Rowe described growing up in a Baltimore community next door to his grandfather, who dropped out of school in the seventh grade only to become a "master electrician" and skilled craftsman by the time he was 30. "He was one of those geniuses who could take your watch apart blindfolded and put it back together, fix anything, build anything. The handy gene, as you may have noticed, is recessive. And as certain as I was that I would follow in his footsteps, I just didn't get the skills. So I got into entertainment," he said.
...Rowe, then 40, found himself the host of CBS' Evening Magazine...a nightly half-hour "little piece of fluff" segment.It was during that time that he received the call that drastically altered the trajectory of his career."I'm in my cubicle, and my mother calls me, and she says, Michael, your grandfather is 90 years old…and she said he's not going to live forever. Wouldn't it be great if before he died, he could turn the TV on and see you doing something that looks like work?" he recalled. While "devastated," Rowe said his mother's words resonated deeply. The next day, he and his cameraman ventured into the sewers of San Francisco where he profiled an inspector, marking the organic beginning of what eventually turned into "Dirty Jobs."
Rowe described growing up in a Baltimore community next door to his grandfather, who dropped out of school in the seventh grade only to become a "master electrician" and skilled craftsman by the time he was 30. "He was one of those geniuses who could take your watch apart blindfolded and put it back together, fix anything, build anything. The handy gene, as you may have noticed, is recessive. And as certain as I was that I would follow in his footsteps, I just didn't get the skills. So I got into entertainment," he said.
...Rowe, then 40, found himself the host of CBS' Evening Magazine...a nightly half-hour "little piece of fluff" segment.It was during that time that he received the call that drastically altered the trajectory of his career."I'm in my cubicle, and my mother calls me, and she says, Michael, your grandfather is 90 years old…and she said he's not going to live forever. Wouldn't it be great if before he died, he could turn the TV on and see you doing something that looks like work?" he recalled. While "devastated," Rowe said his mother's words resonated deeply. The next day, he and his cameraman ventured into the sewers of San Francisco where he profiled an inspector, marking the organic beginning of what eventually turned into "Dirty Jobs."
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