WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.500 Imagine a multi -million dollar Hollywood studio, 00:00:03.859 --> 00:00:06.500 you know, this massive corporate machine with 00:00:06.500 --> 00:00:09.699 decades of rigid tradition just suddenly bowing 00:00:09.699 --> 00:00:12.720 down to a guy in his twenties. Right. A guy just 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:15.320 tweeting from his living room couch. Yeah, that's 00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:18.640 wild. Welcome to the deep dive. So today, our 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:21.300 stack of sources is taking us back to 2010. A 00:00:21.300 --> 00:00:23.219 very weird time for the Internet. Oh, for sure. 00:00:23.699 --> 00:00:26.719 And our mission today is to explore one of the 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:31.100 most bizarre, really chaotic moments in television 00:00:31.100 --> 00:00:34.240 history. We're looking at the exact moment, the 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:37.320 wild, completely unfiltered west of early social 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:40.399 media, violently collided with the highly controlled 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:43.460 world of the network sitcom. Yeah, and to really 00:00:43.460 --> 00:00:45.500 understand how seismic this was for you as a 00:00:45.500 --> 00:00:47.259 viewer, we kind of have to look at the cultural 00:00:47.259 --> 00:00:49.439 landscape of 2010. Right. I mean, the iPhone 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:51.939 4 had literally just been released. Wow, yeah. 00:00:52.039 --> 00:00:54.780 And TV networks were terrified. Like, they were 00:00:54.780 --> 00:00:57.740 looking at platforms like Twitter, not as promotional 00:00:57.740 --> 00:00:59.600 tools, but as this alien threat. They thought 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:02.200 it was stealing your audience. Exactly. Yeah. 00:01:02.299 --> 00:01:05.099 Actively stealing eyeballs. So the traditional 00:01:05.099 --> 00:01:08.219 Hollywood pitch machine where a writer agonizes 00:01:08.219 --> 00:01:10.840 over a script and begs executives in expensive 00:01:10.840 --> 00:01:13.400 suits for a pilot, it was suddenly facing an 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:15.620 existential crisis. Yeah, the old way wasn't 00:01:15.620 --> 00:01:17.760 working. Right. And in the middle of all this 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:20.719 panic, this guy named Justin Halpern starts a 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:23.099 Twitter feed. Okay, let's unpack this, because 00:01:23.099 --> 00:01:25.180 this Twitter feed is the whole foundation here. 00:01:25.480 --> 00:01:27.799 Yeah, so the handle featured a certain profanity, 00:01:28.099 --> 00:01:31.599 followed by my dad says, and his entire content 00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:34.040 strategy, if you can even call it that, was just 00:01:34.040 --> 00:01:37.060 documenting the absurd, completely unfiltered 00:01:37.060 --> 00:01:39.760 things his 72 -year -old father, Sam, said out 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:42.489 loud. So the network executives who are desperate 00:01:42.489 --> 00:01:46.689 to commodify this new internet attention economy, 00:01:46.730 --> 00:01:48.650 they just pounce. Well, they threw money at it. 00:01:48.750 --> 00:01:51.049 Right. So our sources today are centered entirely 00:01:51.049 --> 00:01:53.870 on the Wikipedia archives for the resulting 2010 00:01:53.870 --> 00:01:57.290 CBS sitcom adaptation, a show that was officially 00:01:57.290 --> 00:01:59.890 titled with a dollar sign, an H, an asterisk, 00:02:00.010 --> 00:02:02.530 and an exclamation point. Which the network essentially 00:02:02.530 --> 00:02:04.769 forced everyone to pronounce as Bleep My Dad 00:02:04.769 --> 00:02:08.259 Says. Yeah, Bleep My Dad Says. And we're going 00:02:08.259 --> 00:02:12.259 to figure out how a 140 character micro thought, 00:02:12.460 --> 00:02:14.979 like basically a single sentence, was stretched 00:02:14.979 --> 00:02:18.680 into a weekly 21 minute sitcom. It's a huge stretch. 