VINALHAVEN — A production crew from the Home and Garden Television channel wrapped up filming Friday, Sept. 16, in Vinalhaven. For a week, the crew followed the daily lives of Josh and Angel Turner and their sons for the series Island Life. This show allows viewers a sense of island communities while featured individuals check out the housing market.

Josh, a lobsterman, has been on the island since his teen years, and Angel, an insurance agent was born and raised here. She left for college and during that time participated in a student exchange to Russia. Afterward, she resided in Rockland for a few years. Eventually, however, her home community lured her back.

Josh has operated his own lobstering enterprise since 1998.

The two attended high school together, but it wasn’t until Angel returned, and started joining others at the Sandbar, that the flame kindled between them.

Now, the family of five, which consists of Caleb, 13; Wyatt, 6; and Nolan, 1.5, has taken an interest in new houses, “one with old bones, but is fairly updated,” Angel said during a filmed outing to a playground behind the medical center.

Their interest led them to Kris Davidson at Davidson Realty, who was also born and raised here. From there, Davidson contacted the New York production crew four or five months ago to suggest the Turners as a family to film, according to producer Rachel Hirsch. Hirsch and co-producer Derek Gannon researched the island and the Turners before heading north from their offices in New York.

They brought with them a crew of six people, including two from Bangor and one from Portland. None of them had ever been there before, and all made points of saying, during the interview, how beautiful the area is.

“It was really cool when we found out we’d be coming here,” Hirsch said. “It was a whole new island for us to explore. It’s unlike anywhere else. It’s so beautiful.”

For Josh, the film crew’s presence made him very uncomfortable. His days are spent upon the solitude of the ocean, with only a sternman and the hum of the outboard. And thus, this man who has to be prodded into family pictures anyway, according to Angel, had not, by the end of production, relaxed.

The children appeared to view the eight extra adults in their lives as instant friends, and neither of the two older boys complained about missing school to play on the merry-go-round.

Angel, seasoned to social activities through her career, saw an added bonus to the filming.

“Any opportunity for the family to be together is a golden opportunity,” she said. 

Hirsch has filmed in various locations around the country, including Martha’s Vineyard, the Southeast, and the Northwest. Yet she still found a uniqueness about Vinalhaven and the Turner family.

“It’s really cool to see a family who was born and raised here, and now they’re raising their kids here,” she said.

The Island Life episode featuring the Turners will air at some point this winter, according to Hirsch. The crew does not have a set deadline, and therefore, will take their time editing the footage.

Jerry Goodman, director of photography
Chas Bruns, production assistant
Seth Gass, cameraman
Derek Paulson, production manager
Ed Gutierrez, audio
Jonathan Leonard, production assistant
Derek Gannon, producer
Rachel Hirsch, producer

Sarah Thompson can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com.