Celtic_Wench shared this article at Carson's site. I don't see any posts on Joe yet, so I thought I'd post this refresher to kick-start comments..
Simply Fabulous
The 'Queer Eye' team gave a not-so-average Joe a new look, a nicer house and a reunion to remember
By Meda Kessler
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

When the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy crew hit town in September, we tried our best to keep up with their whereabouts. Unfortunately, most of the time, the Fab Five and their entourage were shopping, eating and getting haircuts in Dallas. This was caused partly by the tight schedule of filming three North Texas episodes in three weeks and partly by the fact that, well, Dallas is Dallas. But there were Fort Worth sightings of cast and crew at the museums, the White Elephant and M.L. Leddy's in the Stockyards.

The show, now in its third season, has spawned two spinoffs but has lost some of its water-cooler buzz. It was only inevitable that the gurus of makeover venture from the East Coast and head West. We were doubly excited by the news that one of Fort Worth's own had been chosen out of the nearly 2,500 North Texas applicants.

Given that this is the Home and garden section, we followed interior specialist Thom Filicia and his crew around town and skipped the beauty and culinary expeditions.

We offer here a sneak peek at Tuesday's Fort Worth episode. We'll introduce you to the makeoveree, Joe Hagin, his wife, Penny, and their baby; show you around his house; and share a few behind-the-scenes stories.

'From Cowtown to Wowtown'

That's how Carson Kressley describes the interior/exterior makeover to a visibly nervous Joe Hagin as the Fab Five reveals their latest creation.

Kressley's hyperbole is not too far off.

For this, the second of three Queer Eye episodes filmed in North Texas, a crew of craftsmen, painters, landscapers, designers and, of course, Queer Eye's own Thom Filicia transforms a plain-Jane house into something befitting a neighborhood of tidy porches and neat lawns.

The exterior makeover was a novelty for the show. "It was going to be the first time a straight guy was going to drive up and see his house," said Filicia.

And if Filicia is the visionary, set director Valerie Nolan, production designer John Paino and art director Aleta Shaffer are his eyes, ears and hard-working hands. Through the course of the three-day shoot, these three were overseeing the local crew hired to paint, landscape, rewire and remodel. Given the time constraints, it was orchestrated chaos inside the small bungalow as crew members worked hard to finish -- and not bump into each other.

You'll catch only brief snippets of it during the show, so here's a breakdown of the home makeover.

Exterior

• The dingy white-and-yellow paint scheme ("We kind of thought of our home as a McDonald's," revealed homeowner Joe) gave way to a combination of light and dark gray with Chinese-red trim. Even the spacious concrete porch floor was painted vivid crimson.

• The barren front was updated with thick landscaping timbers painted light gray and used to frame the landscaping in front, creating raised beds and giving more pizazz to the yard. "The straight lines of the timbers play off the grid lines in the porch light," said Filicia.

• Instead of a concrete sidewalk, gray stone was used. "It's ordinary rock, but it creates a beautiful pathway," says Filicia. "Plus it balances the heavy landscaping on the right of the house."

• Easy-to-care-for plants and shrubs such as boxwood, rosemary and privet were used in the front beds. A mature purpleleaf plum and crape myrtle played off the gray tones in the paint scheme and helped screen the view of the porch.

• Bold house numbers were placed over the Mission-style porch light.

• Weatherproof furnishings were added to the porch, which had a swing.

• Small copper lamps helped create a party effect.

Interior

The interior is typical of many of the '20s- and '30s-era homes in the area: A small fireplace is flanked by window-topped bookshelves, leaving little room for maneuvering furniture; dining rooms are large; kitchens are small. French doors often separate the rooms.

Aside from sprucing up Hagin's music room (including providing him with a new Taylor guitar and an amp), only the living room and dining room were redone. The extensive exterior makeover took up much of the budget.

• The living room was painted chartreuse and the dining room a salmony red. The trim was painted dark chocolate brown. The colors, says Filicia, were inspired by two striped chairs from Voyager Trading Co. in Dallas. The ceiling and the brick fireplace were painted the same dove gray as the exterior. Bead board, painted the rich brown, was added to the living-room ceiling.

• In addition to chairs, a neutral-tone sofa was placed under the front windows in the main room. The coffee table with a removable lid offered storage for the baby's toys or extra blankets. All the wooden furniture, including the coffee table, had a vaguely Asian look and also came from Voyager.

• A bulky entertainment unit was removed from in front of the fireplace. A small console table was placed on the wall opposite the sofa, and a Toshiba flat-screen television was wall-mounted above the table. The two striped chairs were positioned in different corners of the room.

