Jonathan Storm: A show for Billy Mays, peerless pitchman

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, April, 2009 | by Jonathan Storm Inquirer Columnist

'Hi! Billy Mays here for" . . . well, for Billy Mays.

The ubiquitous purveyor of Kaboom! and Orange Glo cleaners, Mighty Putty and the Swiffer SweeperVac - not to mention the Awesome Augur, Ding King auto dent remover, and, of course, Lint-B-Gone - now has his own real TV show.

Pitchmen  (Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on cable's Discovery Channel) features Billy and his partner Sully (Anthony Sullivan). We get to watch as they put real products into the infomercial (Call it "direct response," please. It's a respectable business) pipeline and maybe make some inventors rich.

"It can get a little rough-and-tumble," Billy said on his cell phone yesterday as he was driving across Florida from his big, beautiful (and, on the show, suspiciously immaculate) abode on the west...