00:02:18.759 --> 00:02:22.039 It really is. Like how a tweet bypassed the entire 00:02:22.039 --> 00:02:24.819 Hollywood pitch machine will get into the massive 00:02:24.819 --> 00:02:27.539 censorship controversy it triggered and the really 00:02:27.539 --> 00:02:30.159 incredible paradox of its public reception. Because 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:34.150 the first major hurdle in this this collision 00:02:34.150 --> 00:02:37.250 between old and new media, is the actual mechanics 00:02:37.250 --> 00:02:39.590 of adaptation. Right. How do you actually make 00:02:39.590 --> 00:02:42.330 the show? Exactly. A tweet is inherently just 00:02:42.330 --> 00:02:45.229 a punchline without a setup. To put that on television, 00:02:45.330 --> 00:02:47.449 you have to reverse engineer an entire universe 00:02:47.449 --> 00:02:49.569 around just a disconnected sentence. So they 00:02:49.569 --> 00:02:51.629 had to invent a premise from scratch. They did. 00:02:51.729 --> 00:02:53.789 So the network cast's television legend, William 00:02:53.789 --> 00:02:57.009 Shatner. Huge gut. Massive. He plays Dr. Edison 00:02:57.009 --> 00:03:00.009 Milford Goodson III, but he goes by Ed. and he's 00:03:00.009 --> 00:03:02.810 this opinionated three -time divorced 72 -year 00:03:02.810 --> 00:03:05.229 -old. Okay, and what's the actual plot driving 00:03:05.229 --> 00:03:07.949 this? Well, the catalyst for the comedy is his 00:03:07.949 --> 00:03:11.159 son, Henry. who is a struggling writer and blogger. 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:13.900 Henry runs out of money and is basically forced 00:03:13.900 --> 00:03:15.699 to move back in with his father. Wait, I have 00:03:15.699 --> 00:03:17.659 to push back on this premise for a second. So 00:03:17.659 --> 00:03:20.699 the show's actual plot is just a meta -reflection 00:03:20.699 --> 00:03:23.259 of its own creation. Essentially, yes. That sounds 00:03:23.259 --> 00:03:25.939 way too clever, like way too nuanced for a standard 00:03:25.939 --> 00:03:30.460 2010 CBS sitcom. Did they actually pull off that 00:03:30.460 --> 00:03:32.759 level of self -awareness or was this just, you 00:03:32.759 --> 00:03:35.159 know, a cheap gimmick to explain why a millennial 00:03:35.159 --> 00:03:36.960 was living with a boomer? What's fascinating 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:39.069 here is that it leans heavily toward a clumsy 00:03:39.069 --> 00:03:41.849 gimmick, but the mechanism behind it actually 00:03:41.849 --> 00:03:44.810 matters. How so? Well, Henry can't get a writing 00:03:44.810 --> 00:03:47.150 job because he just lacks good material. Right. 00:03:47.629 --> 00:03:50.210 And he remains unemployed right up until his 00:03:50.210 --> 00:03:53.469 dad's irrational, completely unsolicited rants 00:03:53.469 --> 00:03:56.629 actually land Henry a job. Oh, with like an eccentric 00:03:56.629 --> 00:03:59.349 editor or something? Exactly. So Henry is financially 00:03:59.349 --> 00:04:02.080 trapped. He literally has to live with Ed just 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:04.500 to harvest his father's rants for blog content. 00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:08.099 That is so weird. It is. Television was literally 00:04:08.099 --> 00:04:11.159 trying to dramatize the act of blogging and social 00:04:11.159 --> 00:04:13.520 media content creation. They were trying to explain 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:15.439 the Internet to their audience. Yeah, it was 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:18.139 a bridge to explain the concept of a blogger 00:04:18.139 --> 00:04:20.819 to a traditional broadcast audience who, let's 00:04:20.819 --> 00:04:22.240 be honest, probably didn't even have Twitter 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:25.459 accounts yet. But bridging that gap conceptually 00:04:25.459 --> 00:04:27.920 is one thing. Actually building that bridge on 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:30.870 a soundstage. That is where the friction really 00:04:30.870 --> 00:04:33.110 starts. Oh, absolutely. Because looking at the 00:04:33.110 --> 00:04:35.569 timeline in our sources, translating this from 00:04:35.569 --> 00:04:38.310 a viral internet joke to a broadcast reality, 00:04:38.709 --> 00:04:41.509 it happened at whiplash speed. The panic for 00:04:41.509 --> 00:04:44.449 relevant IP was completely driving the car. Yeah. 00:04:44.610 --> 00:04:46.569 The pilot was first announced in November of 00:04:46.569 --> 00:04:50.350 2009. The creators of the Twitter feed, Justin 00:04:50.350 --> 00:04:52.589 Halpern and Patrick Schumacher, were brought 00:04:52.589 --> 00:04:55.569 on to actually write it. Right. And by late February 00:04:55.569 --> 00:04:58.029 2010, they managed to lock in William Shatner 00:04:58.029 --> 00:05:00.889 for the lead role. Which is crazy fast. Unheard 00:05:00.889 --> 00:05:03.269 of. Yeah. And securing a star with Shatner's 00:05:03.269 --> 00:05:05.569 gravitational pull, it immediately triggered 00:05:05.569 --> 00:05:07.810 a green light from the network to produce the 00:05:07.810 --> 00:05:10.550 pilot. Think about the monumental task here, 00:05:10.790 --> 00:05:13.839 though. You are trying to take the raw, completely 00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:16.579 spontaneous energy of a tweet and translate it 00:05:16.579 --> 00:05:19.699 into a multi -camera network sitcom. It's oil 00:05:19.699 --> 00:05:21.920 and water. Totally. And for anyone who doesn't 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:24.939 work in television, a multi -cam sitcom is arguably 00:05:24.939 --> 00:05:27.620 the most rigid format in entertainment. Oh, it's 00:05:27.620 --> 00:05:29.819 so structured. Right. You have three or four 00:05:29.819 --> 00:05:32.220 cameras pointing at a brightly lit theatrical 00:05:32.220 --> 00:05:35.759 set. Actors have to hit exact tape marks on the 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:37.920 floor, project their voices to a live studio 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:41.449 audience, and literally pause their conversations 00:05:41.449 --> 00:05:43.850 to wait for the laugh track to finish. It's basically 00:05:43.850 --> 00:05:46.769 a stage play. Exactly. It is the exact opposite 00:05:46.769 --> 00:05:49.689 of organic internet culture. It is like trying 00:05:49.689 --> 00:05:53.449 to translate a punchy aggressive haiku into a 00:05:53.449 --> 00:05:56.970 rigid 300 page novel. It's a corporate meat grinder. 00:05:57.149 --> 00:05:59.930 Which perfectly explains why the casting process 00:05:59.930 --> 00:06:02.889 was such a revolving door of chaos. The network 00:06:02.889 --> 00:06:04.910 was aggressively trying to force this internet 00:06:04.910 --> 00:06:07.709 peg into a traditional sitcom hole. So who do 00:06:07.709 --> 00:06:10.050 they originally have? In the original pilot, 00:06:10.410 --> 00:06:12.689 the role of the blogger son, Henry, was played 00:06:12.689 --> 00:06:15.670 by actor Ryan Deflin. And there was an entirely 00:06:15.670 --> 00:06:18.290 different character named Sam, played by Stephanie 00:06:18.290 --> 00:06:20.689 Lemelin. But by the time CBS officially picked 00:06:20.689 --> 00:06:24.029 up the series in May 2010, they just tore that 00:06:24.029 --> 00:06:26.089 original pilot apart. Completely scrapped it. 00:06:26.149 --> 00:06:28.990 They completely erased the character of Sam from 00:06:28.990 --> 00:06:32.129 existence. Like, she never appears in the broadcast 00:06:32.129 --> 00:06:34.769 pilot or any subsequent episodes. Good God. And 00:06:34.769 --> 00:06:37.730 they recast the main role of Henry. They replaced 00:06:37.730 --> 00:06:40.689 Devlin with Jonathan Sadowsky in July. Because 00:06:40.689 --> 00:06:42.829 they were engineering a safety net. Right. The 00:06:42.829 --> 00:06:45.829 network was taking a massive financial risk on 00:06:45.829 --> 00:06:49.129 this unproven, completely experimental internet 00:06:49.129 --> 00:06:52.250 IP. Exactly. So they surrounded Shatner with 00:06:52.250 --> 00:06:55.129 proven structural sitcom dynamics. They built 00:06:55.129 --> 00:06:57.170 out the supporting cast. Yeah. They brought in 00:06:57.170 --> 00:06:59.850 Will Sasso to play Ed's other son, Vince, and 00:06:59.850 --> 00:07:02.269 Nicole Sullivan to play Vince's wife, Bonnie. 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:05.019 And it's such a fun detail because Sasso and 00:07:05.019 --> 00:07:07.279 Sullivan were former castmates on the sketch 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:09.959 comedy show MadTV. Yeah, they had that built 00:07:09.959 --> 00:07:12.100 -in rapport. Right. You were basically buying 00:07:12.100 --> 00:07:15.540 prepackaged comedic chemistry to hold up a very 00:07:15.540 --> 00:07:19.259 shaky premise, but the safety net of casting 00:07:19.259 --> 00:07:21.779 still doesn't solve the core narrative problem? 