''$#*! My Dad Says'' (pronounced "

Bleep Bleep may refer to: * Bleep sound, a noise, generally of a single tone, often generated by a machine ** Bleep censor, the replacement of offensive language (swear words) or personal details with a beep sound ** Bleep techno, a Yorkshire-born subg ...

My Dad Says") is an American television

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

produced by

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

that aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. It was based on the

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

feed Shit My Dad Says, created by

Justin Halpern Justin Samuel Halpern (born September 3, 1980) is the American author of the Twitter feed " Shit My Dad Says" and the best-selling book ''Sh*t My Dad Says''. He was also the co-writer and co-executive producer of a CBS television situation come ...

and consisting of quotations from his father, Sam. The show originally ran from September 23, 2010, to February 17, 2011, and aired on Thursdays at 8:30 pm/7:30 pm Central. After 18 episodes aired, the series was replaced in mid-season by ''

Rules of Engagement Rules of engagement (ROE) are the internal rules or directives afforded military forces (including individuals) that define the circumstances, conditions, degree, and manner in which the use of force, or actions which might be construed as pro ...

'', which had moved to Thursdays from Mondays. On May 15, 2011, CBS canceled the series after one season.

Plot

Ed is a very opinionated 72-year-old who has been divorced three times. His two adult sons, Henry and Vince, are accustomed to his unsolicited and often

politically incorrect ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...

rants. When Henry, a struggling writer and

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

ger, can no longer afford his rent, he is forced to move back in with Ed, which creates new problems in their tricky father–son relationship. As weeks go by Henry is unable to find a job as a writer, mostly due to the lack of good material. He finally lands a job, when during his interview Ed interrupts with an irrational phone call that sparks the interest of the eccentric editor conducting the interview. Henry is ultimately hired, but is forced to continue living with Ed in order to have readily available material via his father's unsolicited rants, hence the title ''$#*! My Dad Says''.

Cast

William Shatner William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1965 debut as the captain of the starship ''Enterpris ...

as Dr. Edison Milford "Ed" Goodson III * Jonathan Sadowski as Henry Goodson *

Will Sasso Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and wil ...

as Vince Goodson *

Nicole Sullivan Nicole Sullivan (born April 21, 1970) is an American actress and comedian best known for her six seasons (1995–2001) on the sketch comedy series '' MADtv''. She also played Holly Shumpert in five seasons (2001–2005, 2007) of the CBS sitcom ...

as Bonnie Goodson * Tim Bagley as Tim

Development and production

In November 2009, CBS announced that it was developing a

television pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distr ...

based on the Twitter feed, which would be written by Halpern and Patrick Schumacker.

landed the lead role in late February 2010, which triggered a

green-light To green-light is to give permission to proceed with a project. The term is a reference to the green traffic signal, indicating "go ahead". Film industry In the context of the film and television industries, to green-light something is to ...

to produce the pilot.

and Ryan Devlin came on board in early March. Casting was completed with the addition of

as Vince and

Stephanie Lemelin Stephanie Lemelin is an American actress and comedienne. She is best known for voicing Artemis Crock on '' Young Justice'', Eep on '' Dawn of the Croods'' and Audrey on ''Harvey Girls Forever!''. Education Lemelin graduated in 2001 from the Uni ...

as Sam later that month. Both Sasso and Sullivan had previously been cast-mates on the series ''

Mad TV ''Mad TV'' (stylized as ''MADtv'') is an American sketch comedy television series originally inspired by '' Mad'' magazine. In its initial run, it aired on Fox from 1995 to 2009. After a one-off reunion show in 2015 to celebrate the twentie ...

''. The series was picked up by CBS in May 2010, with reports saying that the role of Henry (played by Ryan Devlin in the pilot) would be recast. In July, Jonathan Sadowski was cast in the role. The character Sam (Stephanie Lemelin) was eliminated, never appearing in the broadcast pilot or subsequent episodes.

Episodes

Reception

''$#*! My Dad Says'' received negative reviews, with Metacritic assigning it a score of 28/100. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series has a score of 0% based on 26 critic reviews. The website’s consensus reads: "''$#*! My Dad Says'' features childish jokes, abysmal writing, and the half-baked stunt casting of William Shatner." Over 12 million viewers watched the premiere, although the next two episodes lost nearly 20% of that audience. The fourth and fifth episodes improved in ratings, being 10.16 million and 10.91 million respectively. The show won the award for Favorite New TV Comedy at the

37th People's Choice Awards The 37th People's Choice Awards, honoring the best in popular culture for 2010, were held on January 5, 2011 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California, and were broadcast live on CBS at 9:00 pm ET. Queen Latifah was the host for the fift ...

on January 5, 2011.

Controversy

The title of the broadcast series was modified from the source material in order to comply with

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

regulations on the use of profane language during prime time. The profanity was also toned down and modified from Halpern's Twitter feeds. On May 19, 2010, CBS announced the show's official name and 8:30 pm time slot at its upfront presentation of the fall 2010 schedule. Addressing reporters' concerns regarding the title, the network assured them that the expletive would not be used in promos. Soon thereafter, the

Parents Television Council The Parents Television and Media Council (PTMC), formerly the Parents Television Council (PTC), is an American media advocacy group founded by conservative Christian activist L. Brent Bozell III in 1995, which advocates for what it considers ...

announced that it was protesting the title because it alluded to an obscenity. The PTC threatened CBS with broadcast license challenges for any affiliate airing the show or its promos before 10 pm. Responding to the controversy, CBS stated, " he showwill in no way be indecent and will adhere to all CBS standards. Parents who choose to do so will find the show can be easily blocked using their V Chip." Show star Shatner commented on the show's title, saying "We say spit; why can't we say shit?" In addition, Bill Gorman from ''TVbytheNumbers'' wrote that the PTC protest was just giving the show more publicity, which he expected would boost ratings. At the July 2010

Television Critics Association The Television Critics Association (TCA) is a group of approximately 200 United States and Canada, Canadian television television criticism, critics, journalists and columnists who cover television television programme, programming for newspapers, ...

press tour, Shatner further commented on the title saying, "The word 'shit' is around us. It isn't a terrible term. It's a natural function. Why are we pussyfooting?"

References

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shit My Dad Says 2010s American sitcoms 2010 American television series debuts 2011 American television series endings CBS original programming English-language television shows Television series based on Internet-based works Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios Television shows set in San Diego