Tuning in to "Tool TV"

Antics on infomercial ratchet up interest among aficionados.

By Deborah Donovan
Daily Herald Real Estate Writer

A guitarist plays his instrument with an electric drill, and other characters dance and sing -- Stan the cave man, the Tool Bade, the Tool Nut Widow and the unforgettable Goddess of Tool TV.

Yes, you're watching "Tool TV," a half-hour infomercial whose following is tool aficionados.

Look, there's the Tool Man, Dwight Sherman, a star who doesn't hog the spotlight because he insists, "the tools are the stars of the show."

Sherman is also president of Berland's House of Tools in Lombard and Palatine. "Tool TV" is a guys' show because more than 90 percent of the stores' customers are male, said Roger Bain, writer, producers and director of "Tool TV."

If you're a homeowner, contractor, hobbyist or just someone who's crazy about tools, you may be a fan. Bain insists he hears from women viewers, too, who ask for a "Tool TV Hunk."

Despite the wacky antics, serious demonstrations of about 20 new tools take up most of the half-hour show, which is sponsored by Berland's and the tools' manufacturers. Each machine gets about one minute of air time, including a demonstration of how it works in the studio or on a job site.

While one scene was being shot, Sherman strolled toward the camera showing that the MK Diamond portable tile-cutting saw is truly lightweight.

"You're smiling," directed Bain. "You are in such a good mood that you're holding a compact saw you can't even stand it."

Six people are on the set to keep things working smoothly, including the camera and sound men.

Bain decides he wants a different look and eventually moves Sherman out of the " studio" constructed in a warehouse that Berland's recently purchased. Instead he shoots in a rear area of the building where walls are recently drywalled and sunshire streams in from overhead.

"The best footage we get comes from inspiration and spur of the moment," Sherman said. "It feels more believable and real and comes off better. That's my take on how it works."

Bain calls Sherman "a natural" in front of the camera.

"We could never have him reading a script off a teleprompter," Bain said.

After each demonstration, a "beauty shot" of the tool appears along with its price at Berland's. Many items are around $200 each, although some are more expensive.

Bain writes all the songs and performs many of them, sometimes on camera. Characters like the goddess, wearing a blonde wig that accidentally slides off when the credits roll, also sing.

People associated with the show insist it has many fans.

"I could be at Kmart in Gurnee or ice rink in the South suburbs," Sherman said. "People come up to me and say 'great show."

"It appeals to the trades, of course. And there are some homeowners who spend time not on the golf cource, but in the shop."

Sherman says he knows a collector who has a 3,000 square-foot warehouse where he keeps his unused tools.

"The economy is wonderful. They want the best. In tools, they can afford it. A bunch of people look tools and want to go to a store just about tools," Sherman said.

Even children as young as 3 and 4 years old like the show, Bain said.

"They love seeing things work and pound."

In honor of his youngest fans, Bain had an industrial vacuum cleaner start to attack a Teletubbie after first swallowing golf balls. Not wanting to go too far or traumatize the little ones, the Teletubbie is left untouched.

Sherman said the fact that manufacturers are eager to pay to be on the show is proof of it's popularlity.

The show's fan support is backed up by Jerri Blount, account executive at WJYS, Channel 62, the station where "Tool TV" runs.

Other advertisers ask to run right after "Tool TV" to take advantage of its audience she said, and people call in to compliment the show or complain if they can't find it.

The show airs at 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. Saturdays and 3:30 p.m. Sundays and will be on the air throughout the month of May. Cable systems run the show on different channels. The Web site is www.thetoolman.com.

On Friday nights, the particularly wacky highlights of the first 10 episodes air. This show doesn't even try to push products, but features outtakes and production numbers, such as Santa and his interns.

Three cave people taped in black and white burst into color when they see Berland's, for example. And Sherman is actually sucked inside a vacuum cleaner.

"We're zany or surreal or silly or whatever," Bain said.

The writer-producer-director says he has never watched Tim Allen's "Home Improvement" show, which is nearing the end of its first-run production. He insists the network show did not inspire "Tool TV."

"That's the Hollywood version, this is a Lombard/Arlington Heights version," said Bain, a resident of Arlington Heights.