00:07:22.100 --> 00:07:24.579 No, it doesn't. Because once you lock the cast 00:07:24.579 --> 00:07:27.240 and build the sets, what does an actual episode 00:07:27.240 --> 00:07:30.660 of a Twitter -based sitcom look like in practice? 00:07:30.819 --> 00:07:33.709 It looks incredibly chaotic. I bet. The writers 00:07:33.709 --> 00:07:36.529 were tasked with constantly inventing these artificial 00:07:36.529 --> 00:07:39.410 scenarios just to trigger Ed's signature rants. 00:07:39.589 --> 00:07:41.529 Right. They need him to yell about something. 00:07:41.629 --> 00:07:43.910 Yeah. And reading through the granular episode 00:07:43.910 --> 00:07:47.730 summaries, the show swung wildly between aggressively 00:07:47.730 --> 00:07:51.629 mundane domestic disputes and just total absurdity. 00:07:51.730 --> 00:07:54.569 Give me an example. OK. So for example, in episode 00:07:54.569 --> 00:07:57.589 five, which is titled Not Without My Jacket. 00:07:57.629 --> 00:08:00.649 Like title. Right. The entire primary conflict 00:08:00.649 --> 00:08:03.379 revolves around Ed's strict rule. about asking 00:08:03.379 --> 00:08:06.980 permission to use his coffee mug. Wow. Compelling 00:08:06.980 --> 00:08:09.779 television. It gets better. To manufacture tension, 00:08:10.040 --> 00:08:12.360 Ed accidentally lends out Henry's jacket without 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:14.500 asking, which makes him a hypocrite. OK, so fighting 00:08:14.500 --> 00:08:17.319 over a coffee mug is, you know, standard sitcom 00:08:17.319 --> 00:08:19.519 filler. It's safe. Very safe. But then you look 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:22.300 at episode 10, where Henry has to broker a truce 00:08:22.300 --> 00:08:25.560 with a neighbor of 25 years. And then episode 00:08:25.560 --> 00:08:29.879 14. Oh, titled Corn Star. Yes, corn star. They 00:08:29.879 --> 00:08:32.960 devoted an entire episode of prime time television 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:37.120 to corn stalks. Yeah, Ed literally runs for president 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:39.960 of the Homeowners Association for the sole purpose 00:08:39.960 --> 00:08:42.139 of protecting the height of the corn in his garden. 00:08:42.440 --> 00:08:44.460 The premise is already wearing painfully thin 00:08:44.460 --> 00:08:46.700 at that point. It really is. Yeah. And while 00:08:46.700 --> 00:08:48.720 they were padding the season with, you know, 00:08:48.860 --> 00:08:51.899 corn stalk politics, they were also clumsily 00:08:51.899 --> 00:08:54.539 brushing up against much heavier cultural tropes. 00:08:54.700 --> 00:08:56.870 Oh, right. Yeah, in episode eight, which is called 00:08:56.870 --> 00:09:00.190 The Manly Thing to Do, an old Navy buddy of Ed's 00:09:00.190 --> 00:09:03.029 comes to visit. OK, sounds normal. But the conflict 00:09:03.029 --> 00:09:05.750 arises because this friend is deeply homophobic. 00:09:06.370 --> 00:09:09.370 And Ed's passive reaction to this bigotry ends 00:09:09.370 --> 00:09:11.690 up driving away another friend, Tim. The tonal 00:09:11.690 --> 00:09:13.690 whiplash there is just stunning. It's all over 00:09:13.690 --> 00:09:16.250 the place. Right. Imagine you are a network marketing 00:09:16.250 --> 00:09:18.529 executive. One week you are promoting an episode 00:09:18.529 --> 00:09:21.429 about navigating homophobia between aging Navy 00:09:21.429 --> 00:09:23.529 veterans. Right. And then you get to episode 00:09:23.529 --> 00:09:27.629 17 titled Lock and Load. Yeah, in this single 00:09:27.629 --> 00:09:30.370 21 -minute block of television, you have an A 00:09:30.370 --> 00:09:34.250 story where the brother, Vince, is watching adult 00:09:34.250 --> 00:09:37.029 films to get tips on how to properly conceive 00:09:37.029 --> 00:09:40.149 a baby with his wife. Classy. And in the exact 00:09:40.149 --> 00:09:42.830 same episode, you have a B story where Ed's romantic 00:09:42.830 --> 00:09:45.549 interest, Rosemary, gets nervous about neighborhood 00:09:45.549 --> 00:09:48.090 break -ins, buys a gun, and accidentally shoots 00:09:48.090 --> 00:09:50.350 Vince when she mistakes him for an intruder. 00:09:50.610 --> 00:09:52.690 Let the mechanics of that sink in for a second. 