Billy Bretherton, aka Billy the exterminator, wins plaudits in NY Timesarticle; judged to be one of TV's "Gnarly Five"

billybadass, a photo by river-rider on Flickr.

In a NY Times article on five of TV's intense personalities entitled "Television’s Men of Substance, Not Decoration," Neil Genzlinger writes, "Let’s start with the No. 1 Gnarly, for my money the most interesting guy on television today: Billy Bretherton. He’s the central figure on “Billy the Exterminator,” a critter-catching series now in its fourth season on A&E. When it first hit the air, the show was called simply “The Exterminators,” but it soon became obvious that when you have a guy with this much gritty charisma in your shop, you ought to flaunt it.

Mr. Bretherton, whose wardrobe leans toward black, accented with black, black and black, is the frontman for a family-owned pest-control business called Vexcon in Louisiana, a state rich in animals that you don’t want living in your eaves or basement. Demands for his services, though, have apparently spread: this season he has been going on the road, to deal with bees in Florida, geese in North Carolina, javelinas in Arizona."


Congrats, Mr Bretherton.