Dr. Phil: Dr. Phil Family Update & George and Cindy Anthony

I'm am still not sure I will watch these episodes.  I am boycotting Dr. Phil.  But, many are interested and some people actually count on reading what happened here.  I am thinking about it.  I caught a few minutes of him promtoing the show on The View.  He promises to ask hard, no holds barred questions.  I'm not so sure we are going to get truthful answers.  I'm not sure Dr. Phil cares if he gets truthful answers...as long as he gets ratings.  The interviews were supposed to air yesterday, but were postponed because of tennis.  That bothers me because he gave no such consideration to the finale of the Dr. Phil Housewives, which many missed because of tennis.  I guess there weren't enough of us viewers who were fans of the series so the hell with us.

I'll see how I feel when the shows airs.  I am not happy about having to watch Phil or the Anthony's today.  Not sure I can stomach either.  As far as I am concerned, their lying caused the jury to have doubts that ended up freeing that lying, baby killer.  Little Caylee looked just like Cindy.


As for the Dr. Phil Family...another of my peeves...here's a little news.  Katherine turned 21.  Apparently it looks like she is pregnant.  Who knew?  Anyway, from the way Erin tweets, they are all very happy about the newest addition to the family.  I think the baby, Paul, is expected in October!

Alex hasn't been tweeting at all.  I can only assume that since her parents stopped paying for her cell phone she doesn't have the spare money for it herself.  No word on how she is doing since the courts decided she didn't need their intervention.  But, there is never a dull moment with the Dr. Phil Family!

Good Bye Dr. Phil Housewives!

Dr. Phil finally is saying good bye to the housewives after taking months of breaks between shows. The series was supposed to air every Tuesday “Get Real Tuesdays,” and it did, until December 2010. Then came a half dozen shows between January and July 2012. Get real Tuesdays got up and went. Now they announce the official “good-bye” show and I had to watch it for closure. Dr. Phil gets around to each housewife, one on one, and reviews past clips.

This show was taped months ago, maybe as far back as January, like all the other shows. So if they all made progress, how did they do it with Dr. Phil’s help? We start with Alana, and she tells Dr. Phil how much she has changed because of his help. I find this incredible. In July’s episode she was still acting the same way she was in the beginning of the show. But here, both she and Dr. Phil are talking about her huge change. Okay, I totally do not believe this. Next, Dr. Phil arranges a meeting for Alana with a top plus size model to get advice. They tell her not to have a bad attitude or act like a diva, duh! Now suddenly Alana gets the message. And we learn she has been hired by a modeling agency months ago. Her dream has come true. I’m happy for her, but was it because of the show?

Jennifer is up next. She says she will take care of her kids, but she will never feel the same towards her husband again. Dr. Phil points out that she is bitter towards her husband. She feels she has no control because if she says how she feels to him, he could walk out the door. If she tells her daughter what she thinks of her for not visiting her son except for one time this year, she could take her grandson away. She is trying to get guardianship of her grandson. She gives Dr. Phil permission to look into her grandson‘s situation. He knows Jennifer feels trapped, he wants to get her “unstuck.” Dr. Phil and the staff like Jennifer a lot, and they want to continue to help her even after the show ends, with her grandson and her situation with her husband. They want her to have hope again and take the help they are offering. Jennifer sees a lawyer about her grandson. The lawyer thinks the court will appoint her as a guardian. She has hope that she will be able to keep Maverick.

Rachael is next! Rachael feels she has nothing to offer. Dr. Phil tells her she had low self esteem. She has been an important part of the group and has impacted Kimm and her relationship with her children. He tells her she will give her child the life she didn’t have. She has a solid guy. Angel has changed after being on the show, and become very supportive of her. Dr. Phil tells her she is focused on what she hasn’t accomplished and not what she has. She is the most popular housewife on the message boards because people relate to her.

Michelle’s turn. She says being on the show has changed her whole life. She feels indebted to Dr. Phil. She is more open to dating. She doesn’t want to link the men she meets to her relationship with her Dad. She is accepting that her father is who he is, and gives what her can, instead of thinking it’s about something she is lacking. It has nothing to do with her. Dr. Phil says she will get what she deserves. She has to lower her anxiety 95%. She feels she needs to control everything and she needs to relax in order to be approachable. Men want to be able to do things for women and if she is self sufficient then they have nothing to offer her. She is going to meet someone one day and Dr. Phil will give him the once over too.

