September 24, 2010

How am I supposed to search for "$#*! My Dad Says" on my DVR?

P1030224

Here's the transcript of last night's show. Sample line: "If it looks like manure and smells like manure, it's either Wolf Blitzer or manure." Dad's a right-winger.

Oh, let's see what CNN thought about the show that called Wolf shit:
Through an unlikely combination of elements -- a popular Twitter site; CBS trying to be "hip" about social networking; the chance to work with "Will & Grace" producers David Kohan and Matt Mutchnick; William Shatner wanting to try something new -- "$#*! My Dad Says" boasts the new season's most annoying title and the sight of a wasted resource in Shatner.

He plays Ed, a grumpy coot who complains about anything and everything....

Shatner knows how to spoof himself, and in interviews, he's clever and self-aware. Exactly none of these qualities are in evidence on "$#*! My Dad Says." Ed is some combination of the too-clever-to-be-believed grousing father from Justin Halpern's Twitter feed plus Archie Bunker -- i.e., the sort of character that CBS' older demo won't find too frightening because he's a familiar type.
CBS' older demo... Is network loyalty still a concept? I've been hearing since the 1970s that older people watched CBS. But back then there were only 3 networks and lots of us didn't have remote controls. I would have thought that by now people knew how to change channels and find stuff — $#*! — they like and that they wouldn't even bother noticing what network it was.

29 comments:

Chennaul said...

I DVRed that based on the title alone.

Haven't watched it yet.

Scott M said...

I'm pretty loyal to Comedy Central. I don't watch any all-comedy cable networks. Ditto on the DIY channel.

I do remember, though, that the sarcasm and irony incarnate with Archie Bunker was completely lost on my grandfather, who thought he was right about everything.

Chennaul said...

"$#*! My Dad Says" boasts the new season's most annoying title and the sight of a wasted resource in Shatner.

Someone has somethin' up their woozle.

Unknown said...

Fortunately, it's a horrible show, so this shouldn't be a problem for long.

ricpic said...

It was Edith that frightened me. Okay, she didn't frighten me, but Archie was correct when he told her to stifle.

Unknown said...

Since it became the original Commie network, I always did my best to avoid Black Rock.

Out of curiosity, I took a look at the new Five-O.

Jack Lord's shade can rest easy.

kjbe said...

edutcher - I watched it, too, and found myself endlessly comparing the two versions and finding myself confused.

Scott - same here, though with my grandmother. I always suspected we were laughing at the same jokes, but for very different reasons.

Opus One Media said...

There is ample evidence that prior to the remote control, when TVs sat across the room, that it was "who is going to get up and change the channel" so the channel sat on one station for reasons that don't now exist.

All network news has skewed "older". Even cable news (including Faux Noise which seems to intended for children and the mentally infirm) has an older bent. The networks didn't mind because the older 45+ have all the money to spend anyway.

Interesting that all the "abandonment of network" really isn't that at all. The younger slices of the demographic have been pulled away to non-news destinations and the flipper has given the potato further reason not to get up and change the channel.

Scott M said...

(including Faux Noise which seems to intended for children and the mentally infirm)

Ah, you just couldn't help yourself, could you, HD? Maybe you could patent something that would help the infirm. You would have to compete with Cialis and Viagra these days, but you're in the target demo for that anyway. One more act of self servicing wouldn't hurt, hmm?

Opus One Media said...

@Scott M...

My post said mentally infirm...I think you didn't read it correctly...oh....I see what happened....sorry about that Scott - didn't mean to embarrass you.

Scott M said...

Comeback status = fail. That was lame even for you, HD.

former law student said...

The dad's one-liners makes this the best of the new comedies I've seen:

Mike and Molly's deadly serious overeating jokes makes it Brain Dead on Arrival.

Outsourced -- we saw the movie -- was made timid and obvious for TV.

Better With You -- I just couldn't care about any of the characters.

Running Wilde -- Stupid set up. Save-the-Amazon mom leaves jungle reunites with idiotic, vain, oil baron. Arthur finds love.

Raising Hope -- Young goofball finds self raising prison inmate's newborn. Hilarity ensues. One Man and a Baby This is actually the only one besides Stuff My Dad Says that I would watch again.

former law student said...

"If it looks like manure and smells like manure, it's either Wolf Blitzer or manure."

