Plot Synopsis

Host Kevin O'Connor, master carpenter Norm Abram, general contractor Tom Silva, plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey, and landscape contractor Roger Cook rehab and transform homes, modernizing them while still maintaining their historical significance. For Fall 2012, the series' 33rd season features a 19th-century Victorian-era home in the city of Cambridge, MA and a woodland cottage circa 1935 in rural Essex, MA. THIS OLD HOUSE first aired locally on WGBH Boston, premiering on Tuesday, February 20, 1979 at 8:30pm, before its national debut on PBS on Wednesday, April 16, 1980 at 8pm ET.

Season 39 of THIS OLD HOUSE premiered on Saturday, October 7, 2017 at 1:30pm on PBS (check local listings). This season, Kevin, Norm, Tom, Richard, and Roger are joined by trade students and up-and-coming professionals as this home improvement show shines a spotlight on the value of jobs in the building industry. By inviting the apprentices to join the crew, THIS OLD HOUSE is expanding its Generation NEXT efforts and raising visibility of the need for new talent in the trades. The 26-episode season covers new house projects in Newton, Massachusetts, and Charleston, South Carolina. In the season opener, "A House for the Next Generation," a homeowner inherits her childhood home but with her husband makes changes to accommodate their children and inlaws. Plus, Mike Rowe visits to discuss the need for a new generation of skilled tradespeople.

The 44th season of THIS OLD HOUSE debuted on Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 8pm on PBS (check local listings). The team of experts -- Tom Silva, Richard Trethewey, Jenn Nawada and Kevin O'Connor -- heads to south to Atlanta, GA where work on an 1890s Victorian is about to begin.
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On Monday, October 3, 2022 at 9pm (check local listings), PBS premiered "The House That Norm Built," a one-hour special that highlights and chronicles 43 years of Norm Abram's career, featuring classic moments, archived footage, interviews and memories from celebrities, friends, peers and those who worked alongside him. After over four decades, THIS OLD HOUSE's Master Carpenter and pioneer of the home improvement television genre is officially leaving the show and hanging up his toolbelt. Norm's inspiration reached far and wide for a humble man who became a national celebrity through his uncompromising craftsmanship, trademark plaid shirt, impersonations on popular sitcoms, bits on late night TV shows, morning shows, nationally syndicated cartoons and as the ultimate authority in home improvement. Norm appeared in over 1000 episodes of THIS OLD HOUSE, worked on over 50 home renovation projects and hosted more than 280 episodes of THE NEW YANKEE WORKSHOP.

It all started for Norm on Christmas Eve in 1958 as he went with his father, a Boston carpenter on a job installing hardwood floors. They installed the floors the old-fashioned way -- with cut nails and a skill saw turned upside down on a milk crate. That first job led to many weekends and summer breaks spent with his father learning the discipline of methodical pace and common sense. Twenty years after that Christmas, Norm was "discovered" by creator Russell Morash, who had commissioned him to build a barn. So taken with Norm's work, he invited the carpenter to help with the renovation of a house in Boston's historic Dorchester section -- with a WGBH camera crew recording the process for a series. It was an instant success, and Norm catapulted into home improvement guru status. He served as Master Carpenter of THIS OLD HOUSE since the series' 1979 premiere and host of The New Yankee Workshop a decade later.