What’s this show called … Pawn Stars?

I’m generally not a ratings chaser, but Brett’s been displaying an unusual amount of goodwill toward a little-known History Channel show called Pawn Stars lately, and I decided to see what all the fuss was about. Over six million people continue to tune in week after week, knowing full well that they haven’t just misheard the word “porn” … so what’s the hubbub, bub?

It might be worth keeping the following in mind, as I did when tuning in to the latest back-to-back episodes of Pawn Stars: Frasier, Niles, and Martin Crane were all fans of “The Antique Roadshow” … clearly something about the subject transcends stereotypes.

Each half hour episode features a number of different items, brought to the pawn shop by various ordinary Americans like you and me. While the opportunity to pawn their goods is always offered, the people that I saw were all looking to make a little change from found treasures, junk taking up space in their homes, or things they thought would sell for the fortunes they’d seen others make on similar items.

The store is run by three generations of Harrisons — The Old Man, Rick the son, and “Big Hoss,” the youngster. And they’re joined by Hoss’ childhood friend, Chumlee, the regular butt of many jokes. The four seem to make for an interesting character mix, and my guess is that watching the show in the long-term provides viewers with a pretty good perspective on these guys.

I saw a bunch of different stuff come into the shop in the two episodes that I watched. There were the three Kennedy letters, constituent correspondence that, in the end, had been signed by a bunch of auto-pens leaving them worthless. It was funny how everyone kept referring to the brothers as “JFK, RFK … and Ted Kennedy.” Is Teddy’s EMK not good enough?

There was the old-fashioned Coca Cola chest used on airplanes which the owner received $100 for, one quarter of what he was looking for. And the Mickey Mouse phone collection, hawked by a guy who needed to make room for his girlfriend’s shoes (“And you got a girlfriend?”). He walked off with only $275 of the $375 he wanted … and Chumlee got to screw with The Old Man by having all the phones ring in the office.

Understanding that the shop has to be able to resell these items, at times it felt like the professionals were trying to screw some of the helpless saps who walked through their door. They may be experts, but the values they assigned to items, and then the profit margins they inferred when making offers, was crazy at times. Like the huge Transformers collection, the owner of which needed to make room for his newly arriving baby, valued at $20,000 that Rick offered first five, and finally ten thousand dollars for. Or the authentic, autographed Apollo 16 Flag (how can they confirm that it’s a “flown flag?”), a similar item having recently sold for almost $24K, that Rick offered the lady $3,500 for. What?

But in just two episodes I saw some crazy cool stuff. There was the Salvador Dali edition “Alice in Wonderland,” all beautiful, original artwork (the owner passed on $5K), the Civil War musket (re-stocking explained the mint condition, and lowered the passed offer to $700, still only half the value), the arcade game egg-laying machine not worth anywhere near the desired $2,500 (but still cute), and the original “Li’l Abner” and “Dick Tracy” comic strip art — why’d the owner accept half of his desired $4,000? And how are his mortgage payments in Rome all of $500 a month?

Which isn’t to say that there wasn’t junk, too. The “antique” razor worth $50 (the guy’s flub made it worth it — “You know what? I get to take my girl, uh, wife for dinner tonight, so … I’ll do it.” Hope the wife wasn’t watching), or the Super Bowl pins that made $40.

I don’t know how many of you got too bored to get this far, but I’ll tell those of you still here with me this: Pawn Stars is an unexpectedly engrossing show. I’m not into the subject matter enough to season pass it, or even to necessarily seek it out again, but if I was ever flipping channels, looking for something to occupy me, and I came across it, I don’t know that I wouldn’t tune in. Whether it’s the quest for millions, the interesting pieces of history, or the characters, there’s something that’s just very enjoyable about this series.

I definitely see why it’s pulling in millions of viewers every week.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jul 19, 2010 @ 13:30 EST5EDT