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Now from here the story gets a bit different depending on which “Pawn Star” tells it, but since Rick owns the website we are going with his account. Rick had always sought out any type of media exposure for the shop, local news, cable TV shows, etc. And it got him thinking how great it would be to have a reality TV show. So he pitched the idea to network, after network, after network.

Finally he got a crew from Leftfield productions to shoot a “sizzle reel,” a test episode used to sell the idea to TV execs. There was one problem, they could only film on a Saturday and a crucial character had weekends off, The Old Man. Rick pleaded with his father to come down to the shop on his day off to film, but the Old Man was not having it yelling, “RICK! YOU ARE NEVER GETTING A DAMN TV SHOW!” But the salesman wasn’t relenting and finally the old sailor agreed to come in.

Fast forward to the offices of History channel, they are meeting with one of the junior programming managers to screen the sizzle reel. They go to play the reel but the DVD player was broken! So they go down the hall asking if anyone can lend them a DVD player. Sure enough the VP of programming, the top of the food chain making decisions on new shows, beckoned them down to the corner office. They played the reel, the VP loved it and “Pawn Stars” was born.