When I first heard about the upcoming CBS show ‘$#*! My Dad Says,’ I immediately wondered how they heck they were ever going to market it. Being a family movie and TV reviewer, I can’t really say or write the first word without offending someone. And more than that, do we really want our kids watching something with that word in the title?
In fact, the Parents Television Council is urging advertisers to not sponsor the show, “unless they wish to associate their hard-earned brands with excrement.”
“The Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, yet CBS decided to use the ‘s-word’ in the title of this show, putting its blatant contempt for children and families front and center,” PTC president Tim Winter said.
More after the jump, including a video preview…
“Unless or until CBS chooses a different title for this program, we are urging advertisers to avoid sponsoring such an abomination purported to be lighthearted fun. The advertisers have two options: Either they can be complicit in the effort to serve up excrement in front of children and families, or they can choose not to associate their products and services with excrement.”
Part of me thinks, oh lighten up, it’s just a word. But on the other hand, it’s a word most of us probably don’t want our kids saying or even hearing, for that matter. At least not until they’re old enough to decide whether they want to say it themselves.
And then you have to wonder how CBS will advertise the show. They can’t run a 30-second spot for it and end with, “Watch Bleep My Dad Says’ Thursday at 8:30!” Yeah, that’s the other thing. It’s on at 8:30 PM, so a lot of kids will still be up at that hour.
I’ve seen other reviewers and sites refer to it in various ways, including ‘Bleep My Dad Says’ over at The Futon Critic, but my favorite so far is ‘Shat My Dad Says.’ You know, William Shatner playing the lead character and all. In our house, though, we’ve been using ‘bleep’ whenever we talk about the show. It’s annoying.
I’ve watched the pilot episode, and I’ll review it in a separate post. Maybe none of this will be an issue because the show might not last anyway. The pilot was panned by lots of TV critics, so CBS is replacing Ryan Devlin with Jonathan Sadowski — I believe that’s Jonathan in the video below), but I just wanted to get all of that off my chest before moving on.
What’s your take on it? Should CBS change the name? Should advertisers boycott the show? Should we all just lighten up?
Image: CBS
That’s (now-replaced) Ryan Devlin in the clip above. He plays Smith on Cougar Town. I think he’s an appealing guy. Perhaps his being replaced in the $#*! pilot means we’ll keep seeing him on Cougar Town.
While I enjoy Shit My Dad Says on Twitter, it sounds like a recipe for a sitcom of nothing but one-liners, which seems pretty tiresome. That said, the call for the advertiser boycott makes me more interested in watching it!
Oh thanks for the heads-up, Janine. Ryan and Jonathan look similar to me, and I haven’t watched Cougar Town enough to know that’s Ryan. That’s what I get for asking my kids, “Is this the guy that was in the pilot?” and relying on their answers. 🙂
The (first) pilot is sort of nothing but one-liners, but hopefully CBS will tweak it to be better. I love Shatner, but when I first heard about the show, I pictured someone like “The Old Man” from “Pawn Stars.” I like The Old Man – he’s a curmudgeon’s curmudgeon. I didn’t really like Shatner’s character on the show.
I’m skipping this one. Seems like there’s a dearth of family programming this year–is it just me? We’re iCarly fans at our house, but it seems like the new episodes aren’t nearly as good as the old ones. It’s been easier and easier to keep the TV off lately.
It’s hard to imagine a subject like this morphing into a full-blown tv show. And about that word and the boycott…at first I thought they should absolutely lighten up, but then again, who wants kids saying the word shit, anyway? All in all, I think they should dump the whole thing…(pun intended 🙂
Did this start as a blog or just a Twitter account? I’m not sure, but either way … It’s pretty wild to me that it became a TV Show. I hope the writer got paid handsomely for it.
And, Shatner can be quite funny. I may watch it here and there just to see if they can pull it off.
I’ve heard it advertised a few times and now I can’t recall how they sound it out…it might be “shh” or something like that…without the ending “t” obviously!