Kansas City, Mo ? From tapestries and tobacco pouches to paintings and PVC pipes, the items area residents brought to “The Antiques Roadshow” are ready for their closeups.

Fourteen months after they created a buzz with their visit, the “Roadshow” folks are set to air three episodes from Kansas City starting today on PBS.

READER WARNING! If you want to be surprised by what happens on the show, we recommend you put down the newspaper and slowly back away from this story.

Still here?

OK. Here goes.

Among others, the show features David Leamon of Topeka, Kan., with his collection of William S. Burroughs memorabilia and Carolyn Mills of Belton, Mo., unrolling her large wool tapestry. You’ll also see Elise Cooper of Liberty, Mo., bring in her American Indian tobacco pouch.

What did the experts say, how much were their items worth, and what have they done with their items now that they know their appraised value?

Unless you really don’t want to know, read on.

Burroughs collection

David Leamon walked into “The Antiques Roadshow” with what some people might mistake for garbage — among other things an old PVC pipe and a T-shirt shot full of bullet holes.

The collection came from his father-in-law, George Kaull.

Kaull was unusual to say the least. A steelworker, sculptor and self-taught liberal intellectual, he also was a close friend of William S. Burroughs, the controversially brilliant author of “The Naked Lunch.” Artist, iconoclast and globe-trotting drug addict, Burroughs also mentored the beat generation.

Kaull and Burroughs met target shooting in Lawrence, Kan., and later drank and partied together.

“He was an excellent friend” to Burroughs, said Leamon, the director of the Topeka and Shawnee County Library. “They could talk about literature, they could talk about politics, and they spent a lot of time talking about guns.”

Many nights a veritable who’s who of the beat generation would gather at Kaull’s Lawrence home — Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary and Burroughs. And Burroughs gave him gifts. He once painted PVC pipe for him in what Leamon called squiggles. He even gave him a T-shirt that the two had shot full of bullet holes.

Kaull died several years ago, but his Burroughs collection lives on. Leamon decided to take it to the “Roadshow.”

One problem. He couldn’t get tickets.

Luckily his eldest daughter snagged a pair on eBay and gave them to him for his birthday.

The appraiser ran a bookstore in Boston and knew some of Burroughs’ work had literally been “banned in Boston.” But his appraisal stunned Leamon — $7,000 to $10,000. Perhaps much more.

“It exceeded my expectations by far,” Leamon said.

After the show Leamon plans to put the collection up for auction.

French tapestry

After Carolyn Mills’ mother-in-law died, the family gathered to pay their respects. Later they divided her personal effects. Some got furniture, others keepsakes.

No one, however, seemed to want the large wool tapestry that had decorated her dining room for decades. Mills, who lives in Belton, ended up with it by default.

Great, she thought. What do I do with this? It was 5 feet wide and 7 feet long. It was certainly beautiful — a gentle landscape in greens and golds. She simply didn’t have a wall large enough for it. Finally, she just rolled it up and put it in her basement, where it stayed for the next 30 years.

Today she’s planning to restore it, then sell it at auction.

Who’d want it? Collectors, for one. Turns out the old wall rug was actually part of an 18th-century French masterpiece.

“They told me it hung in a chateau in France,” Mills said.

French chateau. Belton basement.

Whatever. Experts say it’s worth upward of $5,000 — twice that if it’s restored.

“I was so excited!” Mills said.

The experts seemed excited, too.

They explained that as the rich families who owned the tapestries all died off, the furnishings ended up in antiques shops. The tapestries were too large for most homes. As a result, the dealers, or whoever took possession of the tapestries, often cut them into smaller sizes — some of which were still quite large.

Mills’ father-in-law, who served a wealthy Kansas City family for a lifetime as a houseman, received the tapestry as a gift. The man he worked for likely purchased it on one of his many visits to France, Mills said.

Now the tapestry no one wanted is getting a tad more respect.

“Imagine, if you would, being in the Garden of Eden,” Mills said. “It’s really quite beautiful.”

Thanks to the “Roadshow,” it’s out of the basement for good.

Indian artifact

Elise Cooper just knew her American Indian tobacco pouch had no value to anyone but her. But it came from her great-great-grandfather, and she wanted to know what tribe made it.

Unfortunately, “Roadshow” appraiser Donald Ellis couldn’t tell her that.

So he did the next best thing — told her it was worth up to $35,000.

Not surprisingly, that made her day.

“We had an absolutely delightful time,” the 76-year-old Cooper said.

Ellis seemed pretty pleased himself. The pouch is made of red stroud — Cooper compares it to felt — with beadwork and a blue silk ribbon around the edges. When Ellis saw it, he asked Cooper if she wanted to be on TV.

“I’d rather my daughter be on TV,” she said gesturing.

“I want you,” Ellis told her.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because you’ve just made my day,” he said. He told her it was a very rare tobacco pouch, or shot bag, from prairie Indians.

Cooper explained that her great-great-grandfather, John Dougherty, was an Indian agent, trapper and settler who did a lot of trading with American Indians. He had three close Indian friends, Cooper said, and he likely got the pouch as a gift.

Today she’s keeping the bag in a protected place. She has no plans to sell it.

“I guess the children will have to fight over it,” she said.