Seeing as Storage Wars is my favourite show on TV, you know I tuned in to the premiere of Storage Wars Texas tonite. Is it just me, or did they intentionally cast the same characters as they found for the flagship program? I’m not suggesting this show is scripted, but they clearly made an effort to find a buncha doppelgangers when deciding who they wanted to follow in the Lone Star State.
Moe Prigoff is definitely this show’s Barry Weiss. A flashy dresser who pulled up to the auction in a slick black Cadillac. Only difference is that while Barry was some guy the producers pulled in to spice up the original, this dude is an antique store owner who knows his shit. I mean, he banked over 12 grand in profits in the premiere. He also seems to like using the word Fabulous. A lot. Yeah, he’s not gay…
Victor Rjesnjansky is clearly the Texas version of Dave Hester. While he doesn’t pull up in a truck with his catch phrase on it, he’s already established himself as this show’s heel. The dude’s from Long Island, and messes with Texas every chance he gets. Plus, according to the A&E website, he owns not one, but two stores. He’s obviously gonna be the guy you love to hate.
(Speaking of which, was I the only one who laughed his ass off when Dave dropped that “antique snuff box” on tonite’s episode of Storage Wars? Nope, didn’t think so!)
Ricky Smith is clearly the ol’ dog of the bunch. Him and his nephew Bubba are the Darrell and Brandon Sheets of this show–supersized, mind you, and crossed with the family from American Hoggers. Hey, everything’s bigger in Texas, right? You can already see a rivalry brewing between these guys and “Slick Vick,” based on some of the back-and-forth we’ve seen tonite. Does Bubba have a Twitter account? (Brandon is the only Storage Wars cast member to follow me back, BTW.)
Finally, Lesa Lewis and Jerry Simpson take on the role of Jarrod and Brandy for the purposes of this program, except that they’re not an interracial couple. Also, the roles seem to be reversed. She’s the impulsive buyer, while he seems to have more common sense. They own a new second-hand store that they need to buy items for, though they came up empty-handed in the premiere. I can already tell that Jerry’s gonna bring some Afro-American sass to this show that the flagship is missing. I’d probably follow him on Twitter, too…
Although the song remains the same with this spinoff, what I find refreshing is that the units aren’t going for an arm and a leg, which allows the bidders to make some big profits. Nowadays, the original Storage Wars is all about feuds and rivalries, with units usually going from 1,500 to 2-grand plus when Dave, Jarrod and sometimes Darrell decide to bust out their wallets. On this version, the units seem to go from 250-500, which allows the lucky winners to pull in Auction Hunters-sized profits, like Moe did this week. I guess everything’s bigger in Texas–except for the unit prices!
