I’m going to be honest, I was all set to write about Doctor Who, John Hurt, and the 50th Anniversary, but then I turned on the TV and ended up viewing one of the worst shows currently on TV and History. The main guy, 
Mark Muller owns a car dealership and goes on and on about it being good, old-school hustling and dealing. I don’t know what that means and after an episode I still don’t know what it means. His brother, Eric (apparently also called “Mancow”) is a radio host in Chicago and has some money invested in his brother’s business (for reasons that don’t seem to go past being family).
Note, I will be reviewing the first episode, and I’d say spoiler alert, but really, I don’t think I’ll be ruining much by telling you about the following scene. So apparently it’s the cool thing to run red lights, and Mark is on the bandwagon. I don’t care if it’s staged, if I do this in real life I get pulled over, a hefty fine, and traffic violation points.
Mark likes to think of himself as the definition of being an American and a man.
He’s kind of a jerk to his kids, getting mad at them for not selling enough cars or whatever all while being fine with having a bunch of salesmen who seem to have been in trouble with the law at least once and, it seems to me, multiple times. I agree with Eric, how can you run a business when you don’t know how reliable your employees are?
“Brother, you can’t be a pussy all your life” is what Mark tells Eric before blowing up a car, because obviously “that’s freedom, that’s America, that’s awesome.”
Now, it’s not all bad, I did agree with one thing. At one point someone came in wanting to buy a hybrid. Mark had a talk with him, saying how the amount of money invested in buying a hybrid and replacing the batteries will likely cost so much that you won’t be saving any at the gas station, it’ll just be spent elsewhere. But then they decide to go in a truck and go riding around like a bunch of idiots in a field in order to show how people drive around there. Somehow I doubt the many old folks buying vehicles in the dealership are doing that (I didn’t notice many young people in the dealership buying cars).
After the first, thirty minute episode, I would much rather be watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians, a show I never thought I’d say I’d rather watch, but now I find myself saying such things. It’s not like this show can’t be good, but the problem is it’s all hyped up and annoying. If all they did was show how the dealership works and how the town to show a small town in America then maybe it wouldn’t be as bad, but right now it just reminds me how aggravating people can be.
smashentropy 
What a godawful mess of a show!
A bunch of one-dimensional cartoon people shuffling about like stunned third graders at a school play. Even with all the yelling and frantic stupidity, there is not a single character anyone is going to care about – ever. Attempts at creating some drama and “human interest” by inserting scenes of Lizard Lick style repossessions, bad driving and blowing shit up are not enough to hold the interest of even the least discerning viewer. The introduction of a car salesman struggling with a drinking problem, (who knew?!?!) is a gratuitous and desperate ploy to engage us, and, quite frankly, is not nearly enough to get me to ever consider wasting my time with this disaster again.
This show is a mashup of every bad reality program ever made.
Well said. I wasted my time watching it as well last night and all I really saw was small town America being painted in a very bad light. There was no purpose, sense or morals in History’s new show and it really was sickening.
I loved every min. of this great show. Men of America, wake up! Put an end to your emasculation, and see what real men are like in the Mid-West. Far from sickening, the show was inspiring and fun. Remember, this is reality T.V. and there is quite a bit of shtick at play. Thanks History! give us more of this Butler Mo. used car dealer! Would you fools rather have more Snookie?
I’d rather have neither, if given the option. True, reality TV is staged, but there is still good and bad reality TV, and I put this under the bad category (two examples of good for me are American Pickers and Top Gear UK), but like everything else it all comes down to opinion (though, I’m still confused what the show and you mean by “real men”).
there is nothing likeable about mark muller or any of the cast, the only people who would enjoy the show are friends of the family. Utter failure
Great example of dysfunctional DNA. If these 2 guys tried any harder to make money, they implode. Mark and Eric met Dog and Beth. Oh by the way Eric, I hear Howard Stern just bought a $30 mil mansion.
get an mri
I thought it was wonderful! One of the best shows on right now. I’m not sure what show the author was watching but the one I saw was ground breaking. I wish we had a few thousand men like the Muller Boys. I know you got upset because he had the nerve to teach his boys a little work ethic, but guess what? That’s exactly how a parent should guide their children. He wasn’t “mean” to them, he was teaching them a valuable lesson in life. Kudos to the History Channel!
