How Chumlee Became A Regular On Pawn Stars
At the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas, things are kept in the family. For years, three generations of Harrisons worked at the shop featured prominently on "Pawn Stars." There's Richard "Old Man" Harrison, who sadly passed away in 2018. Now, his son, also named Richard Harrison, is the head honcho. He's knowledgeable in numerous fields, and while he may have to call in an expert now and then, he knows plenty to often make informed decisions on his own.
Last but not least, you have Corey "Big Hoss" Harrison, Rick's son. He's learning the tools of the trade but has plenty of experience under his belt already. There's no word yet on whether the shop will go down to a fourth generation, but given how much the Harrisons have put into the shop, it's a little weird the main star of the reality series became Chumlee, who's not related to the Harrisons at all. As it turns out, Chumlee originally wasn't supposed to appear in the show, but fate had other plans.
Chumlee was only supposed to be in a few scenes initially
At first glance, Chumlee seems like a natural pick to stand amongst the Harrisons. He's funny, and he has a lot to learn about the pawn business. He functions as the audience surrogate in many instances, asking questions people watching at home would probably have. However, his becoming a prominent component of the show wasn't always in the cards.
Chumlee talked about how he landed the sweet gig in an interview with The Las Vegas Review-Journal. He went into great detail about what he did, and in what seems like very un-Chumlee-like fashion, he did his homework. "They were making a short episode, and we had about 12 employees at the time," he explained. "They went through everybody, saying, 'All right, who's going to be our fourth member?' I didn't watch too much TV, but I decided I'd go watch some TV, some reality shows, and I kind of realized what was missing was the funny part of the show, the whipping boy is what I called it at the time. Someone they could make fun of and laugh with."
Who knew? Chumlee's smarter than he lets on in the show. Turns out, he's even smart enough to start his own surprising side business.