Hmmm, Gloria is up to bat. Gloria is a little transformed she says. She claims she changed has changed two things, her delivery in speaking to people and her extreme reactivity. Dr. Phil says when she gives advice, she has to gauge if people are ready to hear what she has to say. Then he asks her if she is ever relaxed and at peace and she says it’s rare. He thinks a partner in life would help her. He believes we create our own experience. She agrees and says she is single by her own doing. She is getting in her own way. Her expectations are too high and she dismisses men early on. She feels the show has helped her recognize that about herself.

Kimm, last but not least. She thanks Dr. Phil from the bottom of her heart. Her life has changed. Dr Phil wants to give her feedback. She has shown courage in dealing with her issues, she climbed out of her bed and back into her family. He says he is a fan. It took a lot for her to pull that off. He says she can always call if she has questions and needs help. She says there were times she was mad at him or the other women, but she came back and grew each time. He doesn’t care that she was mad, he knew she would turn her life around. When she admitted she was a fraud, he knew at that point she would change her life.

My two cents:

Now the thing is, they had many more hours of video that we never saw. If, in fact, the taping ended in January, then everyone changed their lives six or eight months ago when this was taped. They had sessions back then that never aired and we were never privy to, for whatever reason. Promises broken to viewers who signed on for the whole series, not half a series and a few scattered episodes. The series was run into the ditch, as Dr. Phil likes to say. And then, they decided to throw us two bones. A show in July with the housewives playing games and the good bye show two months later before his new season starts. Which was the very least they could do. But was it enough? I don’t think so. I found this irritating. What can you do? It’s all about ratings and the bottom line, money. Maybe the show wasn’t popular with enough viewers and they decided to shelve the rest of the shows? We never did get any kind of explanation. Dr. Phil promises to stay in touch with them and monitor their progress…somehow I doubt it.

What I do appreciate about the series is that I got to "meet" all six housewives on facebook.  It was great getting to know them and chatting with them.  Some of them have even become friends with me through this experience.  I wish all of them the very best in their lives and I plan to stay in touch with those who care to interact on facebook.  I've also made a lot of friends who were fans of the show on the facebook page that was set up for us to chat about the show and ended up being the place where we vented frustration at the lack of new episodes.  A lot of new relationships were forged by many thansk to the series and facebook.  Some may last a lifetime.  So something good did comeout of it; something unintended and surprising; and many lives have been enriched since the first episode aired a year ago.



Dr. Phil Does It Again!

"I'm slick, but not that slick!"

You may recall I recently wrote a blog that Dr. Phil is interviewing Casey Anthony’s parent, but not paying them. Well I am going to tell you what a friend just passed along to me and I will paste the link for you to read in it’s entirety. I am so peeved over this, it’s just not funny.

According to this source, Dr. Phil agreed to make a donation to the “Caylee Foundation” in exchange for the interview. This article claims, and I happen to believe it, that the Anthony’s take 80% of the donations made to the foundation and keep it for themselves for administrative expenses! There are links provided for notifying Dr. Phil that we know they are taking the money from the foundation so he IS indirectly paying them and we are not stupid. Neither is Dr. Phil. He knows exactly what he is doing and I wouldn’t be surprised if he is behind their setting up a foundation.

This family is very shady. They are liars. Poor Caylee’s memory is going to be used to make them rich now? Her mother, Casey will be writing a book and you can bet she will be interviewed and a movie made about this story. Her grandparents set up a foundation with them as Presidents and even Lee is on the board. And throw in Dr. Phil, who will exploit a good news story to death to add to his massive wealth. He will help to make them profit off the death of that poor baby, Caylee. Not one of them has a conscience. I am too aggravated for all the details, but the link is below if you feel you want to know everything.

By the way, I wrote to Phil and told him what I thought. Just having them on the show is appalling!

Link: http://www.cayleedaily.com/2011/08/cindygeorge-anthony-take-up-to-80-of-foundation-donation-money/



Dr. Phil and the Britney Spears Train Wreck

Ok so this is old news, but I never knew the details till now...

Well anyone who knows me knows I love to research online and find answers. Sometimes I am unlucky, but it’s rare. This time I got some answers to a question that has been bothering me since it first happened. Why did Dr. Phil rush to Britney Spears bedside on January 5^th, 2008?   At the time, my newly formed opinions of Dr. Phil had not taken root. They were not even seeds of thought. But, I think this is where my first doubts and skepticism originated about the great and powerful Dr. Phil.

When you take a good look at what is behind Dr. Phil’s curtain, you will not see an altruistic humanitarian, but an egotistical, hypocritical, opportunist looking to line his overflowing pockets with even more money. That’s why he rushed to see Britney in the hospital, not to help her, but to help himself. Unfortunately, in his haste he neglected a few things and the whole escapade backfired in his face.  There are several online sources that reported on this ongoing story and I have collected the facts here.

