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Chuck: Live! As far as you know it.
it's Lessons from the Dirt and now here's the dirtiest guy to ever testify before
congress
and that's saying something
your hosts
Mike Rowe.
MR: Thank you Chuck. Hello again, thank you Matt
for whatever that was
and thank you
you for watching my favorite show of all time. I don't know why I'm holding wrench it was
on the
uh...table.
Today are we're talking about the people on the poster. The people
(In a world filled with people like him and me and her, and her, me again, a
machine, me again and that guy, and this guy
not everyone can be on the poster
but he can't.)
The people
on the poster, this whole campaign between me and Caterpillar is kind of
come down
to a couple of images that's kind of what we're banking on in our ongoing
quest to change the way the country feels about work. And we couldn't have done it
without these people and uh... how we found them was a pure stroke a lock one of
them is still with us right now is they've Tony Becker he's gonna come in
and sit next to me even as we speak.
Tony: I don't know Mike, I've finally arrived. MR: Congratulations. Tony: I turned into a character actor.
MR: Your ship has come in.
Tony...
you know like, like everything about this campaign is uh... is here to some weird
mix of accident and the serendipity
we wanted him here...he owned a car
we were using a in a commercial that we shot yesterday. Right? Tony: Yes, my Dad's
sixty-six mustang convertible. Mike: Nice.
So we're doing this little thirty-second spot uh...sort of in defense of mechanics.
Uh... Tony's not only working actor for the last forty years. Tony: Yeah.
MR: And yet
fundamentally, but when someone says what do you do...
what's your answer?
Tony: The answer always says I'm a builder.
MR: Tony here had the right car. Tony shows up and we realize...
I'm looking at him
I know you
I know you. Tony: The problem with that is, gosh did he
see me in a show or did I do his roof?
So that was...I never know if hung some cabinets in
someone's house or they actually saw me on something.
MR: Uh...as an actor you've certainly paid your dues
"Tour of Duty"
Tony: There's...
there's a lot of them. Let's go back to "Little House" on the Prairie and "The Waltons"
I was in the Mouseketeer Club. MR: You were in the Mouseketeer Club.
Tony; I was a motorcycle rider though, so I was cool.
Me and Kim Richards.
That's a long time ago. MR; That was a while.
Tony: In that thing, being a little kid
I worked with all the old cowboys.
And it was Jack Elam when I was nine years old, for some reason looks at me and says
"Got to have a second job kid."
I probably blew line or something, who knows.
I always stuck with me
you've got to have something to lean on
and uh...
I say I'm a builder, that's what I do, but I love acting
I have a fierce uh... respects and uh
protective kind of feeling for Hollywood and the crew. My Dad was on a crew for
forty-seven years.
MR: It was...a riot,
we're trying to figure out this shoot the other day and we had our ahead we want
to recreate this old poster I saw from the seventies
the guy who looked right for the part
turns out
to be a tradesmen
and an actor and somebody who new who just got it right away so...
it's cool that you are on here
and I hope you don't mind
being a true character actor. Tony: I know I love it. My family are really going to love it. I've come home
looking like that. MR: What you are
portraying on this poster
is uh...
is the epitome of the problem
in terms of stereotype and the way...
the way I've seen
I mean I know a lot of builders, I know a lot of roofers, I know a lot of carpenters, I know a
lot of skilled tradesmen
and they've all told me
over the years that
they can tell the way
just the way people look at them and act around them
it's...it's just a disconnect. Tony: When I was fortunate to work
on "Tour of Duty"
I had gone to the bank and someone I heard in the bank
I heard them whisper that's the guy on that
show. They seemed to have a lot of respect for what I was doing.
That felt pretty good....it was nice.
Months later I'm tearing a roof off.
The big roofing trucks outside, I run in, it's like one hundred and five degrees, I just need to
cash this little check.
I hear a woman say, "Ah,
he should be ashamed of himself walking in here looking like that.
And I remember thinking wow I deserve a lot more respect for what I did today
and all that other stuff. There are times
it's great your outdoors, you're your own boss, you're working with your
buddies - it's good.
But it's tough, it's tough work. MR: Well, I'll tell you something else
I've literally,
my life depended on guys for the last nine years on job sites. I'm a fish
out of water
you know almost everyday
and the other day
we were we were trying to get this shot
maybe we can put it on the screen
though some magic of TV.
But I was in my cap and gown
as I am in this particular version
and uh... I wanted to climb a telephone pole
you know to sort of
create the metaphor that
you know all the education in the world
you still have no business going where your skills won't
take you
and I needed to
get on the pole and to do that I need a ladder in the back of a
pickup
and to do that I need somebody with a pickup I trust to hold the ladder.
To make a long story short
it was your pickup
and your ladder
and so not for nothing
l, you know you're up thirty feet in the air. Tony: It was something. MR: I mean looking around
okay Tony's good. He's holding the ladder, it's his truck. I am not going to fall.
So thanks for not letting me fall. Although I did notice you were kind of looking up my
my gown here. Tony: It was embarrassing and I saw you catch me.
MR: Super awkward.
Tony: You're not Scottish.
MR: I'm not Scottish.
You just reminded me of the old joke.
Yeah, you got a little Scottish in ya. Would ya like some?
Ladies and gentlemen Tony Becker.
Thank you and goodbye.