Rita Arens:
How ever did you get the word out to The History Channel about what you were doing? Did you go to them or did they come to you?
Mike Wolfe:
I pitched the show for four and a half years and learned a lot in that time frame. It started out because I traveled a lot by myself, having all these amazing experiences with people and their collections. I wanted a way to share that, so I bought a video camera and put it on my dash and started talking into it.
I would approach people just like I would without the camera. After I'd been on the property for a while, I'd ask them if they'd mind filming me while I was picking through their stuff. They'd be kind of laughing about it, and I'd have to say, "Do you mind not laughing so much? Because I can't edit that out."
A local younger guy had a company called Crazy Eyes Productions. I brought him my tapes, and he put together a three-minute piece. We started making these videos, and I'd post them on my website. This went on for four and a half years.
People told me I needed to write a treatment before I started pitching the idea to networks. I contacted a production company in Washington, D.C., and they wanted to bring it to the market. I made sure I kept in contact with anyone they pitched, kept myself involved. The production company really didn't take it anywhere. Everyone liked my tapes, but they didn't know what to do with it.
And a lot of people kept telling me they didn't think anyone was going to watch a show about collectibles.
The only thing that kept me going was that everyone I ever showed it to loved it. And it was out on the web, so we were starting to get some grassroots followers online.
I had made all these tapes with incredible moments of discovering things, but there was no format to the show. A woman at TLC who I kept in contact with made it happen. She did Flip This House, which was the first home improvement show. She introduced to me the importance of format -- we had all the leaves and no tree. I made a full show, 26 minutes, and I sent it to her. And then she said we nailed it and it was going to be on the air.
Her network didn't take it, but The History Channel bought it within a week. It was the first time History had ever bought a show without a pilot.
RA:
How long does it take to film one episode?
MW:
Fourteen days to make 44 minutes. It's a lot more work than I ever thought it would be. Yesterday we started at 8 a.m. and got done around 8:30 p.m. It's not like everything is filmed in one location -- this is like travel, travel, travel. Now we're doing two weeks on and two weeks off so we can take care of business back home and have a bit of a rest.
Read the rest of the interview here:
Rita Arens authors Surrender Dorothy and is the editor of Sleep is for the Weak. She is BlogHer's assignment and syndication editor.
Antique Archaeology is tucked away in the historic Mississippi River town of 