If you could design a time machine and travel back 20 years (1997), turn on the TV during prime time, you would have seen shows such as The Practice, ER, and The X-Files. Most television shows on the air back then were of the legal, medical, or comedic variety—nothing that centered on an engineering character of any kind (Tim the Toolman Taylor doesn’t count). That is unless the characters on those shows needed a specialist of some kind to help them solve a crime or fix some mundane machinery.
Beyond PBS or the Discovery channel highlighting a technical documentary on space exploration or the like, there was virtually nothing catered to the engineer. Except maybe Star Trek: Voyager and even then, there was only a handful from that series that featured Chief Engineer B’Elanna Torres.
Get back into that time machine and head to present day, and you’ll find almost an endless stream of engineer/engineering-based shows to keep you entertained throughout the week and even over the weekend. Over the last 20 years, the world has shifted and increased its focus on the younger generations to excel in subjects such as the sciences, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), as governments and academic institutions predict those are/will be the most in-demand jobs over the next two decades and beyond.
People just love to see engineers, or people in general, make devices and gadgets. They celebrate seeing new ideas come to light. It’s a great time to be an engineer!