The television show Extreme Home Make-over is one of the "reality" shows that I will sometimes watch. Like anybody, I love a happy ending. The leveling of the old, dilapidated house is fun to watch, and the fabulous vacations on which the families are sent are intriguing.

"Move that bus!" is the tag-line, and then the tears start to flow as the families check out the McMansions now standing on the lot where their little shack once stood. I always look at the surrounding neighborhoods in the show and think, "Wow, they really overbuilt for that neighborhood." But that's me, ever practical.

Big name companies donate everything the families could possibly want or need, mortgages get paid, college tuitions for all the kids paid, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Or do they?

Once in a rare while, a newspaper will carry an article about what happens when the camera crews roll away, and the family returns to business as usual. Tiles begin falling off of walls in the middle of the night. Heating and air conditioning bills shoot sky-high, to the point where the family cannot afford to pay them. I read in an Arizona paper about one of the houses being given up by the family, and it was still sitting on the market because no one could afford the upkeep of such a monstrosity.

I turned off the show halfway through the last time I watched. When you raze something in real life and rebuild in too much of a hurry, it doesn't often turn out as magical as it does on TV.