[title subtitle=”WORDS Dwain Hebda
IMAGES courtesy The Discovery Channel”][/title]
Spending time talking to Jenny and Dave Marrs – the Arkansas power couple behind the hit home improvement show Fixer to Fabulous – is less like a brush with celebrities and more like a catch-up chat at a class reunion. Sure, it takes a little bit to get on the couple’s schedules these days and interviews are not the duo’s favorite thing to do.
But at the end of it, having touched topics of faith, family and the cult of personality embodied by social media, you come away with an unshakable belief that these are two of the most genuine and ordinary of people thrown an extraordinary opportunity and trying to make and do the best of it as they can.
It sure wasn’t to become famous, as both of them will tell you straightaway.
“Jenny and I, the reason we said yes to this in the first place was to shed a light on our nonprofit work,” Dave says. “There’s also just so much trash on TV. There’s just a lot of it. We wanted to be a show that a family can sit down and watch together. I think there is a longing for, even among people who live in New York or live in a big city, to get back to this small-town community, neighborly feel that people find appealing.”
That nonprofit work, for a group called Help One Now that teaches orphaned and abandoned teens in Zimbabwe how to farm, a trade and other life skills, speaks to the servant heart and deep faith the couple shares, something of much deeper value than reality TV fame.
And lest you roll your eyes at that, let’s not forget the Marrs didn’t go looking for HGTV, the network came looking for them after scouting the area and getting their names from some happy clients. It’s still a source of amusement to the couple, right down to discounting the network’s initial email as a joke.
“I honestly think the first thing was, they really liked this area,” Jenny says. “The network was really interested in the Northwest Arkansas region and that Bentonville is a small town and it has that small-town feel but also so much culture, so much great food, a great art scene. You kind of have a mix of both big city, small town which is unique and pretty cool.”
“The way they explained it to us is really, the first year of a television show the viewers care more about the projects that you’re doing, what’s getting done, and as the show develops that’s where you go into more family stuff,” Dave says. “I guess they were probably not interested in us at all when it started, which is probably fine. But as that has changed, being comfortable with it, I think, comes from the production crew that produces our show. We spend twelve hours a day together so you just become like family.”
The actual family behind the show began in 2002 when Dave and Jenny met through their jobs at Newell Brands’ Rubbermaid. After just a couple of years, Dave tired of the corporate rat race and decided to launch a home-building business. Jenny took the leap with him, and the couple married in 2005.
By 2008, the Marrs were caught in the economic downturn just like every other home builder and while they came through intact, they started looking around for additional opportunities for the business. Historic homes and renovations caught their eye and led them to Bentonville where they started to build a solid reputation.
Today, the houses you see on the show are not show homes, but actual projects for actual clients. And the couple is as real as the projects they take on.
“On the show, we only do remodels because new home builds are boring to watch,” Jenny says. “[The network] doesn’t want us doing new homes because there’s no discovery, no drama, if you want to call it that. In the remodels there always are issues. It never goes smoothly, ever, ever, never.
“But we also try really hard to not have any fake drama on our show. We want it to be as real and as authentic as possible. In terms of the action that unfolds, that is real. You never know what you’re going to find behind the walls and that sort of thing.”
Both Dave and Jenny admit it took a little while to be themselves on camera, but that they’ve long since learned how to ignore the lens and crew. And they give credit to their production team for knowing how to put everything together in a way that works.
“We film about one hundred and twenty hours of footage per every forty-three-minute episode,” Dave says. “So, you can guarantee I’m going to make a moron of myself at least once in one hundred and twenty hours that they get on film and then they edit it. Life happens, you know? Things happen. We have five kids. We have a farm full of misfit animals that there’s always something going on there. I think they probably did a good job picking a family where they knew there was going to be a whole lot of natural drama here. We don’t need to make any up.”
Including the couple’s children has been another evolving process. The kids are never compelled to appear on camera and the couple restricts social media usage to help shield them from fans and trolls alike. Still, just talking about it, you hear the mama bear snarl enter Jenny’s voice.
“That’s been a big challenge. It’s one of the reasons we originally said ‘No’ to even going down this path at all,” she says. “I should say ninety-nine percent of the people are so kind. It’s just that one percent and we want to protect our kids from the crazies out there. That is the one thing that’s hardest for me about doing the show. I don’t care if you don’t like the paint color that I picked for the house, but if you say something about my child or about my parenting, you have no right. None, none.”
“Eventually at some point we’ll have to have different conversations as they get older. But for now, we try to keep their world very small. We don’t want them to ever think we’re any sort of a big deal at all. We’re just our family and we just are doing our thing, and this is just our work.”
The couple is promising some surprises in upcoming episodes and is also working to convert an 1870s home in Rogers into a working bed and breakfast. Shows around that project are airing on Discovery+ and will eventually make it to HGTV. On camera or off, it’s a pretty good life and they’re making the most of every moment.
“We’re all trying to do the best job we can, tell a good story” Jenny says. “There’s a beautiful house at the end of it, but also we really want to honor the families that we work with and tell their story and make sure that we’re doing their stories justice. That’s important to us.”
Discover more about Help One Now at helponenow.org.
