Dirty Jobs | |
---|---|
Also known as | Dirty Jobs: Rowe'd Trip (2020) |
Starring | Mike Rowe |
Opening theme | "We Care A Lot" by Faith No More (Seasons 1, 3–7) "Pop Rock Theme" by Matt Koskenmaki (Season 2) |
Composers | David Vanacore (Vanacore Music) |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 10 |
No. of episodes | 179 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Running time | 40–44 minutes |
Production company | Pilgrim Films & Television |
Original release | |
Network | Discovery Channel |
Release | November 7, 2003 – September 12, 2012 |
Release | January 2, 2022 – February 23, 2023 |
Dirty Jobs is an American television series that originally aired on the Discovery Channel in which host Mike Rowe is shown performing difficult, strange, disgusting, or messy occupational duties alongside the job's current employees. The show, produced by Pilgrim Films & Television, premiered with three pilot episodes in November 2003. It returned as a series on July 26, 2005, running for eight seasons until September 12, 2012. [1] The show's setting was refocused in Australia for the final season, called Dirty Jobs Down Under. [2] A spinoff miniseries titled Dirty Jobs: Rowe'd Trip premiered on July 7, 2020. The original series returned on January 2, 2022 for two more seasons, concluding on February 2, 2023.
There is also a European edition of the show hosted by former Manchester United and Denmark goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel. [3]
The series was nominated for five Primetime Emmys: 3 for Outstanding Reality Program, which Rowe was nominated for as a producer, and two for Cinematography.
In each episode, 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 often gets just as dirty as Rowe does. [4]
Rowe engages in frequent self-deprecating humor, making what he calls "dirty jokes", but rarely makes more than the occasional playful jab at the workers. 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 is a spin-off of a segment host Mike Rowe once did on a local San Francisco show called Evening Magazine . The segment was 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 sent the tape to numerous networks, including Comedy Central, who replied saying "At this time, our fall schedule does not allow for a talk show that takes place inside a septic tank." [5] Ultimately Rowe also sent the tape to the Discovery Channel, which commissioned a series based on this format. [6] Dirty Jobs was produced by Craig Piligian (executive producer) of Pilgrim Films & Television. The Discovery Channel executive producer was Gena McCarthy.
On May 6, 2013, Rowe posted on Facebook that he was open to creating a new show that is similar to Dirty Jobs using Somebody's Gotta Do It , the title of the original segment that had inspired Dirty Jobs. Rowe said that if half the people on his Facebook fan page said "Hey, Mike, here's 10 bucks for jet fuel and basic production costs," he'd "put the band back together and start shooting Somebody's Gotta Do It tomorrow." [7] On April 10, 2014, Rowe announced on his Facebook page that CNN had decided to air the show. [8]
On August 12, 2018, Rowe posted on Facebook that "the idea is being floated around" to reboot Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel. [9] On November 3, 2019, Rowe wrote that "there's been a lot of chatter about a reboot, and I’m open to it. So too, is (producer Dave) Barsky. Stay tuned…" [10]
On June 23, 2020, it was announced that a spin-off titled Dirty Jobs: Rowe'd Trip had finished filming [11] and would premiere on July 7, 2020. [12] Rowe mentioned that the spin-off happened because the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted plans to film episodes in the original Dirty Jobs format. [13]
On November 15, 2021, Discovery, Inc. announced that Dirty Jobs would return, again with Rowe as host. The premiere of the revived series aired on Discovery and Discovery+ on January 2, 2022. [14]
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
First aired | Last aired | |||
Pilots | 3 | November 7, 2003 | November 21, 2003 | |
1 | 6 | July 26, 2005 | August 30, 2005 | |
2 | 45 | September 27, 2005 | March 20, 2007 | |
3 | 34 | June 26, 2007 | July 29, 2008 | |
4 | 21 | October 7, 2008 | April 12, 2009 | |
5 | 22 | October 6, 2009 | June 14, 2010 | |
6 | 23 | October 19, 2010 | March 8, 2011 | |
7 | 11 | December 13, 2011 | February 21, 2012 | |
8 | 4 | August 22, 2012 | September 12, 2012 | |
Rowe'd Trip | 4 | July 7, 2020 | July 28, 2020 | |
9 | 6 | January 2, 2022 | February 6, 2022 | |
10 | 8 | December 11, 2022 | February 5, 2023 |
In July 2006, the show aired two special episodes to kick off and wrap up Discovery's annual Shark Week, of which 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 Rowe's 100th dirty job. This was commemorated with a special two-hour episode which mainly showed Rowe's day with the U.S. Army's 187th Ordnance Battalion at Fort Jackson, and included bloopers plus an "about me" segment of Rowe's crew. At the end of the episode, 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."
