This No-Tears Episode Guaranteed to Make You Laugh with Help from Top Comics To match the sound of joy and laughter in the Houston, Texas home of Eric and Elaine Johnson and their five daughters, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” will produce an innovative tears-free episode. With help from some top comedians, Ty and the design team guarantee that the audience will be laughing instead of crying throughout this episode. In yet another new way to surprise the deserving family, the Johnsons were sent to a local comedy club in Houston. During the show, Ty and the design team surprised them with the news that their home will be the latest recipient of a makeover.
Eric and Elaine Johnson have five fun-loving and flamboyant daughters, ages five to 14 years old. The girls share their parents’ love of life and their home is full of laughter, singing and fashion shows. This energy and spirit spills into Elaine and Eric’s work of wanting to improve their neighborhood one family at a time.
Married 15 years with backgrounds as youth mentors, Eric and Elaine became licensed counselors in 2006 when they realized the African American community was being overpowered by a seeming epidemic of family disintegration. The Johnsons began a marriage and family counseling non-profit called Optimum Lifestyle with the goal of strengthening marriages in fun, creative ways.
The Johnsons take inner-city families to the outdoors to give them a camp-like experience and teach them about teamwork and trust. Eric is passionate about African American fathers stepping up to play a larger role in their children’s lives. Their couples’ seminars, which are provided to anyone in need for either no-charge or a nominal fee, have possibly saved 1500 marriages and kept countless kids from growing up in single parent homes.
When the family inherited a run-down inner city house, they planned to transform it. But the one-two punch of 2008’s Hurricane Ike and the economic downturn put that dream on hold. Undaunted, they continued their mission while living in a dangerously dilapidated house. Now the EMHE design team can help make their home safe and sound — and most importantly — match the delight and happiness that lives within it.
The Johnson family will go on a dream vacation while “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” team leader Ty Pennington, designers Michael Moloney, Ed Sanders and Paige Hemmis and local builder HHN Homes and community volunteers rebuild the home. The home location address is: 3613 Goodhope, Houston, TX 77021.
“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is produced by Endemol USA, of Endemol Holding, and executive-produced by Brady Connell & George Verschoor. David Goldberg is Chairman, Endemol North America.