Peachtree City residents shine on the small screen

'Rally Round the House' comes to town for taping

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

Interior and exterior design shows involving friends, family and neighbors are all the rage these days. Stop a stranger on the street and ask who their favorite designer on "Trading Spaces" is, and you're likely to get a 30-minute dissertation on the benefits of Vern, Genevieve or Frank.

Now there is a new show in the mix, "Rally Round the House," which airs weekdays at noon and 3 p.m. on the Discovery Channel, and this week there will be an episode featuring people from Peachtree City.

In an episode originally called, "The Honeymoon That Got Away," Debbie McFarland, her husband Kevin and their family got a few surprises in a very short time.

Kevin and Debbie were friends long before they were married. Several years ago, Kevin tragically lost his wife and his friends and the community rallied around him. Their friendship progressed and a few years later Kevin and Debbie were married. They blended their families together and have a house full that Debbie compares to the Brady Bunch. There is a 17-year-old, Miranda; three 13-year-olds (two of whom are twins), Phillip, Hannah and Adam Toksoz; a 10-year-old, Bailey Toksoz; and now a three-month-old, Sean, who was born four days before their episode started taping.

On bed rest for the latter part of her pregnancy, she and her friend and co-worker, Leslie Sayers, wanted to do something special for Kevin. They heard about this new show where family and friends get together to do something nice for someone who they think deserves it. The women felt that they deserved it as much as anybody and apparently, the producers of "Rally Round the House" agreed.

"Rally Round the House" works like this. The homeowners and their family get locked in their house for 48 hours. The windows are boarded up so they can't see outside and anytime they need to leave the house, say for soccer practice, the family members are blindfolded and led away by staff members of the show. Sayers was the ringleader who got close to 45 family and friends together for the weekend-long project, which made their backyard more tropical, thereby giving them the honeymoon they missed due to remodeling Debbie's business, The Memory Cottage, and the pregnancy. The project included the building of a grill and table, the installation of a patio, $2,500 worth of plants and more.

The television experience was very surprising for everyone involved. While the family was stuck inside, the producers had them put together family photo albums as well as do silly dances and make funny posters begging for freedom. Meanwhile, the crew of family and friends was assisted by a "Rally Round the House" crew, had to shoot retakes of some dialogue that did not get captured by the cameras, and enjoyed fantastic catering. They also had to deal with equipment running 17 hours of each day and the pouring rain on the second day of filming, which led to some planting while in ponchos.

Everyone involved had a great time and both McFarland and Sayers wanted to make sure they thanked everybody who helped out during the weekend. Debbie is excited that Peachtree City will be featured on television, as she is a native, who was a member of both the first classes at Booth Middle School and McIntosh High School.

Their episode, now called, "San Juan Honeymoon," will air Tuesday, Sept. 30, at noon and 3 p.m. on the Discovery Channel.