RIP Billy Mays

I'm totally bummed by the loss of Billy Mays today (Sunday). Here's the link to the story about his death and the statement from the Discovery Channel.

One of my best autographs is from Billy - I was a huge fan of his and the "Pitchmen" show.

My thoughts and prayers are with his family and the Discovery Channel "Pitchmen" team.

If you're on twitter, you can send condolences message to @YoungBillyMays (his son) and Pitchmen teammates @ArwenAnaNg and @KingSully.

Billy Mays Pitchmen Season 1: Episode 2

UPDATE: RIP Billy Mays. Sad to see you go.

After watching the second episode of "Pitchmen," I'm noticing a theme with the series: The chase for the American Dream,!

Two products were highlighted in episode 2:

• Dual Saw by Frederick from France
• Shuffles by Kristen of Tyler, TX

While watching the show I also started a Pitchmen Drinking Game!

• 1 drink every time Billy Mays says his name.
• 5 drinks every time Billy Mays wusses on an Anthony Sullivan idea.

Dual Saw Product Infomercial
The Dual Saw had (by far) the most drama. During Frederick's initial presentation to Billy and Sully, Billy described the product as "demonstrable." Both of the pitchmen liked the can and eggs demo from the French fire fighter so took the product to get tested by some American fire fighters.

While at the fire house, Billy and Sully dressed in fire fighter gear? Why? I have no idea. It didn't seem like they did anything in the outfits. It made no sense to me unless their next product is an Anthony Sullivan Barbie doll with different outfits to mix and match. Here is where Billy Mays proposed the idea of he and Sully doing the infomercial together. The show tried to bill it as a big deal, like Rachel Ray and Martha Stewart combining forces, but this was more like Dan Rather and Connie Chung joining the same desk.

At the producer meeting, Anthony Sullivan had the idea of Billy Mays cutting himself out of a diamond plate box. Great idea! Except, after stepping into the box and Sully warning, "this ain't no box of oxy-clean," Billy wanted no part of it. So our Frenchy Firefighter jumped in.

The crew then picked out a junk yard car to saw in half, but realized halfway through the production that no one drained the old car of fluids. Brilliant move guys. And why not wash and wax it before filming. Come on guys, this isn't amateur hour! In a great twist of irony, Jim, one of the producers had his foot run over by the car. Maybe he should have used the ImpactGel from last week's show!

Shuffles Product Infomercial
Kristen's product wasn't as great a TV hit. It was tested by the Sullivan Castle cleaning crew and received positive results. Dealing with Kristen seemed to have it's own share of stress, but I would act that way too if my life savings was dumped into a product.

Results
I'm finding out that if Billy and Sully call you with results, it isn't good news. But, if Billy and Sully fly you across the Atlantic Ocean, that's probably a good sign. Kristen's Shuffles product wasn't a hit and they called to inform her she'd have to come up with funds if she wanted to continue. Fred the French Fireman flew across the ocean and was greeted with campaign.

I still like the show and I'll keep watching. It airs at 9:00, Wednesdays, on Discovery Channel.

Links

• Episode 1 Recap
• Dual Saw
• Shuffles

Billy Mays Pitchmen Season 1, Episode 1 Review

Update: RIP Billy Mays. Sad to see you go.

My first observation from the intro - Billy has something other than a blue button down shirt! This was the first show of the first season for "Pitchmen" starring Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan.

The 20 minutes of "Pitchmen" focused on choosing which two products would be featured in the show. Billy and Sully went to TeleBrands in N.J. to hear 2 minute demonstrations from:
- A Bottle holder for 5-8 month olds
- Wake-up from sleeping while driving glasses
- GPS Pal

Earlier, Billy and Sully reviewed and began negotiating with ImpactGel. Jim, from GPS Pal, is a cancer survivor with Forrest Gumpisms like "Life is like a flower." You can't help but cheer for the guy, but Billy was skeptical right away with the "wow" factor of GPS Pal which looked like a thermal coffe mug with a top.

The idea is your GPS unit rests on it while sitting in your cup holder. To test the GPS unit, Sully took the product to the streets. He sat with people in their car to test the unit. But no one took their car out of park! How the heck can you test the effectiveness of a car device without putting the car in drive?!

Twenty minutes later after shooting the video and testing price points, Sully concedes - this doesn't have a "wow" factor." Hey Sully - listen to BMays... he could have saved you a lot of time. But I was hoping it would work for Jim, the GPS Pal inventor.

Matt's ImpactGel had it's share of drama. Originally Matt thought the Miami Heat and a 5 or 30 minute infomercial would sell more products. This time Sully to the ImpactGel to a local Lube Center where mechanics jumped around oil changes.

Finally, after Billy referred to Matt and his manager as "yahoos," they agreed to allow them to shoot the infomercial Billy and Sully's way and we had our first Wow Factor on the show!

A key moment of the ImpactGel is the product protecting a hand as a car drives on top of it. This could have a classic Billy Mays moment, but BMays disappointed us. At the last second, Billy backed out and Sully jumped in to serve as a hand model.

Grabbing a blue shirt, Sully added a punch to his man-card and BMays unfortunately wussed out.

The Results of each product's pilot:

• GPS Pal: No longer being offered t looking good. potential w/different price point
• ImpactGel: "Got a winner." It is expected to soon gross $3MM.

I think it's a fun show and I'm looking forward to the next episode.

Billy Mays Discovery Channel "Pitchmen" Starts April 15

Discovery Channel Announced Wednesday, April 1, their new reality TV Show featuring Billy Mays begins April 15.

"Pitchmen" will "go behind the curtain and peek into the world of the clever inventors and the equally clever men who sell their products.." (source)

As you read from my TTM autograph success story, I'm a huge Billy Mays fan! I received the picture here for a co-worker and an autograph baseball for myself. I will blog recaps of every show right here! I know, not sports cards and memorabilia, but it's Billy Mays! Exceptions can be made for BMays!

Great timing on the part of Discovery Channel with the timing of Vince's ShamWow SlapShot with a hooker in south Florida! Pow!

Billy and Sully were on Neil Cavuto's show today. Here's a link:
http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=4118101&referralPlaylistId=playlist