• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, July 31, 2023

A three-part HBO docuseries that was 20 years in the making vows to “expose the crooked American telemarketing industry from within.” 

Titled simply “Telemarketers,” the doc comes from sources who seem unlikely -- two guys who were long-timers working the phones in the telemarketing business and became friends.

One of them, Sam Lipman-Stern (pictured above) first took up a telemarketing phone-bank job in New Jersey 20 years ago when he was 14 and had already quit school.

The telemarketing service he worked for was supposedly collecting donations for police and fire department charities, but it turned out that the people running the operation were pocketing 85% to 90% of the money.

At some point, Lipman-Stern and his friend, Pat Pespas -- described by HBO as one of the telemarketing company’s top salesman -- began to chronicle their experiences in the business by videotaping their phone-bank co-workers.

The press material for the show does not say whether or not these co-workers gave their permission to be videotaped.

But the description of the setting within this unusual office space gives the impression that Lipman-Stern and Pespas enjoyed at least some camaraderie with their officemates.

“With his video camera, Sam documents the riotous office as he and a motley mix of ex-cons, drug dealers and veteran telemarketers work the phone lines in an anarchic boiler room filled with booze, drugs, and debauchery, bound by humor and camaraderie,” HBO said. 

The press material positions the series as “humorous,” but also “dogged.”

“With rowdy humor and dogged enthusiasm, ‘Telemarketers’ follows Sam and Pat as they emerge from the bottom rung of the hourly workforce to become tenacious, self-appointed whistleblowers who make their way to the halls of the United States Senate, determined to expose an industry gone awry from the inside,” say a press release.

Indeed, some of the executive producers of “Telemarketers” come from the comedy side of the TV business.

They include Danny McBride along with Jody Hill and David Gordon Green, two of McBride’s collaborators on his HBO comedies, “The Righteous Gemstones,” “Vice Principals” and “Eastbound and Down.”

Also listed as executive producers of “Telemarketers”: Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie. The series is directed by Lipman-Stern and Pepsas.

“As amateur sleuths looking to shine a light on the billion-dollar scam, with raucous insider access, raw eyewitness footage and a comedic cast of call center characters, the film is a madcap story of an unruly, low-wage environment and two long-time office buddies who find themselves hot on the trail of a sobering look at the dark side of American capitalism and the misuse of consumer trust,” says HBO.

“Telemarketers” premieres on Sunday, August 13, 10 p.m. Eastern on HBO, and the next day on Max.