George Gray is the first to admit he’s not your typical HGTV home show host.
“I didn’t get the show because I’m a designer. I got it because I’m a wiseass,” says the comedian, perhaps best-known for hosting the syndicated version of NBC’s “The Weakest Link.”
The show in question is “What’s With That House?” and in it, Gray roams the U.S. looking for attention-getting homes in ordinary neighborhoods.
“It’s not a makeover, it’s not a how-to, it’s not a Martha Stewart show. It’s a guilty pleasure, slam-on-the-brakes, train-wreck kind of show.”
At each house, Gray meets the homeowners and gets a tour, good-naturedly cracking jokes along the way. Whether it’s a “Hansel and Gretel” house made of recycled materials, or a magician’s “palace” complete with trapdoors, he laughs with the owners, not at them.
“I look at these people like they’re wonderfully crazy. To me, if you do shag carpeting right, it’s so bad, it’s good. And velvet paintings? Oh, yeah, baby.”
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“What’s With That House?” executive producer Bill Paolantonio calls Gray the “anti-host.”
“He’s everyman, and he says what everybody at home is thinking, but he does it with a twinkle in his eye. He just has a natural curiosity, and you never know what’s going to happen when he turns the corner.”
Gray’s empathy for the offbeat is easily understood after a visit to his own home, perched in the Hollywood Hills.
Visitors enter the top floor of the three-story 1950s structure, which is propped on a hillside. Inside, it’s a tribute to pop culture and kitsch, complete with pinball machines, a red-themed kitchen and even a nook dedicated, appropriately, to Curious George paraphernalia.
“I fought it my whole life, but then I just gave in. This is what people give you when your name is George.”
But the centerpiece of the home is Stinky’s Bar and Cigar Lounge, a downstairs hangout that would make the Rat Pack proud. Named after the oversize tabby cat that he shares the house with, it’s a space with a retro boy’s club feeling, complete with full bar, beer tap and neon lights. It’s where Gray, who’s also a drummer, hosts jam sessions as well as impromptu parties for the crew of whatever show he’s working on. “If you put a gun to my head and said name one hip place in Hollywood, you’d have to shoot me. I wouldn’t know. I like jukeboxes and Harleys and hanging around here with my buddies.”
When he’s not at Stinky’s, Gray can often be found outside in the driveway, tinkering with one of his many cars, including a 1967 Firebird convertible Ram Air and a 1962 Studebaker Lark convertible.
“My friends call me MacGyver because I can get old cars running with a toothpick and a paper clip. I just go out there with a Diet Coke and a cigar.”
He applied the same can-do philosophy to renovating his home, where he tore down walls and added whole rooms, mostly on his own. Without any training or experience, it was a sometimes painful process. “I always say it’s not a project until you bleed.”
He found inspiration in a variety of places, including his neighbor’s trash, where he got permission to fish out a retro-style sink. “I love going to swap meets, junkyards, anything like that–Dumpster diving. If it’s rusty and old and crappy-looking, I’m in heaven.”