Antiques Roadshow Detours

In 1965, Gale Sayers was the first-round draft pick for the Chicago Bears, kicking off a history-making NFL career. 41 years later, a bloody, torn up jersey worn by Sayers appears on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow after narrowly being saved from a fate as a cleaning rag. What follows is an epic TV appraisal that leads to a surprise at the auction block. Join host Adam Monahan as he follows the story and, with help from sports writer Fred Mitchell, dives deeper into the life of the football legend along the way.

When humorist Mo Rocca appeared on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow, he was eager to find out the true identity of a treasured antique store purchase - a bronze-painted plaster bust he long believed was President Grover Cleveland. Though his TV appraisal yielded no answer, the name of the stranger he’s lived with for years has finally been revealed! Join host Adam Monahan on a hilarious journey - which included the New York Times, New York Police Department and Cleveland’s own grandson - to unravel the mystery behind the mustachioed model.

GBH’s Antiques Roadshow is known for mind-blowing valuations, but often the owners and their stories are the true treasures–like Arnold Shapiro, the guest who was responsible for putting Peanuts cartoons on Hallmark greeting cards. Hear more about Arnold’s 12-year relationship with the iconic Charles Schulz and follow the journey of his comic strip collection from six-figure TV appraisal to a permanent home at the Charles M. Schulz Museum.

It is the dream scenario on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow: your object is appraised for more than you ever imagined. But when that object is a beloved family treasure, do you keep or sell? This hypothetical becomes a reality for Theresa after she learns that her inherited New Orleans Art Pottery jardinière, which she personally kept safe during Hurricane Katrina, is worth thousands. Theresa joins host Adam Monahan as she shares her post-show journey and reveals her ultimate decision.

Longtime folk art expert for GBH’s Antiques Roadshow, Wes Cowan, has seen so many unusual items that very little surprises him. But a perplexing apothecary bottle filled with colored sand brought to the show in Hot Springs, AR in 2002 led to his discovery of a 19th century artist with an amazing story and no auction records at that time. Join host Adam Monahan as he uncovers the story of the artist who lost his hearing and speech as a result of a childhood illness and later designed remarkable sand art created grain-by-grain, and the two appraisers who would be transfixed by what happened at auction!

A collection of vintage mousetraps appraised on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow in 2016 became eerily relevant as DETOURS host Adam Monahan faced an ongoing war with rats in his own urban backyard. Are these disease-carrying pests or intelligent emotional beings? Join the lively journey tracing back to the earliest forms of traps and efforts to control rat populations along with expert musings from the rat’s point of view on whether there really is a better way to build a mouse trap.

GBH’s Antiques Roadshow has a fair share of characters cross its set, but none like the towering, booming-voiced cowboy who attended the 2018 taping in Tulsa, OK. With a rare red diamond ring, cowboy Jim sought to learn the gem’s value. But would his $35K gamble pay off big? Join host Adam Monahan as he uncovers the mystery behind red diamonds and the improbable end to this story!

Celebrity letters provide a glimpse into what was happening in that person’s life in a particular moment in time, beyond what the newspapers were printing. When a fiery letter written by legendary star Frank Sinatra was appraised on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow in Tulsa, OK in 2018 that glimpse revealed a raw response to a letter from a prison chaplain, asking forgiveness for the two men who abducted Sinatra’s son in 1963. What was the one point around the kidnapping deemed unforgivable by the entertainer? Join host Adam Monahan as he digs into the kidnapping and its tragic and lasting aftermath.

News that a famous Galileo manuscript at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor was revealed to be a fake raises questions about a similar letter that appeared on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow in 2014. Did the show get it wrong? And how can a fake be so convincing it fools multiple experts? Host Adam Monahan, joined by forgery-sniffing historian Nick Wilding, dig into a world of deception to uncover if the producers are in for a letdown.

An early-American desk and bookcase set was appraised in 2006 at GBH’s Antiques Roadshow for a whopping $250,000. But was this coveted circa 1775 two-piece secretary a match made in heaven? Join host Adam Monahan as he discovers how a shocking secret revealed after the show making the piece even more rare, along with a powerful new market trend combine to dramatically change the value.