To date the network hasn’t made these notes all that interesting. They’re random nuggets of information pertaining to something in the scene. For instance, the notes on the “Buster’s Cut” repurposed episodes of MythBusters are pretty boring.

Kudos to the folks at Discovery for changing that with the “Nitty Gritty” repurposed episodes of Dirty Jobs. The first of these “Nitty Gritty” episodes aired tonight. It featured host Mike Rowe working as a chick sexer, making beer, and working with oysters.

In this “Nitty Gritty” episode, the notes that appeared were much more of what I wanted to see. It was like Mike was communicating with the viewer, offering actual episode commentary. And just like with audio commentary found on DVDs and Blurays for some shows and movies, Mike wandered off topic on occasion, but all and all, he tended to stick to what was going on, giving us hints as to what else happened that didn’t make it past the editors.

Commentary in how the show has evolved was also of interest to me. Dirty Jobs hasn’t changed its format entirely over the years, but its focus has definitely focused more on the interesting individuals performing many of the jobs we take for granted. It’s not just about knocking off three or four jobs each episode.

Also, as Mike pointed out, the crew have become a part of the show. It’s hard to imagine the show without knowing some of the boys wielding the cameras and the mics. I like the current way Dirty Jobs airs and seeing these old episodes makes me appreciate the changes all the more.

While I suppose it’s a little early to celebrate the “Nitty Gritty” episodes as a total success, I do like where Discovery is going. The previous incarnations of the pop-up shows doesn’t work for me, but having actual commentary is the way to go. I’d like to see more of this for not only Dirty Jobs, but I wouldn’t mind seeing MythBusters change its “Buster’s Cut” episodes to include Rowe-esque commentary.

America’s favorite summer television event, Shark Week airs July 27 to August 2: Sunday to Friday from 7PM to midnight ET/PT, and Saturday from 9AM to 3AM ET/PT, featuring six all-new shark programs and some of the most popular and memorable programs from past years. This season’s programs address myths about sharks, spotlight lesser-known and unusual sharks, and educate the public about the importance of sharks through conservation information.

MythBusters hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman

Shark Week kicks off with the two-hour MythBusters: Shark Special on Sunday, July 27 from 9-11PM ET/PT. Using their signature sci-tech style of explosive experimentation, the MythBusters hit the deep blue from California to the Bahamas to investigate myths about sharks, including: Are sharks repelled by magnets? Do dogs attract sharks? Do the vibrations caused by a flapping injured fish attract sharks? Does chili powder repel sharks? And hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman create the ultimate Shark Week build – a 16-foot-long robo-shark!

Additional Shark Week premieres include:

• SURVIVING SHARKS: Premiering Monday, July 28 from 9-10PM ET/PT, Survivorman’s Les Stroud hosts this look at how best to play it safe in the water, while testing popular theories of how to survive shark encounters.

• DAY OF THE SHARK: This special, premiering Monday, July 28 from 10-11PM ET/PT, chronicles six recent shark attacks that took place at different times of day, to determine if day or night is safer for swimming.

• DIRTY JOBS: SHARK SPECIAL: In this special premiering Tuesday, July 29 from
9-10PM ET/PT, Mike Rowe travels to a place many wouldn’t associate with sharks – the edge of the Arctic Circle – in search of the mysterious Greenland shark. A slow-moving, cold water shark, scientists hope that by learning more about it they can better understand the rapid ecological changes affecting that part of the world.

• HOW NOT TO BECOME SHARK BAIT: On Tuesday, July 29 from 10-11PM ET/PT, a thrillseeking team with a purpose – escapologist Jonathan Goodwin, adrenaline junkie Yul Kwon, marine biologist Jeremiah Sullivan and scientist Dr. Marty Jopson – test shark attraction theories with lemon, tiger and reef sharks, focusing on the sensory perception of sharks including colors, vibrations, smells and other attractors. In the process, viewers learn strategies for staying safe when in the water.

• MYSTERIES OF THE SHARK COAST: On Australia’s northeastern coast, home to more species of sharks than anywhere else in the world, the sharks are disappearing. A cross-discipline team of marine biologist Richard Fitzpatrick, filmmaker Mike deGruy, lead scientist for the Nature Conservancy, M. Sanjayan, Ph.D, and adventurer Celine Cousteau, band together to find out why, in this two-hour special premiering Thursday, July 31 from 9-11PM ET/PT.

James Chamberlin

I was really shocked when USA canceled both The Dead Zone and The 4400. Although The Dead Zone had seen better days and I would agree it would have been on my chopping block if I were heading up the network, I never saw The 4400 getting axed. This was a pretty big shakeup for me because during the summer, I always turn to USA for the terrific programming there.

