Dr. Phil

[swanflake]

When he first started on Oprah, I think Oprah's people did a really good job at selecting just the right kind of guests for him. They people in the beginning had bizarre issues, but their issues weren't anything seriously insurmountable (sp?). Like I remember this one woman who put so many crazy limitations on her husband, like he could only have one root beer a day or something, and she wasn't even concerned about his health, she just wanted the control. Well that wife was a hateful but harmless bitch so it was enjoyable to watch Dr. Phil tease her.

I think watching him work with people like that was funny, but since he's gotten his own show he isn't able to have guests like that on everyday. I don't think he works so well with guests with seriously dangerous problems or guests that can't be easily catagorized as either good or bad. Watching him lay the smack down on shameless rich people was funny at first, but I think the novelty has completely worn off.

[jennipoo]

Swan,

Was that the same guy whose wife wouldn't let him get up from the table without her permission and made him change his middle-parted hair? Was his name John and she had long blonde hair? I always wondered what happened to those people. Hopefully he grew a set and divorced her.

[spinsterliz]

swanflake said:

I remember this one woman who put so many crazy limitations on her husband, like he could only have one root beer a day or something

The idea of someone putting limitations on her husband's root beer-drinking is the funniest thing I've heard all week.

[Deleted]

I remember that couple! She wouldn't let him do anything. This guy was the biggest shell of a man I'd ever seen. The root beer was hilarious. They were on again a few months after the original show and the lady admitted that seeing her husband talk about how much it bothered him was the thing that made her change. She didn't know he was THAT bothered by her rules. He said that life was much better at home and for Christmas she'd given him a case of root beer and he was allowed to drink it whenever he wanted. Everyone in the audience was like "Oooooh!" and both the husband and wife were like "Yes, it was a funny joke gift."

I mean someone with a minor issue like that can probably take a deeper look at themselves but it's certainly the judgemental show-girl nonsense that was mentioned on the last page that irks me with him.

[swanflake]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers how sad that couple was.

I think the episode of this show that pissed me off the most was this one he did about adult children still living with their parents. His first guest was a woman probably around 30 who had a little girl of her own and was living with her mother and stepfather. Dr. Phil and her mother tried to bring out that the woman had a sense of entitlement she needed to work through, but the woman was up there on the set in tears. She felt extremely distressed and had a child of her own to worry about. I'm sure she had serious fears that she simply couldn't survive on her own. Dr. Phil pretty much did nothing for her.

Then in a later segment on the same show they had a boy who was in his early 20s who didn't want to leave home and get a job/go to school even though his parents were willing to supply him with the things needed to get him out of the door--transportation, first month's rent, etc. But still he didn't want to do it, and felt the only job good enough for him was something like being a party planner or a night club promoter. (Actually now that I think about it, the party planner thing might have been a different guest on a different show about the same subject. Whatever.) Well this was a kid who did not have serious problems, but for whatever reason, Dr. Phil decided to go get an apartment for him and have it completely furnished and had the first few months of rent paid for. Meanwhile there's a crying mother backstage who recieved nothing.

I couldn't believe that. Not that the woman necessarily deserved a free stay in a furnished apartment, but I thought it was really telling that Dr. Phil would rather look like a hero by giving a spoiled 20-year-old free gear for his new prize pad than try to think of a real solution for someone else who actually had a real problem.

[Deleted]

Did anyone see a preview for one of his upcoming shows involving abused women? There's something seriously wrong when a commercial regarding such a serious topic makes you laugh. Hard.
It basically consisted of a shot of Dr. Phil doing his best Jack Bauer impression (my apologies to all 24 fans). He was sitting in some room or trailer or god-knows-what with a head-set (snicker), screaming to some woman that she needed to "get out of the house NOW!" Just replace the Sutherland velvet with a Texas twang.
Then there was a shot of shaky, blurry camera work (to convey suspence, of course) following a woman as she was running through...a forest? Not sure, but it left me laughing, which is just wrong. Dr. Phil has officially corrupted my sense of decency.... Actually, that last sentence would make a good theme for his show.

[jennipoo]

The abusive mom today made me sick to my stomach. I can't believe I was able to sit through that, although I did have to mute it a few times.

Dr. Phil should NOT have let those kids back in that home. I wish he'd sent them to live with grandparents or aunts or something. I wanted to pummel those parents.

[Deleted]

Oh, I know, I think that the mom's parental rights should be terminated permanently. And those kids were so sweet and good! How did they turn out so normal growing up in such hell.

And I call bullshit on the stepdad not knowing, he was just trying to cover his ass because it sounded like he beat them too. I just wanted to find both of them and treat them the way they have been treating these innocent children. HATE.

I hope the news media picks this up because I want to be sure that these kids are being protected. I sure as hell don't trust Dr. Phil.

[Wenton]

My mom was exactly like that woman. I nearly had a Vietnam style flashback just watching it.

I, too, hope that this gets followed like the family on the Dateline special. When the thuggy stepdad with the ugly sideburns revealed he wasn't their birth father, I wasn't shocked at all. Pretty much every messed up family on Dr. Phil involves a stepparent.

[Deleted]

jennipoo said:

The abusive mom today made me sick to my stomach. I can't believe I was able to sit through that, although I did have to mute it a few times.

Dr. Phil should NOT have let those kids back in that home. I wish he'd sent them to live with grandparents or aunts or something. I wanted to pummel those parents.

I would bet my life that the authorities in their jurisdiction are all over this and they'll return home to cop cars and social workers in their driveway. That tape of her beating and kicking her son is worth 6 months in jail, minimum. And she doesn't know why she does this? Hmmm, because you hate your kids and you're a psycho rageaholic?