Last week, NBC Universal was kind enough to send the Original Prop Blog advance screener copies of the premiere episodes of the new SyFy cable television series “Hollywood Treasure”, featuring Joe Maddalena, Brian Chanes, and the staff of Profiles in History. As such, I thought I would provide my own initial impressions of the reality-based series which follows Joe and his efforts to secure important Hollywood memorabilia for his live auction sale events.
More, some thoughts on how this may impact the hobby at large in the future. I also had an opportunity to ask Joe about this as part of a media conference call round table interview today.My full reviews and details of the content of the episodes will be published on the public air date of the series next week (Wednesday, October 27th on the SyFy channel).
Having reported on Profiles in History since the inception of the OPB, my own reading of the series is obviously going to diverge from the average viewer, as I know Joe and Brian very well and have visited their offices and previewed their auction events regularly over the years.
I was fortunate enough to have witnessed the filming of a segment intended for a future episode of the series while at San Diego Comic Con this Summer. So it is intriguing to have seen the the making of the show, and now preview what is nearly the final product (the screener copies of the episodes I have received for review purposes as described as “rough cuts”).
So without spoiling the episode for those who would like to be surprised by the final product, I will say that I was very impressed with the quality of the production. On a personal level, it was kind of surreal to see principals from Profiles in History as well as hobbyists and others involved in the field “starring” on a television series.
While some in the hobby may dismiss the overall importance of the show for a variety of reasons, I would venture to say that this is the single most significant development in the field since I have been collecting.
One observation I have made again and again is that this business of collecting original props and wardrobe from film and television is a very niche pursuit. As noted in my coverage of San Diego Comic Con of the past several years, even among the most hardcore of pop culture fans at their mecca, displays of such material is often met with confusion… the very concept of what we do is foreign to the masses.
While there have been a variety of significant mainstream media coverage of the hobby over the years – typically revolving around the sale of specific pieces or higher profile sale and auction events – those have been brief and soon forgotten.
One substantial difference with the broadcast of Hollywood Treasure is that there will be faces and voices to associate with the hobby, and explain how it works in a product that is designed for the mainstream.
Just as the people featured on hit shows such as Pawn Stars and American Pickers have become know to casual television viewers, as popularized by their respective programs, so, too will Joe Maddelana and others featured on this series. And as the show finds its audience, consequently, mainstream news outlets will produce coverage of the series and further spread awareness of it and the hobby at large.
This is merely speculation on my part, but I would predict that this will generate significant interest in collection original material from movies and TV, and the hobby will see an influx of new collectors, both casual and more serious-minded, at all “price points”. The excitement of finding and owning something made for a favorite film or television program will spread to new collectors.
The series itself obviously provides Joe Maddalena an amazing amount of power and, consequently, opportunity, to further shape the hobby as the series finds an audience and success. Editorial decisions about what kind of information is presented in each episode can really help to educate the masses, and do so “on the ground floor”, so to say. Any time spent discussing and illustrating the importance of authentication would prove to be a huge benefit to combating fraud in the marketplace. As an example, in the premiere episode, some time is used in the authentication of one of the items, and the concept of “screen-matching” as employed in identifying the key piece featured in the episode.
There are many facets to the hobby that would obviously make entertaining television, from the excitement of finding an important artifact from a production, to negotiating the piece for consignment to an auction, to live floor bidding in competition to win the piece at sale, so I am pleased to see that some valuable learning tools have also found their way into the show.
In any event, it will be exciting, as a hobbyist and third party, to watch from the sidelines and report on these developments over the initial season and beyond to see how it affects the hobby and how the hobby changes and matures.
Click the link below to listen to a recording of today’s media round table conference call featuring a Q&A with Joe Maddalena. Courtesy SyFy and all rights reserved. Length 45 minutes.
Click for Audio Interview: SyFy Hollywood Treasure Roundtable Interview with Joe Maddalena
Jason DeBord