Hodgetwins Podcast - PODCAST CLIP | It Took YEARS For Rick Harrison To Get "Pawn Stars" On TV...

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

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Yeah. Were you born here in Vegas? No, I was born in North Carolina. We're both two out to Vegas. Well, a long story, but, you know, so my dad was in the Navy, and so we got transferred to San Diego. We were there until 81 when I was 16, you know, when interest rates, you know, a Democrat was in office.

I love San Diego when I was down, though. Yeah, so, yeah, interest rates with like 21. percent, so we went broke. So we, we, we, we, we, we, we just races, 21 percent. Oh, yeah, a home loan is 21 percent in 1980. Wow. Yeah. And, you know, so we moved to the land of milk and honey.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we're rich from from Virginia, Martinsville. I'm not sure. I think I've been in Lexington, North Carolina. How far is it from Eat, North Carolina? Well, Lexington North is Barbecue Capital in the world. Yeah, we've been there.

We played a basketball day. Basketball game, I was kids, yeah. Lexington. Yeah, that city. Yeah. I remember Lexington, Oklahoma. Yeah. Damn, I can't get over to 21% interest. Yeah, yeah, that's how much, yeah. That's how bad Jimmy Carter fucked up the economy.

They have Democrats are roofless, huh? Who the hell can afford a home at 21% interest rates? No, what? My dad was in the real estate business. I like, yeah. So he went back up and got moved to Vegas. Moved to Vegas and started a little buy-and-sell shop on the street. your dad started that or y'all started to go?

He had a little buy and sell shop but then when I was 23. So we both wanted to get a pawn shop. Okay. So, you know, as a cocky 22-year-old, everyone was telling me, it's like, it's going to cost you, you got to wait for someone to die and it's going to cost you a million dollars for a license. Really? And I was like, that's fucking bullshit.

And, you know, because I'm a cocky 22-year-old. Why did it cost so much to have a license? Well, so in 195, the good old boys got to. together. And they wrote a city ordinance saying they'd issue one more pond license when the city population got to a quarter of a million. Only 25,000 people lived in Vegas at the time. Wow. So, you know, so when I'm 22, I got on a city business license. They tell me this. I'm like, well, damn, it's got to be close. So I started call up the city statistician every couple weeks. And I think it was like April of 88. He says, yeah, we think it's a quarter of a million

now. So like as a cocky 23 year old, I went down there. So I know I'm the first one here. give me the license. Right. Because even back then, I mean, you had to wait for someone to like die and then they'd sell the license for like a million bucks. Okay.

So I sued the city. Judge says he was the first one there. And the law says the pawn license, the 195 law said a pawn license is 50 bucks. It's 50 bucks. Hmm. Wow. So the last pawn license in Vegas just sold for $3 million.

$3 million? Yeah. It's a lucrative business in this town. Right. Yeah. Like Vegas is a special place for pawn shops, right? Well, yeah, I mean, it's like, that was the first 24-hour pawn shop of the United States. So, like, you know.

Would y'all get the idea to open up a pawn shop? Oh, no, because we were buying and selling stuff, but all the money's in the pawn shop. No one wants to sell their shit. They want to borrow money against their shit. Trust me, I know. Because I used to pawn shit all the time. Never had the money to go get it back. Yeah, so we got the pawning.

Didn't have a lot of money to start. There was a lot of struggling, but then, you know, and most people don't know this, but almost all the pawn shops in the United States are owned by big corporations. Didn't know that. Cash America, I think,'s got like 2,000 locations and like Easy Corp and all the... So I knew I couldn't compete head-to-head with Walmart,

so I had to be Tiffany's. And, you know, told all my employees, like, you know, if the Queen of England comes in here, she's going to be proud to take a shit in our bathrooms, right? Right. Yeah, it's going to be, like, the cleanest, nicest pawn shop ever. Yeah. You know, and I guess, and then just got a reputation

being the guy to go to, so the next thing I know I got Super Bowl rings, I got Picasso's on the wall, and then I got a TV show. Yeah, right. I'd imagine you had a good reputation for being fair. I mean, that's kind of it, dude. I mean, like, you really, it's like that whole six degrees of Kevin Bacon or whatever, you know, if you rip somebody out, they're going to, everybody's going to tell everybody. Right, right.

