The show originally ran from September 23, 2010, to February 17, 2011, and aired on Thursdays at 8:30 pm/7:30 pm Central.[2] 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.[3]
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 rants. When Henry, a struggling writer and blogger, 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.
In November 2009, CBS announced that it was developing a television pilot based on the Twitter feed, which would be written by Halpern and Patrick Schumacker.[4][5]William Shatner landed the lead role in late February 2010, which triggered a green-light to produce the pilot.[6][7]Nicole Sullivan and Ryan Devlin came on board in early March.[8][9] Casting was completed with the addition of Will Sasso as Vince and Stephanie Lemelin as Sam later that month.[10] Both Sasso and Sullivan had previously been cast-mates on the series Mad TV.[a]
The series was picked up by CBS in May 2010,[11] with reports saying that the role of Henry (played by Ryan Devlin in the pilot) would be recast.[12][13] In July, Jonathan Sadowski was cast in the role.[14] The character Sam (Stephanie Lemelin) was eliminated, never appearing in the broadcast pilot or subsequent episodes.[15]
Henry (Jonathan Sadowski) gets laid off from his job and decides to see if he can borrow money from his father Ed (William Shatner). Meanwhile Ed must work to get his driver's license again after he forgot to renew it. Two other main characters, Vince (Will Sasso), Henry's brother and his wife Bonnie (Nicole Sullivan) also visit Ed and Henry from time to time.
When Henry wants to get an Internet connection hooked up for the house, Ed forbids it, but Henry doesn't give up. Bonnie has a rash on her breast and asks Ed, who is a doctor, to take a look so he can diagnose it.
After Ed takes Henry out to an early dinner one night, they bump into Tim (Tim Bagley), who was fired for forging Ed's driver's test. Henry disagrees with Ed on what should be done to fix it. Meanwhile Bonnie gets an expensive make-up job and is determined to make it last to get her money out of it. Also Vince tells Henry of what really happened when they were younger.
At the coffee shop, Henry manages to pluck up the courage to ask the attractive cashier out on a date. Her condition is that it is a double date with her Aunt, and Ed.
Ed gets upset when Henry uses his coffee mug without permission, explaining that it's his rule that someone must clear it with him before borrowing something (and he never breaks his rules). However, Ed must go to great lengths to retrieve a jacket of Henry's that he accidentally lent out without asking, to avoid looking like a hypocrite.
Henry writes an article about Ed, but Ed is embarrassed by it. Bonnie and Vince become friends with an important couple in the San Diego real estate scene.
Ed finds himself attached to Root Beer, Vince and Bonnie's dog. Meanwhile, Henry has very rough sex with Vince and Bonnie's supervisor as Bonnie tells Ed to do the same human-canine attachment to Vince.
An old Navy buddy of Ed's comes to visit, but his bad attitude about homosexuals and Ed's passivity towards it drive Tim away. Henry has an awkward moment with Bonnie that Vince only makes even more awkward.
Ed and Henry are watching TV when an infomercial comes on for wish a self-help guru, Charlotte Anne Robinson (Cybill Shepherd); Ed asks who would fall for that kind of scam when Vince and Bonnie walk in saying they have quit their real estate jobs to start a real estate business because they wished for it.
Bonnie tries to start a family tradition. Henry gets in trouble for taking the blame for a friend's mistake. Ed makes a friend at the hospital with his personality.
Ed wants baseball memorabilia that was promised to him but then sold to someone else. Bonnie and Vince move in to the garage so they can try to get pregnant with less distraction.
When Bonnie and Vince find out the Reverend who married them was a fake, they decide to throw another wedding. Bonnie invites her father, Terry (Ed Begley Jr.), who failed to show up at her last wedding because of a gambling problem. When he says he has changed his life, Ed finds him gambling away the money for food for the wedding. Meanwhile, Vince is having problems finding a tuxedo for his wedding. Then when Ed helps Bonnie's father win the money back, Bonnie's father finds another gambling chip and fails to show up at his daughter's wedding again. The episode ends with Ed walking Bonnie down the aisle.
When the height of Ed's corn stalks becomes an issue with the home owners' association, he decides to fix the problem by running for president of the association.
As the newly-elected head of the Homeowners' Association, Ed is more concerned with pursuing his neighbor Rosemary Pernworth than passing any legislation.
Ed is reluctant to go exclusive in his relationship with Rosemary, so he finds himself with competition for her heart. Vince and Bonnie's old boss drops by with a very peculiar present.
Rosemary doesn't like the idea of Ed keeping a gun in the house even though a robber has been breaking in to people's houses. Vince watches porn to see how Vince and Bonnie can have a baby right, Rosemary accidentally shoots Vince when she thinks it is actually someone else in the house.
After meeting Henry's new girlfriend, Ed realizes he has a strange connection with her.
Reception
$#*! My Dad Says received negative reviews, with Metacritic assigning it a score of 28/100.[34] On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a score of 0% based on 26 critic reviews. The website's consensus reads: "$#*! My Dad Says features childish jokes, abysmal writing, and the half-baked stunt casting of William Shatner."[35] Over 12 million viewers watched the premiere,[36] although the next two episodes lost nearly 20% of that audience.[37] The fourth and fifth episodes improved in ratings, being 10.16 million and 10.91 million respectively.[38][39] The show won the award for Favorite New TV Comedy at the 37th People's Choice Awards on January 5, 2011.[40]
Controversy
The title of the broadcast series was modified from the source material in order to comply with Federal Communications Commission 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.[41] Soon thereafter, the Parents Television Council announced that it was protesting the title because it alluded to an obscenity.[42] The PTC threatened CBS with broadcast license challenges for any affiliate airing the show or its promos before 10 pm.[43]
Responding to the controversy, CBS stated, "[The show] 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."[44][45] Show star Shatner commented on the show's title, saying "We say spit; why can't we say shit?"[46] In addition, Bill Gorman from TVbytheNumbers wrote that the PTC protest was just giving the show more publicity, which he expected would boost ratings.[47]
At the July 2010 Television Critics Association 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?"[48][49]
See also
Surviving Jack, a second series surrounding the blog posts by Justin Halpern
^Shanahan, Mark; Goldstein, Meredith (September 14, 2010). "Scoring Some Roles". Boston Globe/Boston.com. Archived from the original on September 18, 2010. Retrieved October 26, 2010.
