It appears that pop culture has finally found a beneficial use for the drilling industry – as entertainment.

In the fictional television series, “Dallas,” the petroleum business was mostly used as a plot device that funded the Ewing family’s dysfunctional behavior, the show’s main concern. But this part could just as easily have been played by cosmetics or auto parts. For a certain new television series, the industry — or at least the US land drilling segment of it — is cast in a more central role. This latest manifestation of “reality” TV follows the entertainment industry’s cost-cutting practice of doing away with writers, scripts, actors, directors and who knows what else you may have once thought essential to the task.

Whether anyone who has worked on a rig floor found the job entertaining on a consistent basis is one thing, but the show’s producers clearly do, if their promotional material is any indication:

“From the executive producer of Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers comes truTV’s new series BLACK GOLD, following the high-stakes world of drilling for oil in west Texas. With gas prices rising and U.S. dependency on foreign oil, BLACK GOLD, premiering June 18th at 10p, takes a look at the dangerous world of the men who risk their lives drilling for American oil. Each one-hour episode features oil rigs looking to strike it rich drilling for crude, all adding up to big risk, big reward, big characters and most of all big business. With only 50 days to risk it all, the roughnecks, as they are called on the rig, endure exhausting, dangerous work demands and face losing something more valuable than the money of the oil men — their lives. It costs them millions to drill two miles into the Earth in search of oil. Every second can lead to boom or bust.

“In each episode, viewers are given front row seats to three different rigs — Longhorn, Viking and Big Dog — funded by two wildcatters who have risked their fortunes in hopes of striking it big and keeping the drill bits turning. In the end is the moment of truth — was it all worth it? It’s a multi-million dollar roll of the dice. With enough time to drill only three wells, they have to contend not only with the elements on the rig like scorching heat and sudden lightning storms, but also the danger of working on the rig itself, where anything can go wrong at any moment and the men face danger at every turn. Among such dangers shown in the series, a roughneck almost meets his demise as a spinner chain used to screw 30 foot sections of pipe together almost whacks him. This is the price these modern day cowboys pay to search for oil.

“Each rig is led by the driller, who takes care of everything from mechanical issues to manpower problems. The most challenging part for drillers — finding men brave enough to lift and move tons of iron and trying to ensure that these hard-partying roughnecks will actually show up for work. For many drillers, most of their time is spent trying to teach their most inexperienced roughnecks — or worms as they’re called in the oilfield — how to survive on a rig and how to avoid getting hit with iron pipes flying around. Drillers know that just one wrong move can cost a man his finger, his arm or even his life.

“The oil boom has brought the 60-year-old Longhorn rig has out of retirement. Gerald, an old-school driller, with 32 years of experience and a hand missing half a thumb from a long ago mishap, leads the rig and expects a lot from his crew. He isn’t afraid to tell them when they’re not cutting it. Just 500 yards away is the brand-new Viking rig, where the technology and the men in charge are a very different sort. While Gerald, a tough leader who himself has only nine toes, barks at his roughnecks, Viking driller Wayne treats his young crew like his family. Both Longhorn and Viking are drilling for oilman Mike LaMonica and his upstart company, ExL Petroleum. Mike’s eager to cash in on the high prices being paid for crude, but if this play doesn’t work out, it could put them under.

“The final rig is the Big Dog. Its name fits since it’s larger than the competition and unlike the other rigs, Big Dog driller Tim, does not have decades of experience. Big Dog is drilling for local legend Autry Stephens, who is one of the most successful independent oilmen in West Texas. If drilling isn’t being done the way he wants, he’ll get involved and things will change.”

Caught your breath yet? Whatever your estimate of how much reality the hype contains, the show could be a positive development. Maybe publicity from this “gripping series about life on an oil rig” (no tong jokes, please) will elevate the drilling industry in pop culture’s esteem to the same level as “Ice Road Truckers.”