With Discovery Channel no longer airing new episodes of Dirty Jobs (and very few old episodes, for that matter), it’s worth noting there is still something to look forward to on Discovery in the very near future.

There are three shows I have my eye on that are coming up soon. The first is The Deadliest Catch. After last year’s emotional loss of Captain Phil Harris, the show is back for its seventh season with a few changes. In addition to the Cornelia Marie, Time Bandit, and Northwestern, the Wizard and Kodiak also return to the show this season. Two new boats are also followed: Ramblin’ Rose, captained by laid back 28-year-old Elliot Neese, in his first full-year as a skipper, and Seabrooke, captained by 36-year-old Scott Campbell Jr., who’s already spent 10 years at the helm.

The Deadliest Catch returns on April 5th at 9pm with a two-hour highlight episode of the previous season and the show makes its seventh season premiere on April 12th at 9pm with all-new episodes.

Meanwhile, MythBusters is also back. One of my all-time favorite shows, MythBusters is still a lot of fun. It’s educational and entertaining. What more could you ask for?!

In the new season premiere, which is slated for April 6th at 9pm EST, Adam and Jamie question whether realistic facial masks could be used to thwart security, as seen in Mission Impossible. The duo get replicas of their own faces created and test it out on friends, fans and even Jamie’s dog. Meanwhile, Kari, Tory and Grant hit the playground to test a myth from the movie Shoot Em Up, in which a baby on a merry-go-round is in danger as shots are fired by movie villains. To disrupt their aim, the hero shoots a round of bullets into the merry-go-round to push it around, hoping the force of the bullets spins the baby out of harm’s way. Is this propulsion due to physics, or is it just cinema spin?

And finally, we have a series which is not getting nearly the amount of attention it should in the press with Human Planet. We’ve all enjoyed the various Discovery and BBC co-produced nature documentaries like Planet Earth and Life, but now we get to see something about humans and I’m really excited to see this. Here’s a video preview of what’s to come.

Human Planet premieres April 10th at 8pm EST on Discovery.

In a nice piece over at MikeRoweWorks.com, the beloved mother of Dirty Jobs’ Mike Rowe, Peggy Rowe, looks back on her early days as a young mother. In it, she talks about how she and her husband entered a restaurant and were surprised by how well another young mother was able to tend to her children.

Here’s a snippet from the article:

My husband and I had breakfast at a local restaurant the other day. Across the aisle was a young mother with three well-dressed, well-behaved little boys. The youngest slept contentedly in an infant seat, and the oldest was about five. They chatted as they ate, the mother reaching over from time to time to cut her sons’ pancakes and sausage.

John reminded me that I was staring.

“She makes it look so easy,” I said, shaking my head. “Where did I go wrong?”

Peggy doesn’t write very often, but I do appreciate everything she writes. Go on over there and read the article in full if you haven’t done so already.

I don’t usually watch CBS’ Undercover Boss show, but with the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on, it’s hard to miss the commercials CBS airs to promote their regular programming.

This weekend, I saw a commercial for an upcoming episode of Undercover Boss which struck me as something we would ordinarily see Mike Rowe doing on Dirty Jobs. In the episode, which is scheduled to air later tonight, Bill Massa, President and CEO of Synagro, the nation’s largest waste water treatment corporation, jumps in the sludge pits with his employees and finds out what it’s really like to have to clean and maintain them.

Read the rest of this entry »

Over at MikeRoweWorks.com, the staff has started a video segment where Mike will respond to questions posed by the site’s visitors. The first video is up and has Mike addressing a man who has been complaining about finding it nearly impossible to actually contact Mike and really, I can’t blame him. Discovery’s webmaster(s) have done a nice job of making a pretty site, but its functionality leaves much to be desired in my humble opinion.

In order to ask Mike a question, post a comment on http://www.mikeroweworks.com/2011/03/ask-mike/ and hopefully your question will be answered.

Ironically, the web address shown at the end of the video doesn’t work.

With Dirty Jobs‘ season over for what will likely be several months (3-4), it’s worth noting what’s going to be taking over the show’s good Tuesday spot. For the time being, it’s Desert Car Kings, a series about restoring classic cars in the desert the U.S.