• In the dining room, a dark-brown wooden table with four wood-and-woven-reed chairs replaced the old table and dingy cream dining chairs. A massive storage unit in the same dark wood now held china, glasses and serving pieces.

• A unique touch was the use of an upside-down lamp as the dining-room chandelier. The letters "QE" are branded into the wooden finial.

• Stock woven blinds from Lowe's replaced the dingy miniblinds, and luxurious silk drapes from Silk Trading Co. added a layer of softness to the windows in the living and dining rooms.

• Sisal rugs from Crate & Barrel were used in both rooms.

• Coupralux, a Dallas printmaking company, provided much of the artwork. The set designers also framed Penny's wedding bouquet in a matte-silver framed shadow box as a surprise for the Hagins.

The overall effect was cozy and comfortable. The uncluttered living room now offered more seating options, and the kid-friendly fabrics still looked luxurious.

Sweat, wait and sweat some more

In September, residents of west Fort Worth received a flyer announcing that production would begin on an unnamed commercial and that slight traffic delays could be expected because of filming.

Slight delays. Ha. There was a daily procession of slow-moving cars and ensuing traffic jams. Word had spread. They were queer, and they were here.

Fort Worth residents are not immune to celebrity; the stars do come out here, and not just at night. And despite Bravo's geographical snub (all the Texas-themed Queer Eye shows are listed as taking place in Dallas), Cowtown residents embraced the fabulous quintet made famous by their good taste and off-color humor.

Young and old, they stood in the more than 95-degree heat waiting to catch a glimpse of Carson or Kyan or Jai.

Initially, all we saw was the landscape and painting crews, the unsung worker bees in this particular makeover project, and a bunch of people with cellphones surgically attached to their ears. Then, a lot of furniture arrived, shrouded by blue plastic on the front lawn. Shopping bags also began to show up, as did more cars and more gawkers.

Everyone was rewarded with either an admonishment from the sound guy to keep it down or a friendly wave by Carson from the front porch.

On the last evening of the three-day shoot, patient fans were rewarded when the Fab Five emerged from their air-conditioned trailer parked on a side street and signed every autograph and posed for every digital snapshot. Ted, as expected, was charming and witty, and Kyan unexpectedly shy and reserved. Carson hugged and kissed his way through the crowd like he was at a South Beach nightclub rather than the front yard of a good-humored neighbor.

And as the last scrap piece of paper was signed and the tired-looking crew re-entered the trailer, a well-coiffed matron yelled out, "Y'all come back again."

Not your average Joe

When the television audience first meets Joe Hagin, he's leading a bunch of senior citizens in a rousing version of the hot-dog song and wearing, of course, a hot-dog hat. Without warning, he's whisked away by five dapper men in a dark SUV with a set of longhorns as a hood ornament.

Cue the familiar theme song, and it's welcome to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the Fort Worth episode.

When Bravo cable channel aimed its Queer Eye on Texas, and specifically on Cowtown, you assumed the creative types would be looking for the Western stereotype. We'd see some rube cowboy get schooled in the finer points of couture and cuisine, all for the sake of a good laugh.

Instead, thankfully, they picked 38-year-old Hagin.

The bearded Hagin, who favored baggy cargo shorts and T-shirts featuring musical icons such Willie Nelson, was living in a drab yellow-and-white bungalow on West Seventh Street near River Crest Country Club. It's a street filled with typical arts-and-crafts-style homes, most of them rehabbed and updated. He and Penny were dealing with everyday life and raising their new baby, River. It was Penny who signed her husband up for the Queer Eye treatment after hearing about it from her mom.

"I thought, 'Oh, yeah, whatever,' " says Hagin, and he put the possibility out of his head. But multiple interviews later and "a really killer video" made with the help of a friend, Hagin was the Bravo scouting team's pick for its Fort Worth makeover.

And in the process, he delivers one of the most heart-wrenching episodes in the history of the three-year show.

Despite his giving nature (he clearly loves his work at Mariner Health), his love of a woman whom he married for her heart when it was nearly overshadowed by her 300-pound body (she has since had gastric bypass surgery) and his desire to be a good daddy, Hagin had a void in his life. He had been estranged from his father for nearly 20 years.

"Originally, the producers were going to give this episode a music theme, since Penny and I had been in a band together, but through a lot of long conversations, they finally asked me about my dad," says Hagin. "They had tracked him down [in the state of Washington] and wanted to set up a reunion. Everyone with the show was very sensitive to the emotional part of this, and, I admit, I was a little nervous about it."

Despite Carson Kressley's wisecracks and Thom Filicia's deft interior style, Hagin's reunion with his father and stepsiblings is the highlight of the show. And though it's funny to see Joe struggle with a vegetable peeler and Penny struggle with a corkscrew ("the camera people couldn't stop laughing"), you'll be hard-pressed not to choke up when Joe breaks down in the midst of trying to get the red snapper into the oven after his father holds River for the first time.