I don’t think he was being mean to them exactly, I just think he’s incredibly annoying around everyone. Also, I asked this in my post and another reply, but still no answer, why does he consider himself to be a “real man?”
Actually, one of the worst shows on right now, and hardly ground breaking. My husband watched 10 minutes and had enough. I watched both episodes top see if it was a coincidence the first one was so bad, but the second one was no better. No class
Putting aside the fact that all reality shows are staged to some degree, at least this show is about ordinary people doing something pretty damn real: selling cars off a lot. Nobody’s restoring a car, hunting for sharks or gold or trying to “survive” in the desert along with their camera crew. If you’ve ever run a small business, maybe you could appreciate the challenge in motivating employees with limited skill and not enough ambition. If the current useful idiots running this country brought even half the passion and creativity to their work that Mark Muller does to his, this country would not be in the sorry state that it is. As for mancow, that dude was over the top well before he put his cash into his brothers business and showed up on this show. He;s a good egg though. More god, guns and-automobiles. Less lattes, pan seared tuna and MSNBC please. God Bless America!
-Great Show. I rarely watch reality shows, but I enjoyed this one. Good job History channel.
Yuk yuk yuk! Plainly and simply put, IT SUCKED!!!
Grew up in Butler. This show does not depict real life here. We are not buffoons who chomp cigars and “haze” people at their jobs. In real life this man screws his customers and is not well thought of. Leave it to TV to try to make him out as some sort of hero. So far I have seen them mimic Duck Dynasty and a car commercial; at least the Duck Dynasty people are likeable. Cringe worthy show!
Agreed. He is not from Butler and is not representative of any of the culture or ideas that make up this community. I never traded tractor or goats for a car when I purchased from Kahn’s (before Max Motors.) I now drive 100 miles away to buy a car elsewhere.
This show is a joke, I worked at max motors a few years back and it was nothing like they depict themselves. They never cared about their employees, treated them like crap and considered each and every one disposable. Mark says he don’t drink on the job and would fire sometime one the spot for drinking, yeah right, at the Vet and Viper show he supplied free alcohol for all employees and guests then after drinking all day it was time for the poker run where driving after a day of drinking was encouraged. I am not proud of the way this show represents the town I grew up in and graduated from. Try and make us look like dumb red necks then say you are all about America but never make a real contribution to the community unless it benefits them directly.
Wow, cool to hear someone who personally knows the area. Sadly, this seems to happen a lot lately, just like MTV (Jersey Shore), Bravo (Real Housewives of New Jersey), and other stations have managed to make Jersey look plain awful even though the majority of the state is nothing like those shows.
The only buffoons here are these two night crawlers, and anyone buys into this crap. Here’s a car dealer who doesn’t know the difference between a ’75 and ’57 caddy. And the other guy thinks he’s a Radio Icon. Maybe 20 years ago. Know he’s just a joke and doesn’t know it. His biggest claim to fame: He’s friends with William Shatner. REALLY REALLY. 1 episode was enough for me
im a little late in my comment but here goes. I also grew up in Butler. This show does not depict the normal people in Butler. They are smart intelligent people there. Not this crazy rich man with too much money to blow. Normal people do not blow up cars!! Aliens really??? The show is more about Mark Mullers ego. I feel sorry for the normal people who were forced to be on the tv show just because they work there.
It seems to be a trend with these types of shows. I had to deal with the Jersey Shore nonsense. One summer people decided to dress like that and go to Ocean City, NJ, which is the complete opposite of what is depicted up in North Jersey in the show (which is even an exaggeration for the North Jersey shore).
It’s a shame they choose to pick a town/area and try to ruin it on a reality TV show.
How any of you can stand to be pandered to, and so blatantly, is beyond me.
I am from SW Missouri. This show does show what most of us in the area are like…i.e. we teach our kids to work hard for what they want…never quit…be productive…treat your employees and fellow man with respect…and have some good ole crazy fun doing it. It’s not for everyone…but then again, most programs aren’t. As far as taking tractors, peacocks, goats…WHATEVER, it shows me this man is willing to do what it takes to get you in a vehicle. My son bought from the Nevada, MO location. He was upside down in a car (his first time buying and the dealership where he bought took him for a ride – big City dealer). The Nevada store got him in a great car, for a fair deal. It’s almost paid for and he’ll go back again when he decides to by again. I dont think it puts Butler in a bad light…goodness, theres nothing there anyway! Everybody is prejudging this show…it’s just getting started. I reserve my opinion till a few more episodes air. It makes me laugh…lighten up, enjoy life, relax.
