Overly-caffeinated workout gurus, a boxing champ turned grillmaster, and the "Free Money Guy." They were all once fixtures of late-night TV, hawking products to bleary-eyed viewers. So, where did they go?
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00:00Overly caffeinated workout gurus, a boxing champ-turned-grillmaster,
00:04and the free money guy. They were all once fixtures of late-night TV,
00:07hawking products to bleary-eyed viewers. So where did they go?
00:11There are many princes and princesses of the infomercial, but there is and always will be
00:15one infomercial king, Ron Popeil, the founder of RonCo and the pioneer of the infomercial form.
00:21Even before infomercials existed, Popeil was playing out his routine on Chicago street corners.
00:26Using his booming voice and charismatic persona, Popeil hawked the Chop-O-Matic,
00:30a food processor invented by his father, Sam Popeil. Sam was an inventor whose inspirations
00:35would become some of his son's most famous products. Those products, like the Veg-O-Matic
00:39and Pocket Fisherman, have become the stuff of legend. Also legendary are Popeil's many
00:44catchphrases, including,
00:46"'You said it, and…"
00:47"'We did it!"
00:49Popeil remained a salesman until the end of his life, overseeing his many sales channels,
00:53including the RonCo website. He died in 2021 at the age of 86.
00:58Way back in the day, if you were losing your hair, there was pretty much only one
01:02way to cover it up — with a hairpiece. Such was the stigma surrounding male hair loss that
01:06it was considered to be in poor taste to even discuss it. That is, until Cy Sperling came
01:11along. Sperling was not an actor and never had any ambition to achieve fame. He was just a
01:16salesman who started losing his hair in his late 20s. In the early 80s, however, Sperling decided
01:21to get in front of the camera for his company, HairClub for Men, which sported an array of
01:24treatment options for thinning hair. Sperling's earnest delivery resonated with audiences,
01:29as did his before-and-after pictures accompanied by his legendary kicker.
01:33"'I'm not only the HairClub president, but I'm also a client.'"
01:37Sperling eventually sold the company, and in his later years, he made the rounds as
01:40a popular guest on late-night talk shows. He died in 2020 at the age of 78.
01:46The personable high-energy Billy Mays was a pioneer of a new type of infomercial,
01:50which featured a short blast of information designed to get the viewer to buy on the spot.
01:54Few pitchmen were ever able to hit that sweet spot like Mays,
01:57who was dubbed the latter-day infomercial king for a reason.
02:00"'Show me the money!' This is an 11 on a scale from 1 to 10. Is that it? Is that all you wanted,
02:0611?' Along with his partner and heir apparent, Anthony Sullivan, Mays came into viewers' homes
02:11with a promise — buy this product and your life will change. Viewers believed him. Between products
02:16such as OxiClean, Zorbiz, and OrangeGlo, his infomercials generated north of $1 billion in
02:22sales over a few short years. Unfortunately, Mays was still going strong when he died in
02:27his sleep from a heart attack in 2009. He was only 50 years old.
02:31Taking to the airwaves to sell money may seem a little counterintuitive,
02:35but don't tell that to Matthew Lesko, also known as the free money guy.
02:39Lesko was a staple of late-night television in the 90s. He claimed to have researched
02:43government grants for years, and was ready to sell you the inside info on which of these grants
02:47you could qualify for. Lesko's memorable infomercials dried up after several years,
02:52so it may surprise you to learn that he's still doing his thing.
02:55Now in his 80s, Lesko is still insisting that he has the free money hookup,
02:58hosting YouTube videos with titles like
03:00"'The Easiest Grant in America' and six websites that offer free money with no income requirements."
03:06Ex-bodybuilding champ Tony Little began his career in the late 80s,
03:09hawking popular exercise videos on the Home Shopping Network.
03:12He expanded into infomercials in the early 90s, and by the close of that decade,
03:16he was selling literal truckloads of his Gold Gazelle Glider, an aerobic workout machine.
03:21With a down-to-earth personality and a treasure trove of relatable anecdotes and catchphrases,
03:25Little became a celebrity.
03:27"'You can do it!'
03:29"'Come on, you can do it!'
03:30"'You can do it!'
03:32While Little is no longer a mainstay on the airwaves,
03:34his products continue to sell on HSN and on his website.
03:38Back in the 90s, when computers and the internet were looked upon like arcane wizardry,
03:42John Shear explained in straightforward language how he could demystify the PC
03:46and turn it into a useful tool. Shear was known as the Video Professor,
03:50and he parlayed his experience in the computer world into a series of successful VHS tutorials.
