HOLLYWOOD — Signing on to "Colonial House" meant months of hard work, primitive conditions, tight food rations, psychological pressure, various punishments and just downright dirtiness.

"Life for our forebears was no picnic. . . . Let's face it, there is just no way to prepare for sharing a tiny one-room cottage with 11 other people," said executive producer Beth Hoppe, who described this as "our most ambitious 'House' project to date."

Like "Frontier" and "1900" and "Manor House," "Colonial House" takes a group of people and sends them back in time as much as possible — into the circumstances of 1628 colonists struggling to create a settlement near the site of the original Plymouth Colony for "five grueling months."

Whatever would possess the participants to participate?

"Sense of adventure," said John Vorhees.

"It's one thing to know the history," said Danny Tisdale. "But it's a completely different experience to experience the history — to be part of it."

"When else will you get a chance to travel in time?" said Julia Friese. "I mean, we are the only people we know of who have even been able to go back to 1628 and live there for five months as authentically as can be replicated. It's an opportunity of a lifetime, and anyone who would turn it down, I just can't even imagine what kind of thought might be going through their heads."

But finding people who were up to the adventure wasn't easy. "To be honest, we didn't have a huge pool of people that were right for this project," said producer Sallie Clement. "There were 5,000 people that applied. Most of them were applying because they had very boring lives. They were looking for something that was just different. They had things they wanted to run away from. They wanted to be famous or they wanted to win some money.

"This is not a project that delivers any of those things. . . . It left me, actually, with an incredibly small pool (of applicants) that I thought were — were sane."

Sane to start with, at least. Like its predecessors, "Colonial House" shows us people as they really are when they're tired, overworked and unhappy. And 21st-century people found it difficult to adjust to being 17th-century indentured servants.

"I, certainly, being a very headstrong, liberal female, found it quite difficult to become subservient and to have to keep my mouth shut," said Friese.

"It's really hard when you have to . . . kind of lose yourself and your identity," said Jonathon Allen. "That's exactly what happens — you're just there to serve for five months, like it or lump it."

As with the other "House" projects, it's hard not to get drawn into "Colonial" once you start watching. You may get caught up in all eight hours — two hours a night tonight, Tuesday; Monday, May 24; and Tuesday, May 25.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com