Dirty Jobs
Encyclopedia
Dirty Jobs is a program on the Discovery Channel
, produced by Pilgrim Films & Television
, in which host Mike Rowe
is shown performing difficult, strange, disgusting, or messy occupational duties alongside the typical employees. The show premiered with two pilot episodes in November 2003. It returned as a series on July 26, 2005.
There is also a European edition of the show, hosted by Danish former goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel
.
Mike engages in near-constant self-deprecating humor, making what he calls "dirty jokes", but rarely more than the occasional playful jab at the workers themselves. Nearly every job is even more difficult than he had expected, and this often has him expressing admiration and respect for the workers' skills and their willingness to take on jobs that most people avoid. The show always begins with the following quote from Rowe, usually spoken while in the midst of a particularly dirty task:
of a segment host Mike Rowe once did on a local San Francisco program called Somebody's Gotta Do It. After completing a graphic piece on cow artificial insemination
, Rowe was inundated with letters expressing "shock, horror, fascination, disbelief, and wonder". Rowe then sent the tape to the Discovery Channel
, who commissioned a series based on this concept. Dirty Jobs is now produced by Craig Piligian (executive producer) of Pilgrim Films & Television
. The Discovery Channel executive producer is Gena McCarthy.
Mike has stated in recently aired promos (done alongside a large sow) that he originally wanted to honor his father, and grandfather, by bringing fame to "less-than-glorious" careers.
, of which Mike Rowe was the host. The episodes featured him in a number of jobs related to the animals, some as outlandish as shark repellent tester and shark suit
tester, both of which necessitated his jumping into a shark feeding frenzy
. As a pun on Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" theme, the two episodes were named "Jobs That Bite" and "Jobs That Bite... Harder" for the opening and closing hours respectively.
In late August 2006, the show reached a milestone with Mike Rowe's 100th dirty job. This was commemorated with a special 2 hour long episode which mainly showed Mike's day with the U.S. Army's 187th Ordnance Battalion at Fort Jackson
, and included bloopers plus an "about me" segment of Mike's crew. At the end of the episode, Mike Rowe and Dave Barsky had a guitar/banjo duet and performed a song about the 100 dirty jobs. A 2-hour 150th job special aired in early December 2007, which combined footage of Rowe's 150th job (working on a yak
and bison
farm in Montana
) with footage of a party held at a San Francisco garbage dump where people featured in past Dirty Jobs segments were reunited with Rowe. In 2009, the show returned for a fifth season, with Rowe commenting in promotional spots, "After 200 dirty jobs, I'm back for more."
As a result of being featured in the season 1 episode "Vexcon", exterminator Bill Bretherton now has his own TV series on A&E, Billy the Exterminator.
It has been renewed for season 7.
on an episode of The Late Late Show
in July 2007 about his original cache of jobs for the pilots, "I haven't had an original idea since then".
taxidermy
artist Stephen Paternite
, Dirty Jobs filmed a segment featuring him in 2003, which was ultimately cut by the Discovery Channel as "too gross". The segment follows Mike Rowe and Paternite as they gather and skin dead raccoon
s, which Paternite will eventually turn into art pieces. The segment is available to view on Paternite's website, and on YouTube
, under the name "Too Gross for Discovery". In an interview on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
Rowe also mentioned that there were several segments which they have chosen not to air because they were too disturbing, including a "body farm
er." Even aired segments can be heavily edited, such as the "skull cleaner" segment, the final aired version of which Mike has likened to "The Sound of Music
with the songs edited out" because parts of it were deemed too graphic for television.
There is also an episode produced in 2006 wherein Rowe visited his doctor while producers Piligian and Eddie Barbini try two dirty jobs themselves. The episode, entitled "Mike's Day Off," was never aired in the United States for that season; it was only available as a DVD-exclusive episode (bundled with the episode "Skull Cleaner") and a downloadable episode in iTunes
. The episode has been aired in some local Discovery Channel feeds such as those of Southeast Asia and Australia, as well as on Discovery Channel Canada
before finally being aired in the United States on March 3, 2009.
's "We Care A Lot
" which features the lyrics, "Oh, it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it". In the first half of 2007, it was replaced with a generic theme song due to rights issues; older episodes aired at the time had their introductions reedited. Mike Rowe has said "Bottom line, the rights to 'We Care a Lot' were either not renewed on time, or not properly acquired in the first place". Although the network has not issued any statement clarifying the situation, "We Care A Lot" returned as the show's theme song beginning with the June 26, 2007 episode and has been retained on subsequent DVD releases of earlier episodes.
