Some pickin’ and grinnin’, but it ain’t the real thing

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/04/2011 (5651 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When collectors and antique dealers assess the value of an item, a lot of attention is paid to whether it’s an original or a reproduction.

So the treasure-hunting travellers at the heart of the new homegrown History series Canadian Pickers must be fully aware that some viewers will consider their show a cheap domestic knockoff of a sought-after import.

It might not feel like an entirely fair evaluation, but as a Canuck-flavoured spinoff of the popular U.S.-cable series American Pickers, that’s the hard truth Canadian Pickers is up against.

The U.S. version, which premiered last year, follows Iowa-based antique brokers Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz as they travel around the American Midwest (and occasionally into farther-flung outlying states) in their oversized Mercedes Sprinter van in search of valuable junk and modestly priced treasures they can “pick” for resale profit.

Business partners Wolfe and Fritz (of Antique Archaeology) have an easy chemistry, based on a friendship that dates back to junior-high school, and the territory they cover in search of baubles and bargains seems to have no shortage of “stuff” — stuffed farmyards, warehouses and out-buildings.

American Pickers is driven by the duo’s personalities, but its appeal also depends on the way they interact with the collectors and hoarders they encounter while they’re on the road.

Canadian Pickers (which debuts tonight at 9 on History) seeks to follow the same game plan, but the relationship between the series’ stars is a bit contrived (Sheldon Smithens actually works in the antiques/auction field, while friend and “partner” Scott Cozens is a full-time lawyer who dabbles in the picking biz), and the pair’s travels across Canada’s vast expanse are a reality-TV exercise rather than an ongoing business pursuit.

In the first couple of episodes, which were provided for preview, the Calgary-based team sticks fairly close to home, navigating (sometimes not all that successfully) the back roads and small towns of rural Alberta in search of deals and discoveries. According to the show’s press materials, subsequent instalments will take them on a coast-to-coast pick-trip.

Unlike American Pickers, however, this new series doesn’t seem to find many private properties that are jammed with clutter and curiosities, and whose owners are eager to unload their piled-high items. Instead, Smithens and Cozens find themselves mostly in the company of folks who are collectors and/or dealers themselves, meaning the deals are harder to negotiate and the owners aren’t nearly as eccentric or extreme as those in the U.S. original.

It’s fun to watch, and will definitely be a welcome home-cooked addition to the viewing schedules of folks who enjoy American Pickers, Pawn Stars, Storage Wars and their bargain-obsessed ilk, but there’s something about Canadian Pickers that feels a bit forced — as if (and this seems very much to be the case) the format came first and the characters were simply pieces that were added during assembly.

There’s nothing wrong with Canadian Pickers, and there’s also nothing wrong with choosing to add it to your couchbound collection. But it isn’t an original, no matter how hard the folks selling it try to pitch it as one.

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca

Canadian Pickers

Featuring Scott Cozens and Sheldon Smithens

Tonight at 9

History Television