It's not as much when you get people a good deal, but eventually the reputation gets out there. Yeah. Because your line of work is word of mouth is precious. Yeah, now. So now I got the busiest pawn shop in the world probably. I don't know. This time of year, I average like 15, 1600 people a day through the door. That's a damn tourist destination. Yes, yes, it is. Oh, yeah, and there is a gift shop. Yeah.

You can get yourself a chumly bobblehead. Did you ever envision your pawn shop having that much success? No, no, dude. I mean, like, you know, it was like the whole reality thing when it came out like 20 years ago. Right. I'm thinking, fuck, if I get a reality show and I get a season or two, it'll be good for business. I never thought for a minute, like, it was, we were on TV, we were on the air for 10 months, and I was the number one shown on cable.

Just crazy. Yeah. And then, you know, just never fucking stops. We're about to start filming season 23. Damn, I've been on longer than Law & Order. Holy cow, man, that's amazing. Yeah, right around 750 episodes or something like that. Yeah.

Congratulations. How did this show come about? Did y'all pitched out of yet? Well, no, I pitched the show for years. And everyone kept on telling me no one wants to watch a show about four fat guys in a pawn shop. And so it took me a while to figure out how to... That's a great name. Four fat guys.

So after I'd be doing this for years trying to get the show with, I figured out how to do it. Okay. I found out that no one in Hollywood wants you unless someone else wants you. So I started talking producers and lying that someone else wanted me. Yeah. So the second he's telling him like another network, oh, well, hold it. And that's basically... Yeah, I just lied myself on the TV.

Wow. Well, you got to know how to negotiate. I imagine you learned that over the years of running a pawn shop, you can do that. Yeah, but that habit. But that attribute. To be on TV for that long, people got to truly like you. Yeah, I mean, because, you know, you got my personalize and everything. But, like, the show is always going to be a family show.

I was trying to make it a family show. I try to make it a show. Like, you can watch it with your kids and your parents. and everyone's going to enjoy it. And sort of like laugh and learn TV. Right. That's fun. I still enjoy doing it.

Yeah. Has it always been, like when you first started, was it, were financially secure? I mean, were you making money as soon as you started? Yeah. Yeah. I've always been a hustler. I mean, I've had one job in my life that I got a paycheck at.

I was a bus boy for a month at the start us back in the day. This was like one Leffie Rosenthal was there, in that whole deal. And yeah, like when left, when Mr. Rosenberg, I didn't even know his nickname was left. I didn't know none of that shit. I was like, it was like 16 years old. And whenever he came into,

because I was a bus boy in the palm room, the coffee shop. And whenever he came in, he sat in the back, and now the bus boys were allowed to go to his table. He had his one waitress yet. But like, yeah, that was back in the day. And he dressed up just like in casino. Yeah.

Right. Yeah, like those really fucking, those just, those fucking atrocious suits. There was zootsuits in the store. It was ridiculous. Wow. That's crazy, man. Like, when you first started your pawn shop, how much capital did you need?

Was it? I needed a lot. I didn't have it. So, like, I was borrowing from everybody. And, like, paying crazy money to get the money. But it all worked out at the end. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, there was, I mean, it was a 24-hour pawn shop, too. So, like, that's crazy. There's plenty of times I worked, like, 36 hours straight. Oh, wow. Yeah. To get out of the ground, yeah. Has anybody wants to work? walked in like 3 o'clock in the morning and it turned out to be a huge deal for you?

Oh yeah, fuck dude, I can't. Like, at one point I was the only, I mean, for years, I was the only 24-hour pawn shop in Las Vegas and I was on the strip. We used to write 100 pawn tickets at night. Wow. A hundred a night? Breaking in the cash. Doing all right, yeah. Yeah, the pawn shop I used to go to, man.

I had to wake him up every time I went there. They thought it was you again. I need 50 bucks, man. We take this damn cap corner. But you had, that's crazy, 100 tickets a night. Yeah, no, and, yeah, like I said, eventually got the show and like, yeah. There's a new giveaway. Get out of the way.

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