| The West Coast Truth |
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Mike Wolfe & Frank Fitz
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As some of you reading this may already know, this is the 4th entry in the “…is FAKE!” series. My other entries include exposing Storage Wars, Auction Hunters and Pawn Stars as 100% staged “Reality-TV”. To date; my articles have been read by hundreds-of-thousands of readers. I have received supportive letters, angry letters, threatening letters, but never a letter from any of the production companies that represent these programs, no they wouldn’t dare.
They wouldn’t dare expose themselves to the scrutiny of the media as the legitimacy of these shows is unquestionable; they’re totally phony. American Pickers is no different. Mike Wolfe is the brainchild of American Pickers and what the audience watches is essentially a farce, it’s all for show. It’s not an actual program documenting two grown men travelling the back roads of America in a white truck. And that’s the tell…if it were truth or anything near it, this would be labelled as a documentary mini-series, but it’s not, it’s Reality-TV™. It’s the same marketing trick that McDonald’s uses in selling 100% Beef™, except that American Pickers is made with 100% bullshit. |
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The show follows Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz as they travel around the greater Midwestern United States as well as the eastern and southern U.S. in a Mercedes Sprinter, buying antiques and collectables. They work with Danielle Colby-Cushman, who runs the office of their business, Antique Archaeology, from their home base in Le Claire, Iowa. While Danielle researches potential leads, Mike and Frank attempt to track down potential sellers on the road. ~ Wikipedia |
At that same time, Frank Fitz, Mike Wolfe’s lifelong friend was a safety and fire inspector, oddly, Frank never seems to mention this on the show. Considering how many sellers have piles of junk stored in unsafe conditions, it’s fitting that the “pickers” ‘burn’ the sellers, perhaps before nature does.
Frank was an obvious addition to the show however, as he had an interest in antiques and in his spare-time bought and sold them. Mike and Frank have known each other for so long that their natural rapport made for good television and created the basis for the concept that two guys travelling the Mid-West could make a real living knocking on the doors of good old-fashioned American folk.
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The addition of Danielle was less obvious mind you. From female roller-derby star to burlesque performer and fashion designer, Danielle Colby-Cushman, a Jehovah’s Witness and mother of three, knew nothing of antiques, with the sole exception being her decade-long friendship with Mike Wolfe.
Once the show had been given the green-light for cable TV, Mike Wolfe quickly gave her an acting gig and now plays the role of “office manager” at Antique Archaeology. Sadly, one has to assume that her inclusion is to sell sex, unfortunately she isn’t sexy and no matter how hard the show tries or pretends, no one is buying Danielle’s “junk”. If you’ve ever wondered why she is filmed behind a desk 95% of the time, the picture to the right should explain it. Nothing fake about that. |
[Right] Danielle Colby-Cushman and her giant rear-end.
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Once Mike Wolfe had the production company, the cast and finally The History Channel on board, American Pickers became as scripted as the nightly news. Mike Wolfe and Frank Fitz do not travel in a Mercedes Sprinter for one thing.
Aerial shots of the Antique Archaeology van driving down the interstate are taken in various locations and the staged dialogue between Mike and Frank inside are filmed on set locations. In fact, they don’t even carpool.
Mike and Frank travel in separate vehicles to the various locations along with a cavalcade of set dressing trucks, camera trucks, wardrobe trailers, hair & makeup trailers, etc. They have prior knowledge of the salvaged antiques to be purchased and no actual negotiation has taken place, all of that happens months prior to the filming.
Almost a year ago now, I was approached by Home & Garden television (HGTV) and asked if I would be interested in working for the show Consumed, this is a Canadian alternative to the American show Hoarders. They were looking for someone willing to travel into the country and find interesting people that had an overabundance of junk. They would then contact the people I selected and audition them for the program, I ultimately declined the offer by HGTV.
In this very same way, American Pickers operates. People who work for the production company do the real ‘leg-work’ and source out potential sellers. The production company then auditions them and various items are chosen for sale. A cheque for the item and their appearance on the program is given. At some point, Mike and Frank do the filming on location, which again is entirely staged, they search for nothing, they ‘find’ nothing, this is all done pre-production.
I think it’s fair to say American Pickers is fake.
Does Mike Wolfe actually sell antiques? Yes. In addition to the money paid in salary by The History Channel, American Pickers makes for a great commercial. In the same way Pawn Stars allows Rick Harrison to inflate his merchandise by 300% and Dan Dotson’s Storage Wars promotes his company American Auctioneers; American Pickers allows Antique Archaeology to sell its items at an industry inflated price.
Is it Evil? No. It is America™, the land of corporate greed and deception. I only suggest that you don’t quit your day job in hopes of striking it rich in the world of “picking”, that is…unless you can it sell it to a cable company.
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