We told you last week about tonight’s premiere of the new Syfy show Collection Intervention, hosted by Elyse Luray. Ms. Luray may look familiar to you from other shows; that could  be because she is one of the hosts on PBS’s History Detectives. She also appeared as an appraiser on The Nate Berkus Show, Style Network’s Clean House NY!, HGTV’s If Walls Could Talk, PBS’ Antiques Road Show and CBS’ The Early Show.

Ms. Luray spent eleven years at Christie’s auction house as an auctioneer and a Vice President of the Popular Arts Department. Some collections she appraised include the archives of Lucas Films, Dreamworks, Chuck Jones’ personal collection, Warner Brothers, Hanna Barbara, Hard Rock Cafe and more.

Ms. Luray spoke with SciFiMafia.com recently about her newest show:

SciFiMafia.com: I’m certain that we have readers and maybe even staff members who are concerned that their collections might be looked upon as unhealthy obsessions. Do you have guidelines for what you consider too much?

Elyse Luray: Well, I actually don’t think that any of the people that are on the show we’re looking as at as if they’re unhealthy. I think it’s when a collection gets out of control either from a monetary point of view or from a space point of view that we come in and help people.

You know, it’s important I think for everyone to have passions and to collect. What the show really tries to do is to curate, streamline, and focus. So how do you display your collection? How do you curate your collection? How could you get rid of some of the things that don’t add to your collection? And at the same time, not let it overtake your life.

So you know, the first thing is to look at what are you focusing on? You know, what are your main things that are really collectible? What things don’t fit into your collection? Are you displaying it properly?

And then to really take a hard look at the economics of your collection. Are you spending too much money? Do you have the money for it? You know, how can you streamline that? Are there things that you can sell that maybe add to storing the collection properly or you know, getting the collection appraised and under insurance.

So it’s really more about helping people who have large collections focus on how to curate their collections the best.

SciFiMafia.com: I think that came across really well in the first episode; you helped those people a lot.

Elyse Luray: Good. Good. And I think you’ll see if the show goes on we really – we give really good examples of not only helping them but helping others, because why this show works so well is the beauty of collecting of sharing it with others. And a lot of people have amazing collections and they’ve just never had the opportunity to share it with others or sell some of their collection to somebody who might make that person very happy.

And it works really well with the Star Wars, because they ended up actually even donating the proceeds to their auction to the Obi Wan Ranch. So at the end of each episode, I think each collector feels great.

Be sure to see our review of tonight’s episode, posted earlier today.

Thanks so much to Elyse Luray for speaking with us about the new show.

Collection Intervention, starring Elyse Luray, airs Tuesday nights at 10/9c on Syfy.