01:54 AM
Observatorium· TV Praise the doctor and pass the low-fat no-fry chicken fried steak!

Four years ago after I quit my 9-5 job, I started watching Oprah now and then. I discovered that every Tuesday (I think it was Tuesdays) was Dr. Phil day. I had never heard of this guy before but he had a good down to earth, common-sense style, a bit of a Texas Twang and he didn't expect to solve everyone's problems in seven minutes (he even said so :)).

So I made sure to watch or tape Oprah every Tuesday. Then two years ago, he got his own syndicated show and I started watching that. I didn't catch it every day tho because it got to be a bit much going from once a week to five times a week. A little advice goes a long way.

Last winter I started watching a bit more regularly, he had moved from a problem of the day format to following various couples and families for weeks/months and so it had a bit of a plot going on. One day each week was the family with the pregnant teenager and another day each week was the couples from the relationship retreat he'd done and another day each week was the Morman couple with four kids, one from the wife's affair and a fifth kid on the way and he filled in the other two days with miscellaneous things.

These families/couples were all kind of depressing because he couldn't fix them all in fifteen minutes in between commercials, so I only watched now and then. In the last couple years, he's become a male version of Oprah, he's gotten two more books out, one's a cookbook, he's got a magazine, a website, a web-board and all sorts of stuff. He gives away money and stuff to help the various people who turn up on his show, just like Oprah. He hustles troubled kids off to all sorts of expensive treatment centers and schools, all paid for by Dr. Phil, he gives them vacations and pays bills and gives them exercise equipment and kinds of things, he's become a regular miracle worker.

I watched his show today and (as he noted loudly) it's the first show of his third season and I see now he's completed the transformation to book-thumping psycho-preacher! He went to a town somewhere in the midwest, I missed which state, and gave a better sermon than any holly-roller could have done. Pat Robertson should be taking lessons from this guy. He's gonna fix this town, he's gonna cure every ill, he's gonna stop the wife-beating husband, he's gonna sober up the alcoholic, he's gonna get those kids back in school, he's gonna un-pregnate those teenagers! (well, maybe not that last one :))

Oh my, it was something to see, he had that crowd up on their feet, clapping and a-swaying and lawd almighty, singing that old-time religion and a-pledging their solemn promise to follow Dr. Phil!

It was really sumpin' to see...we ain't had us no good preacher-men on the teevee in ages. So you tune into him, y'heah? Dr. Phil will save your soul, I ain't gotta single doubt!