New Show about engineers
New Show about engineers
(OP)
Tunring like to change to a lighter subject, TV.
I like to hear my colleagues in put on a national TV show about engineers. What would you call it? What disciplines would you portray? Which actors would you like to see in it?
I like to hear my colleagues in put on a national TV show about engineers. What would you call it? What disciplines would you portray? Which actors would you like to see in it?






RE: New Show about engineers
Engineering is the art of not constructing...of doing that well with one dollar what any bungler can do well with two after a fashion.
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
I would say Bruce Willis would be the Geotech and just can't get a name for the S.E. just yet.
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
Hg
RE: New Show about engineers
Engineering is the art of not constructing...of doing that well with one dollar what any bungler can do well with two after a fashion.
RE: New Show about engineers
Hg
RE: New Show about engineers
Just like all of us.
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
Do we need to make the engineer/scientist distinction in our show?
Sci-fi has some geekish roles (like the various Star Trek ships' engineers), but that's preaching to the converted.
Hg
RE: New Show about engineers
Donald Sutherland was a structural engineer in Space Cowboys...and he got all the women!
It seems that the Discovery channel has about the most exciting shows about engineering but they are more like documentaries. Lets face it, like PSlem said, we aren't the most exciting things in the world. There's hope though, they made shows starring lawyers.
RE: New Show about engineers
“Architecture in a nutshell” (special guest star Rocky the squirrel).
“Lost in space”- Begins with a crisis for our hero Engineer when the Architect moves a half dozen building columns in a ten million dollar building a day before the structural drawings are due. He then moves them again the next day. Unbeknownst to all, the Engineer uses his secret black box with a single pushbutton that absorbs all changes and instantly spits out corrected designs and drawings. The Engineer also uses a modified Delorean that allows him to go back in time and modify the contract to include the changes. However, a problem arises because by changing the past, the Engineer has also changed the future. The Architect moves more columns.
“Smallville”- A structural engineer with secret negotiating superpowers tries to use them to increase his fees. His task is complicated by the fact that a green gas emanating from meteor rocks effects everyone’s brain and makes them think they can do his job.
“Borg again” An Engineer who is actually an automated alien and is part of a larger collective that is secretly out to conquer the galaxy comes to the United States, goes to college for four years, then works for five years before becoming a registered P.E. He works at a large A/E firm. All his structural designs come out looking like compacted automobiles, but he is really fast. He is immediately promoted to head of the structural group. The universe is put into jeopardy.
RE: New Show about engineers
DaveAtkins
RE: New Show about engineers
Now there's some new show on Friday nights (one of the major networks), something about Medical Investigators... these folks are supposed to be from something like the CDC, investigating plagues and outbreaks and Legionaire's disease, etc.
This is no more worthy than is engineering. I mean, they really play up these medical investigators...make them seem like "secrit agents" with leather sport jackets, etc.
I agre wtih Dave... bring back Mr. Ed!
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Steve Douglas on My Three Sons was an engineer (Aerospace, though perhaps a bit early for that monicker...maybe Aeronautical). Geeky as the rest of us.
RE: New Show about engineers
Mike Brady, the dad on the "Brady Bunch", was an architect.
RE: New Show about engineers
DaveAtkins
RE: New Show about engineers
The hero engineer is called in the middle of the night while sleeping with a beauty next to him. He quickly pops out of bed, springing into immediate action.
It seems an evil architect had discovered numerous flaws in their design, and had sent in a team of CADD underlings to break into a structural engineer's office and move some columns around to avoid the conflicts in the architect's drawings....
After the building was constructed, an entire floor in the building dropped due to the fact that the ductwork just couldn't hold up the concrete floor any longer and the columns were no help as they were only attached to the drywall surrounding them.
Our hero arrives at the scene, directing his team of top engineer analysists and begins to direct the police and helicopters overhead....
This all reminds me of the great line in "Ghostbusters" by Bill Murray where he said to someone questioning his authority - to the effect of -
"Cool it man, we're scientists"
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
First episode is about the relation between lower back pain and big bellies. Assume the belly has mass (P). The centroid of the belly has a longer eccentricity (e) and flatter tummy. Therefore the maximum bending moment (M) = P*e. Back bone has cross sectional area (A) and moment of Inertia (I).
The back stress = (P/A) plus and minus (Mc/I). Also known as back pain.
Stay tuned for episode two coming soon at theater near you.
RE: New Show about engineers
pennpoint
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
Who got the bright idea of using the same radiography report over and over in "The China Syndrome"? was that the evil engineer or the evil contractor?
In the sixties there was a British TV series called "The Planemakers" about a company building a VTOL aircraft. Very low budget production, lots of stock footage of a Harrier wobbling in the background. Lots of political moves and backstabbing, running over budget, missing deadlines. It was terrific, we used to discuss it every Monday morning. It would probably be corny now.
