The Untold Truth Of Pawn Stars Do America

"Pawn Stars Do America" has been a great opportunity for everyone's favorite pawn shop employees to travel the country and see new things. The show has allowed fans to bring in items that they normally wouldn't travel with all the way to Las Vegas. It's also allowed Rick, Chumlee, and Corey to dedicate whole days to sifting through items in new towns, which they normally wouldn't have enough time to do.

In a 2022 Looper exclusive interview with Chumlee, he pointed out that even though "Do America" is a big change of pace for the show, it's not entirely outside of the typical "Pawn Stars" wheelhouse. "We have traveled many times throughout the years to do road deals," he said. Long-time fans of the original series can probably remember some of the rare occasions when the gang has needed to leave their home base for particularly exciting items.

In the 2020 episode "A Dam Good Road Trip," Rick went on the road to check out his dream car, and along the way, he got to see some unusual things like a mechanical roper that professionals use to train their horses for roping cattle. More recently, in "Monumental Pawn," Rick set out from the shop to take a look at a 1966 Chevy II. "Pawn Stars Do America" has let Rick and the others spend more time eyeballing really unique finds that they might never have seen in Vegas.

Taking the show on the road for an extended period of time was a big change of pace for "Pawn Stars," and you might imagine that touring the country would expose the stars to all sorts of items that they'd never seen before. After all, people living in Florida or Massachusetts have to be holding onto very different antiques and collectibles than people living in Nevada, right? That's an easy assumption to make, but in reality, the biggest change for the stars of the show might have been the travel itself.

"We did see a lot of cool stuff on the road, but not very much that we haven't seen before," Chumlee said in a 2022 interview with Looper. He explained that being both in Las Vegas and hugely popular on TV means that their store sees plenty of items that a typical pawn shop wouldn't. After decades of working in Rick's store, Chumlee and the others have seen almost everything there is to see.

That's not to say there weren't some regional differences that were exposed in the new series. "When you're in the South, you have a little bit of different stuff than the rest of the area, because it's been around so much longer," Chumlee said. The gang might have been able to recognize most of the antiques they were being shown, but certain areas definitely brought in a larger volume of items than they were used to getting.

Rick Harrison may be used to seeing rare antiques and collector's items on a daily basis, but there's one part of his life that he still hasn't fully adjusted to. The original "Pawn Stars" debuted in 2009, and over the past decade and a half, it's exploded in popularity. These days, Rick's as famous as any other major television star, but he still feels like an ordinary pawn shop owner.

"The fame thing is kind of crazy," Rick told The Inside Reel. He said that he's been recognized in different places all over the world, and now "Pawn Stars Do America" is putting him in front of crowds of people who know him as a star day after day. Everywhere he goes, people call out his name, and he doesn't have any idea if it's a crew member trying to get his attention or a fan hoping for a picture and an autograph. "That's kind of weird, but I deal with it," he said. "It's fun."

Rick, Chumlee, and Corey enjoy spending time together, but their cross-country travel for "Pawn Stars Do America" doesn't feel like much of a vacation. Rick has said that between working on the show and doing some other jobs, he racked up 160 nights in hotels in 2023 alone. That's nearly half the year spent away from home and constantly jet-lagged. You might think that getting to explore new cities across the country helps make up for some of that road time, but the guys have fewer opportunities for sightseeing than you might think.

"Sometimes it is hard, especially when you have equipment problems and are on set for 14 hours," Rick told TV Insider. More often than not, instead of searching for local hotspots after a long day of filming, he ends up back in his room ordering in or eating dinner at the hotel bar. After multiple marathon filming days, he's off to the next city.

That said, don't feel too bad for Rick just yet. He's a self-described workaholic, and it doesn't sound like he's looking to get out of the business anytime soon. In that same interview, he said, "My kids are always asking, 'Dad, when are you going to retire?' You know how nuts I would be if I ever retired." He's working his dream job, and if that means spending plenty of nights on the road, then it's all worth the tradeoff.

Rick Harrison has said that he didn't have much of a role in planning "Pawn Stars Do America." For the most part, he just went where the showrunners wanted to go. But there was one stop along the road that he insisted on making. The Season 1 finale, "Sweet Carolina," takes Rick, Chumlee, and Corey to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and even though none of them had ever spent much time in the city before that episode, it actually had a huge role to play in all of their lives.

Rick's father, Richard "Old Man" Harrison had a huge role to play on "Pawn Stars" for most of the show's run. He sadly died in 2018, but his influence is still felt on the show to this day. The Old Man was actually born in Winston-Salem, so in a roundabout way, the whole "Pawn Stars" story really begins there. Rick himself was born in Lexington, which isn't all that far from Winston-Salem, but he spent very little time in the area when he was younger. "Sweet Carolina" acts as both a homecoming for Rick and a touching memorial for his father.

The stars of "Pawn Stars Do America" have noticed some regional differences in the types of antiques and collectibles that they see across the country. But in many ways, their various trips have also taught them that people throughout the United States have more in common than they might think. Most of what they've encountered has been similar to the types of items they see in their regular shop, and there's at least one thing they've found in every city in America. We're talking, of course, about Pokémon cards.

The market for collectible cards just keeps growing, and Pokémon seems to be a particular favorite. Ironically, this is one of the few areas where Rick doesn't really have any expertise. "Anything new – a video game, a Pokémon card, or anything like that – don't ask me anything about that," Rick said in an interview with Screen Chatter. "If it's older stuff, I know about it."

Luckily, as Rick acknowledged in that same interview, Chumlee has taken it upon himself to go to all kinds of comic and card conventions to really learn about the market. He's the shop's resident trading card expert. Chumlee has said that he's always excited to take a look at cards in new cities, and occasionally, he's even stumbled across something truly rare and valuable, like an uncut sheet of first-edition Machamp cards.

"Pawn Stars Do America" has already proven that taking "Pawn Stars" on the road is something that can really work, and that makes the prospect of an international version of the show all the more appealing. "Pawn Stars" already has an audience in places all over the globe, so it might not be all that hard to get people to show up to convention halls in foreign countries the way they have been all across the U.S.

Ultimately, it's up to History and the stars of the show to take the series further out into the world. At least one star is excited by the idea. In his Looper interview, which took place during the first season of "Do America," Chumlee said that he hoped he'd get the chance to work on an international version of the series. He said there hadn't been any real discussion of the idea at that point, but he thought that the popularity of "Do America" might help to get those talks started.

Just as Season 2 was beginning, Rick spoke with TV Insider about the potential for an international series, and he sounded much less enthusiastic about it. "People have talked about it, but I think logistics would be a nightmare," he said. Rick already spends a huge amount of his time on the road, so he's less ready to sign on to the idea. But, as longtime fans already know, if Chumlee really wants something, there's a decent chance he can talk Rick into it.