Deadliest Catch's Wild Bill Has Formed A Lot Of Great Friendships With The Camera Crew
Due to the extremely dangerous conditions that the cast and crew of "Deadliest Catch" are forced to contend with nearly every day, it's safe to say that most of the captains we meet within the series are under a heavy amount of stress. As if the constant threat of gale-force winds and stormy seas weren't already enough to contend with, these particular captains also have to contend with a complication that most other fishing crews never even consider -– the constant presence of a camera crew across their ship.
Having a documentary crew consistently filming you during these extremely nerve-wracking days puts added pressure on the already high-strung captains of these crab fishing vessels. Some of them had difficulty adapting to the constant 24/7 surveillance at the beginning of the series. Consider Captain Sig Hansen, who was so paranoid about the cameras on his ship at the show's start that he threw a camera overboard.
Although Hansen initially displayed an extreme dislike towards the camera crew aboard his ship, not all of the captains in "Deadliest Catch" were so untrustworthy. Indeed, Captain "Wild" Bill Wichrowski genuinely enjoyed the camera crew's presence and quickly became friends with them.
Wichrowski says he has made plenty of friends by spending time with the camera crew
In a 2014 interview for The A.V. Club, Captain "Wild" Bill Wichrowski explained that he had grown quite fond of the camera crew working aboard his F/V Summer Bay, saying that he spent so much time with them that it was impossible not to become friends with the majority of the camera crew.
"After the last season, I've really gotten to enjoy having somebody up there. I'd say 85 percent of the guys I had ended up being buddies," Wichrowski asserted. "The guy we had last season has been trying to get down to Mexico so we can swordfish and we stay in touch all the time."
Wichrowski went on to describe how, in his view, you had to become friends with the camera crew because they were sharing your space for several months out at sea, and you spent more time with them than with your own family. In any case, it's clear that "Wild" Bill Wichrowski had a much more positive experience with the camera crew than Sig Hansen ever did, and it's interesting to learn that he actually became fast friends with the camera crew behind-the-scenes.