All About the Show

When first researching Dr. Phil, I had wondered why his show cannot air at the same time as Oprah. Actually his syndication contracts state that if his show is airing on another station, it can’t be at the same time as Oprah. It’s because he got his start on the Oprah Winfrey Show, with a segment called “Tuesdays With Dr. Phil.” On that segment as well as his current show, he offers “life strategy” advice for guests, based off his experience as a clinical psychologist. Dr. Phil debuted on September 16, 2002 and the show has been renewed through at least the 11th season (2012-2013). The show is currently in syndication throughout the United States and Canada, and broadcast in numerous countries including, the Arab World, Ireland, and South Africa. Dr. Phil is the 2nd highest rated daytime talk show in the US. When it debuted, “it garnered the highest ratings of any new syndicated show since the launch of The Oprah Winfrey Show 16 years prior” (drphil.com). Dr. Phil McGraw was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Talk Show Host” in 2007.

He’s had two notable incidents on the show: The first was where he confronted women pretending to be producers on the show and scamming viewers out of thousands of dollars, because they said that they could allow people to have phone conversations with Dr. Phil.
http://www.break.com/index/dr_phil_confronts_scammers.html

The second video shows Dr. Phil kicking the producer of Bumfights off the stage. Bumfights is an independent video series exploiting homeless people.
http://www.break.com/index/dr_phil_kicks_off_bumfights_creator.html

Some controversy arose as to why Dr. Phil would bring the Bumfights producer on his show in the first place if he didn’t want to “publicize” his pointless videos, but I think it just made the producer look incredibly stupid, and brought about awareness that these kinds of things are being produced. I think Dr. Phil should have won that Emmy, because he’s the most respectable talk show host on tv.
• References:
http://www.drphil.com/shows/page/bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Phil_%28TV_series%29#_ref-0

The Strike continues

As I browsed through the Dr. Phil website again, I noticed that on the home page it says "You're not going to believe what Dr. Phil has in store this November!" So I think his writers already had material available through this month. Most of the episodes I've seen so far don't look like reruns, so I'm thinking the strike has not affected the show. A recent news article I read said that the strike has "shut down all TV production on situation comedies, dramas and late-night TV programs" (http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.
html?id=3735772d-323f-423f-9ff0-8f7ff9f12733&k=98716)
So it looks like Dr. Phil is safe for now...

Hollywood Writers Strike

The “Hollywood Writers Strike” between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers began late Sunday night, November 4, when a deal could not be reached even after 11 hours (!) of negotiating. The writers say they aren’t receiving enough money from DVD sales and other digital sales, like Internet downloads and cell phone entertainment. The studios say their demands are unreasonable. Right now, writers get 4% profit from DVD sales and none from “new media ventures.” Apparently producers receive higher percents/profit.
The picketing actually began Monday morning in NY and LA. The first shows to be affected, turning to reruns are the late-night talk shows:

* Late Show with David Letterman
* The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
* Late Night with Conan O’Brien
* The Daily Show
* The Colbert Report
* Jimmy Kimmel Live
* Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
* Last Call with Carson Daly

Daytime talk shows and soap operas will be next. Some of the daytime shows have material to last for about a week.
So far, they’ve been on strike for 5 days..and growing in support. According to one article, 3,000 writers were striking in front of Fox Studios in Century City today. They’re going to have 2 musical guests perform and the president of SAG speak. Personally, I think the music acts are a bit out of place. To me, it’s making it seem like a big party..Woo hoo!! Let’s bring on the rock, we’re on strike! I think they need to stick to the writer’s, actors, producers, etc. people directly involved in the industry to be taken more seriously.

