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President George W. and first lady Laura Bush offer viewers a rare glimpse inside the hallowed halls of the White House in this amazing History Channel presentation. The powerful hosts share stories about their personal experiences inside the famous residence, while two appraisers from the popular series ANTIQUES ROADSHOW provide interesting historical background about the building itself.
I missed seeing the History Channel's broadcast of this program and so purchased it. The DVD is very good as these things go, with some nice close-ups and accurate history of the White House and the rooms on State Floor and the West Wing's Oval Office and Cabinet Room. There are a very few of the advertisement's highly touted "rarely seen", private family rooms shown. The rooms pictured are, however, fully covered in the official White House Historical Association guidebook. And, except for Mrs. Bush pointing out a few "secret doors" hiding closets and the scenes of some of the various, although not all, White House kitchens, there is little here to justify spending $25. The WHHA's The White House: an Historic Guide is just $7 and benefits a good cause.
For those of you who are Keno Brothers fans, you will be disappointed, as well. They share little of their extensive knowledge of American decor, antiques, furniture or art in the proceeding and act more as a foil for Laura Bush. The First Lady holds forth at length, sounding like she was fresh from a night spent cramming with the WHHA guidebook. She, and the President, both talk too much during the program, more so because they speak in nothing but platitudes on how wonderful it is, and what an honor it is to live in the White House, etc... ad nauseum. Neither she or her husband show any passion or love, that I can detect, for the the grand and history heavy house they have been allow to live in for the last 8 years.
[A bit of a soapbox moment here: The White House has been closed by a paranoid and imperial Bush administration since 9-11-- tours allowed only under special arrangements and not, as is said in the DVD, "open to thousands of tourists". It is thought by the Bushes that this program will make up for this lack of access. The difference between a TV show and really going through any actual historical site is the difference, as Mark Twain said in another context, between lighting and the lighting bug.]
A technicality; the DVD is only 65 minutes long, not the 80 promised on the back-of-box blurb, a disappointment greater, to me, than I anticipated. (Certainly more than the loss of the 25% of the promised length, anyway). There are no extras, you get only the TV show minus the commercials.
C-SPAN ( www.c-span.org/whitehouse ) has a DVD, The White House: Inside America's Most Famous Home, which shows far more of the regular rooms and many truly rarely seen spaces, such as the solarium, for only $10, or $40 for the deluxe version. The longer 4 disc version has extensive interviews of historians and staff members responsible for the care, conservation and running of this national treasure and a special section on the areas of the White House associated with Abraham Lincoln. I must recommend, even the one disc, C-SPAN's coverage over the History Channel's entirely adequate for a cable TV audience and yet mundane effort.Read full review