I’m thinking mainly of shows and movies (current and older) about cops, doctors, lawyers, and teachers, since there are so darn many depictions of them in the media, but any profession will apply.
My cousin, a registered nurse, avoids any medical drama on TV because, as she puts it, “My whole life is a medical drama!”
I, on the other hand, watch Boston Public just to remind myself how fortunate I am to have college students, and how I don’t have to deal with their parents.
So how about it? Does The Practice appeal to you legal eagles? ER for the medical professionals? NYPD Blue for law enforcement?
Can anyone actually name a show about engineers? If not, I don’t think I can comment on this topic…
Since I cook for a living, people often think I watch Food TV whenever I have a chance.
Eh. I love to cook, I love food, and I love to eat, but watching it 24 hours a day is not my idea of fun. Granted, I do like to watch Good Eats and Iron Chef, but that’s about it.
Personally, I could leave the TV on the History Channel almost all the time.
The Simpsons? 
Homer’s more of a control room operator than an engineer.
Professor Frink’s smart enough to be an engineer.
As a librarian, (and a straight, male one to boot), the odds of me finding someone in film or TV portraying a character like me is pretty much zero.
I can’t imagine being interested in watching a movie about someone who sits staring at a computer screen, occasionally looks off into infinity as he thinks, and then starts typing at the keyboard. Repat in endless loop.
I am an attorney who typically avoids legally-oriented entertainment. However, I tend to gravitate toward legal questions on SDMB.
Herbert Anderson on
Dennis the Menace.
Brian Keith on Family Affair.
Bobby Sherman on Getting Together.
Dorian Harewood on Viper.
One dark day, I went to see “The Net”, in which Sandra Bullock is a computer programmer.
Ever since then I’ve tried to avoid movies that involved computers as a central plot point. Since then I’ve only seen two: Swordfish, which I think may be one of the worst movies ever made, and Pi, which I think is brilliant.
I just can’t suspend my disbelief when they’re getting all the crap horribly wrong. Swordfish was especially bad in this, the things they’d say about the computers were actual computer vocabulary, but they made no sense when put together like that. I get angry. I make comments out loud in the theater. I bitch about it for hours afterward. It’s best all around if I just avoid them.
I’m a tech writer and I like the Andy Richter Show but not 'cause of his profession. It’s just funny.
I don’t regularly watch “The Practice”, but I don’t avoid it. I enjoy it when I occassionally come across it. Likewise with “Law and Order”, etc. I just prefer the funny stuff, I sur’pose.
Star Trek probably has more astronomy than any other show, and if so, I guess the answer in my case is I enjoy it.
Well I work at a nuclear power plant and movies about that tend to just piss me off because they are so far-fetched that I just sit and stare in amazement that they would make films with such false and stupid information, and people believe it.
Hmmm… as a designer, I enjoy ‘Trading Spaces’ until some homeowner decides to argue with the designer. Then it’s just too much like real life.
Stupid, stupid clients!
Not my profession, but my son is autistic and I always avoid movies with an autistic character. They never get it right.
A show about auto-parts counter people?
Hours of boredom punctuated by moments of slightly less boredom.
No thanks.
Any show with auto mechanics tend to make me flinch.
Hmmm, I can think of plenty of bit parts as librarians but few lead roles (though they are out there–The Music Man for one).
Now film archivists, that’s another story altogether…
I hate hate hate TV and movie portrayals of computers, computer interfaces and especially hacking. You know, when they sit there and just type
alsdjf;alhdfkajhqerfklwjqaasdkjhfalkudhflakd
real fast, and stuff flies up the screen, and voila!
Plus the fact that everything is sooo graphical. No, we don’t use text in the 21st century, no siree.
Grrr.