Season 2 commercials for the show feature the song "Dirty White Boy
" by Foreigner
. Season 3 commercials feature Rowe sharing the stage with a pig positioned on a rounded white pedestal
, with nondescript formal-sounding light instrumental music in the background.
Rowe often sings on-camera during the segments as part of a sardonic hat-tip to his days as an opera singer. During the candy making segment in episode 34 ("Fuel Tank Cleaner"), Rowe discovers that one of the candy makers makes a confection called "opera fudge" and ask if she sings opera during the making of opera fudge, then belts out an unidentified segment of an opera in Italian. During the cow pots segment of episode 47 ("Poo Pot Maker"), Rowe imitates the singing gondoliers of Venice while paddling around the liquid holding lagoon on the Freund farm: "'O Sole Mio
/Don't know the words/I've paddled for hours/In ponds of turds..." In a 2007 episode set at Prince George's Stadium
with Mike spending the day doing the "dirty jobs" associated with groundskeeping and dugout maintenance for the Bowie Baysox
minor league baseball team in Bowie, Maryland
, Mike ended the segment singing the National Anthem
prior to the game and throwing out the first pitch.
When Mike reads the very last piece of viewer mail in the viewer's choice episode, he was asked if he could sing the Dirty Jobs Theme Song because his online bio says that he used to be an opera singer. So he explained that one night, as they sat on "Foley" Creek (actually "Folly" Creek, but he has a tendency to pronounce it incorrectly), after a night of oysters and drinking (likely during the Oyster Harvester segment of the shrimper episode), he, Juke Joint Johnny and Sam (likely Silky Sam) jotted down some lyrics and the "official, unofficial Dirty Jobs Theme Song" was born. This shortest version of the song clocked in at just under a minute in length, and it varies a bit from later versions, but it is fun in that it was less planned than the later ones.
At the end of the pipe organ
specialist segment of the geoduck farmer episode, Mike Rowe sang what he called the Dirty Jobs Anthem. Rowe reprised this moment in the "Leather Tanner" episode from the third season on an antique piano at the tannery.
At the conclusion of a two-hour special edition commemorating Mike's 100th dirty job, he and field producer Dave Barsky faked a guitar/banjo duet, featuring an extended version of this anthem which ran a little over two minutes in length (Rowe actually sang all the parts while Rowe's friend Matt played all the instruments). The extended song differs slightly from the shorter versions which aired previously, and even the words that are similar vary somewhat. Mike performed the song again with slightly different lyrics on the 150th Job Extravaganza with the Burning Embers.
issued the following statement in its publicity of the program:
Since Mike Rowe began appearing in Ford
pick-up truck commercials in 2006, the show has made tongue-in-cheek references to these ads. In the "Billboard Installer" episode, Mike jokingly quipped that he wasn't sophisticated in the ways of the advertising business, while standing in front of a Ford advertisement mounted on the billboard he had just helped to erect. At the end of the "Bridge Painter" episode set at the Mackinac Bridge
, the rough cuts behind the credits show Mike as a traffic flagman ad-libbing pithy greetings to each vehicle as it passes. The final vehicle in the clip is a large Ford pickup (possibly an F-350), to which Mike says "nice Ford." Over the end credits of the "Wild Goose Chase" episode, Mike comments that as a Ford spokesman, the show is contractually obligated to mention Ford at least once in each episode.
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
, produced by Pilgrim Films & Television
Pilgrim Films & Television
Pilgrim Films & Television is a television production company based in Sherman Oaks, California. It was founded in 1997 by Craig Piligian. It is best known for producing reality television shows for the Discovery Channel.-Television series:...
, in which host Mike Rowe
Mike Rowe
Mike Rowe may refer to:*Michael Rowe, television writer for Futurama*Mike Rowe , host of the Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs* Mike Rowe , retired Canadian professional ice hockey player...
is shown performing difficult, strange, disgusting, or messy occupational duties alongside the typical employees. The show premiered with two pilot episodes in November 2003. It returned as a series on July 26, 2005.