Sources:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21710341/
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/05/hollywood.labor.ap.ap/
http://talkshows.about.com/b/2007/11/07/reruns-for-most-talk-shows-
as-strike-enters-third-day.htm

Website

I checked out the drphil.com website, and like most tv shows, it's pretty extensive. There's a moving, talking image of Dr. Phil himself, next to some links for different show topics. At the top of the home page, there's links to "Home" "Shows & Video" "Dr. Phil's Advice" "Be on Dr. Phil" "Special Features" "Contact Dr. Phil" "Speak Your Mind" and "Dr. Phil Store." You can also search the site, and easily have one-click access to each show from the previous week. There's a bidding on an item where the proceeds will go to the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation and a link for the Million Dollar Challenge for the Children. Visitors have several opportunities for contacting the show to be an audience member, as there are four separate links to be on the show. They also have an advertisement for Spruce Mountain Inn, which is a Psychiatric Treatment Center for Young Adults. It says, "Dr. Phil thanks Spruce Mountain Inn."

Really Good Episode

The subject for today’s show was devastating divorces. The whole show was devoted to Danny Bonaduce, a former child star and his soon-to-be former wife Gretchen, who are are finalizing their divorce after 17 years. Danny has had alcohol and drug related problems that interfered with his marriage and children. He discussed how he still respects and loves his former wife, who has helped him in his recovery process. This show was one of the most emotional I’ve seen so far, because usually the male guests don’t cry, but it was very obvious how much Danny cares about Gretchen and he said something to the effect of her as a pair of wings short of being an angel, and that made him tear up. It’s also unfortunate that Gretchen is so happy to finalize the divorce, because the show kind of makes you feel like you just want them to get back together and have a nice life with their kids. The sad thing is that he wants to have a partner so badly that he said he expects to be married again within 3 weeks of the divorce being finalized.

At about 3:40, the show cut to Dr. Phil saying that the previous filming had been 1 week ago, and they would be back to talk with Gretchen. I was surprised to hear that she actually respects Danny too, but with his history, she said she can’t continue to have love for him. I really like how at the end of divorce-related shows, Dr. Phil always mentions a test on his website that you can take if you’re thinking about “calling it quits.” It basically makes sure you are ready emotionally, and sees if there’s anything you can do to salvage the relationship. That’s another reason I like the show--it really promotes healthy relationships.

I really loved the ending because it had humor and it came so naturally! Gretchen said she does want to remarry, but a lot of the “good” men in Hollywood are already taken...and she added “right Dr. Phil?” The audience laughed, and the camera cut over to his wife Robin. After the heaviness of this episode, you needed to laugh at the end.

Similarities to Radio

On today’s show, I noticed a few similarities to my radio broadcasting research. For the first set of guests, Dr. Phil couldn’t really get them to agree on a compromise, so he ending up giving one of them a brand new lawnmower, and the other a new camera. (They had been arguing over getting these items back from one another). The morning radio broadcasts almost always had some sort of give-away, so I thought that was interesting. Later he read some responses from an on-line “poll” asking, “Would you sue a third party for having an affair with your spouse?” Radio also has similar segments where they ask a question and take call-ins from listeners. Finally, there were a lot of NBC-related commercials. They advertised for their evening news and even a promotion through NBC12 for vinyl siding. I noticed in my radio listening that Radio Disney especially had a lot of advertising for their own company.

Interesting Use of Camera Angles

This post is all about camera angles on today’s show, Monday October 8. From our Mass Comm lecture recently we learned how in American movies, the camera angles can be used to make characters or scenes seem more important. There were only 2 guests on today’s show, a divorced couple in need of some counseling. Instead of cutting from one guest to the other as much as they usually do, they used angles that captured both of their faces in the shot. They also showed the audiences’ expressions as well as Dr. Phil’s more than usual. I laughed a lot at this episode because Dr. Phil looked bewildered half the time because he couldn’t get a word in with the 2 guests talking over each other. Near the end of the show, there were more close-ups as Dr. Phil was counseling them and saying things that could have hit some emotional strings. I noticed that while the camera’s shot was stationary on the audience and guests, it moved with Dr. Phil’s body movements.