Roc on the fox show Roc (played bvy Charles Dutton) was a garbage man in the inner city
Mr Cunningham on Happy Days ran a plumbing/hardware store
Wasn’t Paul Riser a documentary film maker on Mad About You?
The cast of Alice - a Diner owner/cook and 3 waitresses, plus the regulars all had every day jobs (phone company, etc)
Small Wonder - Wasn’t the Dad an inventor?
It’s a Living - A show about waitresses and a piano player at a fern bar atop a skyscraper.
That’s right! So were Luther VanDam and Dobber on that same program, which also featured some guy named Howard who was the college’s athletic director, and various other people as college deans, etc.
Dick Solomon on “Third Rock from the Sun” was a college physics professor. His girlfriend Mary Albright was an anthropology professor.
Lou Grant started out as a TV news executive but eventually became a newspaper editor.
Mr. Drysdale from “The Beverly Hillbillies” was a banker, and so was Marcy D’Arcy from “Married With Children.” Marcy’s first husband, Steve, was a banker as well before he quit to become a forest ranger.
I believe Chanandler Bong is a Transponster.
John Hemingway and crew (The John Larroquette Show) worked in a bus terminal in Middle America (Kansas City?).
Tony Soprano is in the maf-…uh,…“waste management”, that show revolves around his job.
George Lopez is low-level management in some kind of factory where his mom also works.
Donal Logue on Grounded For Life was a garbageman (later a bar owner), his wife was a hostess in an upscale restuarant. His brother seemed to be a professional mooch and sometimes conman/petty thief.
What about people with meta-jobs, they are employed but their jobs were usually undefined?
Barney Rubble
Ozzie Nelson - some kind of office
What does Damon Wayans character do for a living on his show?
St. Louis. One of the drivers once broke into the song “Kansas City” but when asked he said he was going to Chicago. He was singing “Kansas City” because he hates going to Chicago.
Larry Dallas (“Three’s Company”) was a salesman. Used cars mainly but I seem to recall him trying to sell caskets in an episode.
Most of the cast of Sealab 2021 are scientists.
Futurama’s cast includes a pilot (Leela), a delivery boy (Fry), and a bureaucrat (Hermes).
Peter Griffin on Family Guy worked on the assembly line in a toy factory. His wife Lois gave private piano lessons.
I think it was Elise, but am too lazy to look it up.
The neighbor on the Jeffersons was a translator at the UN
Many of the characters mentioned in this thread have mundane jobs, but what they do plays at least a somewhat significant role in the show. I’m talking about your Homer Simpsons, Hank Hills, George Jetsons, and so forth. Sure, not every show revolves around the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant or Strickland Propane, but it’s not rare for the workplace to serve as a plot device.
I can’t believe that nobody’s mentioned Ward Cleaver. He was as generic as middle-class businessman get, and I can’t recall him ever discussing exactly what he did at the office, or even where he worked.
I did. Look up a ways.
The staff of Fantasy Island. That show revolved around their particular line of work.
The same became a running joke of sorts on The Ozzie and Harriet Show; Ozzie’s mysterious “job” that he never seemed to go to or talk about.
Seventh Heaven: Eric Camden is a minister, and his daughter Mary was, for a short time, a flight attendent.
The Proud Family (A Disney Cartoon that the kids I babysit made me watch): Oscar Proud is the owner of a company that makes terrible snacks.
Charmed: Paige is a social worker for a time, Phoebe is an advice columnist.
Boy Meets World: Chet is a truckdriver.
What about occupations that are never represented in television? I’ve never seen a show featuring the following:
Urban planner
Computer programmer
Civil, electrical, or mechanical engineer
Dilbert.
Oh, yeah - and Scotty was an engineer on Star Trek, of course.
The husband on Valerie’s Family/Valerie was an airline pilot until he was killed. (I think he was killed, anyway; he quit appearing on the show. Maybe they got a divorce.)
The band members and singers on The Lawrence Welk Show were all test subjects for Valium.
Floyd Lawson on The Andy Griffith Show was a barber. Howard Sprague was a county clerk, I think. Goober and Gomer Pyle were auto mechanics, as was Arthur Fonzarelli on Happy Days.
On Thirtysomething, Ellen’s job was poorly defined, but it was clear that she worked in some sort of planning position for city government. Her boyfriend was an urban planner.
Steve Douglas on My Three Sons worked for an aircraft manufacturer, had both a desk and a drafting table in his office (this was pre-computers). Does that count as an engineer?
Major Anthony Nelson, Major Roger Healey - were Air Force officers assigned to NASA as Astronauts.
Fonzie also taught auto shop at the high school in the later seasons.
On King of the Hill, Bill is an army barber. Luann never got her beautician’s license; she’s currently a student at the junior college.
But what does Boomhauer do?