Billy Mays, No longer here...

[Doodler]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31596003/ns/us_news-life/

I was just starting to respect the guy after seeing the behind the scenes work on "Pitchmen".

[Gillianren]

If the article's speculation about how he died is correct, it's one of the more interesting types of results of a brain injury. Reminds me of one of my favourite mystery novels.

Other than that, well, I'm sure he believed in his products.

[Fazor]

Hmm. I was interested in seeing "Pitchmen" but hadn't had a chance to catch it yet. Since the show is obviously done now, guess it doesn't matter.

[Maha Vailo]

Oh no! Now who's gonna hawk Orange Glo and OxiClean? :eek::cry:

- Maha (sell in peace) Vailo

[Tucson_Tim]

When I first saw the thread title, I thought "Oh no! Not Willie Mays!". Then I saw it was this other guy I've never heard of.

[davidlpf]

Oh no! Now who's gonna hawk Orange Glo and OxiClean? :eek::cry:

- Maha (sell in peace) Vailo

Maybe this guy.
http://pictures.mastermarf.com/blog/2009/090218-shamwow.jpg

[Ara Pacis]

Maybe this guy.
http://pictures.mastermarf.com/blog/2009/090218-shamwow.jpg

Vince is Billy's Nemesis. They were locked in a titanic battle between Zorbeez and Sham-wow.

I agree with Doodler. After watching Pitchmen I was starting to like the guy. I was even going to try to talk to them about one of my inventions. I suppose I can still talk to Sully.

I'm wondering when there will be a cartoon in the newspaper that shows Billy at the Pearly Gates saying his catchline, "Billy Mays here..."

[Larry Jacks]

Billy Mayes had to be one of the most annoying people on TV. His yelling was a complete turn off (or channel change) for me. I don't buy stuff from people who yell at me no matter how good the product might be. Still, I seldom wished him dead, just silent.

[KaiYeves]

Gosh, this week is sure leaving television much poorer...

[Donnie B.]

I guess this blows the whole "celebrity deaths always come in threes" myth, eh?

... or maybe Mays isn't enough of a celebrity to count as #4.

[HenrikOlsen]

Farrah, Jackson, Mays and ?

[Donnie B.]

Ed McMahon was the first on the list, Henrik. Probably not well known outside the US, though.

[Larry Jacks]

And David Carradine died pretty recently, too.

[gethen]

Billy Mayes had to be one of the most annoying people on TV. His yelling was a complete turn off (or channel change) for me. I don't buy stuff from people who yell at me no matter how good the product might be. Still, I seldom wished him dead, just silent.

I felt the same way. Then I saw a few episodes of Pitchmen and found him oddly likeable. He came across as a decent kind of guy, still loud of course, but nice enough.

[Scamp]

Pitchmen on discovery was a definite guilty pleasure. Fun to watch.

From the news I've heard so far, it sounds like he had the same thing Natasha Richardson died from. A treatable Epidural hematoma (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29733775/).

He received a bang on the head during a rough landing, complained he was not feeling well later that night, went to bed and never woke up.

[DonM435]

He made the world a louder place.

[Maha Vailo]

^ How do you know if you have one of those after a hard bump on the head, and how long would one have to be hospitalized after treatment?

Really don't want that to happen to me.

- Maha Vailo

[thoth II]

He was too loud a pitchman. I had to wait in many waiting rooms over last many years where they had the TV blaring and had to listen to him so many times, at least at home I've got the "mute"

[Scamp]

It looks like Scamp hasn't a clue about what really happen. The coroner says it was heart disease (http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/29/mays.death/index.html).

I'm sure the exec's a US Air are relieved to hear that.

[Larry Jacks]

I'm sure the exec's a US Air are relieved to hear that.

I wouldn't breathe too easy just yet if I were a US Air exec. Just because Maye's head impact didn't cause any detectable injury, US Air can and likely will get sued. There likely will be passengers who complain of injury. Some of them might even be telling the truth. In Mayes' case, it wouldn't surprise me to hear of a lawsuit based on the stress from the hard landing causing him to have a heart attack. Remember, it doesn't have to be the truth or even provable in order to file a lawsuit. Such is life in a litigious society where juries often go for "Jackpot Justice."

[Trebuchet]

He was too loud a pitchman. I had to wait in many waiting rooms over last many years where they had the TV blaring and had to listen to him so many times, at least at home I've got the "mute"

Yes, he was a shouter, his commercials were too loud, and both he and the commercials were extremely annoying. That's why they were successful. The hardest thing to do in advertising is to get the audience to remember the product. You remember Oxy-clean, don't you? Billy is the reason why.

I expect that Boeing will be named alongside USAir in the inevitable suit. Not because of anything wrong, just the deep pockets theory.

[novaderrik]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tyct9l-fD8

[Gillianren]

^ How do you know if you have one of those after a hard bump on the head, and how long would one have to be hospitalized after treatment?

Well, to answer your first question, you wouldn't.

[Celestial Mechanic]

I'm sure the exec's a US Air are relieved to hear that.