There are a few decent shows on now… In Plain Sight, Fear Itself, Dirty Jobs, The Mole, but the good stuff isn’t here yet. I’m still waiting for PSYCH, Monk, and Burn Notice (all USA shows) to air this July. Burn Notice was a lot of fun to watch last year. I can’t wait to see it this year now that USA has an HD channel in the U.S.

I’ll probably catch up on some of my fall TV viewing. I’m still behind on several shows. I didn’t seem to have enough time to catch everything this past season. Other than In Plain Sight, the only new series I expect to be watching is ABC’s Wipeout. It looks like some of the Japanese gameshows I’ve enjoyed watching on cable TV.

Eric Lizotte

With summer comes several tasty TV treats. One of which is the most excellent Burn Notice, which is coming back for its second season this July. There’s nothing quite like quasi-realistic spy action–oh, not to forget ex-girlfriends that know to… handle themselves–to lift ones spirits. So, it’ll definitely be worth tuning into to see what Michael Weston and company get up to this time round, especially since he’s off to meet the man who burned him, or is he?

Another sweet morsel to check out this summer–particularly if you’re a history buff or like fun, useless knowledge–is PBS’s History Detectives. The researchers on this show are all top notch and are always able, through their findings, it seems, no matter how obscure the topic or item in question, to bring history to life.

Charles White

I don’t feel like there’s really anything special coming out this summer. Unfortunately due to the writer’s strike, a lot of the shows that I see are reality shows ripped off of other reality shows I’ve seen. There are a couple of shows though out there that might hold us over ’til summer.

In Plain Sight is interesting; it’s not nearly as good or as fun to watch as Burn Notice, but it has potential. Mary is an interesting character and even though she’s female, she very much has a male mindset. The show has started off decent, but it needs something more. The concept of the show is that she works in the witness protection, but in my opinion the interesting part is watching Mary control her personal life. There should be more personal life problems in this show and more of a focus on how much trouble she has balancing her personal and work life.

Weeds is probably my most anticipated show that I’m waiting for. Last season Nancy was forced to move out of Agrestic. The cast will be changed or downgraded quite a bit this season, so it should be interesting to see if Weeds has jumped the shark or if this could be the best thing for the show.

I’m also watching So You Think You Can Dance, which to me is better then American Idol. With the contestants and judges, it feels like this show really wants to help the contestants and you can see the passion that the dancers have.

I’d also like to start watching Burn Notice, I didn’t watch much of the first season, due to lack of time, but it was a very fun show to watch. This summer seems a little dry, but along with the shows I’ve mentioned, there will probably be some hidden gems that pop up along the way this summer.

Mike’s first job took him to a BBQ joint in the state of Georgia. The smoker was a week past due for a thorough cleaning, which meant Mike would have an even bigger mess to clean up. I’ve seen a number of ovens from restaurants on television and they’re NEVER clean. So it’s easy to assume that the smoker in this case was dirty. Covered in soot, the BBQ smoker was clearly ready for a cleaning.

Mike climbed in and went to work, scraping the crud off of everything and of course using a sprayer for the fine work, but the entire segment was lacking. It didn’t really stand out in any way. It was just a run-of-the-mill segment.

Next up was another veterinary job. Mike has had plenty of these. He’s worked with cows, pigs, horses, and a few other animals on the show. Here he worked with horses and alpacas. He met up with a vet who had to make a few farm calls. The poor horse featured had a respiratory problem and the vet needed to take a sample of the mucous. It was a little disgusting, but uncomfortable at the same time. I felt bad for the horse who had to have that tube shoved up his nose like that. It wasn’t in any pain, but it was obviously wasn’t comfortable either.

The alpacas were a little more fun because we learned that the male alpacas like to use some of their specialized teeth to attack certain portions of other male alpacas… namely the legs and genitals. I guess that’s one way to get rid of your competition. Poor Mike just couldn’t believe this. He thought the vet and owner were pulling his leg, which made the segment all the more funny to watch.

After the veterinary work was over, Mike headed from Montana to New Jersey where a company was removing an old heating oil tank from the ground. There’s just something about having to remove something from the ground that makes me think something is going to go wrong. Not only was the tank larger than records showed, the hole the crew dug ended up partially collapsing.

Of the three segments, the veterinary portion of the show was the best. Those jobs were certainly dirty at the same time, not miserable. Mike was able to make a number of jokes during the segment. The light-saber leg kick comment about that alpaca was hilarious. The outtakes at the end of the episode were terrific. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Mike get his foot caught under the tire of the John Deere equipment. If the editors had included that in the segment instead of throwing it in with the outtakes, I would have enjoyed the opening segment a little more.

Dirty Jobs – Big Animal Vet
Original Air Date: January 8, 2008

Rating: 6.8