Jeff
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
Poisson's ratio: As a person gets fatter, their pants get shorter.
RE: New Show about engineers
i.e.
Section F3.2
"For box-type and tubular members that meet..."
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Oh, the thought of a job like that! Infact, job really isn't the right term. Dream on!
RE: New Show about engineers
Whoever used the same radiography report over and over again was probably the same person who used three identical images of Earth's moon for the three moons of the home planet in the Stargate movie.
Hg
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
As I recall, the engineer was the hero of the story...the other guys were terrified that he might not make it as he was pretty banged up early on but eventually he revived and sprung into action. The guy made a crude telephone system for the island, steel tools - there wasn't anything he couldn't do. And the author described the stuff the engineer did in pretty amazing and believeable detail!
I wonder if he was well paid before he left the USA?
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
"No job is too big; no Fee is too big!"
RE: New Show about engineers
Because there was no fuselage, it was a flying wing, and guess where the passengers travelled. Lying side by side on top of the wing with a nifty little windshield just about where the spoilers are placed on most aircraft these days. Despite this it flew them all to safety.
If they had had an engineer with them it wouldn't have flown and they all would have perished in the desert.
Jeff
RE: New Show about engineers
Supposedly Ward Cleaver, father of The Beaver, was a civil engineer. He worked for Lumpy's father, who was also an engineer.
Ron: Have you ever been to Queens? It's a great place.
RE: New Show about engineers
Now you know how I spent my youth.
RE: New Show about engineers
I was never a big "Leave It To Beaver" fan. I read about Ward being a civil engineer in an article about obscure TV trivia.
Anyway, I also remember a watching TV show in the early 60's about a traveling group of construction workers and engineers.(I suspect it originally aired in the 50's since I didn't watch it during prime time and it was shown on a local channel rather than a network station) I think it was called "Troubleshooters" or something like that.
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
Thanks for the post. I couldn't find anything on the internet.
RE: New Show about engineers
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052519/maindetails
RE: New Show about engineers
A movie just came to mind: "The Black Cat" from 1934 with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Karloff played an evil civil engineer. Lugosi was the good guy; he played a doctor. Figures; even then we didn't get any respect.
RE: New Show about engineers
"The Fighting Seabees". Construction engineer John Wayne spearheads the creation of the Seabees. BTW, this is the first of only three movies in which the character portrayed by John Wayne is killed. Duke fans should be able to identify the other two.
"Wake Island" with Brian Donlevy. Civilian construction workers battle the Japanese in the early days of WWII.
"The Towering Inferno". It was a structural engineer who figured out how to extinguish the fire. Of course no building would have a million gallon water tank on the top floor (and no competent engineer would install gas mains in a fire stair; the script should have been reviewed by an engineer) but hey, we got a good plug.
The episode of "Superman" Honest civil engineer played by Dabs Greer is framed for murder by a corrupt contractor after it was discovered that he was using substandard material. Luckily, Superman arrived in the nick of time as the warden was pulling the switch for electric chair.
Then there was the movie "Daylight" with Sylvester Stallone about a disaster in the Holland Tunnel (between NYC and NJ). There were no engineers in the movie but there was a scene that I disliked. The mayor orders the entrances of the tunnel to be blown up to prevent flooding of NY and NJ; the people in the tunnel would be left to die. The mayor tells her aide, "that'swhat the engineers decided. They know what's best". Granted, we do know best but we would have been able to prevent the flooding and rescue the people trapped inside.
RE: New Show about engineers
BTW: I do spend my day working. It just takes me 10 hours to work 8.
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
You guys have already mentioned various negative portrayals of engineers. I would like to add this classic, found in George Orwell's novel 1984.
"The door opened, and another prisoner was brought in whose appearance sent a momentary chill through Winston. He was a commonplace, mean-looking man who might have been an engineer or technician of some kind. But what was startling was the emaciation of his face. It was like a skull. Because of its thinness the mouth and eyes looked disproportionately large, and the eyes seemed filled with a murderous, unappeasable hatred of somebody or something."
RE: New Show about engineers
Not a bad movie by the way and it shows a little different side of Howard Huges. While, I don't think he wasn't a graduate engineer, he certainly had a good intuitive engineering ability.
RE: New Show about engineers
And of course there is always Homer Simpson the Safety man for the nuclear power plant, can't remember if he is a Safety Engineer, but he works with plenty of them.
RE: New Show about engineers
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RE: New Show about engineers
sorry - got carried away.
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
There was a very old movie with three civil engineers as the lead. They end up perishing in a plane crash on the way to a job in South America. I believe they may have even been structural engineers. They were all bachelors and lived in a large home in NYC. They came back as ghosts to help two special young friends fall in love and get married. Very odd movie, but it was a very good movie. I have only seen it once, and for the life of me I can not find the name of it. If anyone knows the name, please let me know.
Thanks
RE: New Show about engineers
"What do you MEAN they used only A36 steel?"
