Dr. Phil (TV series)

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Dr. Phil
Genre	Talk Show
Starring	Phil McGraw
Country of origin	United States
Production
Running time	1 hour
Broadcast
Original channel	Syndication
Original run	September 16, 2002 – present
Links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Dr. Phil is an American talk show hosted by Dr. Phil McGraw. It debuted on September 16, 2002, after McGraw had success with the "Tuesdays With Dr. Phil" segment on The Oprah Winfrey Show. On both shows McGraw offers advice in the form of "life strategies" from his experience as a clinical psychologist.

The show covers a wide variety of human issue topics, including weight loss, financial planning, errant children, gift suggestions, people with disabilities, unhappily married couples and support for good causes. The show is generally serious in tone, leavened with humor from time to time. It has its occasional tense moments and often trashy scenes, like that of The Montel Williams Show, but without melees or aggressive fights on stage, in contrast to The Jerry Springer Show or Maury. On a few shows, family members who usually take the lie detector tests were deceptive, claiming they haven't done anything to one's child. He is noted for often bringing back families for multiple shows for "follow-up" therapy sessions in his segment called "Dr. Phil Family." Generally, the program is filmed and guests appear in studio, but in 2006, the Dr. Phil House began as an occasional series. Dr. Phil and his production staff invite guests to a special house wired with numerous cameras and microphones. There, his staff monitor the conversations of the guests he is trying to help, and intervene as necessary to prevent physical violence. Dr. Phil also provides on-the-spot advice and counseling to the houseguests as he determines necessary.

The show is in syndication throughout the United States and Canada, as well as a number of other countries. Also, the show's syndication contracts specifically state that if Dr. Phil is on another station, it cannot air at the same time as Oprah.

It was announced on August 3, 2005 that Dr. Phil had been renewed through at least 2012-2013, lasting through the 11th season.

In 2007, Dr. Phil was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Talk Show Host".

Contents 1 Incidents 2 Spoofs 3 Broadcasters 4 Notes and references 5 External links

[edit] Incidents

• In a show that aired on May 2, 2005, the twin sisters Crystal and Jocelyn Potter appeared; Crystal claimed to want to "work" in the adult industry together with Jocelyn, who rejected the idea as repulsive. Brothel owner Dennis Hof was interviewed and stated that the two could make half a million dollars per year in his establishment. It turns out that the sister's testimony was less than truthful: since 2002 they have appeared as the "Potter sisters" in numerous porn movies together, and in 2003 they even appeared together with Hof in the porn movie "Goin' down at the Bunny Ranch".^[1]
• The Dr. Phil House was set in an actual house within the Wilshire Park neighborhood in Los Angeles. It received numerous complaints from neighbors about the disruption caused by filming crews and the mentally unstable guests, unsightly cables and production trucks clogging the neighborhood, and the constant traffic caused by filming. After the Los Angeles City Council revoked film permits, in September 2006, the Dr. Phil show stopped filming there. However, Peteski Productions, Dr. Phil's production company, still owns the house. The Dr. Phil House has since moved to a studio back lot, and the exterior of the house showed in the program is that of a sound stage and not that of the actual house.^[2]
• There was a scam involving women who lied saying that they knew Dr. Phil. The women set up a phone line that they claimed to be run by the director of the Dr. Phil show. By telling customers that they could have a phone conversation with Dr. Phil for $750 an hour, they scammed Dr. Phil's viewers out of thousands of dollars.^[3]
• On December 12, 2006, the show featured a segment on Bumfights and attacks on the homeless across America. Although it appeared to be midway through a tape featuring clips of the Bumfights producer and footage from the Bumfights video when Dr. Phil halted it, it was in fact the end of the footage. If one views closely it becomes clear that the edited static was actually already there at the beginning of the tape,^{[citation needed]} which was used to denote the beginning and end. Following Dr. Phil's pre-scripted request to "stop the tape," he proceeded to kick the producer (who was dressed as Dr. Phil) off the set after already inviting him on the show, and then stated that he refused to publicize his work.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Spoofs

• In the Nickelodeon teen comedy Drake and Josh, one episode spoofed Dr. Phil as Dr. Phyllis, which was in the same style as Dr. Phil, and the host was a woman. In that episode, Drake and Josh get chosen to feature in Dr. Phyllis and talk about all their problems as brothers.

• Sesame Street shows a segment from time to time which stars a muppet called Dr. Feel which hosts a talk show and asks guests about their feelings. Dr. Phil has even appeared as a guest on one episode.

• Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories featured a radio show called Nurse Bob on LCFR.

• The same "Dr. Phyllis" spoof was also used in The Brandy and Mr. Whiskers episode "Freaky Tuesday" the name was all so used in an epiosode of "Drake and Josh".

• Dr Phil starred on Frasier, season 10 episode 21 entitled 'The Devil & Dr Phil', where he has bebe as his agent.

• The show was spoofed a few times on MADtv with Michael McDonald playing Dr. Phil.

• YTV`s The Zone formerly did spoofs of Dr. Phil that were also called Dr. Phyllis.

[edit] Broadcasters

• In Australia the show currently airs on the Nine Network at midday. However, in 2007 is moving to Network Ten.
• In Belgium the show airs on VijfTV at 23:00.
• In Canada the show airs on CTV, at varying times depending on region.
• In Denmark the show airs on TV3 at 14:10.
• In England the show airs on Living TV, throughout the week.
• In Finland the show airs on Nelonen (4) at 17:30.
• In Ireland the show airs every weekday morning on RTE1.
• In New Zealand the show airs on TV3 at 13:00.
• In Norway the show airs on TV3 at 11:35, and 19:00 (re-run of 11:35)
• In Portugal the show airs on SIC Mulher at 4:15, 7:45 and 16:15.
• In Saudi Arabia the show airs on mbc4 at 19:00.
• In South Africa the show airs every weekday on SABC2 at 12:00.
• In Sweden the show airs on TV4 Plus at 19:05.
• In The Netherlands the show airs on RTL4 at 14:30 and on RTL5 at 17:00.

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• Official Dr. Phil
• Dr. Phil (TV series) at the Internet Movie Database
• Dr. Phil (TV series) at TV.com