There is also a European edition of the show, hosted by Danish former goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel
Peter Schmeichel
Peter Bolesław Schmeichel MBE is a retired Danish professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and was voted the "World's Best Goalkeeper" in 1992 and 1993...
.
Format
A worker or team of workers takes on Rowe as a fully involved assistant for a typical work day, working hard to complete every task as best he can despite discomfort, hazards or repulsive situations. The Dirty Jobs crew, including field producer Dave Barsky, cameramen Doug Glover, Troy Paff, and Dan Eggiman, and audio technician Josh Atkins, often get just as dirty as Rowe does. Rowe frequently takes on-camera jabs at Dave Barsky, regarding Barsky's penchant for setting up scenes where Rowe will encounter the most dangerous or dirty part of the job in order to get a great camera shot; indeed, the entire crew frequently joke and prank each other on-camera, for example, when a safety officer finishes going over the rules and regulations for the Billboard Installer job in the third season (the safety officer asks Rowe to sign a release, which he does while mock-voicing the words he signs: "Dave...Barsky..."), or attempting to film Troy defecating in the woods.Mike engages in near-constant self-deprecating humor, making what he calls "dirty jokes", but rarely more than the occasional playful jab at the workers themselves. Nearly every job is even more difficult than he had expected, and this often has him expressing admiration and respect for the workers' skills and their willingness to take on jobs that most people avoid. The show always begins with the following quote from Rowe, usually spoken while in the midst of a particularly dirty task:
- "My name's Mike Rowe, and this is my job. I explore the country looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty — hard-working men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us. Now, get ready to get dirty."
History
The show is a spin-offSpin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
of a segment host Mike Rowe once did on a local San Francisco program called Somebody's Gotta Do It. After completing a graphic piece on cow artificial insemination
Artificial insemination
Artificial insemination, or AI, is the process by which sperm is placed into the reproductive tract of a female for the purpose of impregnating the female by using means other than sexual intercourse or natural insemination...
, Rowe was inundated with letters expressing "shock, horror, fascination, disbelief, and wonder". Rowe then sent the tape to the Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
, who commissioned a series based on this concept. Dirty Jobs is now produced by Craig Piligian (executive producer) of Pilgrim Films & Television
Pilgrim Films & Television
Pilgrim Films & Television is a television production company based in Sherman Oaks, California. It was founded in 1997 by Craig Piligian. It is best known for producing reality television shows for the Discovery Channel.-Television series:...
. The Discovery Channel executive producer is Gena McCarthy.
Mike has stated in recently aired promos (done alongside a large sow) that he originally wanted to honor his father, and grandfather, by bringing fame to "less-than-glorious" careers.
Episodes
In July 2006, the show aired two special episodes to kick off and wrap up Discovery's annual Shark WeekShark Week
The Discovery Channel's Shark Week, which first aired on July 27, 1987, is a week-long series of feature television programs dedicated to sharks. Shark Week is held annually, normally running in July or August. Shark Week was developed to help the average person have a greater respect for sharks....
, of which Mike Rowe was the host. The episodes featured him in a number of jobs related to the animals, some as outlandish as shark repellent tester and shark suit
Shark suit
A shark suit is a body-cover suit made of chainmail worn sometimes by scuba divers to protect against shark bite. While the wearer will feel the full pressure of the bite, the suit prevents any concentration of force from the shark's teeth and effectively prevents any true damage to the wearer's...
tester, both of which necessitated his jumping into a shark feeding frenzy
Feeding frenzy
In ecology, a feeding frenzy is a situation where oversaturation of a supply of food leads to rapid feeding by predatory animals. For example, a large school of fish can cause nearby sharks to enter a feeding frenzy. This can cause the sharks to go wild, biting anything that moves, including each...
. As a pun on Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" theme, the two episodes were named "Jobs That Bite" and "Jobs That Bite... Harder" for the opening and closing hours respectively.
In late August 2006, the show reached a milestone with Mike Rowe's 100th dirty job. This was commemorated with a special 2 hour long episode which mainly showed Mike's day with the U.S. Army's 187th Ordnance Battalion at Fort Jackson
Fort Jackson, South Carolina
Fort Jackson is a United States Army installation, which TRADOC operates on for Basic Combat Training , and is located in Columbia, South Carolina. This installation is named for Andrew Jackson, a United States Army General and 7th President of the United States.-Overview:Fort Jackson was created...