Let’s start with the fact that he lost/retired his license to practice in Texas in 2006 and has never been licensed in California. (You will remember, from my recent blog, that he was sanctioned in Texas due to a complaint filed by a patient who said he touched her inappropriately.) So, when he ran into the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to speak with Britney, a certified psychologist with the California Board of Psychology filed a complaint against him. The real psychologist said he believed Dr. Phil was practicing without a license, by speaking to Britney, which is a felony. The complaint also adding that Dr. Phil divulged information about her medical condition to the media which violated additional laws. The family felt Dr. Phil had violated their trust by declaring to ET "My meeting with Britney and some of her family members this morning in her room at Cedars leaves me convinced more than ever that she is in dire need of medical and psychological intervention ... " The family said they "were looking for support here, not to add to the trouble that is already upon them.”

A petition began to be circulated to remove his show from the air. This was started by the psychologist who originated the complaints against Dr. Phil. There was also a backlash for the entertainment community which caused him to have a problem booking popular guests for his 1,000^th show. The show had to promise guests that they could promote their projects and charities and it would be considered a favor to “Oprah” because Harpo produces the show!

Well, it turns out that Dr. Phil is a wizard for getting out of deep trouble. Apparently, the charges will not stick because he did not charge Britney for his services. Somehow, they didn’t consider that what he was looking for was actually worth much more than a doctor’s call. An exclusive interview with Britney’s parents on the show perhaps? That never happened because the great and powerful Phil was bragging about his “intervention” with Britney.

Of course this was an embarrassment of epic proportions for Dr. Phil, but not enough to sink his ship. By January 18^th he had issued an apology to Britney and her family for his visit and his press release about it. By February 1^st, he was defending his actions as “non-exploitative.” Gee, that’s the very feeling I get each and every time I watch his show these days. His defense: “If you notice in that statement I said not a word, not one syllable about anything that took place while I was there. Nor will I ever. I don’t think that would be right. And I didn’t say anything in the statement that I haven’t said before and that anybody with common sense doesn’t know.” Anyone who watches the show and has common sense can clearly see what Dr. Phil is all about, that much I agree with.

So Dr. Phil dodged a bullet that time, but I’m sure there is a wealth of blog worthy information out there for me, I just have to do a little research. Stay tuned.

Read about the Real Dr. Phil in Sophia Dembling's book The Making Of Dr. Phil it has everything that Dr. Phil doesn't want you to know. Check out my blogs on this book for preview.

Ugh!!! Dr. Phil Is The New Springer!

I didn’t want to blog about Dr. Phil again so soon, but this show is hitting an all time low. It’s one step above Springer. A mother, who allows her husband, their stepfather to abuse them for years, and is still in a state of denial, even though he was found guilty and went to prison.

The two daughters, both appear to be in their late 20’s, are trying to get their mother to acknowledge all of these horrible acts performed by her husband and even her, through their childhood. It’s sickening. This woman is in denial making excuses for the unforgivable. She keeps saying she didn’t know what was happening, but it’s obvious she knew and she allowed it to go on.

The girls say when they were just developing, she took them into the bathroom and showed him their breasts. She gave them alcohol and made them watch soft porn with her and her husband. She allowed him to sleep in the same bed as the girls. When walks into the room and sees him on top of one of the girls she says he had this evil look and she didn’t know what she saw, so she walked out into the kitchen to pray. She catches him giving one of the girls a passionate kiss and tells her to leave the house and then asks him, why don’t you kiss me like that? The girls eventually told their friends and one of their mothers told their father, who went to get them.

The abuser was arrested and brought to trial. The mother sits on the side on the defendant, not with the girls. When he was found guilty, she went over to their home, after the father left, and wanted them to get on the phone and apologize to the stepfather. She denies all these things. The mother keeps yelling, nothing is getting resolved. It’s plain to see that this woman cannot be reasoned with and these girls will never get what they are looking for. They want her to acknowledge what happened and her responsibility for allowing it to happen and go on. She will not.

There is a shouting match, at the end of the show, between the three of them. Dr. Phil is sipping his glass of water.

I hate to say it, but tomorrow is part two. Dr. Phil claims there is going to be a surprise ending. I cannot imagine what that will be. I feel sorry for these women and, if they need this mother to own her failure to protect them, I cannot see that happening.

These are the shows they save for Sweeps month. Shows that are ratings bonanzas. Lots of graphic material. Stories that people eat up. Stories that shock. Is there anything to be learned from this? Will it help these sisters heal and move on? Can they ever have a relationship with their mother? I have no clue. This may well be my last season with Dr. Phil. I think I’ll switch to Dr. Pepper.