It was renewed for a seventh season, [15] which Rowe described as including "a broader geographical palate." [16]
An eighth season, marketed as Dirty Jobs Down Under, premiered on August 22, 2012. [2] There were only four episodes filmed for season eight. [17]
As a result of being featured in the season 1 episode "Vexcon", exterminator Billy Bretherton later starred in his own series on A&E, Billy the Exterminator .
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 Ferguson on an episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson in July 2007 about his original cache of jobs for the pilots, "I haven't had an original idea since then". [18]
According to roadkill 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 Rowe and Paternite as they gather and skin dead raccoons, which Paternite will eventually turn into art pieces. The segment is available to view on Paternite's website, [19] and on YouTube, under the name "Too Gross for Discovery". [20] 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" for the study of decomposition. Even aired segments can be heavily edited, such as the "skull cleaner" segment, the final aired version of which Rowe has likened to " The Sound of Music with the songs edited out" because parts of it were deemed too graphic for television. [21]
There is also an episode produced in 2006 where in 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. [22] 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. Various episodes air in certain countries with different scenes.
The show's theme song was originally Faith No More's "We Care A Lot" which features the lyric "Oh, it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it". At some point in every episode, a screen with the Dirty Jobs logo pops up before a commercial then a part of the song "Get On Out In Here" by Matt Koskenmaki [23] plays. In the first half of 2007, "We Care A Lot" was replaced with "Pop Rock Theme" by Matt Koskenmaki [23] (who also did the other music cues for the show), due to rights issues; older episodes aired at the time had their introductions reedited. 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". [24] 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 a segment of "Vecchia zimarra" from Puccini's La Bohéme. 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 Rowe spending the day doing the "dirty jobs" associated with groundskeeping and dugout maintenance for the Bowie Baysox minor league baseball team in Bowie, Maryland, Rowe ended the segment singing the National Anthem prior to the game and throwing out the first pitch.
When Rowe reads the 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. [25]
At the end of the pipe organ specialist segment of the geoduck farmer episode, Rowe sang what he called the Dirty Jobs Anthem. [26] 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 Rowe'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). [27] The extended song differs slightly from the shorter versions which aired previously, and even the words that are similar vary somewhat. Rowe performed the song again with slightly different lyrics on the 150th Job Extravaganza with the Burning Embers. [28]
Discovery Channel issued the following statement in its publicity of the program:
Discovery Channel has released over 130 episodes on DVD and on iTunes.
DVD Name | No. of episodes | Run time (minutes) | Release |
---|---|---|---|
Dirty Jobs Season 1 DVD Set | 10 | 430 [30] | July 2006 |
Dirty Jobs Season 2 DVD Set | 25 | 1,080 [31] | January 28, 2008 |
Dirty Jobs Season 3 DVD Set | 23 | 1,032 [32] | 2008 |
Dirty Jobs Season 4 DVD Set | 25 | 1,075 [33] | April 6, 2010 |
Dirty Jobs Season 5 DVD Set | 17 | 817 [34] | 2011 |
Dirty Jobs – Collection 1 | 9 | 494 [35] | September 4, 2007 |
Dirty Jobs – Collection 2 | 12 | 502 [36] | February 5, 2008 |
Dirty Jobs – Collection 3 | 12 | 480 [37] | August 26, 2008 |
Dirty Jobs – Collection 4 | 13 | 576 [38] | February 24, 2009 |
Dirty Jobs – Collection 5 | 17 | 430 [39] | January 26, 2010 |
Dirty Jobs – Collection 6 | 11 | 430 [40] | September 7, 2010 |
Dirty Jobs – Collection 7 | 10 | 430 [41] | May 3, 2011 [42] |
Dirty Jobs – Collection 8 | 10 | 450 | August 7, 2012 [43] |
Dirty Jobs – Something Fishy | 4 | 167 [44] | February 23, 2010 |
Dirty Jobs – Toughest Jobs | 5 | 220 | May 15, 2012 [45] |
Dirty Jobs Down Under | 4 | 176 | March 11, 2014 [46] |
Malcolm in the Middle is an American television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for Fox. The series premiered on January 9, 2000, and ended on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons consisting of 151 episodes.
Totally Spies! is a French anime-influenced animated spy-fi series created by Vincent Chalvon-Demersay and David Michel mainly produced by French company Zodiak Kids & Family France, with seasons three to five being co-produced with Canadian company Image Entertainment Corporation. It focuses on three teenage girls from Beverly Hills, California, who work as undercover agents for the World Organization of Human Protection (WOOHP).
Rachel Perry is a Canadian TV personality working in the United States. The former MuchMusic VJ is the host of All Access on VH1, and is the narrator for Web Junk 20, and the host of "The Stash" on Playboy TV.
