Mike Wolfe - American Picker Newsletter

Mike, Frank & Danielle
- American Pickers

When you're a picker, and you're on the road for days on end, you experience many amazing things. Whether it's the people you meet or the items you find, it's all about the journey. After a road trip, I would come home with a van full of roadside relics, killer stories about the people that owned these items and the places I traveled to. I wanted to give the pieces and the people I came across a voice. That's why I picked up a camera 5 years ago and began the journey that led me to where I am today.

I can remember being excited about traveling with my new camera, shooting everything and anybody I thought was cool. After a while, I had accumulated hours and hours of tape and started my search for someone to do the editing. That person was Justin Anderson from Crazy Eyes Productions. He was a 24-year-old talented guy eager to do something special. We cut a reel and I was off to the races.

Check out some earlier videos here

Next, I got busy writing a treatment for the show. Frank and I had

The Early Videos on YouTube

already been picking together for years. My friend Danielle began working at the Antique Archaeology shop. She was the perfect fit. All the pieces for the idea were beginning to fall into place. After I registered the treatment with the Writers Guild, I began contacting any production company that would listen.

To my surprise all of them loved my project but didn't feel it was worthy of a television show. They felt the collectibles category wasn't hot enough to pitch. Still, I never gave up. I kept filming, editing and posting my videos over the web. After 4 ½ years of doing this, I met an amazing woman named Sarah that was an executive producer for a major network. Sarah gave me advice, encouragement, and hope with all of her kind words. If it weren't for this encounter, I really feel my project would never have seen the light of day.

Finally, in 2009, I was introduced to Cineflix Productions, the company that now produces American Pickers. They immediately saw the potential of the idea. So Cineflix met Frank and I in New York and filmed us for three days. Three days of filming to create a smoking hot 3-minute trailer to pitch to the cable networks. This time things took off... right away!

American Pickers on HISTORY

We showed it to HISTORY and they snapped it up. The proof of concept was there. It was the first time the network had bought a show without a pilot. We began filming in September 2009 and the rest is history. We are now the #1 rated new show in the channel's history.

As for the title, when I first started pitching the show I wanted to call it Antique Archaeology after my business in Le Claire, Iowa. The production companies that I came across told me to lose the word antique in the title because no one would watch my reel with the word antique in. So after much brainstorming, I came up with the name American Pickers. That's what we do. We pick America. But it's really about the picker in all of us. It just made sense. Done.

So that's the story. Through all the miles of junk, the amazing people, and a lot of tears, this American Picker was born.

God bless all of you. Long live rust!