I agree with you wholeheartedly. From “The $64,000 Dollar Question” to even a lot of documentaries, it is all contrived in a thinly veiled attempt to disguise entertainment as a bid to sell advertising.
I enjoy seeing the “junk”, and even learn something once in a while. But why maintain the fantasy of it’s being just another day in the pawn shop? In the book, Rick says they don’t/can’t even work the counter anymore. Too many tourists, gawkers and groupees. Just have people bring stuff in and let the experts appraise it. Oh, wait, that’s been done. It’s called Antiques Roadshow. Maybe both shows could learn something from each other and both come out better.
I agree. The Chumlee character has evolved from being a Homer Simpson like bufoon to is a prankster who out-thinks Corey and who demands to be taken seriously.
I always scratch my head at people who think Pawn Stars is fake and point it out and then think the show is ruined.
I mean, really? Of course it’s fake. Of course the main guys aren’t actually standing around the shop, filming 24/7 and then editing in the good stuff. And I don’t think for a minute we are supposed to actually believe that what we see on the cameras is “business as usual” at their pawn store.
I thought pretty much everyone just knew or could figure out rather quickly that the deals we see go down on the show have been screened and selected for ahead of time, by people who probably watch the show and know they have something interesting that might give them a chance of getting on TV. So a lot of it is basically people trying to get on TV, they have something interesting, they might not even really want to sell it at all, but they bring it anyway, and we all learn a little bit of history or something in the mean time.
Now, if the producers or experts are actually supplying the goods themselves to random Joes and then asking them to pretend to sell something, THAT would kind of kill the show and ruin the magic of it. And I have heard several places that it does happen. I’ve heard that producers will have an interesting item, and ask some random person if they want to be on TV, and give them a basic idea of what to say and do during the haggling. I don’t know how substantiated these claims are though, but if they are true, it’s disheartening.
As to the drama and subway advertising they do on the show, I roll my eyes at it but sometimes its kinda funny. I could easily do without it of course, but it doesn’t ruin the show for me.
There’s fake and then there’s faaaaaake. Of course I didn’t think they stood in the shop 24/7 waiting for something to happen but when I started watching the show I actually thought people brought interesting items into the store from time to time. I didn’t think they represented the typical pawn shop in American but then I thought that’s why they got the show in the first place.
That might be staged but it isn’t faaaaake. In some cases I certainly thought the owner of the item brought it on the show to essentially advertise to the world at large what he has. That dude with the piece of sunken treasure comes immediately to mind.
I guess they must have started early with that stuff because Chumlee was the designated idiot from day one. I got a bit tired of the “drama,” the stupid Subway ads and when they hired Olivia Black I was sure it was for the ratings her sex appeal would bring the show rather than anything to do with her ability to work in a pawn shop. Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded Subway product placements I just hated the advertisements unnaturally added to the program. “Hey, I got you some Subway for breakfast.” Wow, is Subway serving breakfast know! Is it a coincidence that we’re all eating Subway for breakfast amid the national ad campaign informing people that they now serve breakfast?
So, yeah, I’ve found the staged aspects of the show to have gotten more annoying over the years and I watch the program on fewer occasions.
If there were a Pawn Stars Only Death Pool…who would you pick to go first?
I think Corey will be the first to die. He looks mighty unhealthy. And life can be cruel like that: Give you fame and money and then yank it away from you.
2-Old Man for obvious reasons
3-Rick…think he is a coronary ticking timebomb
4-Chumlee…I think he will live a long life…he seems to be the lucky in life sort.
Corey’s lost a lot of weight over the past couple of years. He had lap band surgery a while back.
As for Olivia, when they were doing the hiring, I knew she’d be the one, because she showed up for that interview in a white tank dress that looked like it had been sprayed on, with black undergarments. :rolleyes:
Interesting - I don’t watch enough to know, so I looked her up. She’s at Bauman’s Rare Books’ Vegas branch. They’re based in Philly, but have a branch on Madison at 55th in NYC. They are who I have “fenced” my first editions to when I either needed to sell (who knew a set of the four Pooh books could pay for a big chunk of kitchen work?) or as I sold books to pursue old guitars (which is why one of my old Martins is named Atticus).
Bauman’s is super-high-end - I could never afford to buy from them, but love the fact that they pay top dollar for good books in good condition. I found a first of Conrad’s Youth (3 novellas; first hardback appearance of Heart of Darkness) for ~$400 and sold it to them a few years later for 10x that, which means they listed it for at least $6,000 - like I said, top dollar.
Plus Rick has one of the worst smoker’s wheezes ever. The guy must smoke 3 packs a day. He once said in an interview that the two things you’ll never see on the show are the Pawn Stars smoking or Rick’s little boy, of whom he’s very protective. (Has the Old Woman [Rick’s mother] ever been shown?)
Of course I was surprised to learn that the Old Man is only in his early 70s. He seems older.
Though I’d go with Chumless to be the first to die (not blood kin, but close).
In Rick’s book he says that everyone (excepting the Old Man) went through their drug phases, but as far as I can tell they are all set now. Rick’s got a new wife and a younger son with his middle wife (or wife after Hoss’s mom). Corey is married to his high school sweetheart and AFAIK has a kid. Chumlee is looked after by the Harrisons and he probably spends all his A&E money on shoes and pizza. Plus he’s obviously playing a bit more dumb than he really is.
Doesn’t seem like any of them are going to go back to drugs because of fame. Seems like they enjoy being famous and having money.
Mark Hall-Patterson is interesting. In Pawn Stars he is identified as the Director of the Clark County Museum System, but in American Restoration, he is always the head of some railroad museum (which, of course, could be run by Clark County). Strange, though that he is identified in two different ways.
Unless Rick and his new wife recently had a baby, his young son is by his second wife. There’s another adult brother, named IIRC Adam but he doesn’t work in the family business.
The Old Man’s wife/Rick’s mom is in poor health, and that’s why she hasn’t been on the show. Rick is her spitting image.
The Old Man’s first child was a little girl who had Down Syndrome and died from complications of this at the age of 6. Rick was a toddler at the time and barely remembers her.
my first editions to when I either needed to sell (who knew a set of the four Pooh books could pay for a big chunk of kitchen work?) or as I sold books to pursue old guitars (which is why one of my old Martins is named Atticus).