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'''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 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''.
The sixth season will premiere on September 10, 2007.
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

Synopsis

Incidents

Spoofs

Broadcasters

Notes and references

External links

Synopsis

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, dysfunctional families 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.

Incidents

★ 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 shown in the program is that of a sound stage and not that of the actual house.^[1]

★ 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.^[2]

★ 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, 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.^[3]

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.

★ The same "Dr. Phyllis" spoof was also used in the ''Brandy & Mr. Whiskers'' episode "Freaky Tuesday".

★ 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.

Broadcasters

★ In the Arab World the show airs on mbc4 at 19:00.

★ In Australia the show currently airs on the Network Ten at 12pm each weekday. Prior to 2006, it aired on the Nine Network. The show is also aired on the W. Channel on cable television.

★ 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 14:20.

★ In Finland the show airs on Nelonen (4) at 17:30.

★ In Ireland the show airs every weekday morning on RTE1.

★ In Israel the show airs every weekday on Yes Stars3 at 13:15.

★ 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 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 15:00 and on RTL 5 at 16:30.

★ In the United Kingdom the show airs on Living, throughout the week.

Notes and references

1. "Dr. Phil gets the heave-ho for filming abuses," Office of Councilmember Tom Labonge, 4th Council District Newsletter[1] Last accessed 12 Dec. 2006
2. "Dr. Phil Confronts Scammers" from Break.Com [2] Last accessed 12 Dec. 2006
3. "'Bumfights' creator no match for Dr. Phil" at UPI.com

External links

★ Official Dr. Phil

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