"You simply CANNOT take that kind of shear with this fastener..."
" you talk of cost, but I'm talking about STABILITY dammit..."
" welding to aluminum - are you INSANE?"...
"Sure we'll have the drawings ready early, but are you willing to take that chance?"
"We used nodal averaging once - ONLY ONCE..."
"Are you telling me your backup is CORRUPT?"
"Moving all the installation processes to early February is an option, but I'm thinking of the little guy, the worker sitting there with his welding torch and nothing to weld. What about him? What happens when his kid asks - daddy, what did you work on today..."
OK, OK, so it wouldn't be THAT entertaining.
Time to get back to work.
Any others?
RE: New Show about engineers
Around Christmas (I'm allowed to use this word, right?) I was watching The People's Court. The case involved a homeowner suing a contractor over cracks in his "cement driveway." I kept yelling at the TV "it's not cement, it's concrete."
The owner showed some photos; the cracks were more than just normal shrinkage. Plus, the concrete was placed in cold weather.
Unfortunately, the homeowner lost. The contractor convinced the judge that "cement" is a bad material for driveways, because it always cracks. The judge stated that since the owner signed a contract that relieved the contractor all liability in the event of cracking, tough s--t.
The owner should've brought an engineer to court; it might've helped his case.
RE: New Show about engineers
debodine is correct, the movie is “The Ghost and the Darkness” and is based on the true experiences of a British engineer sent to Kenya to build a railroad bridge over the Tasvo River. I first heard of this story in the book Dangerous to Man, by Roger Caras, Chilton Books, 1964. I liked the book right from the dedication, “To whom else could an author dedicate a book entitled Dangerous to Man, but to his wife?”
From page 16, “Certainly the most famous man-eating lions of all were those of Tasvo….. The whole story was reported in full by Lieutenant Colonel J. H. Patterson, an engineer assigned to the construction of the bridge over the Tasvo River, who brought the career of the Tsavo man-eaters to an end by his skill and persistence, and not without considerable personal danger.”
The true story takes place in 1898 and Patterson wrote a booklet, complete with photos, documenting his hunt for the Man-Eaters of Tasvo. The movie shows a thru-truss bridge, the actual bridge is a plate girder bridge, but I guess that is artistic license. The two stuffed lions killed by Patterson, were first made into rugs, for his den, but later were stuffed in a standing position and some how they made it to the Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where they can be seen today. They are not as impressive as the original photos taken at the time they were shot. They were both huge, maneless males, whose combined rampage killed 28 of the native workers and shut down the construction project. Patterson hunted the big cats for over three weeks, narrowly escaping two attacks, before getting both of them.
You see, there is adventure to be had as an engineer! Ah, the good old days!
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
Robert E. Lee also began his army career as a civil engineer.
In the Middle Ages, when armies would lay siege to castles, they brought with them a trebuchet engineer. His responsibility was to design and construct trebuchets a.k.a. catapults on-site.
RE: New Show about engineers
A scene from "A Few Good Structural Engineers"
Engineer (Jack Nickelson): You want answers?
Architect (Tom Cruise): I think I'm entitled to them.
Engineer: You want answers?
Architect: I want the truth!!
Engineer : You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has FLOORS.
And those FLOORS have to be SUPPORTED BY COLUMNS.
Who's gonna DESIGN THEM? You? You, MR. ARCHITECT?
I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.
You weep for LOST FLOOR SPACE and you curse the COLUMNS.
You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that THOSE COLUMNS, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives...You don't want the truth.
Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that DESIGN TEAM. You need me on that DESIGN TEAM.
We use words like DESIGN, code, ANALYSIS...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent SUPPORTING something. You use 'em as a punchline.
I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain my DESIGN to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very STRUCTURES I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a STEEL MANUAL and DESIGN a post.
Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!
Architect : Did you SCHEDULE THE COLUMNS?
Engineer : (quietly) I did the job you HIRED me to do. Architect : Did you SCHEDULE THE COLUMNS? Engineer : You're goddamn right I did!!
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
DPA
RE: New Show about engineers
("What if the wind comes at the building diagonally?!!")
Hg
RE: New Show about engineers
RE: New Show about engineers
Eng-Tips guidelines: FAQ731-376
RE: New Show about engineers
"Yeah, about the only way to make it exciting is to have Engineer vs. crooked (developer, contractor, architect..etc) with a collapse involved.!"
This was done as Towering Inferno. A structural engineer, as another person mentioned, figured out how to put the fire, but remember why the fire started in the first place? Who ordered the installation of out of spec wiring that caused the fire?
Techmaximus
RE: New Show about engineers
Holmes is not an engineer. Sometimes he brings in engineers to look at stuff. An equivalent program starring a professional engineer might be scary.
JHG
RE: New Show about engineers
No collapse, unless Our Hero causes one.
Hg
Eng-Tips guidelines: FAQ731-376