The One Thing Frank Fritz Said That Keeps American Pickers Feeling So Authentic

"American Pickers" just doesn't feel the same without Frank Fritz. Throughout the show's first 21 seasons, Fritz served as the right-hand man to series lead Mike Wolfe, as the two pals drove across the country in search of valuable antiques. Aside from their search for hidden gems throughout the country, part of the show's charm came from the dynamic between Fritz and Wolfe, who seemed to be just two good friends who decided to hit the open road together.

As such, fans were devastated to learn that the two had a falling out prior to Season 22, and that Fritz would be departing from the series for good. After his departure, Fritz gave a scathing interview ripping into Wolfe, claiming that the two weren't truly friends and had a long history of personal and professional conflict. The claims make it seem as though the entire series up to that point was one big lie. If the relationship between Fritz and Wolfe truly was fabricated, what else has the series lied about? Do we even know if any of the amazing discoveries they've made are real? Or are they all just staged?

According to Fritz himself, there's at least one part of the show that is completely authentic, though it may not be the part that most fans are expecting.

In a 2013 interview with the Quad-City Times, Frank Fritz confirmed that every time you see the Pickers meet someone or enter their home, the footage you see is 100% genuine. "The camera guys get there ahead of us, and they'll take a look around and get an idea of what's there," Fritz explained. "But when you see us walk into a barn or someone's house, we are meeting those people for the first time."

Fritz went on to assert that it's these interactions that make the job truly worth it, and that he likes meeting people more than he likes finding valuable antiques. Plenty of reality shows have been (justifiably) criticized for falsifying information and scripting supposedly "unscripted" conversations, so to find out that these little moments between the pickers and the antique owners are real is certainly something for fans to be happy about. 

Many fans might still wonder about the true nature of Fritz's time in the series, but we at least know that whenever he was talking with strangers on the road, we were seeing him in a way that was completely authentic.