Odd jobs: 20 TV shows about unusual occupations

There are a fair amount of TV shows about making TV shows. Write what you know, we guess? However, most people know exactly zero people who work in TV. 30 Rock is here to represent all those shows. This excellent NBC sitcom focuses on Liz Lemon and the crew putting together TGS with Tracy Jordan, a sketch show that, admittedly, doesn’t seem very good.

Fewer people have been President of the United States than there are states. The White House is definitely an unusual workplace, perhaps even literally unique. The West Wing is the gem of Aaron Sorkin’s TV output and an Emmys darling.

Well, these days, a lot of people drive for Uber or Lyft, and the whole “ride-share” thing is not all that rare. Driving a taxi, though? Stepping foot into a dispatch center? Yeah, that’s not as common. Based on how bleak the cab company in Taxi seemed, even in a sitcom, we’re fairly glad.

We get why there are so many shows about private eyes. Hell, there have been multiple versions of Magnum P.I. Personally, we prefer Jim Rockford to Thomas Magnum. Sure, Jim’s cases are more exciting than what the typical private eye does (we hear that it is almost all investigations into fraudulent workman’s comp cases), but that’s why it is entertainment and not reality.

We see standup comedians on television, but Hacks is a show about being a standup. Sure, Jerry was a standup in Seinfeld, but that was never a workplace comedy. Otherwise, we could have just pointed to all of Kramer’s jobs instead of highlighting Jean Smart’s excellent work in Hacks.

On Newhart, Dıck Loudon had three separate uncommon jobs. One, he and his wife Joanna ran an inn. Two, he wrote how-to books. Third, starting in the third season, he hosted a local talk show. That’s a lot of esoteric professional experiences for Dıck!

Any show about working in the aviation industry could make this list. Wings is the most famous airline-related show and is focused on a small airline on an island. That makes it stand out even more.

Working in the office of a fashion magazine is probably a little more exciting than a lot of offices. Just Shoot Me! focused on a Vogue-esque magazine called Blush in the show and featured a true ensemble cast. Kind of a forgotten member of NBC’s "Must See Thursdays" off and on, Just Shoot Me! ran seven seasons and 145 episodes.

Spies, like private eyes, are more common and more exciting in the world of pop culture. Sterling Archer is an animated riff on James Bond, laden with raunchy humor and absurdity. It’s definitely not the healthiest workplace environment.

In the days of Donkey Kong and Tetris, a show about the video game industry would have seemed bold. Eventually, it had to happen. What’s surprising is that it took well into the 21st century before the first show of substance set at a video game company came into existence. Mythic Quest is about the people working on the titular game and stars Rob McElhenney, who co-created It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a show centered on a more-common workplace: a bar.

He’s listening. If Frasier Crane were merely just a psychiatrist, we wouldn’t have included his show. However, Frasier is the host of a call-in radio show. Even in the 1990s, a time when radio was more prominent, this was an unusual workplace.

In romantic comedies, every other person seems to be an architect. Architecture is less common in TV (though Mike Brady was an architect), and the ladies of Designing Women aren’t quite architects. Instead, they work at — and, in a couple of instances, run — an interior design company in Atlanta.

Maybe you know somebody who coaches their kid’s soccer team, but do you know anybody who works professionally in the world of sports? Coach centers on Hayden Fox, who isn’t just a football coach but the coach of a college team. Granted, Minnesota State University isn’t exactly Alabama. Still, even in the real world, there are fewer than 1,000 college football head coaches, and many of them are doing it at a low level.

We were introduced to Lou Grant, the character, in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. That show could have been on this list because it is set in the world of a TV news program. However, we felt like TV was covered enough here, and there are also plenty of sitcoms. Lou Grant, the show, sees Ed Asner’s character returning to his prior profession: the newspaper industry. Also, the show is a drama, not a comedy.

The military? Sure, a lot of people have served in the military. On the other hand, as the opening narration says, the A-Team exists as soldiers of fortune. They go around the country, evading arrest for crimes they did not commit, and help people out by, you know, causing explosions in warehouses that make the bad guys fly in the air but never die.

A newer sitcom and another bite at the apple for Joel McHale, who has had a couple of attempts at trying to find another series as successful as Community, which was itself more a cult hit than a big show. Animal Control is a self-explanatory title. It’s about an animal control unit. It’s exactly what you think it is.

Granted, not many people work for the FBI, so even Booth in Bones qualifies. However, we are focused on the titular “Bones,” Temperance Brennan. Emily Deschanel’s character is a “forensic anthropologist,” which is real, and you probably know nobody who does it.

There are several shows about consulting detective types. Sometimes, they work with the police; sometimes, they strike out on their own. Sherlock Holmes is the foremost consulting detective in fiction. On the other hand, Holmes keeps it pretty straightforward. Psych, though, is about two guys with a psychic detective company. Shawn Spencer, specifically, is the man masquerading as a psychic detective, though he does admittedly work with the police primarily.

For a little while, Empire was the talk of the town. Much of that was because of Taraji P. Henson’s turn as Cookie Lyon, to be fair. The show, something of a primetime soap, focused on Empire Entertainment, a hip-hop entertainment company.

Finally, a shout-out to all the shows about jobs that don’t exist in real life. The shows about aliens, ghosts, and so on. The Ghostbusters are best known for the movies, of course, but they also got a cartoon. It was called The Real Ghostbusters due to trademark stuff, but it’s about Venkman, Ray, and the crew. Including Slimer, who is their friend in the show for some reason.