Montana I am new to the hobby, it is something I have been interested in for years but just now have managed to get to where time and $ crossed over and I could make it happen. I have been learning my MXT Pro for about 3 months. So I am no expert in all things MD'ing..
I think you have a classic conundrum here with your show.
You are trying to find a way to take a hobby that requires an investment in a machine, an investment of time to learn the machine, and an investment in researching sites..and cull all of that down to it's bare bones, add in the moments of joy when you actually find something, and roll it into a TV show that will attract and hold the attention of a TV audience, many of whom have the attention span of an infant.
You and the folks here know exactly what goes in to doing this and doing it right, and being honest about the hobby and the effort it requires is not going to hold the attention span you need to make the show go.
As has been pointed out here, the people with years on their knees, fighting poison oak, spiders, snakes, etc, are not buying it.
Nor are they likely to, unless some reality is injected into the reality show.
Some basic advice, FWIW, YMMV, etc.
The show should represent the hard work...show some times you get turned down by a property owner. Show the aftermath of a hard day with no luck.
Not 20 minutes of no good finds, but 2 minutes of climbing into the truck after you guys struck out. Show some research time...like the public would do it..a couple minutes of library time looking through old maps and such.
Show a time or two when you dig a target and ye olde pull tab. We all swing at a bad pitch now and then, even your target audience needs to know. If you every once in a while show the strikeout when you hit a homer it'll be that much more entertaining and add meaning to the event.
You don't have to squeeze all of the above into one episode, but it all needs to get there, and bits of it need to be repeated...like the pull tab, as the occasional reminder as to the real world of MD'ing.
Frankly, I could care less about the jargon deal. I was a cop for 25 years, we have a language most civilians can't comprehend...and it changes regionally.
And, if I ever run into someone using your jargon I will know right away they are a rookie whether they cop out to it or not. The gag stuff between you and your pal is funny...once in a while. It isn't the core of the show, don't spend so much time on it. Make it infrequent, and it will hit the spot better.
On the finds...
You guys need to demonstrate the time-honored tradition of sharing the goodies with the private property owner. Go out of your way, on a semi-regular basis, to hunt a piece of land where there is a landowner involved whom you have sought from and been given permission to hunt. Then demonstrate the display of the finds and your offer of some of the spoils to the landowner.
I think one episode where you could demo going out and recovering a class ring or some such thing, and then put in the legwork to locate and return the item would be great. If that kind of chance ever comes along jump on it.
Keep the audience plugged in to what is going on in the background...the research, the time, talk about the property owner you are trying to find, the map you are looking for, show us what it is like to bust yer butt to get to a location...you can stretch that conversation over a couple of episodes and then the big event when you get there.
All of this...everything I have said...IMHO it will give you something very believable because it is close to what really happens.
It will also not become repetitive...it'll remain fresh. Keep the audience curious as to what you are working on, what you are doing, and where you are going.
Last...the $ values.
Find a honest coin dealer for the coins. Establish a regular relationship and use the same guy again and again. Give us something to believe, not some SWAG from some unknown. It is pretty simple to check your work with the internet, if the $ don't jive your, and the appraisers, accountability goes down the terlet.
On artifacts & relics.
Talk about them. Talk about waht you think they are, or what you KNOW they are IF you have irrefutable evidence of the identity of the item.
Let us know what you think it is, and leave it at that. If the audience really wants to know what it is let them do some research on the net themselves.
Then, take the item to a legit appraiser/historian/expert in field. Get him/her to evaluate, and put his/her name on the appraisal.
At the end of every show a 30 second deal where last weeks stuff is tabled with the identity and $ value given by the expert, along with the experts name.
If, on that super rare target that comes along now and then, a gun, whatever...something you could possibly really put a date on go into a brief history of the item, the times it came from, even pics of the factory it was built in, the kind of people that used it, the times they lived in.
Show us the way the item related to the people that used it.
Every time we pull that gizmo from the ground and touch something that hasn't been touched by human hands in 50,100, or more years the first thing we all think of is the person who last held it.
Help us get to know that person and the times he lived it.
That is the ultimate reality, IMHO.
Sorry for the long winded post. Hope it makes some sense.
