If anyone did not notice, the word quality was supposed to be sarcastic. Until the computer comes up with a button for that, we are left in our ambiguous are where I have to explain it. If you did understand my subtlety, you more than likely disliked the topic of this week’s review…review, “$#*! My Dad Says.” If that last sentence was confusing, you probably loved it. But enough of this pussy footing around, we’ll get down to brass tacks and just flat out say: This show was bad. I originally saw the episodes without any knowledge of what it was and where it came from. All I knew is that fat guy that hocks hotel rooms and the lady that walked Jerry Stiller were in a show with some guys I recognized but knew nothing about. By the way, I really know who William Shatner is, but he’s such an easy target that pot shots are hard to resist. The broken way of speaking he uses to talk may have been cute back before captains on “Star Trek” had matching chromosomes, but in today’s overly produced and poorly written world, it doesn’t go over so well. Add to that a supporting cast of just “okay” characters, and you get a show that I am shocked squeaked out 18 episodes. I think a show about my dad would be better. Granted, there would be a lot less ridiculous situations, but he watches a lot of westerns, so maybe it could be about cowboys.
The reason I mentioned Twitter is because this show was spawned by an account on the site. I thought basing the caveman show on commercials was a shaky idea, but this is worse. I mean, the movie about Facebook did okay, but it didn’t star a very one dimensional actor.
Whatever man. "Adventureland" was pretty good.
The account was started in 2009 by comedy writer Justin Halpern. He wanted a place to write down all the bad things his dad said when the writer had to move back in with his parents. Much like things on the internet do, it grew to huge proportions. Comedian Rob Corddry is said to be that catalyst for the popularity, as he re-tweeted it first. I’m officially out of dignity; I never wanted to use the word tweet or a variant ever. I guess I have to deal with that now. So, Halpern decided to take advantage. Though this was not the first cash grab based on his prick father; he wrote a book first. That book reached number one on the New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover nonfiction. I can understand the motive here. Your book goes very well, so when CBS comes ringing with a series deal, and you’re basically an out of work comedy writer, you almost have to say yes. I get that but…come on. This is the best that could be done? The show was just so bad. I can try to explain it, but watching it is the best way to understand. It wasn’t so bad as to offend me. It was almost worse. It was so not funny, that I wasn’t sure it was a comedy. I thought it was just a story of a guy being mean to people with a horribly overused and annoying laugh track. If it weren’t for that laugh track, I would have been horrified at the belligerence of this old man. Once I found out it was a real story, I was almost moved to action. Then I realized that the writer was trying to “Charlie Brown” himself into being pitied, and I don’t appreciate that you blockhead. You think your life is so bad? Archie Bunker was better at being a jerk than your dad years ago. Hell, Jerry Stiller is a worse dad on two shows, and probably in real life.
How else does that happen?
My main problem with the show isn’t really fair to the people who wrote or starred in the show. The laugh track I mentioned before was unbearable. It was so overbearing and audibly mixed way too loud. It almost drowned out the suspect script. I wanted to count in a random episode how many times it played, but luckily I found someone over at IMDB.com who did that. Ole’ Buzz Cartier found that the second episode featured 126 canned laughs in just 22 minutes. The third episode had 147. I’m not sure, but there almost mathematically can’t be a show that funny. I don’t think the world could handle it. I mean, in episode four, Shatner said that he didn’t do blind dates. That got a laugh. He simply stated that he didn’t like blind dates. That’s not funny. If you tell the audience to laugh at everything, your already weak jokes will stand out less.
"Hilarious. See how he looks funny....kind of"
That’s stating it mildly. The jokes not only were hidden away, that seemed to never have been created. It was sad. You had a legend, two people from “Mad TV” and then some guy. The main character was unlikeable, whiney and just boring. Weird you would write a show where you look like that, unless you so happen to be that. It was just sad and lazy. If that dad is really that much of a jerk I hope he gets none of the money. In the first episode, there were 11 gay jokes and another 6 emasculating the leading character Henry. Add in 5 fart jokes, another 3 about old people and the only one that landed was a joke about Shatner’s voice that was kind of an “in” joke. This show had no leg to stand on. Face it, Shatner’s were the only ones and he’s too old to keep this $#*! up. Oddly enough the reaction of Halpern’s father upon hearing his show had been cancelled is the funniest thing that happened. He said, “Well, fuck. Sorry to hear that, son. Well, I liked it. It was kind of shitty at first, but I thought it got a lot better. You know what show I like? ‘Cheers.’ That was a good show.” You know what, you’re right, that was a good show. Much better than this pile.
Sage advice from the man that started it all.
Credit goes to: Huffingtonpost.com, Twitter.com, IMDB.com, TV-Junky.ms, Movieboozer.com and Dajiba.com.