“When we visit a city, we plan to always make three episodes for every event,” explains Marsha Bemko, executive producer of PBS’s hit series Antiques Roadshow. “We make three field pieces, because even for those of us who work on the show, those convention centers, once you’re inside of them, they are really generic. So what we try to achieve is a sense of place. You’re going to see something here that you won’t see in another city.”

The producers filmed the material for three episodes in Denver last summer; the first installment will air tonight at 7 p.m. on PBS (you can catch the next two episodes on April 5 and April 12). In tonight’s show, you’ll travel with Mark Walberg and Kathleen Bailey to the Kirkland Museum, where they checked out the Ruba Rombic Art Deco glassware collection. But the main event is the appraisals — and while picking a favorite “gets to be like picking children,” Bemko admits, one Denver session included a real surprise. Appraiser Kevin Zavian was looking at one woman’s collection of watches made by Paul Flato. “He really likes the watches, and he tells her about them, and she has some good value there,” Bemko remembers. “And then he asks her what she has on her finger, a ring she had no intention of getting appraised.” Turns out the ring was valued much higher than the watches, bringing her grand total to somewhere between $215,000 and $270,000 for the entire collection.

You can find a full list of the appraisals made in Denver following tonight’s show at www.pbs.org/antiques.
Mon., March 29, 7 p.m.; Mon., April 5, 7 p.m.; Mon., April 12, 7 p.m., 2010