''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 show, television and feature film, film, which features Drama (film and television), dramatized Historical reenactment, re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of docu ...

television program 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 that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

in the United States. The show followed infomercial producers and talent Billy Mays and Anthony "Sully" Sullivan as they attempted to sell various inventions through

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

, mainly through

Telebrands BulbHead (formerly known as 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, creati ...

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

Thom Beers Thom Beers (born July 20, 1952) 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 Television, has produc ...

. 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 Billy Mays 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 rollout. The criteria used to judge the acceptability ...

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 were not successful, 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 kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), 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 ...

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' son, Billy Mays III, taking his father's place.Discovery Channel Press Release
br />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 sweet biscuit with high sugar and fat content. Cookie dough is softer than that used for other types of biscuit, and they are cooked longer at lower temperatures. The dough typically contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of ...

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 two 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 9 p.m. 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 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 tributes saluting Mays. The channel's

digital on-screen graphic A digital on-screen graphic, digitally originated graphic (DOG, bug, network bug, or screenbug) 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 ...

featured his photograph, along with the words ''Billy Mays Jr. 19582009''.

References

External links

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