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American Pickers

tornado

tornado

New member
anyone else seen this show on History Channel??
I like the show and like a lot of people, I used to even do some of that stuff back in college and even sold some stuff we picked out in the middle of nowhere and helped pay my way thru college...

........but a friend who is also a business "client" just told me the entire "Pickers" crew had just come to his giant building and warehouse in Varna, IL and spent the whole afternoon filming a show and buying lots of stuff.
I can tell you more, but watch on Aug. 9 (tentative show date subject to poss. delays)..and you'll see the whole "pickers' crew come to Central IL (it's actually several trucks, personnel, and equipment that you never see - plus it's all scripted such that even the "real people" are pretty much told exactly what to say and how to "act"!)
 
Cool.

Before opening the thread (guessing a BU item connection) I wondered if they 'picked' Thome's "trough"
 
I'm not 100% sure, but I think the guy who does the show is a UNI grad. (insert UNI/hick/Frostbite Falls jokes here) :)
 
The American Pickers episode that was shot in Central Illinois is supposed to be on this coming Monday..
I cannot guarantee that as the network decides, but that's what the people in the episode have been told.....
 
well, they were in Central Illinois and even dealt and bought some Route 66 memorabilia...
but the segment showing the Pickers in Varna just north of Peoria was not in last night's episode...
I was told that the cutting and editing nearly always prevents them from knowing much in advance
when the episode will show any particular location.
 
I knew a kid in junior high that was basically an extra in an episode of ER. He ended up filming a part where he was prominently featured and may have said a few words. He told a few people at school and soon everyone knew. Then the episode came and went without anything. He was taken to task at school by all the kiddies calling him a liar, etc. His part got cut from the show..but he ended up showing up in a later episode that they used some of the film from when he was just walking along the street in Chicago with a bunch of people. By then no one cared.
 
BUBrave28 said:
I knew a kid in junior high that was basically an extra in an episode of ER. He ended up filming a part where he was prominently featured and may have said a few words. He told a few people at school and soon everyone knew. Then the episode came and went without anything. He was taken to task at school by all the kiddies calling him a liar, etc. His part got cut from the show..but he ended up showing up in a later episode that they used some of the film from when he was just walking along the street in Chicago with a bunch of people. By then no one cared.
Click to expand...

That's pretty standard for film and TV. In fact, in movies, entire story lines can change by removing entire characters.

I once attended a filming of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and they shoot 2 to 2 1/2 hrs for approximately 36 minutes of program to air. I imagine for a show like pickers they have the cameras rolling at all times because moments can occur at any time, and for the 10 minutes at a particular place they show, it was probably 4-5 hours at that location if not longer.

When Glee held its casting call here a few months back it was for a part as one of dozens in a mass-dance sequence. Mad Men is doing a similar thing through Banana Republic, but it will likely be for something similar to what you highlight above. . .probably one of hundreds who will be walking down a NYC street. Or a set designed to look like a NYC street.
 
Last night was the segment where they were right in Central Illinois and bought some stuff from "Ken" who I know and have done business with in Varna, IL... The scene portrays the Pickers as "stumbling" onto Ken's place as they are doing some "freestyling" -- or just randomly looking for stuff to pick,
but in reality, they had called Ken - a fellow antique dealer that they had all known each other for more than 20 years, and told him well in advance that they were coming, sent an advance crew, coached him on what to say and what was going to be done, then showed up with a multi-truck filming crew and spent the whole day there shooting and filming.
In the end they bought $6500 of Ken's antiques and stuff, but the segment as shown made it look like they dig for a while and only bought a couple pictures, two chairs, and a bike.

They had edited a lot of the stuff out from what Ken told me and the segment was only about 10-12 minutes,
but the guys on the show, the Pickers, seem overly obsessed with bikes and motorcycles and spend 1/2 the show
talking about various cycle talk, but there were numerous views showing the grain elevators and streets of Varna and of Washburn....anyone else see anything familiar?
 
I just bumped into yet another guy who has been visited by the "American Pickers" guys and crew...sort of a coincidence...
He's a guy I know thru my business who I generally will only see maybe once every 2-3 years -- but he lives about an hour north of Peoria and has a warehouse full of old motorcycles, parts, and other junk....dating back 50 years.
He says he spent a couple hours with the Pickers and crew but that his footage has never yet been used although they ended up not buying a thing as he loves all the same stuff Mike & Frank love about cycles, and was unwilling to part with much!
 
they dug through a long-closed variety store (five-and-dime) in Washington, IL....
I have heard from someone who has familiarity that as always the huge bulk of what was stashed in the long-closed store was without much value, but for the sake of efficiency in filming and for the sake of drama & interest - the show is filmed with certain items "planted" so that Mike & Frank will appear to find some rare gems that they can discuss or mention detail.
Most viewers are fooled into thinking the show is filmed as the "Picking" is actually going on LIVE, but unfortunately that would be a HUGE waste of time & money since 99% of the digging yields nothing but worthless junk.
So pretty much everything is staged with an "advance crew" coming in days earlier to identify what might be of interest and stage what then looks like, on camera, to be actual real-time picking going on.

One other item mentioned in the internet "teaser" info is that they find a frame for an old hot rod...that should be interesting
 
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