I dont know where to mention this but I started watching tv in the past week after a longgg hiatus like years.
In the past days American Pickers, Hardcore Pawn, Pawn Stars show, well, they were quite good. I stooped and watched a back to back episode today of The Bachelor (yeah laugh) but I liked it, the cat fights 
and some hot girls wearing not much.
What are all the crazy USA programs on tv though! Today I watched:
- My Crazy Obsession feature an elderly couple with a sex toy collection (in total worth more $ than the house, countless dolls they bathed and whatevered), dressing them up and photographing them around town like one as a police officer and propped up outside a police station to photograph till the cop pulled up with siren angry, and a old guy who thought he was the president of USA and built himself an oval office replica in his house and a car with flags like JFK he drove in with his family and picked his kids up from school in.
- Operation Repo, I mean WTF... that big woman... anyway in 2 repros insane people pulled huge knives and were going crazy about there car being taken, and another came out of building from fleecing business for charity donations during the repro then tried to bribe the repro guy with that charity money...
- Gattor Boys and also Swamp People annoying the hell out of alligators or crocs and swimming in creeks with next to no visibility with a noose to grab them when face to face with the croc
- Rat B*stards... Ive never seen such big rats, like pigs with buck teeth, these guys were getting $10 a head to shoot them in swamps with guns that Rambo would have been proud of. There they were uncovering some foliage then rat-a-tat-tat it was like world war 3 sounding like machine gun fire shoot these things about 50 of them bouncing and exploding.
- Hoarders, my g*d why is there food slops on the floor and their rooms mountains of junk with no where to walk.
- Turtle man + now Jail is on... Jeez those people are not the full quid turning up at that police station
The past days I have seen even more US shows. What happened to the Brady Bunch? I think I've seen too much, but some could be compulsive viewing (like American Pickers). Last night I watched a doco show about a guy a year or two ago who was a army vet I think, collected 50 tigers, lions... killed himself opened the cages and let them escape, probably hoping they go into the community. That was interesting, though I remember it in the news
So, I realised, there are more nut jobs out there, than me collecting these posters.
Steve.. a number of those shows are the ones i will flip on, too.. American Pickers.... the places and stuff they trip across is amazing, let alone that they are driving all over the country.
Pawn Stars--scripted but still has its moments.
Operation Repo.. a silly, scripted, re-enacted show, and WTF with that large woman with the blonde hair, black painted eyebrows and piercings.. eek! Notice, too, how no one EVER gets hurt, with all of the "anger" that is exemplified there?
Same with shows like Hardcore Pawn, which is shot in Detroit. Seems a bit more candid but it is all pre-planned with the wacky customers, outbursts, etc.
I've been a Hoarders watcher since season 1. A fascinating look into the minds of people who not only hoard, but like you said, live in filth, squalor, trash, old, rotting food etc, on top of what might be truly collectible. I recall one show in which the woman was a hoarder, BUT she hoarded and collected things of true value. She ended up making quite a bit of cash, for collections of various sorts that she finally decided to sell.