Perfectly put.
Very entertaining show , and very cool to see the Mancow and the similarities between him and his older brother Mark . Glad to see some good ole entertainment for a change .
Did anyone notice if Mancow was being followed by black helicopters?
Very deceptive title as these people wouldn’t know God if he talked out loud to them! This has nothing to do with God, truth, or integrity.
This show is straight GARBAGE!!! I HATE the lead guy….Mark is it?? I have tried to watch this show on numerous occasions now, and I just cannot do it. It is absolutely terrible. Mark DOES seem like one of those guys I would want to just knock the eff out when meeting him. He’s a flat out prick. Trust me, to those who say the show is GOOD, better get your fill of it now, then….bejesus e it is not going to last. Trust me
This show is the worst show on History channel .
I live in a small, rural Missouri community and it is nothing like depicted on that show. I have watched exactly how me episode….the one where he orders his employees to see to it his brother’s promotion fails miserably AND he decided to capitalize on peoples beliefs in UFOs.
In that episode he uses his brother’s RC toy to make a video of a UFO landing, then his brother helps him make a UFO landing site in someone else’s field behind his dealership. Anyway, he has a couple locals who believe in UFOs and claim to have seen a site come look at his to see if they believe it is real. He claims he doesn’t want to tell them the truth and embarrass them…..yet he then shows on national TV them looking at it and their reaction to it.
Anyway, he doesn’t seem very God fearing to me! He looks like an ass that will do anything to make a buck! DEFINITELY NOT WORTH WATCHING.
I live like ten miles from where this show is made and even I can’t support it, completely thoughtless and nothing like how life is here, makes us all look like morons. I’d rather watch pawn stars any day all day
It’s reality TV folks…It’s entertainment with a dose of real values in the fact that Mark encourages hard work, Capitalism, and bettering one’s self. I doubt many Liberal journalistic types can grasp that, however we need more guys like Mark who are the grit and guts that push this Country forward.
Give me a break: hard work, enterprise and self-improvement are individual values unrelated to political ideology. I’ve lived most of my life in the small towns of South and Mid-Missouri and known enough “good ol’ boys” (and their women) who espouse conservative viewpoints and then live off the trough of “disability” checks (when perfectly capable of working), food stamps, Medicaid and seldom get off their couch unless it’s to go to the liquor store for supplies. This show is an exaggeration of the worst traits of small-town Missouri, but does not reflect communities rich in diversity of thought and thoughtfulness. Typically, only the grandiose egotists who ceaseless self-promote and live and think in extremes get attention from TV producers. The truly hard-working — farmers, factory workers, municipal and county service employees, teachers, etc. — level-headed and moderate majority seldom see their stories told.
Don’t dismiss his unique set of values for lack of hard work, either. The business is very hard work and it is an insult to everyone in auto sales to claim that it isn’t. Please think about things from an objective point of view before posting something that may end up slighting a hard working person.
Its entertaining as a salesman in the car business to see something, albeit staged, that caters to my line of work. Mark may seem like a prick, but that’s because he is. You have to have a certain shrewdness and a specific set of personality traits to run a successful dealership. If you haven’t been in the business, it won’t make sense to you and I can understand where things are lost on you.
To the person that worked at the dealership: you felt like the employees are expendable and disposable because they ARE. That is the nature of the car business and its no different in Virginia than it is in Missouri.
I think the majority of the complaints about this show stem from general misinformation or innocent ignorance of the inner workings of the business. I get the inside jokes and the lingo, but you may not. To each their own, but I personally enjoy the show
Butler, MO is my (adopted) hometown. My wife grew up there, my mother grew up there, and my grandparents grew up there. My family is one of the few Bates County families that has been in Bates County since before the Civil War. I just published a book on the history of the county and of Butler. And this show makes me sick.
I love the show..u suck!
Mancow will never achieve the fame of Howard Stern.