However, this is only going to be a brief timeslot takeover as The Deadliest Catch is slated to take it over soon thereafter (April 5th).

Dirty Jobs repeats will still air on weekend mornings, however. Mike and the gang aren’t gone from the schedule altogether this way.

There will still be plenty of interesting programming to watch on Discovery’s network of stations. I’ll be watching River Monsters on Animal Planet, along with MythBusters and The Deadliest Catch on Discovery.

It’s been a busy, busy day here. I honestly almost forgot today was Mike Rowe’s birthday. On behalf of all Dirty Jobs fans, I want to wish Mike a happy 49th birthday.

Mike Rowe’s mom, Peggy, recently wrote a terrific piece on the recent season finale of Dirty Jobs, Dirty DNA. One of the things it reminds you of is how long it takes to get an episode on the air. From the looks of it, it was shot nearly half a year ago or better. I wish if were 90 degrees right now!

It was 90 degrees when John and I drove across the Bay Bridge on our way to the peninsula of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Fishing vessels dotted the peaceful waters below. Our destination was a quaint seaport town rich in colonial and maritime history. Ordinarily our goal would be to visit museums — or to walk the lovely brick-paved streets of the historic district and soak up that famous Chesapeake charm. Not so on this August morning.

This visit to Cambridge was all about ‘biology’ and ‘genetics.’ Dirty Jobs was revisiting past episodes with a family theme: relatives getting dirty side by side. Dirty DNA, Mike called it. In a unique twist on Take Your Child To Work Day, Mike had kicked off the first ever, Take Your DNA-Source To Work Day.

Like all parents of boys, we had done our share of getting down and dirty as a family: digging in the garden, building forts in the woods, and dams in the stream… One likes to think that when sons reach middle-age, those days are over. But, we’ve seen Mike’s show…

Be sure to check out Peggy Rowe’s full article here. It’s splendid to see her taking the time once in a while to write something like this.

Tonight’s the night. Season finale night, to be more precise. Mike Rowe has a mini family reunion as he is joined by his mom and dad, Peggy and John Rowe, as all three of them reminisce on some of the other families featured on Dirty Jobs. There have been dozens of family-run businesses (my favorite, by the way). There’s no bond quite like family as we all look back at some of the most memorable moments while getting to know the families that choose to work together.

Check out these video previews of tonight’s new episode.

The “Dirty DNA” episode airs tonight on Discovery Channel at 9pm EST!

As my immune system does battle with a bad cold (flu possibly), I eagerly tuned into tonight’s new episode of Dirty Jobs. I’m treasuring everything since I know the show is going into a hiatus for quite some time in a week.

God bless Marilyn and Carolyn Maedel for their involvement in the show. I know the piece they did together was from an old interview, but I love the enthusiasm and encyclopedic knowledge of the show. It’s remarkable.

The crawfish cooking, dissection segment was better than I expected it would be. Usually old segments like those don’t get utilized right away in a show because they’re not worth airing. I actually thought it worked quite well. As we see in the clip before, Mike had to push one of the ladies to admit it was the digestive tract that had to be removed during processing. It’s not just dirt.

Afterwards, Mike took a trip to Sapolo Island in Georgia. When I saw Mike sweating and he hadn’t even done anything, I immediately felt sorry for him. I don’t do well in the intense heat any better than Mike. Thankfully, he and the professor didn’t have to spend too much time in the steamy attic.

The attic scene was enlightening. I wouldn’t have guessed you could see the termite’s path through a piece of timber with some gas and an IR camera. Nor would I have guessed a gussied up drill could be used to detect those same paths.

The termite researcher job’s highlight was clearly the math portion. While Mike Rowe is certainly no genius, he usually does pretty well. I really appreciated the fact that he could take a joke. He was pretty good about getting razzed by the college kids.

Tonight on Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe visits with long-time fans Marilyn and Carolyn Maedel to look at never-before-seen footage at a crawfish factory in Louisiana. Then, he experiences the many hands-on duties that come with being a termite researcher on Sapolo Island in Georgia.

Below are a few videos from tonight’s all-new episode.

Tune in to Discovery Channel Tuesday night at 9pm EST for the new episode, “Termite Researcher.”