table. I guess that's true. Yeah. She's like, well, then we don't, I don't use this. So. I Speaker 2 (14:17) know. Speaker 8 (14:17) Yeah. But Speaker 2 (14:18) they have been so limited by space. And it seems strange to me. It's a bold Speaker 8 (14:25) choice. Again, all tables in my head, especially dining room tables, should all