BillyMays.TV Life’s A Pitch, Then You Buy

Sully needs your new product ideas!

On Friday, January 29, 2010, Discovery Channel’s hit show PITCHMEN is offering inventors and innovators the opportunity to present their inventions to the producers and vie for the chance to pitch a product to industry expert and television pitchman Anthony “SULLY” Sullivan. TO ATTEND YOU MUST:

1)Email your name, phone number, photos, drawings, and a brief written description of your invention to: pitchmen2season@yahoo.com

2)Send a DVD of you pitching your product straight to any type of HD video camera by January 27, 2009 to:

Madeline Clark Studios
10852 Burbank Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91601-2508

Further details, including 8 essential product tips, are available at dsc.discovery.com/tv/pitchmen/make-millions/make-millions.html

Billy Mays’ family made a statement in response to the medical examiner’s report, which claims cocaine contributed to Billy Mays’ death. The Mays’ family says the report contains speculative conclusions that are frankly unnecessary.

Billy Mays had a family history of heart disease.

Guest writer Barry Densa wrote a piece published on CopyBlogger entitled, The Billy Mays 5-Step Guide to Easy Selling. The 5 steps are:

1. It must solve a problem
2. It must have mass appeal
3. It must be unique
4. It must offer instant gratification
5. It must be demonstrable

Remember these steps when you’re working on a product, or trying to sell something. Read the full article post, The Billy Mays 5-Step Guide to Easy Selling

Press release from Discovery:

Discovery Channel’s PITCHMEN, the 12-part series that featured the late Billy Mays II and his business partner, Anthony ‘Sully’ Sullivan, will be back for a second season. Because of the success of the series first season, and as a tribute to Mays’ legacy, the show will continue. PITCHMEN, which is produced by Original Productions, a division of Freemantle Media, took viewers behind the curtain into the billion dollar infomercial industry, as Mays and Sullivan helped everyday men and women bring their inventions to the masses. Discovery Channel is developing the format of season two with Mays’ son, Billy Mays III, Anthony Sullivan and Thom Beers, CEO of Original Productions. More information will be announced as it becomes available. A premiere date for season two of PITCHMEN hasn’t yet been set.

In addition, the Pitchmen tribute to Billy Mays will air again on Friday, July 24 at 10PM ET/PT

Billy Mays was laid to rest on Friday. The media seemed to have done a good job covering the events of the past week

TAMPA, Fla. – Billy Mays, the burly, bearded television pitchman known for his boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean, has died. He was 50.

Tampa police said Mays was found unresponsive by his wife Sunday morning. A fire rescue crew pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m.

There were no signs of a break-in, and investigators do not suspect foul play, said Lt. Brian Dugan of the Tampa Police Department, who wouldn’t answer any more questions about how Mays’ body was found because of the ongoing investigation. The coroner’s office expects to have an autopsy done by Monday afternoon.
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Sounds like an interesting Pitchmen tonight…

Billy and Sully take on a revolutionary new windshield wiper and produce an explosive shoot, featuring something called the ‘Bug Bazooka.’ Then the guys get behind a new way to eat breakfast cereal, “The EZ Crunch Bowl.”

The inventor of the EZ Crunch Bowl is Ethan Zohn, from “Survivor: Africa”. I guess he had a lot of time to think being stuck out in the African Savannah.

TampaBay.com talks of the $45,000 GatorBlade infomercial shot, with Billy shooting salvos of live crickets steeped in a reeking stew of mealworms at 100mph, and whether or not the GatorBlade could handle the chore of cleaning it up.

They blew through 3,000 crickets in eight takes. There were malfunctions and a misfire that littered a craft services food table 30 feet away with crickets.

Be sure to catch Pitchmen on Discovery Channel tonight at 10:00.

Billy Mays & Anthony Sullivan will be on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien tonight at 11:35 on NBC. Be sure to tune in, and come back tomorrow to let us know what you thought!

I’m super-busy today, but I wanted to link to the NY Daily News article on the Famed TV pitchman Billy Mays hits NYC for look-alike contest.

Too bad they got the tagline wrong. It’s not “Hi, I’m Billy Mays!” – it’s “Hi, Billy Mays here…”

There’s a new Pitchmen airing this week:

A former pitchman and cancer survivor gets a leg up from Billy and Sully, who cut a spot for his handmade product; Billy engages in the deadliest pitch of his career; and then, the pitch pros are invited to lecture at Princeton.

Who did a better job pitching the Grater Plater? Vote in the sidebar of BillyMays.TV

Billy Mays version:

Anthony Sullivan version:

Vote in the poll on the right –>

Also, let us know what you thought of Billy’s latest Mighty Putty ad – did it sell you?

Catch Pitchmen on the Discovery Channel Wednesday at 10:00pm, or find it on iTunes.

We’ve also added a link (in the footer of the site) to the Sullivan Productions’ Product Submission Page, so if you have a product idea that you think could be featured on Pitchmen, send it to Sully.