American Restoration

I was very pleased when American Restoration spun off of Pawn Stars The concept was thoroughly engaging and became a personal favorite. Its decline in quality was subtle until the dramatic and unessisary introduction of the character Leonard. This was a grave and incredible stumble and prompted me to simply stop watching the show. So strong was my reaction and disappointment it compelled me to write this comment while seeing a re-run. As it evolved the show became less technical and more incredible. Obviously staged scenes attempted to keep the audience engaged. It has instead transitioned to being sad with sarcastic characters and plot lines that are insulting. Simply not true to the original concept. The premise was good, the current execution is unacceptable. You have silenced a positive voice for American Restoration and you've lost at least one more viewer.

I used to love this show as the restoration of antiques is a phenomenal thing to do. However, in the more recent shows, it seems the focus is on the 2 dumb kids that seem to be absolute fools.

Please say it is not so. Could these two boys really be that dumb?

I like seeing the items that are brought to Rick Dale go from old and rusty to new. Its fun learning about things that I never knew existed. Rick Dale seems to know a lot about the things he restores.

I loved the show when it first started. Rick seems like a genuinely nice guy. There was some contrived shtick, but now (2014) it's getting out of hand. They spend less time showing how the work is done and more time on everybody trying to be an inked-up weirdo and phony conflict scenarios. I don't expect the show to view like a PBS craftsman documentary, but I don't know why History has come to believe that everybody enjoys this fake sitcom garbage. They have introduced 3 new cast members, and all their scenarios and hi-jinks seem utterly scripted. I liked it better when his wife was on camera now and then. I think they need to go back to basics and focus on the history of the items and the details of how they are restored. I'm starting to wonder if the work is even done there. I was in shock the other day when a guy was actually demonstrating a lathe. They need more of that! I know reality TV is anything but reality, but this show is getting hard to watch, especially that kid with the two-tone hair that hasn't seemed to mature at all in 5 years. I'd have thought he'd lose that preposterous dye job by season 3. Honestly, everybody trying to be "weird" on History is getting really tedious and dull.

I am a long term electronic service engineer specialized to professional video tape recorders. I do also much restoration work with old radios etc. It is just awful to see how they destroy those nice old things removing every single nuance and original paint they have. Even if the paintwork is really good for its age. They repaint using their own colors which usually are too bright and do not fit to these old beauties. Also they ruin labels and texts when they can't do them right. They use wrong fonts and wrong colors etc. Also they change old, beautiful gears and buttons and other things which made the apparatus look so fine. Why? Did they sell those to real restorers or museums? Also the prices are something ridiculous. I wonder if anybody really has paid those huge sums for that bad job. One of the worst was the Nasa helmet they totally ruined.