As with many baby boomers my age, I first became fascinated with treehouses after watching Disney's Swiss Family Robinson when I was 11.
That was 1960 and the innovative arboreal home depicted in the film was far more elaborate than any of the usual tree forts we knew as kids. Those efforts were simple platforms nailed a few feet up a tree with scrap plywood walls and maybe a piece of canvas for a roof.
The really fancy ones had a trap door and rope ladder you could pull up to keep out pirates. Or girls. They were, in effect, glorified deer stands that could hold three or four little boys. Still, they were wondrous.
In the movie, the clever, but shipwrecked, Robinsons fashioned a home in the sky from the largely undamaged interior of their ship, the Swallow. It was a magnificent creation of several levels, containing a living room, kitchen and dining room, a library, crow's nest and running water from an ingenious wheel at the base of the tree.
Twenty years after the film, I got to live my fantasy by visiting the Swiss Family Treehouse attraction at Walt Disney World in Florida. For an hour, I was 11 years old again. It was magical.
Another person who believes in the magic of treehouses is Pete Nelson, owner of Nelson Treehouse and Supply in Fall City, Wash. Nelson, whose dad built him a treefort when Pete was only 5, has turned his love of nature and treehouses into a business and one of the most fascinating programs on TV.
Treehouse Masters has just begun its ninth season on Animal Planet. It airs at 8 p.m. Friday.
This season there's a companion series. Treehouse Masters: Out on a Limb airs at 7 p.m. Friday and uses bits and pieces of previous episodes, along with some new footage and commentary. If you've already seen the episodes, nothing much new will be found here.
In the original series, Pete and his crew build retreats and hideaways in the trees that would make the Robinsons slink off in envious shame.
But Pete's treehouses are not cheap. They don't reveal the price tag anymore, but in earlier seasons, each episode would begin with a new project being discussed. Pete's wife, Judy, would say something like, "And the Millers have $150,000 they want to spend to make their dreams come true."
The excitable Nelson would get all animated over the prospect and dash off to start planning.
Nelson and crew build the occasional more modest one-room getaway, but the really awe-inspiring efforts contain all the amenities -- beds, electricity, running water, a loft, decks, bathrooms, kitchenettes and skylights.
This season, Treehouse Masters will head out for new locations, including Denali State Park in Alaska and to Norway for the first international treehouse build.
Also on tap is a special treehouse for singer-songwriter Grace Vanderwaal, the 13-year-old America's Got Talent winner. She can afford a nice one. She earned a cool $1 million on AGT.
In Friday's episode, "The Bird Barn Treehouse," two retirees get a retreat on their 100-acre Wisconsin farm when Pete builds a barn-like birdhouse with three pods -- an art studio, an office and a lounge. The treehouse comes complete with a screened-in porch and a deck overlooking their stable of alpacas.
• Victoria news. Word has come from Masterpiece on PBS that the hugely popular drama Victoria will debut Season 2 on Jan. 14. Mark your calendars now.
The series, starring Jenna Coleman (Doctor Who) as the young queen, averaged 16.2 million viewers the first season, second only in PBS history to Downton Abbey.
Tom Hughes returns as Prince Albert. Joining the season will be Dame Diana Rigg (Game of Thrones) as the court's new Mistress of the Robes.
Season 2's seven episodes will find Victoria adapting to motherhood after the birth of her first child; the Anglo-Afghan War unfolding; and the Irish potato famine beginning.
• American Made Inventors, 9 p.m. Friday on Discovery. In this new series, inventors pitch their ideas in hopes of making it to the big time.
The first episode, "Born in USA," has inventors with ideas for a shoe insole, an ice-fishing tool, and a car-catching device designed to end high-speed pursuits.
• Diana, 7 Days, 7-9 p.m. Friday on NBC. This is another of the specials surrounding the 20th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana.
This one deals with the immediate effects of the tragedy on Britain and the world, and has interviews with her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
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Weekend on 08/31/2017