Deadliest Catch is an American reality television series that premiered on the Discovery Channel on April 12, 2005. The show follows crab fishermen aboard fishing vessels in the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and snow crab fishing seasons. The base of operations for the fishing fleet is the Aleutian Islands port of Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Produced for the Discovery Channel, the show's title is derived from the inherent high risk of injury or death associated with this line of work.
Shark Week is an annual, weeklong, shark-themed TV programming block at the Discovery Channel. Shark Week originally premiered on July 17, 1988. Featured annually, in July or early August, it was originally devoted to conservation efforts and correcting misconceptions about sharks. Over time, it grew in popularity and became a hit on the Discovery Channel. Since 2010, it has been the longest-running cable television programming event in history. Broadcast in over 72 countries, Shark Week is promoted heavily via social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Episodes are also available for purchase on services like Google Play Movies & TV/YouTube, Amazon Video, and iTunes. Some episodes are free on the subscription-based Hulu and Discovery+.
A Haunting is an American paranormal drama anthology television series that depicts eyewitness accounts of alleged possession, exorcism, and ghostly encounters. The program features narrations, interviews, and dramatic re-enactments based on various accounts of alleged paranormal experiences at reportedly haunted and mostly residential locations.
Dirty Sexy Money is an American prime time drama television series created by Craig Wright. It ran for two seasons on ABC from September 26, 2007, to August 8, 2009. The series was produced by Berlanti Television and ABC Studios. Wright served as an executive producer alongside Greg Berlanti, Bryan Singer, Matthew Gross, Peter Horton, and Josh Reims, with Melissa Berman producing.
Heathcliff is a children's animated television series that debuted on September 3, 1984. Produced by DIC Audiovisuel, it was the second animated series based on the Heathcliff comic strip. 65 half-hour episodes aired in first-run syndication in the fall of 1984, followed by a second season of 21 episodes in 1985 ran in syndication until it ended in 1988. The Catillac Cats characters were created by Jean Chalopin and Bruno Bianchi.
Stephen Paternite is an American multimedia artist known for his roadkill artwork & infrared photographs. He received his initial art training in the early 1970s at the Cooper School of Art, Cleveland, Ohio.
You Spoof Discovery: The ultimate viewer-submitted low-cost high-quality extremely entertaining Discovery parody special hosted by Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs, who also narrates the series American Chopper, American Hot Rod and Deadliest Catch, commonly shortened to You Spoof Discovery, is a one-hour special on the Discovery Channel which showed viewer-submitted parodies of Discovery Channel shows. The special premiered on February 25, 2007 and was hosted by Mike Rowe. Over 600 entries were submitted. The makers of parodies that made it on the air were given $500 from the Discovery Channel. According to Jane Root, then the president of Discovery Channel, the series was intended to be the beginning of a new wave of viewer-generated content.
Grossology is a Canadian animated action-adventure television series produced by Nelvana and based loosely on the non-fictional children's book series of the same name by Sylvia Branzei.
Verminators is an American reality television series. It is produced by Original Productions of Burbank, California and broadcast in the United States on Discovery Channel, Canada on Discovery Channel (Canada) and the UK on Virgin1. The program follows the employees of the Los Angeles-based pest control company ISOTech as they rid homes and businesses of rodents, cockroaches, termites, spiders, birds and other pests. The series began its run throughout North America on Discovery Channel in April 2008.
Michael Gregory Rowe is an American television host and narrator. He is known for his work on the Discovery Channel series Dirty Jobs and the series Somebody's Gotta Do It originally developed for CNN. He hosted a series produced for Facebook called Returning the Favor in which he found people doing good deeds and did something for them in return. He also hosts a podcast titled The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe.
Billy the Exterminator is an American reality television series that aired on A&E.
Ghost Lab is a weekly American paranormal television series that premiered on October 6, 2009, on the Discovery Channel. Produced by Paper Route Productions and Go Go Luckey Entertainment, the program is narrated by Mike Rowe. It follows ghost-hunting brothers Brad and Barry Klinge, who founded Everyday Paranormal (EP) in October 2007.
Somebody's Gotta Do It is a program that originally aired on CNN and later aired on TBN with host Mike Rowe. The show premiered on October 8, 2014. On May 13, 2016, Mike Rowe announced on his website MikeRowe.com that he and CNN had agreed to end production of the show after three seasons. A fourth season was picked by the TBN.
Returning the Favor is an American reality web series that premiered on August 28, 2017 on Facebook Watch. It follows Mike Rowe as he travels across the United States in search of people who are giving back to their communities. At the end of each episode, those being profiled receive a surprise that allows them to do even more of whatever kind of good work they are doing. In July 2018, Facebook renewed the series for a fourth season which premiered on January 14, 2020. The show was canceled after four seasons in January 2021.