How DIRTY JOBS’ ‘Unintended Consequences’ Changed Fans’ Lives
By Movieguide® Contributor
DIRTY JOBS host Mike Rowe is grateful for some of the “unintended consequences” of the show.
“The big lesson from DIRTY JOBS was the unintended consequence of that show,” Rowe said on the “Modern Craftsman Podcast.” “It inspired millions of kids to say to their parents…it was like a portal. It was like a look into 350 different jobs. It’s the shallow end of the pool. You just get a glimpse at it.”
“But I guarantee you the number of veterinarians, the number of rod busters, steel workers, welders, who are walking around today because they saw a version of their life on a TV show that was born in a sewer because a smart aleck’s mother told him to get down there and do something that looked like work, you can’t script that thing,” he said. “Not in a million years. And I don’t care how many blank squares you have on your calendar. Nobody would ever think to fill one with that. That stuff just happens.”
DIRTY JOBS started in 2005.
Rowe previously said that the show “basically gave me permission to crawl through sewers and channel my inner eight-year-old.”
“It’s really a talk show without a set,” he told the New York Post in 2022, “wherein the participants are usually engaged in something that’s so optically weird that it’s hard to turn away. In the end, it’s just a couple of people getting to know each other, more than anything else.”
Rowe’s latest project was releasing his movie SOMETHING TO STAND FOR WITH MIKE ROWE earlier this summer.
Now available to watch on Angel Studios’ website, the movie sees Rowe embark “on an epic journey to the heart of Washington DC. This cinematic tour de force will take viewers to the frontlines of the American Revolution, World War II, the Civil Rights movement, and more.”
Movieguide®’s review reads:
SOMETHING TO STAND FOR WITH MIKE ROWE is a lively documentary just in time for July Fourth. TV personality, raconteur and motivational speaker Mike Rowe tells several historical stories celebrating American patriotism. Rowe tells multiple re-enacted patriotic stories. The stories include stories about the Founding Fathers, several America soldiers who took part in various famous battles, two Medal of Honor winners, an American President, and two Supreme Court Justices. He also reveals a story about some advice the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave to a young black female singer that impacted her life.
SOMETHING TO STAND FOR is a stirring, inspiring, superb documentary. Mike Rowe, who produces and wrote the script, infuses his movie with an energetic style. He celebrates liberty, patriotism, duty, honor, and sacrifice. However, it fudges some historical facts. SOMETHING TO STAND FOR also has some re-enacted war violence, a few light obscenities and a humorous, somewhat off-color biographical story about animal husbandry. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger and older children. That said, SOMETHING TO STAND FOR WITH MIKE ROWE is worth seeing on the big screen.
