''PitchMen'' (original name: ''But Wait...There's More'')"All-New Discovery Series Celebrates the Ingenuity of Inventors and the Art of Selling Their Products – "BUT WAIT… THERE’S MORE" (wt) Premieres in Spring 2009"
Retrieved July 12, 2009 is a

docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typic ...

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...

produced for the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

in the United States. The show followed infomercial producers and talent

Billy Mays William Darrell Mays Jr. (July 20, 1958 – June 28, 2009) was an American television direct-response advertisement salesperson. Throughout his career, he promoted a wide variety of products, including OxiClean, Orange Glo, Kaboom, ...

and Anthony "Sully" Sullivan as they attempted to sell various inventions through

direct-response marketing Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as ''direct response marketing''. B ...

, mainly through

Telebrands Telebrands is an American direct response marketing company, and the original creator of the "As Seen On TV" logo and category of trade. History The company's CEO A. J. Khubani started the company in 1983, creating print advertisements for h ...

, one of the largest direct response/infomercial companies. The series was narrated by

Thom Beers Thom Beers (born July 20, 1952 in Batavia, New York) is an American television producer and narrator/voice-over artist. Career Beers, a former producer and executive with Turner Broadcasting System, Turner Broadcasting and Paramount Syndicated T ...

. Each episode typically focused on two different products."Pitchmen: About the Show"
Retrieved April 25, 2009 – July 1, 2009

History

Each episode typically begins with

and Anthony Sullivan being pitched different products by their inventors. Two products are then selected and are field tested with peoples' opinions gathered on the products. If successful in the field test, Billy and Sully would create an infomercial which is then produced and played in

test market A test market, in the field of business and marketing, is a geographic region or demographic group used to gauge the viability of a product or service in the mass market prior to a wide scale roll-out. The criteria used to judge the acceptabilit ...

s after which the inventors are notified of the amount of success that the commercial generated. For products that generated a successful level of consumer interest, high praise is given by Billy and Sully. For products that did not fare as well, the inventor is notified, and the future of the product is discussed briefly including the possibility of collaboration on tweaking the commercial for a later airing date. It was unknown whether or not the series would continue following Mays' death on June 28, 2009.TV pitchman Billy Mays found dead in Tampa home
. Tampa Bay Online, 2009-06-28. The Discovery Channel ran an all day

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

of episodes on July 1 as a tribute, which concluded with the season finale, itself edited to end with a tribute to Mays. On July 9 a special tribute episode entitled "Pitchman: A Tribute to Billy Mays" aired with comments from friends, co-workers and family. The status of the second season was undecided until July 15, when a press-release was put out by Discovery to announce that the show would be renewed for a second season, with Mays' eponymous son taking his late father's place.Discovery Channel Press Release

Please note that you ''must'' follow the subsequent steps to access this page. Otherwise you will receive an error message. *(1) First go to http://press.discovery.com/. (you must have

cookies A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, nuts ...

enabled) *(2) Select your region and choose Discovery Channel from the selection list. Press "Continue". *(3) Now go to th
Discovery Channel Press Release
"Breaking News – SECOND SEASON OF DISCOVERY CHANNEL'S PITCHMEN IS A GO"
Retrieved July 15, 2009 The second season premiered on August 19, 2010 with solely Anthony Sullivan starring in commercials. Sully sometimes brings in others to help him decide with product such as Telebrands CEO AJ Khubani. However, without Billy Mays on the show, PitchMen was cancelled after 2 seasons.

Episodes

Season 1: 2009

''Pitchman: A Tribute to Billy Mays''

Season 2: 2010-2011

On July 15, 2009, Discovery Channel announced they were renewing the show for a second season, with Mays' eponymous son Billy Mays III joining Anthony Sullivan and

. The second season premiered on August 19, 2010. Starting September 2, 2010, Discovery Channel has removed ''Pitchmen'' from its regular Thursday night at 9pm slot without any explanation. However, new episodes returned to Discovery Channel beginning January 18, 2011 but with only Anthony Sullivan helming the show. But on its website, Discovery Channel has trimmed the list of season 2 episodes to five, indicating the possibility the series has been cancelled, although no official cancellation announcement has been made.

Billy Mays tribute marathon

On July 1, 2009, as a tribute to the late Billy Mays, the Discovery Channel aired an all-day

of ''PitchMen'' leading up to the show's season finale. Commercial breaks during the marathon included one of several brief montages saluting Mays. The channel's

digital on-screen graphic A digital on-screen graphic, digitally originated graphic (DOG, bug, or network bug) is a watermark-like station logo that most television broadcasters overlay over a portion of the screen area of their programs to identify the channel. They are ...

featured his photograph, along with the words ''Billy Mays Jr. 1958–2009''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pitchmen Discovery Channel original programming 2009 American television series debuts 2011 American television series endings Infomercials