The History of Somebody's Gotta Do It
The idea took shape in 2002, over a beer in a waterfront bar called “Grumpy’s” in San Francisco, where I was brainstorming with a TV producer named James Reid. James worked for Evening Magazine, a local TV show on CBS that I had recently been hired to host. On that particular afternoon, we were drinking because our boss was demanding something “different” in the way of a new segment. (It’s a classic request, and one of the great ironies in television - executives always crying out for new ideas, but unwilling to green-light any concept without a proven track record.) In this case however, Evening Magazine had been blessed with a dwindling and narcoleptic audience, and the likelihood of pending cancellation, which gave us all very little to lose.
So we began to kick some ideas around. I had just finished reading “Paper Tiger,” by George Plimpton, and the notion of an “immersed host” was very fresh in my mind. I liked the idea of trying something truly unscripted, and inserting myself into situations for which I was neither trained or qualified to attempt. James was up for anything, (as long as I kept buying the beer,) but wanted to keep the focus on local, anonymous people. I agreed completely.
Since we shared a lot of the same views on work and celebrity, it was inevitable that those beers would eventually steer the conversation toward the unsung contributions of the people who do dirty jobs. We settled on the title “Somebody’s Gotta Do It,” and got the go ahead to start shooting the next day. The first segment was at The San Francisco Zoo, and featured Anthony, The Poo Truck Driver. It only got weirder from there. Within a year, we had shot about 25 segments, and developed a franchise that was garnering lots of new viewers and lots of local press. Evening Magazine was back on the map, and several of the segments were nominated for Emmys, and one – Artificial Cow Inseminator, actually won.
Those early segments were only 3-7 minutes long, but otherwise, they were identical in style and tone to the segments you see on Dirty Jobs today. (In fact, some of them are identical, and were simply re-shot and re-cut to accommodate a longer format. Poo Truck Driver, Chinatown Garbage Man, and Sewer Inspector being the most notable.) Then, a change in management ushered in a whole new attitude at CBS, and it was determined by a gentler sensibility than my own, that “dirty” was not the right direction for the newly expanded Evening Magazine viewership. I was then instructed by the new boss to once again, develop something “different.”
Sensing a pattern, and positive that SGDI deserved a bigger audience, I sent a copy of Artificial Cow Inseminator to Good Morning America, with the suggestion they hire me to host similar recurring segments for their program. We couldn't come to terms, (though I now appear from time to time as a guest on that program.) I then sent the same tape to a number of other networks, all of who said “no” in a variety of creative ways. (My favorite came from Comedy Central, who wrote, “At this time, our fall schedule does not allow for a talk show that takes place inside a septic tank.”)
Eventually, I approached some people I had worked with years earlier at The Discovery Channel. They didn’t say “no,” exactly, but suggested instead that if I was serious, find a production company with an established name, attach myself as host and co-producer, and let the production company present the idea to the network. I took half their advice, and called a guy I know called named Craig Piligian. Craig owns Pilgrim Films and Television, and was one of the original producers of Survivor. At the time, he was producing Discovery’s hit show, American Chopper. I figured he would be a good choice, and I was right. (Besides, back in 2001, Craig had hired me to host series for TBS called Worst Case Scenario, which lived up to its name in every way. He owed me a favor.)
Anyway, after watching me collect a pint of semen from an award-winning bull and become intimate with a few dozen dairy cows, Craig agreed that America might be ready for a show about manual labor, sweat, and poo, and went about the business of convincing Discovery to commission Somebody’s Gotta Do It.
At some point, the show was renamed Dirty Jobs, and the format was extended from thirty minutes to a full one hour. After three pilots, and 18 months of focus groups, Discovery finally ordered the series you watch today. In March of 2005, I quit Evening Magazine, which is now off the air, (how’s that for something “different,”) and dedicated myself to a life of grime. The rest is dirty history.
And that's the way it happened.
I swear.
Mike
Hard to believe he earned an Emmy for Somebody's Gotta Do It and has only been nominated for Dirty Jobs. Fate deals people the strangest cards in the deck, doesn't it? I think the idea of a comedy show in a sewer would have worked. The Man Show in the sewer. How clever!
Didn't Oscar Wilde say it best about how we all feel about being in a sewer?
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
Smart man. Everything is always better looking when you are looking up from the lowliest place. Even if it is from a gutter or sewer.
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