Aside from the reunion, Hagin looks back on the experience with nothing but fond memories. "It was like being the star on a movie set. Everyone was great to me, even when I almost got sick in the car. What you see is really what happens on that show. And the reveal," says Hagin, visibly reliving the experience. "Wow, that's really nerve-wracking."

The Hagins recently moved to a bigger place to be closer to Joe's job. But they took all their new things, from the flat-screen TV to the silk drapes, and have slowly begun "to Queerify" their new place, says Joe. Penny points out that River knocked over and broke one of the ceramic vases, but otherwise, the Hagins have made quite an effort to keep up the Fab Five's hard work.

As far as his dad goes, "This has re-opened my relationship with my dad. We talk, and I e-mail him pictures of River."

It's like the theme song says: All things do keep getting better.

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy

KCee, my darling, my sweet..

When I cut and pasted CW's article, there was nothing here.
You are not chopped liver or even pate de foie gras!

I just thought I'd sleep on the episode, before I posted..

I did have a sort of almost off-topic thought about the show though because I was more impressed by the wife losing 200lbs and being a new mother. As decent as Joe was, I would have preferred her to have the make-better.

Now that they have dumped Queer Eye for the Straight Girl.. why not let the Fab 5 tackle (in her dreams!) you know, Make Better.. a woman! IT WOULD BE A BRILLIANT EPISODE!
I think it should be a single woman or a widow, going through a difficult time, or dealing with a challenge in her life..
That is my altruistic thought.
Selfishly, all I can think of is Carson on that horse!
notevayas

I cried during the show when Joe cried. I usually cry when I see people get emotional. I cried when Joe cried when his father arrived. I had dried my tears when Joe started crying as he was checking the fish in the oven and that made me start crying again, and then seeing Joe's wife cry made it worse for me. But I'm happy that Joe and his father reunited because life is too short. River was one of the cutest babies I've ever seen!

Oh, when Joe was trying to peel that jicama with the wrong side of the peeler, I cracked up! I loved his laugh and how he had a smile on his face most of the time. He seemed like a very happy, positive person.

Yeah, how do you go to peel something and not know that you should be applying the blade part, the sharp part, to the food?

But seriously, yeah, this one was more cathartic than anything else, much crying involved.

River was adorable and, once again, Thom headed straight for the baby! (Be still my heart. Does this man EVER disappoint? Apparently not in this lifetime!) The landscaping was beautiful (good lord, the man does yardwork, too!) and thanks to notey for the article that gave credit to some of Thom's hard working crew.

Ted was dead on when he called Joe H. a class act....absolutely!

Kyan was dead on when he called Penny the best wife ever....and she's had some stiff competition. (Let's not forget Roe Faries, Amy Coffino, Corinne Toale, Karen Zalta, Maria Steele and the amazingly gorgeous Sylvia Zimmerman!) I shed quite a few tears in this episode (for personal reasons too painful to address at the moment) but I began to lose it as soon as Kyan pointed out that, although Joe looked like he had it all under control, his voice as he prepared to greet his dad gave it away. Our sweet, sensitive Kyan picked up on that immediately and that's all she wrote....I was sobbing from that moment on.

KCee,

The reason that I posted that 'straightgirl QE' was history, was that I noticed a poster, FRISCOPnai, from the straightgirl thread mention that Bravo now listed the show under "Past Shows" like BlowOut. But they could always revive any of that list. (I hope they do revive "Project Runway"..)
Also, I agree with you and Raindog and Kyan that Penny (the SG's wife) was special. Heavy women, nevermind morbidly obese women, often have to lose weight to become pregnant in the first place, and to have a safe delivery. Imagine how much stress an extra 200 lbs would put on that woman's heart!

A woman like that could very much use a makeover! She would need skin treatments to regain the elasticity in her skin that had been so stretched, wouldn't she? Not to mention dealing with the issues that caused her to so abuse her body in the first place! The surgery could very well have saved her life, but a make-over from the Fab Five would boost the morale of such a giving woman!

And I agree that there are many "makeover" shows for women, but I think QE could perhaps choose a woman with a unisex name like Lesley or Blair or call it a typo.. say Joan for John. The whole show could be a joke about how to 'accomodate' a woman. And if the main difference was fashion, that is not a problem. Except for undergarments, all but very small women could find a cute wardrobe from the Men's department. I'll bet plenty of women would love to raid Carson's closet!
notevayas

Can u inform me of all the THOMY silly stuff he said and did? Was this the one where he was in the playpen?
I didn't catch the eppy, just say D's photo gallery