The Deadliest Catch creator hauls in a new TV series and proves his own nine-to-five is plenty risky.
interviewed by Steven Russell
MJ: Why do you think your shows celebrating sweaty, macho guys, from Ice Road Truckers to Monster Garage, are so popular?
TB: Ninety percent of Americans know exactly what they’re going to do on Monday, and on Tuesday, and how much their paycheck will be at the end of the week. The guys on my shows work high-risk, high-reward jobs in interesting locations. We take you places most people will never go. There’s also been a change in the zeitgeist: We outsource everything. We’ve stopped making things with our hands. With the economy in the toilet, it’s a little harder to be an American these days, and our shows remind us what real, honest work is.
Ever worry about people doing crazy things on your shows just to get airtime?
I know I put people’s lives in jeopardy every day. But we know what the thresholds are. The minute that someone starts playing for TV, we start looking for a replacement. And I live what I do. Yesterday I was testing out a competition in which contestants run down a huge log, and halfway through the log started to wobble. I jumped off, but one of my corks [spiked boots] caught, and I fell six feet onto another log and cracked two ribs.
Do you have a personal connection to the blue-collar work ethic?
My dad was a Ford service manager for 40 years in upstate New York. Most of my family were farm workers and nurses. I worked bridge construction in college, 186 feet above a river. Shot and a beer, man.
You used to run an international documentary unit for Ted Turner. What was that like?
Best job in the world. Ted would say, “There are too many people in the world. Go make a film about overpopulation,” and I’d spend eight months filming in Africa, South America, and India. Another guy and I were flying an ultralight five inches above the Zambezi River at sunset, filming with a super-16 camera, when a fucking hippo came out of the water and — boom! — we hit it in the head. Blood was everywhere, the hippo was dead, my friend broke his back, and a dugout canoe rescued us right as the crocs were closing in. It was a great moment.
Do you take it easier in your off time?
My 10-year-old son and I go camping and river rafting for a week every summer. Last year we paddled the Upper Navua Gorge in Fiji. We stopped at a tribal chief’s house, and they had a ceremony and broke out the kava, this drink made from a root extract. I was hoping my son would just take a sip, but he drank like a quart of the stuff. I thought he might get wasted, but he was fine. He totally manned up.
If you hadn’t gone into showbiz, what job do you think you’d be doing now?
I took an aptitude test when I was in high school, and the guidance counselor said I could either be a doctor or a garbage collector. I’m a restless soul, so if I had a different career, it would have to satisfy my curiosity; otherwise I probably would’ve had 40 different jobs by now. Thank God Ritalin wasn’t big when I was a kid or it would have calmed me down and I’d be a middle manager at a car lot.
Does your family ever think you needlessly put yourself in danger?
When I did the first Deadliest Catch, I told my wife I was just going to Alaska to film something on boats and quietly doubled my life insurance. Two hundred miles out to sea we ran into the worst storm in 30 years — 40-foot seas and 70-knot winds. Back at home, when my wife and I watched the show, she didn’t say anything, then she punched me in the back of the head as hard as she could and yelled, “What were you thinking?” But I think in that moment she also resigned herself to the fact that I wasn’t going to stop. These shows feed my wanderlust and insanity. I’m having the time of my life.
This article originally appeared in the October 2008 issue of Men’s Journal.
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