The paper said the original line contained "Andy Rooney" instead of Blitzer till someone realized Rooney was a CBS employee.

Scott M said...

If they are going to remake Hawaii 5.0 (spelling?) then, by God, they need to remake Herman's Head and Doctor, Doctor.

GMay said...

Can't bring myself to watch the show as the guy who it's based on is just funnier than can be done justice.

Phil 314 said...

Wolf Blitzer!?

bgates said...

the too-clever-to-be-believed grousing father

Hey...if he's so clever, how come he's not at the hearings on agriculture?

The White House claims that while Obama appointees were dropping an already-won case against black nationalist thugs from the Malik Shabazz-led New Black Panther Party, the White House entertained a guest named Malik Shabazz in the President's private residence, but not the Malik Shabazz who had an interest in getting the administration to do what the administration subsequently did. CNN's response: "Huh."

An old guy is quoted on Twitter saying funny stuff. CNN's response: Unbelievable!

Fen said...

Let me guess: the grumpy coot is a white guy.

former law student said...

PEOPLE SEARCH RESULTS
We found 159 people that match Malik Shabazz in the United States.

Click on the View Details or Get a Detailed Report link for more info.

PEOPLE SEARCH RESULTS
We found 7 people that match Andrew Breitbart in the United States.

BJM said...

Doesn't your cable service offer online DVR programming?

If not, DEMAND IT!

Since "Lost" wrapped I'm down to "Survivor" on the networks. I'll Tivo "AI" and the ocassional PBS classic, but that's about it for primetime programming.

Nothing in the new seasion interests me enough to even watch the pilots.

Anyone watching "The Big C" on Showtime?

kimsch said...

On Community last night the "white man says" twitter feed was mentioned. The kid who tweeted it said he'd stop because he liked Chevy Chase's character more than the 600,000 strangers who followed the tweets. So Chevy says maybe it could be more, like "white man says, the tv show"... The others all poo-poo the idea and say it's a bad development decision.

wv: kingst (angst for a monarch? or just King Street?)

BJM said...

@HDHouse

It obviously pisses you off that we Boomers haven't expired yet. Obama is working on it.

Triangle Man said...

Jeebus fls.

You completely fail at Teh Internets. Failure to post in the correct thread and an inability to link. Embarrassing!

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I quit watching Boston Legal when they decided to make Shatner's character, Denny Crane, a ridiculous caricature of what the liberal writers "think" conservatives are like. He was a cartoonish buffoon.

There was not one single episode that didn't have a gratuitous snide slap at either Republicans, Conservatives, Bush or some other non plot related political insult. The asides and insults had no purpose to advance the plot and were basically the writers and probably the actors reflexively jerking off. They just couldn't help themselves I guess.

This is why they began peeling off viewership after the second year and are no longer on the air.

I lost all respect for Shatner as well and wouldn't watch him in anything even if you paid me. Same thing for Linda Rhonstadt who I greatly enjoyed listening to at one time......and will not now.

former law student said...

Failure to post in the correct thread and an inability to link.

But Mom, bgates started it!

Here ya go:

www.intelius.com

Dust Bunny Queen said...

LOL @fls

How in the world are you going to be able to Rick Roll people if you just post the URL.

AST said...

Search for "My Dad Says" and it should come up, unless you ask for an exact match.

I never liked Archie Bunker because he conflated conservatism with bigotry and mental cruelty toward his wife.

The only show I watch on CBS is NCIS, but I don't like it quite so much now that Gibbs has quit giving Tony dope slaps. I did watch H50 and thought it had much better production values that the original, but otherwise not much. I predict that Jimmy Caan's kid will be a star.

Joe said...

It wasn't very funny, though it had signs that it could become funny. Hopefully that was due to the obligation to set everything up.

DBQ, I stopped watching Boston Legal about the same time--every week it was Bush Derangement Syndrome in an increasingly shrill tone. It was a horrible decision by the producers since it will seriously limit its appeal in syndication.

Anonymous said...

Running Wilde -- Stupid set up. Save-the-Amazon mom leaves jungle reunites with idiotic, vain, oil baron. Arthur finds love.

The husband and I thought Running Wilde was hilarious- very similar in feel to Arrested Development. It's a comedy; if you're focused on the set up, you're missing the point.