''$#*! 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 subgen ...

My Dad Says") is an American television

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

produced by

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios, operating under the name Warner Bros. Television (abbreviated as WBTV; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division), is an American television production and distribution studio and the flagship studio o ...

that aired on

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

. It was based on the

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

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'', 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 to P.C.) is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society. ...

rants. When Henry, a struggling writer and

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

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

Main

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 1966 debut as the captain of the starship USS Enterpri ...

as Dr. Edison Milford "Ed" Goodson III *

Jonathan Sadowski Jonathan Sadowski (born November 23, 1979) is an American actor. He is best known for his starring role as Josh Xander Kaminski on the Freeform sitcom ''Young & Hungry'' (2014–18). He also starred as Henry Goodson in CBS sitcom '' $#*! My Dad S ...

as Henry Goodson *

Will Sasso William Sasso (born May 24, 1975) is a Canadian comedian, actor, and podcaster. After a starring role as Derek Wakaluk on the Global teen drama television series '' Madison'' (1994–1998), Sasso had his breakout as a regular cast member on the ...

as Vincent "Vince" Goodson *

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

as Bonnie Goodson

Recurring

Tim Bagley Timothy Hugh Bagley (born August 17, 1957) is an American actor and comedian, who has appeared in numerous films and television programs. He had recurring roles on the TV series ''Will & Grace'', '' Hope & Gloria'', ''Strip Mall'', ''According t ...

as Tim *

Sam Pancake Sam Pancake (born May 10, 1964) is an American actor, improviser, writer, and comedian. He began his career with small roles in TV and film, such as '' Wings'' in 1990 and '' Pizza Man'' in 1991. Early life Sam Pancake was raised in Romney, We ...

as Lawrence

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 Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...

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 In the context of the film and television industries, to greenlight is to give permission to proceed with a project. It specifically refers to formally approving its production finance and committing to this financing, thereby allowing the projec ...

to produce the pilot.

and

Ryan Devlin Ryan Devlin is an American actor. He is known for hosting the initial seasons of '' Are You the One?'', as well as his recurring roles in the television series '' Brothers & Sisters, Cougar Town'', ''Veronica Mars'', '' Big Shots'', ''Jane the ...

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 screenwriter. She is best known for voicing Artemis Crock on ''Young Justice'', Eep on '' Dawn of the Croods'' and Audrey on ''Harvey Girls Forever!''. Early years Lemelin's father is former NHL goali ...

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 created by David Salzman, Fax Bahr, and Adam Small. Loosely based on the humor magazine '' Mad'', ''Mad TVs pre-taped satirical sketches were primarily parodie ...

''. 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,

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 aggregator, 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 ...

, 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 fif ...

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 government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

regulations on the use of

profane language Profane may refer to: * Profane (religion), a lack of respect for things that are held to be sacred * Profanity Profanity, also known as swearing, cursing, or cussing, is the usage of notionally word taboo, offensive words for a variety of ...

during

prime time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

. 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 Conservatism in the United States, conservative political pundit L. Brent Bozell III in 1995, which ...

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 show He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

will 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 American and Canadian television critics, journalists and columnists who cover television programming for newspapers, magazines and web publications. The TCA accepts appli ...

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 multi-camera sitcoms 2010 American television series debuts 2011 American television series endings American English-language television shows Television series based on Internet-based works Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios Television shows set in San Diego CBS sitcoms