PBS' 'Legacy List' to feature home of Country Kettle diner owner

On a rainy day in Sterling, in front of a nondescript duplex house on a hill, a moving truck sat in the driveway, surrounded by TV cameras and raincoat-clad production assistants.

The PBS TV show “Legacy List with Matt Paxton” had taken over show business manager and Country Kettle Café owner Wayne Mogel’s home for the day, digging for items on Aug. 24 and 25, with interesting stories, and cleaning out what was left.

“I've been cleaning houses for almost 25 years, and I found out there are a lot of really cool stories behind all that stuff. The reason people couldn't let go of their stuff was that they didn't tell the stories,” said host Matt Paxton.

In a press release, promoters said Season 5 of the two-time Emmy-nominated series began its production in July, with a scheduled premiere date of January 2024. Previous seasons are available to stream on pbs.org and MyLegacyList.com.

Mogel grew up in a show business family surrounded by star power, and it showed in the memorabilia that filled the house.

In the garage, a framed 1957 letter from actor Burt Lancaster and an animation cel from a 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon sat in the same cardboard box, in perfect condition but covered in a thin layer of dust.

Mogel’s uncle produced films starring Jackie Robinson and Elvis Presley, and legendary comedians Joan Rivers and Milton Berle were close with the family.

“My uncle produced an Elvis Presley western, and (the “Legacy List” crew is) looking for the Western Union telegrams from Elvis and Colonel Tom Parker to my uncle congratulating him on the movie,” Mogel said. “It's framed with a picture of my uncle and Elvis on the movie set.”

“Legacy List” was not Mogel’s first time searching his house for history. When he bought the Country Kettle diner in West Boylston, he used some of his Old Hollywood collection to decorate.

On display on one wall at the diner is a framed letter and a drawing from “It’s A Wonderful Life” star Jimmy Stewart, the result of a brief conversation he and Mogel had about Stewart’s 1950 film, “Harvey.”

“My uncle introduced me to (Stewart), and I told him how much I loved 'Harvey.' Unbeknownst to me, he got my address from my uncle, and in the mail, there it was: a hand-drawn picture of (the film’s rabbit character) Harvey. He drew it and signed it,” Mogel said.

Every episode of “Legacy List” features a different homeowner who needs to downsize but has a hard time deciding what to keep.

Paxton and his cleaning crew do the job for them, and the homeowner does not know what is on the crew’s “legacy list” until Paxton reveals each item to them at the end of the day.

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The end result is a little like “Antiques Roadshow” focused on an individual home, although Paxton said he sometimes has to draw on lessons learned during his time working on the A&E show, “Hoarders.”

Paxton and his cleaning crew had spent all day sifting through Old Hollywood memorabilia and unused household items, enough to completely fill the moving truck. During the process, Paxton put together a list of the five discoveries with the most significant backstories — the titular “legacy list.”

“This is just a venue for people to tell their stories, because the stories are more interesting than the actual items,” Paxton said. “(Mogel’s) uncle passed away 20 years ago, and you can't keep a person alive, but you can keep their memory alive through their stories.

Gesturing to the moving truck in the driveway, Paxton said its entire contents had been crammed into one room when his crew first arrived.

“We took this entire truck full of stuff out of the basement today, so there's 2,000 pounds of stuff getting donated, recycled, or thrown away,” Paxton said.

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Among the contents of the house were a baseball signed by Jackie Robinson, which was on the “legacy list,” and a bat signed by New York Yankees shortstop Bucky Dent, who hit an infamous 1978 home run against the Red Sox that prevented Boston from moving on to the playoffs.

At 3 p.m., camera operators were setting up in Mogel’s kitchen, getting ready to film the moments where Paxton showed the “legacy list” to Mogel.

“I can't wait. I'm also excited that they were able to clear out this space, because it was packed from floor to ceiling with boxes. You couldn't walk in there,” Mogel said.

Under a tent in the driveway, minutes before explaining his finds, Paxton leaned in to talk about one meaningful surprise discovery that Mogel didn’t know about.

“We found his fifth grade report card where his teacher said, 'He'll never amount to anything,’” Paxton said. “Sure, his uncles had incredible stories, but don't forget your own story. When we clean people's houses out, we tend to celebrate the ones that are gone, and we forget to celebrate ourselves.”