BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???

Subject: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 09:33 AM

I know...I could just Google it! But then all you bright people on Mudcat wouldn't have a chance to educate me on this vital subject... :-)

I'll be back in the evening to see the results. Got a busy day today.

Don't disappoint me. I expect to know EVERYTHING worth knowing about Doctor Phil before this thread vanishes into oblivion.

And thank Bobert for getting me on the subject.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: MBSLynne
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 09:37 AM

I haven't got the faintest idea.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 09:43 AM

He's on television, I think. Personally, I rarely go there.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: artbrooks
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 09:50 AM

If you don't already know, you probably don't deserve to. The meeting of the undeserving convenes at 5:30 at the pub...join me?

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 09:58 AM

LOL!!! Most happy to do that, Art. I'll be there at 5:35 sharp! Gotta run...

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Mooh
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:04 AM

Is he related to Doctor John? Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:15 AM

Or Dr Bob in the Muppets, or even Dr Dick in Cybill?
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:46 AM

Pop-psychology gone network TV......cross Jerry Springer with Phil Donohue and set the result to work 'counseling' troubled couples live on TV with the same pre-digested advice for everyone...which somehow gets him invited to be a guest on many other shows.

(It's startling how many people are willing to have their personal problems discussed in front of a TV camera, as if having 27,000,000 know about it will make it easier to accept advice that YOU could have given them for free.)

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:56 AM

He/she is a Doctor and his/her name is Phil, hope this helps.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 11:01 AM

Is Dr Phil's first name Land?

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: PoppaGator
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 11:02 AM

Before he got his own show, Dr. Phil was introduced to the mass US TV audience as a regular/repeat guest on Oprah Winfrey's show.

After several months of being ridiculed by David Letterman, Dr. Phil appeared on Letterman's show as a guest and was quite gracious, amusing, and self-depricating. He's been back several times since, and projects a very likeable personality.

Now he's making yet another fortune selling self-help books.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 11:05 AM

"Don't disappoint me. I expect to know EVERYTHING worth knowing about Doctor Phil before this thread vanishes into oblivion."

You are a sick man, Little Hawk.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 11:15 AM

As I understand he met Oprah when he was helping her with her "mad cow" trial. Oprah was sued by beef producers here in Texas when she said on the air that she wasn't going to eat beef because of the mad cow disease scare a few years ago. Oprah brought him on her show on a regular basis { Tuesdays } and noticed that her ratings went up when he was on. He eventually got his own show.

You can learn a lot watching daytime TV when you spend a week in bed.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 03:44 PM

You can learn even more reading a book. Or even sleeping. Was it Lenin who called religion "the opiate of the people?" -- whoever it was had obviously never considered television!

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 03:53 PM

Marx. Opiate for the masses.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Amos
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 05:47 PM

I think the phrase was "opiate of the masses", and it was before television had ever been commercialized.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 06:00 PM

Is Vicodin considered an opiate ? I had plenty that week.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: number 6
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 06:51 PM

you don't really want to know who he is. Think of a bad Dan Hill song (or any Dan Hill song), then apply that to a T.V. talk show.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 06:53 PM

Dr. Phil

Karl Marx

Religion is the opium of the masses.

Bonus Marx quote:
Philosophy stands in the same relation to the study of the actual world as masturbation to sexual love.

:)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 07:09 PM

Well gol danged... I know all about Doctor Phil... The P-Vine tapes his show everyday and watches him at night... She thinks he is the samrtest person in the world... I think he's a danged trouble maker myself...

His advice is very consistent... Doesn't matter the problem...

Dr. Phil : "Ahhhh, Bill, yer wife keeps catching you cheatin' on her. Is this working for you?"

Bill: "Well, no Doctor Phil, it isn't"

Dr Phil: "Well, Bill, quit doing it. Can you do that?"

Dr. Phil: "Good, Bill. I a moment we'll introduce you to Sally who weighs over 400 pounds.....

(Commercial break to sell yer sorry butt some junk that you don't need or want.)

Dr. Phil: "Well, Sally, you eight over 400 pounds and yer here because you want to make some changes in your life. Is what you have been doing working for you?"

