Jaleel White says filming Totally '90s House felt less like a new TV job and more like a reunion. The HGTV host said working with fellow child stars on the renovation series was “almost like a high school reunion come to life.”
White and the cast
“So for us, it really is almost like a high school reunion come to life,” White said, pointing to a cast that includes Melissa Joan Hart, Jodie Sweetin and Brian Austin Green. He added, “I know every member of both teams rather intimately just from crossing paths over the years.”
That familiarity extends beyond the set. White said, “I was always over at their set,” referring to Full House, which gives the series a built-in backstory that viewers do not usually get from a renovation competition. He also said he has renovated a couple of homes in California, which fits the show’s design-heavy format without turning him into just another host reading cues.
Team Mauve and Team Curtains
Team Mauve brings together Jodie Sweetin, Brian Austin Green and Beverley Mitchell. Team Curtains features Keshia Knight Pulliam, Melissa Joan Hart, Matthew Lawrence and Joey Lawrence. The split matters because the series is built around two teams working through the same nostalgia filter, rather than a loose lineup of cameos.
The show sends both teams through outdated homes that need a modern makeover while preserving their retro charm. HGTV experts Carter Oosterhouse and Sabrina Soto supply design help, so the competition is not just about memory lane; it is about whether the teams can turn that memory into usable rooms.
$25,000 on the line
The winning team gets ultimate bragging rights and a $25,000 prize to donate to the charity of its choice. That gives the series a cleaner competitive edge than a standard reunion special, because the result is tied to a specific outcome instead of just nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake.
White also said he is a big fan of nostalgia, but the cast is not treating the 1990s like museum material. Melissa Joan Hart said, “We all love and adore the '90s and think of it with great nostalgia, just like the fans do,” while Matthew Lawrence said, “I think it's going to be fun for the audience to go along on this journey with us.” Keshia Knight Pulliam put the point more plainly: “People know the characters that we've played, but they aren't always privy to the human beings that we are behind the scenes.”
HGTV set Totally '90s House to premiere on Wed., Aug. 26, which puts the reunion format in front of viewers just as the network leans into a competition that mixes retro branding with real design work. The open question is which homes across the country end up on camera, but the appeal is already clear: the show turns TV history into a charity-backed renovation contest, and White is the one who knows the cast well enough to make that premise feel lived in.
