I'm curious...did they pitch the show to someone? How exactly, did this show come to be? Do you know?
If I remember right, about two years ago, they had a link to a web video they had made by a professional production company in Wisconsin. This company films pilot episodes that they pitch to the big networks like Discovery or whoever.
It was a 15 minute or so long video showing them going through a school bus some old guy had stuffed completely full of motorcycles and scooters. Similar to the regular show, but instead of focusing on the humanity story of the owners of the junk, the pilot was just this crazy trip with them pulling treasure out of the woods left and right.
Of course, to get on The History Channel, they had to tie the items to history with a story and sort of give you a personality profile of the people they were dealing with.
Honestly, the first episode made me sort of cringe the way they seemed to be taking advantage of old Leland in northern Iowa. I am WAY too ethical to be in the junker line of work. In fact, I'm one of the best people to buy things from because I feel guilty ripping people off and never send anyone away with my conscience being guilty. That means I'll never make mad money like these two are.
As far as knowing about the show, I think I heard that Discovery had picked them up like a year before it came onto TV. So I think if you have an HD camcorder and some video production skills, you can go submit your idea for TV shows to the networks and perhaps be the next Iowan TV stars.