Sally: "Well, no (breaks down crying...) No, Doctor Phil, it isn't...

Dr. Phil: "Well, buy my book on loosing weight..."

And they are all the same.

Dr. Phil reminds me of an assistant principle back in High school. All the kids called him Uncle Willie and when you got caught doing dumbass stuff you'd be sent for a little face time with Uncle Willie who would rwll you not to do dumb stuff any more, usaully call yer parents, give you a bunch of hours of detention hall or suspend you form three days... But part of the Uncle Willie's song and dance routine was to tell ya yo knock off whatever it was that you got caught doing...

Dr. Phil/Uncle Willie?

Uncle Willie/Dr. Phil?

Twiddle dee twiddle dum...

I hate disciplinarians... Bunch o' dumb narks as far as I can see...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: jaze
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 07:37 PM

Another "Dr Laura" type dispensing advice to the hopelss masses.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Mudlark
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 09:47 PM

Thread Creep here....Does everyone know that Oprah was named afer Harpo (a noted Marx himself) and that she is the reigning queen of entime TV?

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:05 PM

Yeah, he's on tv like Dr. Laura, but not with the same kind of tight-ass conservative anti-gay anti-lots-of-things spin that Dr. Laura puts on it. So they really aren't alike.

Oprah spelled backwards is Harpo.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 12:00 AM

Hmmmm. Not bad.

This is the quote that really sticks with me:

"Think of a bad Dan Hill song (or any Dan Hill song), then apply that to a T.V. talk show."

AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! The pinnacle of awfulness. The ne plus ultra of absolute drek. The horror, the horror.

Set all phasers on maximum annihilation, arm the photon torpedoes and target that gleaming bald pate! Beam me up, Spock! At once!

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Cluin
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 12:02 AM

He's an arrogant hypocrite, dispensing almost useless advice and glitzy buzzwords/catchphrases to handpicked addicts, obsessive-compulsives, and other people with problems that need more help than a 10 minute soundbyte on his dumbass Oprah-sponsored daytime TV quasi-show can provide.

He has several so-called self-help books out to cash in bigtime on people's problems. My favourite is his requisite diet book. What gall! That f__ker must weigh about 350 lbs himself.

In short, he's the Devil Incarnate.

That's about it....

Except, my girlfriend is a fan and tries to get me to watch him. That's when I go for a poop and an afternoon nap.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 12:18 AM

And the horror goes on...

Man, Bobert, you have really caused me to open a giant can of worms this time. Ugh!

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 01:47 PM

Bobert, I just wanna say this: you have a lot of nerve assuming any of my thinking derives from this dickwad, Doctor Phil! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Once Famous
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 06:22 PM

Dr. Phil is quite popular.

Why do you folks have a problem with that?

Is it that old conservative middle aged white man thing again?

There's a heck of a lot of us, you know.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 06:41 PM

Too many, Martin. :-) Too many.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: ranger1
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 06:43 PM

Dr. Phil is a quack. Or perhaps something the duck quacked up? Would that make him the duck equivalent of a hairball?

My SO made an interesting observation: "The Dr. Phil Show is really just The Jerry Springer show masquerading as a self-help show. I have much more respect for Jerry Springer, at least he's honest about stirring things up and isn't pretending that he's helping people solve their problems."

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Bobert
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 06:53 PM

Now wait just a minute there, L-Hawk... I din't start this danged thread...

(Go back and check, Bobert.)

Like I said, I din't start this danged thread an' I don't recall ever accusin' you of Dr. Philism in any thread...

The only thing you have in common with Dr. Phil is you are both nuts. Other than that? Nada, pal...

Now say yer sorry and, fir gosh sakes, don't start no more threads about tv personalities 'cause they'll all purdy much end up like this thread... Think crapper here...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Hollowfox
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 01:09 PM

~Sorry, Mudlark and SRS, but I've checked two biographies here at work. They both agree that Ms. Winfrey's first mane is the result of a spelling error on her birth certificate. The intended name was the biblical name Orpah (Ruth, chapter 1).
SRS, to satisfy your passion for reverse spelling, I recommend the books on the subject by Jon Agee, especially .