, and included bloopers plus an "about me" segment of Mike's crew. At the end of the episode, Mike Rowe and Dave Barsky had a guitar/banjo duet and performed a song about the 100 dirty jobs. A 2-hour 150th job special aired in early December 2007, which combined footage of Rowe's 150th job (working on a yak
Yak
The yak, Bos grunniens or Bos mutus, is a long-haired bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. In addition to a large domestic population, there is a small, vulnerable wild yak population...
and bison
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
farm in Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
) with footage of a party held at a San Francisco garbage dump where people featured in past Dirty Jobs segments were reunited with Rowe. In 2009, the show returned for a fifth season, with Rowe commenting in promotional spots, "After 200 dirty jobs, I'm back for more."
As a result of being featured in the season 1 episode "Vexcon", exterminator Bill Bretherton now has his own TV series on A&E, Billy the Exterminator.
It has been renewed for season 7.
Submissions
Each episode ends with a segment, usually shot at a previous dirty job, where Rowe tells the viewers that the show's continued existence depends on viewer submissions of suggestions for additional dirty jobs, and instructs them to go to the show's website for details on how to submit ideas (this segment is, however, usually edited out of the Canadian broadcasts of the series on Discovery Channel Canada). Rowe has often noted on-screen and off-screen that without viewer contributions, the show would be lost; Rowe originally concocted a list of a dozen jobs that could be featured in the three episodes that served as the show's pilot, and within days after the first episode aired, viewers flooded Discovery Channel with e-mail and video featuring their own dirty jobs, a tradition that has kept the show going ever since. As Rowe explained to Craig FergusonCraig Ferguson
Craig Ferguson is a Scottish American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, and producer. He is the host of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, an Emmy Award-nominated, Peabody Award-winning late-night talk show that airs on CBS...
on an episode of The Late Late Show
The Late Late Show (CBS TV series)
The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show on CBS hosted by Craig Ferguson since 2005. It immediately follows Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated...
in July 2007 about his original cache of jobs for the pilots, "I haven't had an original idea since then".
Unaired segments
According to roadkillRoadkill
Roadkill is an animal or animals that have been struck and killed by motor vehicles. In the United States of America, removal and disposal of animals struck by motor vehicles is usually the responsibility of the state's state trooper association or department of transportation.-History:During the...
taxidermy
Taxidermy
Taxidermy is the act of mounting or reproducing dead animals for display or for other sources of study. Taxidermy can be done on all vertebrate species of animals, including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians...
artist Stephen Paternite
Stephen Paternite
Stephen Paternite multi-media artist received his initial art training in the early 1970s at Cooper School of Art, Cleveland, Ohio- Career :...
, Dirty Jobs filmed a segment featuring him in 2003, which was ultimately cut by the Discovery Channel as "too gross". The segment follows Mike Rowe and Paternite as they gather and skin dead raccoon
Raccoon
Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the common raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are...
s, which Paternite will eventually turn into art pieces. The segment is available to view on Paternite's website, and on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, under the name "Too Gross for Discovery". In an interview on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is a Peabody Award-winning American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish American comedian Craig Ferguson. Ferguson, the third regular host of the Late Late Show franchise, follows Late Show with David Letterman in the CBS late-night lineup...
Rowe also mentioned that there were several segments which they have chosen not to air because they were too disturbing, including a "body farm
Body Farm
A body farm is a research facility where human decomposition can be studied in a variety of settings. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the decomposition process, permitting the development of techniques for extracting information from human remains...
er." Even aired segments can be heavily edited, such as the "skull cleaner" segment, the final aired version of which Mike has likened to "The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music is a musical by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers...
with the songs edited out" because parts of it were deemed too graphic for television.
There is also an episode produced in 2006 wherein Rowe visited his doctor while producers Piligian and Eddie Barbini try two dirty jobs themselves. The episode, entitled "Mike's Day Off," was never aired in the United States for that season; it was only available as a DVD-exclusive episode (bundled with the episode "Skull Cleaner") and a downloadable episode in iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
. The episode has been aired in some local Discovery Channel feeds such as those of Southeast Asia and Australia, as well as on Discovery Channel Canada
Discovery Channel Canada
Discovery Channel is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel devoted to nature, adventure, science and technology programming. Discovery Channel is currently owned by CTV Specialty Television Inc...
before finally being aired in the United States on March 3, 2009.
