BY MARTY CLEAR
mclear@bradenton.com
You’ll hardly be able to turn on your TV in the coming weeks without seeing the Bradenton area.
Well, okay, so that’s an exaggeration, but in addition to “Claws”’ the Sunday night TNT comedy-drama that’s set in an ersatz Palmetto but occasionally shows recognizable area locales, and “Siesta Key,” the MTV reality series that premieres July 31, there’s also an episode of an HGTV show that was filmed on Anna Maria Island.
The show is titled “Beachfront Bargain Hunt: Renovation.” The Anna Maria episode is scheduled to air from 9 to 10 p.m. July 15.
The episode revolves around Ryan Brantley, a Realtor who’s based in Brandon but often sells homes in the Bradenton-Sarasota area, and her grandmother Arlene Wood.
“She’s been living in Orlando, a former Disney employee, and she’s always wanted a home on the beach,” Brantley said. “After 30 years of living in Florida, she’s finally getting her beach house. She actually lived in Sarasota for a short time, which is how she got know Anna Maria Island.”
In the episode, film crews followed Brantley and Wood as they looked at several homes on the island. Rose finally settled on one. (They looked at homes in Holmes Beach, Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach, but Brantley’s not allowed to say which one her grandmother chose.) The crew then stuck around as Wood had workers renovate the house.
It’s apparently not easy to get on “Bargain Hunt Beachfront: Renovation.” Brantley had watched the show and thought that she and her grandmother’s quest for an Anna Maria home, with plans to spend the rest of her life there, would be a great fit for the show. She applied to be on the show, but it took “a year or two” before production started.
“It wasn’t that they we didn’t hear from them in all that time,” Brantley said. “We were just at the wrong point in the process so they had to wait. We weren’t far enough along yet.”
The camera crews first came to Manatee County in January, and followed the home-buying process and the renovation until just a few weeks ago, Brantley said.
Although Brantley can’t reveal as much as she’d like to about what happens in the episode, she will say that her grandmother is delighted with her Anna Maria Island home.
“This is really kind of a dream that she’s been having for most her life, to live in a home on the beach,” Brantley said. “And now she’s starting the process.”
The Beach House restaurant will host a free viewing party for the episode starting at 8 p.m. July 15. Three TVs on the patio will be tuned to the show.
Marty Clear: 941-708-7919, @martinclear