The people who have these jobs are lonely. They have no one to drink or do drugs with, even if they wanted to. Sex for most Americans is an inaccessible thing, something that only happens on Santa Barbara or other TV shows and movies. In real life, Americans rarely have sex, and even then seldom enjoy it. That leaves work and television as the only real occupations in life.
TV is the only acceptable escape.
In other countries people drink, have affairs, raise children. Americans no longer raise children, because they take too much time away from work. Babies cry while you are trying to iron a shirt for a meeting. They make you come home at eight-thirty, while the guy in the office next to you, who has no children, is ready to stay until nine to impress the boss. Worse, babies smell, they throw up, they ruin the Swedish furniture you worked so hard to buy.