Music
The show's theme song was originally Faith No MoreFaith No More
Faith No More is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed originally as Faith No Man in 1981 by bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist Wade Worthington, vocalist Michael Morris and drummer Mike Bordin. A year later when Worthington was replaced by keyboardist Roddy Bottum, and Mike...
's "We Care A Lot
We Care a Lot (song)
- Covers :* Chuck Mosley covered the song under the title "We Care a Lot" in his solo project, and released it on his album Will Rap Over Hard Rock for Food. The lyrics are different in the verses, however the chorus remains the same. The song is longer than the original and the first part of the...
" which features the lyrics, "Oh, it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it". In the first half of 2007, it was replaced with a generic theme song due to rights issues; older episodes aired at the time had their introductions reedited. Mike Rowe has said "Bottom line, the rights to 'We Care a Lot' were either not renewed on time, or not properly acquired in the first place". Although the network has not issued any statement clarifying the situation, "We Care A Lot" returned as the show's theme song beginning with the June 26, 2007 episode and has been retained on subsequent DVD releases of earlier episodes.
Season 2 commercials for the show feature the song "Dirty White Boy
Dirty White Boy (song)
"Dirty White Boy" is the first single taken from Foreigner's third album, Head Games. It is written by Lou Gramm & Mick Jones. The B-side, "Rev On The Red Line" has also proven to be very popular among fans, but was never released as an A-side single on its own. Lou Gramm's trademark scream at...
" by Foreigner
Foreigner (band)
Foreigner is a British-American rock band, originally formed in 1976 by veteran English musicians Mick Jones and ex-King Crimson member Ian McDonald along with American vocalist Lou Gramm...
. Season 3 commercials feature Rowe sharing the stage with a pig positioned on a rounded white pedestal
Pedestal
Pedestal is a term generally applied to the support of a statue or a vase....
, with nondescript formal-sounding light instrumental music in the background.
Rowe often sings on-camera during the segments as part of a sardonic hat-tip to his days as an opera singer. During the candy making segment in episode 34 ("Fuel Tank Cleaner"), Rowe discovers that one of the candy makers makes a confection called "opera fudge" and ask if she sings opera during the making of opera fudge, then belts out an unidentified segment of an opera in Italian. During the cow pots segment of episode 47 ("Poo Pot Maker"), Rowe imitates the singing gondoliers of Venice while paddling around the liquid holding lagoon on the Freund farm: "'O Sole Mio
'O Sole Mio
"O sole mio" is a globally known Neapolitan song written in 1898. The lyrics were written by Giovanni Capurro and the melody was composed by Eduardo di Capua. Though there are versions in other languages, "'O sole mio" is usually sung in the original Neapolitan language...
/Don't know the words/I've paddled for hours/In ponds of turds..." In a 2007 episode set at Prince George's Stadium
Prince George's Stadium
Prince George's Stadium is a multipurpose sports venue located in Bowie, Maryland primarily used for baseball. It is home of the Baltimore Orioles' AA affiliate in the Eastern League, the Bowie Baysox...
with Mike spending the day doing the "dirty jobs" associated with groundskeeping and dugout maintenance for the Bowie Baysox
Bowie Baysox
The Bowie Baysox are a minor league baseball team located in Bowie, Maryland. They are the class-AA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, and play in the Eastern League...
minor league baseball team in Bowie, Maryland
Bowie, Maryland
Bowie is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 54,727 at the 2010 census. Bowie has grown from a small railroad stop to the largest municipality in Prince George's County, and the fifth most populous city and third largest city by area in the state of...
, Mike ended the segment singing the National Anthem
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
prior to the game and throwing out the first pitch.
When Mike reads the very last piece of viewer mail in the viewer's choice episode, he was asked if he could sing the Dirty Jobs Theme Song because his online bio says that he used to be an opera singer. So he explained that one night, as they sat on "Foley" Creek (actually "Folly" Creek, but he has a tendency to pronounce it incorrectly), after a night of oysters and drinking (likely during the Oyster Harvester segment of the shrimper episode), he, Juke Joint Johnny and Sam (likely Silky Sam) jotted down some lyrics and the "official, unofficial Dirty Jobs Theme Song" was born. This shortest version of the song clocked in at just under a minute in length, and it varies a bit from later versions, but it is fun in that it was less planned than the later ones.
