'Lizard Lick Towing' begins a new season Monday night

The popular "actuality" ("not reality") series "Lizard Lick Towing" makes its season debut Monday evening on truTV. It features a repo team from Wendell, N.C., and there's never a dull moment as viewers tune in not only to be entertained but also to learn catchy phrases like "a dog is always safe in his own back yard."

"Lizard Lick Towing" began on truTV as one of several vignettes on "All Worked Up," which is a mix of a process servers, meter maids, wrestling-show security guards and licensed repo agents who take back cars, trucks, limos, boats, private airplanes and even pets from deadbeats.

"Lizard Lick" is totally worth watching, if not for the entertainment value of being a fly on the wall as two southern gentlemen repossess cars and trucks and having fun doing it, then for the owner's use of Southern truisms to describe sticky situations. It's Gomer Pyle with license.

The Lizard Lick crew of Amy (the wife), Ron Shirley (the owner, pictured) and Bobby (Ron's best friend and the big guy who holds you down when you mouth off) are more brawn and trickery than finesse. Because Lizard Lick is in Confederate country, the men (and the women) on the show are big, bold, heavy and mouthy. Deadbeats are foul-mouthed, outrageous and violent.

Ron and Bobby are big boys, but they're stealth. They get in and out and giggle like schoolgirls as they drive off, with the steamed R.O. hopping up and down swearing like a wild man in back of them. Most of Lizard Lick's confrontations come when the car owners come to the shop to get their cars back. Things often get ugly, but it's good TV.

My favorite scene was when Bobby and Ron snuck into a race track and repo'd a visiting race driver's vehicle that was parked on the track. As Bobby drove off unmolested, Ron was attacked by four men at the gate and was beat up real good but was OK.

Amy has no sympathy for anyone. She even scorns her husband with regularity. Plus, she throws men twice her size out of the shop. In a rerun that ran tonight, Amy was attacked by a pimp twice her size who was mad he couldn't get a book listing his girl's clients back right away. She held her own as Bobby threw the man out of the shop. Amy showed a soft side by driving the girl home after her pimp drove off. The girl was at the shop to get her Acura back after Bobby pretended to be a client and got her to a motel so Ron could repo her car.

Ron always tells us he's the boss of Lizard Lick Towing & Recovery, but we all know that in reality, AMY is the boss in this family. She always gets what she wants ... unlike the registered owners of the cars they repossess.

You can reach TN's Hawke Fracassa at hawkefracassa@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @HawkeFracassa.

Image source: lizardlicktowing.com / truTV