CBS Premiere of (Bleep!) My Dad Says: Does a Great Twitter Stream Work as a TV Sitcom?

The new controversial sitcom %^#! My Dad Says (or Bleep! My Dad Says), based on Justin Halpern’s Twitter feed, premiered on CBS last night. I let it sit overnight and watched it again before I wrote this. Let’s be honest, I attempted to watch it again. My brain went numb sometime after the first eight minutes. All I was doing was waiting for each set up prior to a quote from what sounded like the Twitter stream.

Right from the start, the laugh track was more annoying than the characters. It was often louder than the characters. Note to CBS... trying to get us to laugh when you want us to only works if the show is funny. Laugh tracks are useless today, and annoying.


I really wanted to like %^#! My Dad Says, and I really wanted to like William Shatner. He can be quite funny, when he uses his dry wit. The drivel written for the filler (90% of the show) has Shatner swerving almost violently from melodramatic Captain Kirk calm to flaky attorney Denny Crane rant in every scene.

While the show’s writers may want us to see Shatner’s character as a new Archie Bunker, that will never happen. Not just because Carroll O’Conner was a far superior actor either.

We really don’t care about Henry (Jonathan Sadowski), the son on the show. So far he’s been pretty whiny. The character is 29, broke and moving in with his estranged father. His dad has actually been pretty nice to him considering he just came to ask for money.

Will Sasso and Nicole Sullivan join the cast, but that didn’t help. The biggest problem is that every single scene is a lead in to one of the infamous quotes (or one that sounds like it) from the Twitter stream @shitmydadsays. It was like all other things would stop, while Shatner would come in and rattle off a good one ...cue the LOUD laugh track.

Some of the best quotes:
“The house is clean enough son. We didn’t accidentally kill a prostitute, we had brunch.”

“You’re a pan in the ass who wants my money! You’re like a Girl Scout without the cookies!”

Ah, for the time when we could read these funny tweets daily and get a chuckle.

I watched the Twitter stream for @shitmydadsays as I watched the show last night when it aired. The reviews were not favorable, and obviously I agree. Read the book, read the tweets, but sorry CBS, I gotta say “PASS” on the TV show %^#! Shit My Dad Says. The sad thing is this could have been a great show on HBO or comedy central.



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