I wouldn't breathe too easy just yet if I were a US Air exec. Just because Maye's head impact didn't cause any detectable injury, US Air can and likely will get sued. There likely will be passengers who complain of injury. [Snip!]
Can you say whiplash? ;)

Twenty years ago in January I broke my leg in a fall while walking my dog. All of the medical personnel I met during that day and evening asked me if I had hit my head in the fall, and I'm pretty sure that my skull was x-rayed along with my leg. Nothing was found to be wrong with my brain (I can hear the disappointment out there! :) ) and as for my leg both the tibia and fibia had spiral fractures a few centimeters above the ankle. It would be four months before my dog got another walk. And was she ever happy when I was finally able!

But even then I appreciated why they were so persistent in asking the question because of the insidious nature of that kind of head injury.

[Larry Jacks]

You remember Oxy-clean, don't you? Billy is the reason why.

I never bought Oxy-clean. Billy is the reason why. It cuts both ways. I couldn't stand to listen to him for more than a few seconds. He annoyed me too much to ever pay any attention to what he was hawking.

[Ara Pacis]

I heard that it was pulmonary embolism. I'm not sure if that can have any relationship to a knock on the head or not.

Billy Mays was good at what he did, that's why he was successful. For every person out there who didn't like the loud commercials, there are people who got the message and spent the money. Sure, some of the products seemed useless to me, but some are decent. Unfortunately, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and few of the things I saw Billy or Sully pitch were convincing to me. That doesn't mean that they weren't good products, just that it didn't always convince me to buy. But that's the problem wth having studied media writing and having worked in sales; it makes me skeptical. Plus, being broke makes me think I can do just as well with other products or make it on my own.

[Tucson_Tim]

Now that I know who he was, I know why I didn't know who he was.

[Maha Vailo]

Well, to answer your first question, you wouldn't.

So any bump in the head should be followed by a trip to the doc? That's gonna get expensive.

- Maha Vailo

[schlaugh]

Looks like the bump on the head (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/29/billy-mays-had-heart-dise_n_222382.html) wasn't the cause but his heart had some issues:

Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Vernard Adams said Mays suffered from hypertensive heart disease, and the wall of the left ventricle of Mays' heart and the wall of one of his arteries were enlarged.

Adams said the autopsy showed no evidence of head trauma.

[Gillianren]

So any bump in the head should be followed by a trip to the doc? That's gonna get expensive.

There are bumps on the head and there are bumps on the head. If you don't lose consciousness when you hit it initially, you're probably okay. Likewise, if you just whack your head on a cabinet door by standing up too fast, you're almost certainly okay. Very few people, relative to how many hit their heads every day, die of this. But, yes, paranoia on the subject can get expensive.

[roverich]

It's sad that he is gone ...His and Sully's show on discovery was pretty neat ....One of the episodes they were testing some type of electronic shark repellent , with sully as the bait ..LOL .....There was billy chumming the water behind the boat while sully was swimming behind the boat with the shark repellant on his ankle ...It was a funny episode to say the least ...

[DonM435]

He did an amusing commercial for an internet sports service. "IT'S ALL IN THIS AMAZING CABLE THAT COMES THROUGH THE WALL AND CONNNECTS TO THE BACK OF YOUR COMPUTER CARRYING LIVE SPORTS!"

Well, it was funny the first eight or nine times I saw it.

[tlbs101]

You remember Oxy-clean, don't you? Billy is the reason why.

I never bought Oxy-clean. Billy is the reason why. It cuts both ways. I couldn't stand to listen to him for more than a few seconds. He annoyed me too much to ever pay any attention to what he was hawking.

I was buying and using Oxy-clean regularly -- long before I ever heard Mr. Mayes shout out the name. My sister-in-law got us hooked on the product. I think it's good stuff -- scratch that... I THINK OXY-CLEAN IS GOOOOD STUUUUFFF!!! lol


Doodler... you need to change the title of this thread to: "BILLY MAYES, NO LONGER HERE!"

.

[Doodler]

Doodler... you need to change the title of this thread to: "BILLY MAYES, NO LONGER HERE!"

That was theme I had in mind with the title, but I thought I'd keep it a little somber out of deference to the departed.

[DonM435]

An old-timer who'd heard it wrong told me that Willie Mays had died, and I promptly went off on a nostalgic half-hour tangent about what a superb ballplayer he'd been. I'm ashamed to admit the relief I felt later on.

[Tucson_Tim]

From CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/08/07/florida.mays.cocaine/index.html


An autopsy report issued Friday by Hillsborough County, Florida, cites cocaine as a contributing factor in the death of TV pitchman Billy Mays, who died in June at age 50. The Hillsborough County medical examiner's office said cocaine use contributed to Billy Mays' heart disease. The Hillsborough County medical examiner's office said cocaine use contributed to Billy Mays' heart disease. "Mays died from a lethal arrhythmia of the heart caused by hypertensive and arteriosclerotic heart disease," the county said in a statement attributed to Dr. Leszek Chrostowski, the associate medical examiner who conducted the autopsy. "He further concluded that cocaine use caused or contributed to the development of his heart disease, and therefore contributed to his death," it added. The fact that toxicology tests detected only breakdown products of cocaine, not the drug itself, led Chrostowski to conclude that Mays had used cocaine "in the few days prior to death but not immediately prior to death."


His family disputes this claim and is looking into getting other experts to look over the autopsy results.