The wife & I took a shine to “American Pickers” back when it started.

You know the show where two guys from Iowa hit up roadside junk shops & sunken barns, buying crazy, old-timey stuff to resell in their shop?

Honestly, we still think the whole idea is kickass. Weezy really digs the retro picks they wind up on. And I have my own reasons for watching, I guess.

Guh-rowl.

But now that we’re knee-deep into the 3rd season, they’ve fallen into the same pattern as most “reality shows” these days.

I regret that most of the scenes in “American Pickers” are so horribly staged that it’s almost embarrassing.  

Basically it’s turned into what “Pawn Stars” quickly became soon after it premiered.

Or what “Comic Book Men” was (unabashedly) right out of the gate.

I guess this was inevitable. When my cousin Aiden stopped into the Twin Cities with his band, he gave me the lowdown about Antique Archeology. 

Being an Iowan & all, he even had some scuttlebutt about my gal Danielle.

So, I guess as usual there’s absolutely no reality in “reality” TV. But that doesn’t make it sting any less when Frank is hamfistedly scripted to be surprised when he’s found in Sturgis.