And to be clear it wasn’t just that. It was also plenty of sensational, uncommon professions like various animal inseminators or poop collectors. But as the series went on, it covered more common ones. And as someone that worked in the a lot of unglamorous, blue collar jobs and today works in the trades it’s pretty rare to see our professions — diverse as they may be — represented on tv or film. You’re more likely to see an actor explain how wormholes, parallel universes or cloning work before you’ll see someone outside the trades explain how the HVAC they get their fresh air from works lol
And that’s fine. The people who write and make these shows aren’t the same people that work these jobs. In truth, I wonder how many guys in the trades actually even care about seeing representation of us in the media. In any event, as a kid this show taught me a deep appreciation of the dirty work it takes to keep a society, a country, well functioning. It took the abstract, impersonal wastewater building my mom would drive past on the way to Walmart — and the foul smell that emanated from within it — and gave it a human face.
The world can’t run on poets, artists, dreamers, musicians, and all of the other “glamorous” professions that get tv shows with attractive actors playing “normal people” like the Pitt or CSI. Somebody’s gotta scrub the toilets, somebody’s got to pick up the trash, somebody’s got work in the meat processing plant and slaughterhouse.
Dirty Jobs helped teach me an appreciation of it.
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