Jonathan Storm: A show for Billy Mays, peerless pitchman

'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 side of the state to shoot a commercial on the east side.

This guy, who got his start in the footsteps of Ed McMahon, hawking stuff on the Atlantic City Boardwalk (the Amazing WashMatik was his first hot product back in 1983) is infinitely more entertaining than Donald Trump, as Americans have seen over and over and over again, for more than 10 years, ever since he started selling Orange Glo on the Home Shopping Network.

We go behind the scenes as he and Sully bicker and make up, shoot commercials, and, in the meat of the show, do their jobs trying to help eager inventors.

"You get to see the business side of Billy Mays, the passion side," he said.

But wait, that loud enthusiasm for the Big City Slider Station mini-burger manufacturing marvel isn't passion?

Pitchmen is not a reality game show, there's no formal competition, just a bunch of pitches to Billy, Sully and Telebrands CEO A.J. Khubani, the godfather of info - er, direct response. Then we get a little personal time with the sometimes-crazy, sometimes-charming inventors.

"I have to give credit to Discovery on this," Billy said. "They were strong on emphasizing the human element."

On last week's premiere, the makers of Impact Gel and the GPS Pal got through the preliminaries that left lots of folks at the starting gate, including the gal with the device that allows women to urinate standing up.

Impact Man wasn't sure he trusted Billy and Sully's marketing know-how, but eventually he came around. And the rest is starting to be history, as thousands of those with aching tootsies who have already bought Impact Gel insoles can attest.

Tonight, a guy comes all the way from Europe to pitch his "dual saw" to the pitchmen, who promise to cut through the clutter and make him some cash.

"Every one of these stories is different," Mays said on the phone, and he was barely shouting. "Every product has a personality behind it. If it's a good product, we can make it work because we've been doing this a long time, and we understand: 'Life's a pitch, and then you buy.' "

Television

Pitchmen

Wednesdays at 10 p.m., Discovery Channel