$#*! My Dad Says

[CaptainCraig]

William Shatner's new show based on the popular Twitter feed of the same name gets an episodic translation to TV starting 9/23 at 8:30/7:30 central on CBS.

Shatner plays Ed Goodson a retired medical doctor whose adult son has to move back in with him after falling on hard times.

Whose going to tune in?
What are your thoughts?

 

[Matt]

Pass. It'll be neutered for network TV, losing the charm of the blog. Plus the laugh track, ugh.

 

[Dave McFly]

I watched it, I laughed, I hope it at least gets a full season .

 

[Sawyer]

I hope it gets cancelled.

 

[That-Guy]

You hope everything gets cancelled.

I actually liked it, up until the last scene. What kind of guy slow dances with his dad?! I know that it was supposed to be one of those warm and fuzzy moments but it just felt sorta creepy.

 

[Mister J]

What kind of guy slow dances with his dad?!

Keep in mind that I've not seen it and have no frame of reference or context, ...but eww.

 

[CaptainCraig]

Early reports are saying it landed ballpark 12 million viewers. Still waiting on something official.

I liked it. I'd give it a C+ for a pilot episode.
I feel like it played out in 2 parts.

The first half was rough, establishing why the son was there. Introducing the half-brother and his wife.
The second half I really felt like it started to gel better. I thought the last part really showed some humanizing of Ed with the mattress delivery. The bow and saying "It was just a gesture, why's it all got to be said?". Drills home a bit more that Ed comes from an overly masculine generation where emotions by men are not seen as endearing qualities.

I hope if the show does well that we might find that friends of Ed's in that generation don't find him as gruff as everyone else in our metrosexualized 21st century.
Perhaps some good stunt casting for sweeps with the two ex-wives. The one we know was in Paris, perhaps she is flighty and adventurous and the other is to be defined at a later point?

The episode likely suffered from having to reshoot the pilot as well. Chemistry may show to come together in the weeks ahead.

 

[TheVileOne]

So is that a promising start for the series where viewership is concerned? Considering it beat all the returning shows on NBC's Thursday comedy lineup.

 

[CaptainCraig]

The final tally seems to be 12.5 million watched following the lead-in of The Big Bang Theory which had 14 million viewers.
Keeping such a high % of the lead-in is a good starting point. At best it means the show is likely to survive till midseason and increase its odds of being picked up. Had it drawn a low opening number like say Lone Star then it'd be toast already.

 

[cheungcheung]

i thought it was horrible - every scene was just a setup to hear something stupid come out of shatner's mouth (which would be ok if what he said was funny). never watching this show again.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

This show has completely ruined every good memory I had about the original twitter feed.

You would think networks would draw the line at making shows about commercials (the Gieco cavemen), but there's always a premise that's even more paper-thin. I give it until midseason.

 

[Drizzle]

This show has just cemented my theory that the funniest shows on TV don't have laugh tracks.

 

[O'Haire]

This show has just cemented my theory that the funniest shows on TV don't have laugh tracks.

I have to agree. But I think How I Met Your Mother is pretty funny. I also don't see why they need laugh tracks for it.

Half the time the laugh tracks kind of take me out of it because they are so damn stupid.

 

[Arbiter]

Look up HIMYM clips on YouTube without laugh tracks. It's even more hilarious. Same for Big Bang

 

[Sawyer]

Look up HIMYM clips on YouTube without laugh tracks. It's even more hilarious. Same for Big Bang

Link?

 

[Prison Mike]

I liked Community's version of $#*! My Dad Says.

 

[Paroxysm]

I thought was pretty good. I'll be waching this again for sure.

 

[Matt]

i thought it was horrible - every scene was just a setup to hear something stupid come out of shatner's mouth (which would be ok if what he said was funny). never watching this show again.

Yeah. I watched the pilot via DVR, and you hit the nail on the head. There is no real substance to the show. Every scene, no, every line, is basically a set up for a one liner for Shatner. Shatner doing stand up (which would be admittedly awesome), would be better than this. Unlike other laugh track shows like How I Met Your Mother, despite the unrealistic dialogue where all the characters have witty one liners, this one lacks any form of heart or character development. The other characters serve no purpose other than to set Shatner up. And sadly, as I predicted, the "****," that the dad says are the more water down blog posts as opposed to the truly funnier ones due to this being on network TV. The original blogger should've been more selective and sold the rights to FX or even HBO. This could've been a modern Stanford and Son or All in the Family. Instead its just lame. I doubt I'll tune in again.

 

[CaptainCraig]

This show has just cemented my theory that the funniest shows on TV don't have laugh tracks.

For what its worth I know somebody who attended a taping of the pilot. They may have indeed peppered in some laugh track but that hardly is proof the show is bad. Hard to find too many comedies who don't utilize that.

HIMYM is overrated imo anyway. Half of that show is a setup for Barney.
I love TBBT but half of that show is set up for Sheldon.
Most of everything done on The Office is to set up Michael.
Loved Seinfeld but half or more of what Kramer,Elaine and George did set up Jerry.

See what I've done? Making your excuses that nearly everything said was to set up Shatner's Ed Goodson invalid as a complaint.

 

[Dr. Evil]

I have not seen this show yet.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

So what do they call it when showing TV spots? "Bleep My Dad Says?"

 

[Sawyer]

Something like that.

 

[CaptainCraig]

So what do they call it when showing TV spots? "Bleep My Dad Says?"

That's exactly what they called it promos.
I don't know if it's just a search engine mechanism or not but just typing in 'My Dad Says' will also pull up info on the show. I'm sure that's due to the non alpha/numeric title in the show.

 

[Ghostvirus]

I don't think I have watched anything like this. The first five minutes was horrible. The Laugh Track would laugh when it wasn't that funny. The lines sounded read. Then the Neighbors showed up, & things actually started to get better. It was like watching evolution in 20 minutes.

Loved the "for gods sake we had brunch. We didn't accidently kill a hooker" line. I will be using that at some point in my life!

I am going to give this a few more tries.

 

[Matt]

For what its worth I know somebody who attended a taping of the pilot. They may have indeed peppered in some laugh track but that hardly is proof the show is bad. Hard to find too many comedies who don't utilize that.

HIMYM is overrated imo anyway. Half of that show is a setup for Barney.
I love TBBT but half of that show is set up for Sheldon.
Most of everything done on The Office is to set up Michael.
Loved Seinfeld but half or more of what Kramer,Elaine and George did set up Jerry.

See what I've done? Making your excuses that nearly everything said was to set up Shatner's Ed Goodson invalid as a complaint.

The difference is, the shows you mention, with the exception of Seinfeld make you feel for the characters. They have heart. This one was void of that. Seinfeld didn't have heart but that was kinda the point.

Plus, the set ups are natural evolution. You can actually build to the jokes. On this show, it seems likeone will say something, even if it has no relevance at all to the discussion, if it'll set Shatner up for a one-liner.

But the biggest problem is, that the one liners just aren't that funny. You get the watered down stuff from the blog and a fex sexual innuendos.