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Hollowfox
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 01:51 PM

Palindromania. (Sorry, the book title got lost in the sending somehow.)

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 02:15 PM

I don't have a passion for reverse spelling, I heard Oprah give this answer to someone in an interview once. Duh. I guess Oprah would know how she came up with her company name, wouldn't she? Whether her "first mane" (great head of hair, eh?) is a typo or not, she reversed the name she is using.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: harpgirl
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 02:30 PM

Nanny 911 is a much more effective therapist, I think. The changes in families she initiates are remarkable and done with a discerning vision. Phil is uninspired and unimaginative and not a gifted therapist. He is a good self promoter, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Cluin
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 09:13 PM

He's a fascist.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: LadyJean
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 12:39 AM

I am of the opinion that most psychiatrists and psychologists are frauds, and the ones who aren't don't do any good, they just think they do. Dr. Phil is a big, charming man, who peddles psychological snake oil. He would have made a good salesman. The fast talk, the aggressive style, and supreme egotism, would have moved a lot of any product he cared to push. It's a rotten shame he didn't take up selling real estate, or used cars, or Amway products. He would have made almost as much money, and he wouldn't have done half as much harm.
I heard that Oprah Winfrey was supposed to be named Orphah. I had a great aunt named Orphah, so I remember. (We called her Aunty Feathers.)
He makes a specialty of dealing with parents who lose their tempers with their children. I'll bet those poor kids catch hell for months after their parents have a session with Dr. Phi.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Cluin
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 01:18 AM

Well, I suppose he's a slight step up from Maury "Boot Camp" Povich.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 01:41 AM

I don't watch much daytime television, so I didn't see him very often (or if I did, didn't see the entire program) on Oprah. I don't think I've ever watched his program more than a few minutes, pausing as I pass it on the dial.

Bashing a television personality is well and good, but don't toss out the baby with the bathwater. Given the choice of seeing a good counselor/psychologist/psychiatrist or taking medications to deal with emotional problems, you're better off almost every time to choose what Freud called "the talking cure."

Just don't choose to do it on national television.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Once Famous
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 11:29 PM

But that's what sells product.

So many here do not understand business.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 11:50 PM

Despite the impression you may have, I, and probably others, find the airing of those personal problems on national television troubling. I generally turn off the program if I'm flipping through channels and come across a family on stage airing their dirty linen. The fact that they're doing it on television is a convincing way to confirm their phoniness.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Bill the Collie
Date: 09 Jan 05 - 08:06 PM

How much longer do we have to wait for "Dr Phil - The Opera"

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Jan 05 - 08:20 PM

Much, much longer, I hope! I walked into the drugstore yesterday, doing what I usually do...and NOT buying any drugs! :-) I was going to the post office. What do I see? Doctor Phil's fat face grinning at me from a display of his books, mounted on a life-size cardboard Doctor Phil figure. I gave him a backfist on my way out the door.

And, Bobert, YES you did link me to Doctor Phil, but I can't recall on which thread it was.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Once Famous
Date: 09 Jan 05 - 08:54 PM

SRS

I agree with you. I find it mind boggling that people go on these types of shows. Even worse, shows like Springer, Maury Povich and the like where people make complete idiots of themselves.

I don't think these stories or the people are phony. These people are perhaps the most desparate lives that can be found. It is the freak show at the circus, repackaged.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Jan 05 - 09:05 PM

Yes, it's sad. And kind of horrifying.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Bobert
Date: 09 Jan 05 - 09:19 PM

People will do anything....

No pride left...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Bill the Collie
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 03:29 PM

Well we've had "Jerry Springer - The Opera".

How about "Oprah - The Opera", then.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 05:09 PM

She's a marvelous woman, who has fought a monumental and very public battle with her weight over the decades. She has kept it off for quite a while now, so maybe that should be Oprah: the Operetta. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Peace
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 05:24 PM

I would sooner drink liguid shite than watch shows like that.

Subject: RE: BS: Who the heck is 'Doctor Phil'???
From: Once Famous
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 05:31 PM

How about Grand Ole Oprah