At the end of the pipe organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
specialist segment of the geoduck farmer episode, Mike Rowe sang what he called the Dirty Jobs Anthem. Rowe reprised this moment in the "Leather Tanner" episode from the third season on an antique piano at the tannery.
At the conclusion of a two-hour special edition commemorating Mike's 100th dirty job, he and field producer Dave Barsky faked a guitar/banjo duet, featuring an extended version of this anthem which ran a little over two minutes in length (Rowe actually sang all the parts while Rowe's friend Matt played all the instruments). The extended song differs slightly from the shorter versions which aired previously, and even the words that are similar vary somewhat. Mike performed the song again with slightly different lyrics on the 150th Job Extravaganza with the Burning Embers.
Promotion
Discovery ChannelDiscovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
issued the following statement in its publicity of the program:
- In the feisty Dirty Jobs, host and everymanEverymanIn literature and drama, the term everyman has come to mean an ordinary individual, with whom the audience or reader is supposed to be able to identify easily, and who is often placed in extraordinary circumstances...
Mike Rowe gets the grimy scoop on downright nasty occupations. The featured "foul play for pay" could be processing smelly seafood in a fish factory, collecting bat guano for prized fertilizerFertilizerFertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...
, combing creek bottoms for edible wildlife, or cleaning septic tanks to maintain a fresh-smelling environment.
Since Mike Rowe began appearing in Ford
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
pick-up truck commercials in 2006, the show has made tongue-in-cheek references to these ads. In the "Billboard Installer" episode, Mike jokingly quipped that he wasn't sophisticated in the ways of the advertising business, while standing in front of a Ford advertisement mounted on the billboard he had just helped to erect. At the end of the "Bridge Painter" episode set at the Mackinac Bridge
Mackinac Bridge
The Mackinac Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Straits of Mackinac to connect the non-contiguous Upper and Lower peninsulas of the U.S. state of Michigan. Opened in 1957, the bridge is the third longest in total suspension in the world and the longest suspension bridge between anchorages...
, the rough cuts behind the credits show Mike as a traffic flagman ad-libbing pithy greetings to each vehicle as it passes. The final vehicle in the clip is a large Ford pickup (possibly an F-350), to which Mike says "nice Ford." Over the end credits of the "Wild Goose Chase" episode, Mike comments that as a Ford spokesman, the show is contractually obligated to mention Ford at least once in each episode.
DVD releases
Discovery Channel has released 83 episodes on DVD and on iTunes.| DVD Name | # Ep | Release |
|---|---|---|
| Dirty Jobs Season 1 DVD Set | 10 | July 2006 |
| Dirty Jobs Season 2 DVD Set | 25 | January 28, 2008 |
| Dirty Jobs Season 3 DVD Set | 23 | 2008 |
| Dirty Jobs Season 4 DVD Set | 25 | April 6, 2010 |
| Dirty Jobs – Collection 1 | 9 | September 4, 2007 |
| Dirty Jobs – Collection 2 | 12 | February 5, 2008 |
| Dirty Jobs – Collection 3 | 12 | August 26, 2008 |
| Dirty Jobs – Collection 4 | 13 | February 24,2009 |
| Dirty Jobs – Collection 5 | 17 | January 26, 2010 |
| Dirty Jobs – Collection 6 | 11 | September 7, 2010 |
| Dirty Jobs – Collection 7 | 10 | April 5, 2011 |
| Dirty Jobs – Something Fishy | 4 | February 23, 2010 |
See also
- The Worst Jobs in HistoryThe Worst Jobs in HistoryThe Worst Jobs in History is a television series hosted by Tony Robinson on Channel 4. The second series was shown in March 2006 on History Television in Canada, then in April 2006 on Channel 4 in the UK. The first season is also shown with some regularity on History International...
- a UK series that debuted in 2004 with a similar premise to Dirty Jobs except host Tony RobinsonTony RobinsonTony Robinson is an English actor, comedian, author, broadcaster and political campaigner. He is best known for playing Baldrick in the BBC television series Blackadder, and for hosting Channel 4 programmes such as Time Team and The Worst Jobs in History. Robinson is a member of the Labour Party...
experiences "dirty jobs" that were common in British society centuries ago.
External links
- Discovery.com Dirty Jobs Website
- Pilgrim Films Dirty Jobs Website
- Mike Rowe talks about Dirty Jobs at TEDTED (conference)TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....