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5 TV Shows That Featured Engineers

The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory was one of America’s most popular television shows. The series centers on the lives of Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper, Cal Tech physicists who are roommates, as well as their neighbor, Penny, a waitress. Their friend, Harold Wolowitz, is also a feature character and is often portrayed to be hanging out at the apartment. Howard is unique for being an engineer rather than a physicist. His character received a degree in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Besides English, Howard also speaks seven languages, including French, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic, Persian, Japanese and Klingon, from Star Trek.

Howard’s engineering career involves working on equipment to be used in NASA space missions, including his work on the Mars Rover. Howard is the only character in the series who has been to the International Space Station. Howard is portrayed as having the most hands-on and mechanical aptitude of the group, as he is an engineer among his physicist friends. In this, he often undertakes the role of leader for small hands-on projects. However, many of Howard’s engineering accomplishments have zany consequences and he often calls on Sheldon and Leonard to help him fix the issue. Along with Sheldon and Leonard, Howard is one of the only characters to appear in every episode of The Big Bang Theory.

Westworld

“The hosts are the ones who are free. Free. Here. Under my control,” so says Dr. Robert Ford, the co-founder and Park Director of Westworld, a fictional adult “experience/ amusement park,” populated by artificially intelligent robots, also known as hosts. Westworld is a science fiction television series produced by HBO. The series, which first aired on HBO in October, 2016, is based on the 1973 film of the same name.

While it is likely that Dr. Ford holds some degree in engineering and computer programming, he worked with a team of scientists and engineers to create Westworld. While in the park, we see the hosts move about and interact with the guests with no indication they are not actually human. However, the audience also sees the hosts in their robotic form, in the scenes that are shot in the working and development labs inside the park. Here, Dr. Ford’s team of engineers and designers works together to design and construct more hosts. Westworld is currently one of the most popular shows on television. And, given all the advancements in robotic engineering, it certainly has viewers asking, “what if?”

Star Trek

“Beam me up, Scotty!” Captain Montgomery Scott is a lead in the Star Trek series. Captain Scott is a human Starfleet officer in the 23rd century and a Scottish born and trained engineer. On the show, Captain Montgomery Scott serves as the chief engineer of both the USS Enterprise and the USS Enterprise-A, both under the command of Captain James T. Kirk. His character is described as a man of superior technical and engineering skill with copious experience. Despite that, it is Captain Scott that provides much comic relief among the crew, chiefly for his use of “Scots language.” As a chief engineer of the USS Enterprise, Captain Scott is responsible for keeping the ship running, as well as the maintenance and operation of Enterprise’s transporter systems. Star Trek is well known for featuring a large cast of “engineers.” Popular spin-offs of the original Star Trek series, like Star Trek: Voyager, also feature many engineering roles, including Seven of Nine, a human/cyborg mix that operates as a ship engineer.

MacGyver

One of the most beloved shows of the 1980s, MacGyver is famous for its interesting and “in the nick of time,” engineering. The show centers on Angus, “Mac” MacGyver a brilliant protagonist who works for the fictional “Phoenix Foundation” in Los Angeles, and is described to be proficient in multiple languages, a genius in engineering skills and bomb disposal techniques. While MacGyver is not technically an engineer (he studied physics at MIT before leaving to become a trained EOD technician in the Army), his skillset often falls under the engineering purview. One example of this was MacGyver’s famous solution to save an agent of the Department of External Services using only a paper clip, a wrench and shoelaces. The term “MacGyver,” is now part of the American lexicon: to MacGyver something means to find a simple, yet elegant solution to a problem using existing resources.

Silicon Valley

While we usually focus on mechanical, electrical and aerospace engineers, Silicon Valley is one of the most popular shows on television to feature engineers of a different type. Silicon Valley is a comedy show from Mike Judge (creator of the wildly popular movie, Office Space), and follows a group of software engineers as they form a company based on a revolutionary data compression algorithm. Silicon Valley was inspired by Mike Judge’s experiences as a Silicon Valley engineer in the 1980s. In his series, plot lines follow a group of introverted network engineers as they attempt to strike it rich in a high-tech, big money economy.

While engineers aren’t always the most featured characters on television shows, they are often the most popular. Perhaps more engineering characters will find their way on the silver screen in the near future.

Do you have any comments on this interesting subject? Add them in the comments section below.

6 Comments

  1. Avatar for Gregory Pestine
    Gregory Pestine December 1, 2020 at 7:24 am

    Fred MacMurry’s Steve Douglass in My Three Sons and Bruan Keith’s character in Familt Affair come to mind.

  2. Avatar for Larraine Kapka
    Larraine Kapka December 1, 2020 at 7:44 am

    What about Steve Douglas from My Three Sons?

  3. Avatar for Mike Pagnotta
    Mike Pagnotta December 1, 2020 at 7:46 am

    I hate to date myself, but what about My Three Sons? It was a 60’s sitcom about an aeronautical engineer and widower (Fred MacMurray) with three sons (duh!). The show rarely focused on his engineering skills, so the fact that he was an engineer was probably lost on most people.

  4. Avatar for Richard DiMambro, PE
    Richard DiMambro, PE December 1, 2020 at 8:09 am

    While my age may be showing here, the earliest memory I have of a television show featuring an engineer was “Family Affair,” a late-1960’s sitcom starring Brian Keith. He played a civil engineer owning a large, successful construction company. It was the first inspiration for me to become a civil engineer.

  5. Avatar for Patrick Halaiko
    Patrick Halaiko December 1, 2020 at 8:21 am

    What about Steve Douglas, “My Three Sons”?
    He was an aeronautical engineer.
    Too long ago for most of you.

  6. Avatar for Anthony J Scala III, PE
    Anthony J Scala III, PE December 1, 2020 at 8:33 am

    Hell on Wheels? The show follows the Chief Engineer on the Union Pacific Railroad!

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