“Antiques Roadshow” turned the curiosity everyone sometimes has over the value of junk in the attic into a national obsession. Suddenly, people with faded Picasso reproductions or impressions of The Last Supper with a plastic hook on the rear turned up in art galleries hoping they had the real deal. Could that Man with Golden Helmet on cardboard be an actual Dutch Master? “I saw something that looked like it on the Internet…”
The most entertaining television in wake of Roadshow is “Pawn Stars,” featuring Las Vegas\' Gold & Silver Pawn Shop. Its owners, three generations of the Harrison family, are a black-clad clan who look as if they roadied for Johnny Cash on his final tour. Granpa Harrison has the stolid, unsmiling mien of a man who suffers fools only for their money and his son, although amiable enough, strikes the eye as a tough opponent in a bar fight. Little wonder most costumers don\'t argue too much with these guys over prices. “One hundred dollars—and we let you live,” one half expects them to say on a bad day.
Although they seem to know many things, the Harrisons, whose well-lit, handsomely appointed store bares no resemblance to the dingy pawn shops of old, will often consult professional appraisers with specialized knowledge. That gold Spanish coin? “Yes sir, it\'s the real deal; no, I\'m not giving you the $18,000 I could sell it for. You\'re taking ten—OK, eleven.”
“Pawn Stars: Volume 3” is out on DVD as is “American Pickers: Volume 2,” which follows two guys who sally forth in their truck to the junkyards of our land, inevitably unearthing someone\'s idea of treasure amid the rust and dust.
