TV WOODWORKER NAILS WHAT AUDIENCES WANT.

Byline: Jean Prescott Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

Even with a carpenter's genes in our pool, we can't drive a nail without bending it. Maybe that's why we've always looked upon Norm Abram as a kind of magician.

The co-host of "This Old House" from day one (that was 16 years ago!) also hosts his own PBS series, "The New Yankee Workshop." For the past eight years, we've watched Norm move effortlessly around a spanking workshop outfitted with every builder's dream tools.

We've seen him transform board lumber into furniture we covet, and we couldn't help wonder what wizardry he uses to make it look so easy.

Imagine our surprise when the amiable Norm tells us his job is to demystify the process.

"Of course you can't build much if you don't know how to measure and put pieces together," he said, "but it's just logical progression. You use good tools that are well-maintained, and you proceed carefully and deliberately."

He knows few weekend craftsmen will ever accumulate the kind of tool-power he has, but Norm insists that logical progression matters as much as - maybe more than - tools.

"There are no shortcuts to quality," he said. "You pay for it down the line. One mistake woodworkers make is that they're so anxious to get to the end result, they get impatient."

Approach any project from the right perspective, he said, and each successive step will go much easier.

We know, Norm, we know: Measure twice, cut once.

Apparently we have tons of company in our appreciation not only of his craftsmanship but his genial manner. Somehow nothing bad could possibly happen - not earthquake, flood or cyclone - while Norm is securing perfect dovetail joints or planing oak boards for a tabletop.

Kids count heavily among his fans: a 5-1/2-year-old fellow in Royal Palm Beach, Fla., to whom Norm is a hero; a slightly younger lad in Allston, Mass., who writes, "I love to watch you do anything."

Add to that all the home-workshop junkies and licensed contractors under his spell and you have more than 4 million viewers.

We believe the big fellow in the plaid shirt and safety glasses has become a permanent part of pop culture.

But Norm is unfazed by the celebrity.

"It came on slowly as the audience grew," he said, "but there is no place I can go now and not have people recognize me.

"I think it's because of the way the show has characterized everyone, (so) the recognition is all very positive - warm and friendly."

Series creator and executive producer Russell Morash, who has said in the past that Norm is a natural for the job, took great care from the beginning to make the program easily accessible.

"Russ' goal was to say ... 'Don't just tell me what you're doing, but why.'

"A lot of how-to shows are out there preaching to the audience," Norm said, "but we say this is what we do because of A, B and C, and then we leave it up to the viewer to decide if they value our information."

When "The New Yankee Workshop" begins its eighth season this weekend, the information it dispenses will be about replicas of antiques discovered in California wine country.

Norm and Morash discovered regional antiques while the crew was on location for "This Old House" last year in the Napa Valley. "TOH" remotes are natural generators of "New Yankee Workshop" seasons.