Dr. Phil freaks out, Oz close behind

April 2024 · 4 minute read

It doesn’t matter how well-intentioned and noble you are at the start. No TV show is allowed to stay up there.

Sooner or later, TV will either force it down here, or throw it over there — in the cancelled bin.

America’s dopiest viewers will always be served, be it from Day 1 to the last resort. So go low or get out.

Among the “Doctor” and other advice programming, consider the “Dr. Phil” show, where it began and where it is now.

In 2002, in its earliest shows, there was a steady, aggressive and apparently sincere attempt by the production staff and Dr. Phil McGraw to provide solutions to common family, individual and generational problems. Sensible, logical and applicable advice could be heard. It made for thoughtful, come-back-tomorrow TV.

But that didn’t last long. The “Dr. Phil” show, seen here weekday afternoons on Ch. 2, increasingly became a dressed-up version of “Maury” and “Jerry Springer.” The “guests” increasingly seemed to be culled from police lineups or the Home for Aging Perverts. Even Dr. Phil’s studio audience seemed to have been prepped to gasp on demand.

The “Dr. Phil” show began to appeal to the home audience to supply tips on where it might find future severely dysfunction, incorrigible, psychotic and even criminal subjects/guests. Yep, your “home version” brought to TV.

Last September, when Fox debuted the “Dr. Oz” show weekday mornings, Dr. Mehmet Oz provided a very appealing and seemingly useful program about health issues. Even the most uncomfortable matters of sex and hygiene were smartly addressed because Dr. Oz could handle the matter with mature, good-natured and presumably helpful responses.

But in the last several weeks, the forces of modern TV apparently at the wheel, the Dr. Oz show has begun a slide toward TV’s inevitable target audience ­— the not-too bright.

A recent episode created what was once indelicately referred to as a “freak show.” The world’s smallest siblings ­— the 20-year-old sister is two feet, two inches, her 18-year-old brother is three-feet, two ­— were brought on to stand beside a man said to be, at just over seven-feet, eight inches, the tallest man in America.

And when they stood together, the folks in the audience gasped, as if some sideshow barker soon would hustle them to the next exhibit, the bearded lady. No matter how much Dr. Oz tried to attach a medical or health value to this episode, it had none. And that’s a shame. Not a surprise — TV will take the most well-intentioned shows down every time — but it was a shame.

Some famous folks simply out-live their fame.

Art Linkletter, for more than 30 years, was among the giants of TV. As the genial host of “Art Linkletter’s House Party,” his name, voice, face and act — specifically his interviews with kids — were well known to, I’d guess, no fewer than 95 percent of Americans.

Yet, his death, May 26, at the age of 97, made either brief news or no news.

But on May 26, Gary Coleman was seriously ill, and that was big news. Two days later, when Coleman died, that became huge news. A week later, it still was.

With ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” closed for the season, will ABC’s national and local newscasts use the time, money and energy it spent reporting on (promoting) “DWTS” and devote those resources to investigating and reporting real news? Fat chance. Such modern, abandoned news realities should scare the hell out of all of us, all of us except bad guys, those newscasts once were relied upon to expose.

The YES Network, a pay-extra owned by the Yankees and Goldman Sachs, recently presented an infomercial starring a fellow selling 1999-through-2008 U.S. Mint quarters, 112 of them, for only $120. Not too bad for $28 worth of quarters.

“People are calling in like crazy,” the shill hollered. Yes, like crazy.

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