03:55Shear's business burned brightly for a relatively short time.
03:58It quickly became a $100 million company. But somewhat ironically,
04:02the constant need to switch formats as computers evolved crippled it in short order.
04:06In 2012, Shear launched a new product, Canless Air, a canned air alternative that he sells
04:11mainly to corporate customers. He also offers product marketing advice and book-speaking gigs.
04:17Few television personalities were as sunny as Richard Simmons, who became an icon in the
04:21fitness-conscious 80s. Simmons sold aerobics to the public as a fun, beneficial workout that
04:26could easily be done in the privacy of one's home. He began his career in the 70s as an
04:30in-person instructor, but his incredibly upbeat personality made him a perfect fit for TV.
04:35In recent years, Simmons had become increasingly reclusive, and mounting rumors and speculation
04:40about his health culminated in a documentary, TMZ Investigates What Really Happened to Richard
04:44Simmons, in 2022. The doc claimed that, beset with knee problems, Simmons had chosen to retire
04:50from the public eye rather than be remembered as anything other than the vibrant, youthful man he
04:54once was. That same year, Simmons posted a message to his Facebook thanking fans for their support.
05:00He remained active on that platform to the end of his life.
05:05In 2024, Simmons died at home at the age of 76.
05:09As a two-time heavyweight champion, George Foreman is widely considered to be among the
05:13greatest boxers of all time. It's somewhat mind-boggling, then, to realize that he is
05:18perhaps even better known for his second career as a television pitchman hawking the George Foreman
05:22Grill.
05:23My grill is so fast, your food is ready in minutes."
05:27The grill was actually the brainchild of inventor Michael Bohm.
05:30Bohm sold his product to Salton Incorporated, which hired Foreman to sell the grill beginning
05:34in 1995. It was an endeavor that earned Foreman more cash than his boxing career ever did,
05:39and ensured that he'd be a household name pretty much forever. These days,
05:43Foreman is living the life of a retiree, and commands a hefty fee for speaking engagements.
05:48If you're a fitness buff, chances are that at some point you've tried the P90X system.
05:53Created by fitness expert Tony Horton, the resistance-based workout system uses simple
05:57accessories to construct a challenging workout at home. Horton sold over four million copies
06:02of the original program before updating it with a second and third edition.
06:06In 2019, Horton debuted an all-new program, which he calls PowerSync 60. Horton is also
06:11an instructor on the subscription-based home fitness program Tonal, where he promises to
06:15make tough workouts fun.
06:17You can do these workouts separately or as a complete series. Either way,
06:22I'm gonna help you be your strongest."
06:25Suzanne Somers became a megastar in the late 70s and early 80s thanks to her role as Chrissy Snow
06:30in the classic sitcom Three's Company. For some, though, she will always be the face of the
06:34Thighmaster, a home workout device for toning thighs which was ubiquitous on late-night TV
06:39in the early 90s.
06:41I used to do aerobics till I dropped, then I found Thighmaster.
06:45Somers' expressions of pure joy while using the device helped the ad campaign go viral in the
06:49days before that was even a thing. An Emmy-nominated talk show host and YouTuber in her later years,
06:54Somers really did do it all. In 2023, she died from breast cancer at the age of 76.
07:01The protégé of the late, great Billy Mays, Anthony Sullivan often appeared hawking cleaning
07:05products by his mentor's side on late-night TV spots. When Mays died in 2009, Sullivan took over
07:11in earnest. In an interview with the Futon Critic in 2010, Sullivan described how the transition
07:16came less naturally than one might think, telling the outlet,
07:19"...one of the first thoughts I had was,
07:21I don't even know if I want to do it, and I don't know if we can do it.
07:24It was a very real question, but I had to mourn the loss of a friend like anyone does."
07:28In a 2017 sit-down with HuffPost, Sullivan shared the secret to his success,
07:33one which may seem simple but is nonetheless crucial. He said,
07:37You will sell nothing without enthusiasm. People may be skeptical of what you're presenting,
07:41but if you approach it with an honest excitement and belief in your product,
07:44people tend to lean in. In recent years, Sullivan's enthusiasm has found a new outlet.
07:49Speaking with the Daily Mail, Sullivan shared that when his young daughter was diagnosed with
07:52a genetic disorder that caused frequent seizures, he took up cannabis farming after seeing firsthand
07:57its beneficial effect on her. He told the outlet,
08:00"...I've managed to wean my daughter off nearly every single pharmaceutical.
08:03The only medication she's on is CBD, and that in itself to me speaks volumes."