Author: Shari

50 Shades of Doug

Shari

About that last video…(see below) Some of you know my old friend Doug Glover. Doug is a gifted and mostly fearless cinematographer who has excelled in his chosen field. But Doug also suffers from chronic disappointment, brought about by years of concessions and professional compromise. On Dirty Jobs, Doug was beset by a host of environmental challenges, including but not limited to very high places, very tight places, very wet places, and of course, a constant rain of feces from every species – much of which wound up on his lens. Somebody’s Gotta Do It is not quite as hellish, Read More

CNN: The art of lucha libre

Shari

Ryan Bergeron, CNN Clothes may make the man, but a mask transforms him into something more. “With just this mask, the life is changed,” Manuel Quiroz says. “Because when you put the mask on, you feel bigger.” Quiroz has become the go-to mask and costume maker for a new generation of fighters in the world of Mexican freestyle wrestling, known as lucha libre. The work is a labor of love for Quiroz, who spends 15 hours a day sewing the detailed masks and gear from his home in South-Central Los Angeles. When CNN’s Mike Rowe wanted a taste of the Read More

Hospitality

Shari

A quick word if I may, in defense of hospitality, customer service, and hope for the species. Last night, after a four-hour drive from Quitaque to Abilene, the crew and I were equal parts ravenous and exhausted. By the time we checked in to another Holiday Inn, the only place in town still open was The Taylor County Taphouse. According to Yelp, they serve dinner till midnight all week long. In reality, The Taylor County Taphouse closes at 10pm on Tuesdays, which made our arrival at approximately 10:15 completely useless and utterly heartbreaking. The remaining staff was very polite, but Read More

Fridays With Freddy: Let Them Eat Cake!

Shari

“Qu’ils mangent de la brioche!” Little help, si vous plait? On our morning stroll, the biped stopped to consider this sign, which he described as “ironic.” Is it? I found it merely sarcastic, or perhaps sardonic, with a touch of snark. But maybe I’m wrong? The sign is an advertisement for Kara’s cupcake shop. Kara makes delicious gourmet treats that I’m not allowed to have on account of chocolate being deadly. (Is that ironic, or just tragic?) Kara’s delicious cupcakes cost over $3 a piece, which may or may not be a problem, assuming you have a job, and some Read More

Big Gulp Justice

Shari

A couple of weeks ago, I was stuck in traffic on Lombard Street, desperate to get across the Golden Gate Bridge for a meeting I was doomed to miss. As I quietly cursed the faceless bureaucrat who approved road work during rush hour, the guy in front of me threw an empty Big Gulp out the passenger window. I watched the giant cup bounce around the street, roll into the curb, and come to rest on the grate of a storm drain. The guy was driving a Prius, and the irony was just too much to bear. I hopped out Read More

Entrepreneur: Facebook Obsession, Working Hard & Singing Opera

Shari

Mike Rowe has a lot of love for entrepreneurs. Best known as host of Dirty Jobs, Rowe works hard and advocates for others who have the courage to blaze their own path. In this short video, Rowe answers our rapid-fire questions. He talks about what inspires him (hard work, duh), honesty and about sometimes having to “eat the shit sandwich” at work. We also got him to talk about his obsession with Facebook. “I try to post something every day,” Rowe explains. “Now there are almost 2-1/2 million people who are sitting there, waiting for me to say something, which Read More

Farewell to Some Old Friends

Shari

Time to bid a sad but fond farewell to some old friends. Cash Wiley died on Easter Sunday. Fans of Dirty Jobs will remember Cash as a Salt-of-the Earth guy in Texas who showed me the ins and outs of sedating big animals, and the deceptively complicated business of safely relocating them. He loved all creatures great and small, and showed the crew and me more trust and hospitality than most people show their friends and family. Cash was a nice man, an excellent host, and a hell of a good shot. Dolly “Messie Bessie” Evans on the other hand, Read More

Fridays With Freddy: Considerate Waypoints

Shari

What the hell is going on in Pacific Heights? Every day this week, someone has left a random mattress lying around on the sidewalk. It’s like the week after New Years, except the discarded trees have been replaced with discarded mattresses. What does it all mean? At first, I thought the City had organized some sort of Mattress Collection Initiative. This is after all, a fairly sophisticated zip code, wracked with a famously guilty conscience. So it’s not beyond the realm of reason to suppose that City officials might have green-lit some grand recycling project specifically designed to alleviate the Read More

Entrepreneur: Don’t Pursue Your Passion. Chase Opportunity.

Shari

Success in business depends on opportunity, not a person’s passion. Whether you agree or disagree, that’s what Dirty Jobs star Mike Rowe believes. Before you fly off the handle, calling bullshit, let’s allow him to explain. What Rowe means is that when you put your passion first, ahead of opportunity, you often times create obstacles to achieving real success. “When you follow your passion, when you follow your dream, when you grow up being told that you’re a precious little snowflake and all you have to do is look inward and identify that thing in you that you want more Read More

SOMEBODY’S GOTTA DO IT HAS STRONG RATINGS DEBUT LAST NIGHT

Shari

SGDI is Up by Triple-Digits vs. Prior Four Thursdays and is the Only Cable News Program to Grow vs. Last Year at 9pm According to Nielsen Fast National Data, CNN Original Series Mike Rowe’s Somebody’s Gotta Do It season 2 premiere had a strong ratings performance last night at 9pm, delivering 316k among adult 25-54 viewers.  CNN nearly tied Fox news for the top spot in the demo 25-54 rating, registering only 1k behind (316k vs. 317k).  MSNBC trailed CNN by 93% with 164k. Compared to the prior four Thursdays, CNN was up the most across cable news, increasing by triple Read More

Variety: ‘Bloody Do-Gooders’ and Searching For Oddball Stories

Shari

Mike Rowe knows how to play dirty — as host of the Discovery Channel series “Dirty Jobs,” he did it professionally for eight seasons. Now Rowe, a one-man variety show who’s worked as a narrator, actor, host and opera singer, has cleaned up his act in his current series “Somebody’s Gotta Do It,” which opens its second season on CNN tonight. The show follows a similar format as “Dirty Jobs” but with a broader lens. The show, along with Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown,” has been a big part of CNN’s push to add more unscripted series to its news and Read More

The Daily Caller: Fans Are Begging Mike Rowe to Run in 2016

Shari

By Heather Smith CNN’s “Somebody’s Gotta Do It” host Mike Rowe joined a Washington, D.C. afternoon-drive radio program to discuss the return for his show’s second season on Thursday, April 9 and revealed that his fans have been asking him to make a run for the White House. When WMAL radio host Larry O’Connor asked Rowe about his thoughts on people who are not “career politicians” running for president, he said what people are really hungry for in America is “authenticity.” “What is most for sale right now is authenticity. People always talk about it. It doesn’t matter what business Read More

The Blaze: The Math is Scary

Shari

Mike’s Unsettling Prediction on What Will Happen If Work Remains the ‘Enemy’ What will happen when all of the baby boomers in the U.S. retire at age 65 and the “remarkable” advances in medicine keep many of them alive into their 90s or even into triple digits? It’s a recipe for disaster and the “math is scary,” says Mike Rowe, the star of the CNN original series “Somebody’s Gotta Do It.” “They are going to be retired for 40 years? There’s just no universe possible where you have enough money to live on if you’re an average Joe, 40 years Read More