00:09:52.710 --> 00:09:56.009 It's insane. You have a multi -camera form. piping 00:09:56.009 --> 00:09:59.210 in a laugh track while a main character accidentally 00:09:59.210 --> 00:10:02.190 discharges a firearm into a family member's body. 00:10:02.669 --> 00:10:05.950 Right. Cue the laugh track. Exactly. The network 00:10:05.950 --> 00:10:08.169 was trying to capture the edgy, unpredictable 00:10:08.169 --> 00:10:10.110 nature of the internet, but they were doing it 00:10:10.110 --> 00:10:12.789 within the incredibly sterile confines of a broadcast 00:10:12.789 --> 00:10:15.639 soundstage. It's just a total mismatch. But the 00:10:15.639 --> 00:10:17.639 network's struggle to market a coherent plot 00:10:17.639 --> 00:10:19.600 line was absolutely nothing compared to their 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:21.480 struggle with the Federal Communications Commission. 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:24.000 Oh, the FCC. Yeah, because the very thing that 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:26.220 made the source material viral in the first place, 00:10:26.460 --> 00:10:29.679 its profanity, was the one thing broadcast television 00:10:29.679 --> 00:10:33.059 legally could not air. And the title controversy 00:10:33.059 --> 00:10:36.139 is ultimately what etched this show into television 00:10:36.139 --> 00:10:38.580 history. It overshadowed the whole show. Completely. 00:10:38.779 --> 00:10:42.860 To comply with FCC primetime regulations, CVS 00:10:42.860 --> 00:10:44.720 obviously couldn't put the S word on billboards 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:47.019 or say it on the air. Right. So they stylized 00:10:47.019 --> 00:10:50.039 it visually using a dollar sign, a hashtag, an 00:10:50.039 --> 00:10:52.769 asterisk, and an exclamation point. phonetically, 00:10:52.789 --> 00:10:55.029 they instructed all their affiliates and marketing 00:10:55.029 --> 00:10:58.669 teams to pronounce it bleep. Yeah. So in May 00:10:58.669 --> 00:11:03.110 of 2010, CBS takes this this compromise title 00:11:03.110 --> 00:11:05.070 to the upfronts. Now, if you aren't familiar 00:11:05.070 --> 00:11:06.870 with the upfronts, this isn't just a press conference. 00:11:06.870 --> 00:11:10.330 It's huge. It is a massive multimillion dollar 00:11:10.330 --> 00:11:12.889 presentation where television networks pitch 00:11:12.889 --> 00:11:15.509 their upcoming fall schedules to major advertisers 00:11:15.509 --> 00:11:18.210 to secure billions of dollars in ad buys for 00:11:18.210 --> 00:11:20.350 the year. The stakes are incredibly high, very 00:11:20.350 --> 00:11:23.379 high. And at this present. CBS announces Bleep 00:11:23.379 --> 00:11:27.059 My Dad Says for an 8 .30 p .m. Thursday time 00:11:27.059 --> 00:11:29.340 slot. And the parents' television counsel, the 00:11:29.340 --> 00:11:32.100 PTC, immediately declared war. Yeah, they were 00:11:32.100 --> 00:11:34.700 not happy. Not at all. They argue that even if 00:11:34.700 --> 00:11:37.460 the word was bleeped verbally and stylized visually, 00:11:38.019 --> 00:11:40.340 the intent was obvious. Everyone knew what it 00:11:40.340 --> 00:11:43.259 meant. Exactly. It clearly alluded to an obscenity. 00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:46.259 And because it was scheduled for 8 .30 p .m., 00:11:46.269 --> 00:11:48.429 right in the middle of traditional family viewing 00:11:48.429 --> 00:11:51.590 hours, they considered it a violation of broadcast 00:11:51.590 --> 00:11:54.350 decency. And just to be clear, you know, as we 00:11:54.350 --> 00:11:56.669 report on this, we are just looking at the mechanics 00:11:56.669 --> 00:11:59.470 of this cultural battle. We're not taking sides 00:11:59.470 --> 00:12:01.409 on the morality of it. Right. Just laying out 00:12:01.409 --> 00:12:04.429 the facts. Exactly. But the PTC didn't just write 00:12:04.429 --> 00:12:07.049 an angry letter to an editor. They went for the 00:12:07.049 --> 00:12:09.759 financial jugular. They really did. They threatened 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:13.419 CBS with broadcast license challenges. The PTC 00:12:13.419 --> 00:12:16.480 told any local CBS affiliate across the country 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:19.700 that if they aired the show or even aired promotional 00:12:19.700 --> 00:12:22.080 commercials for the show before 10 p .m., the 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:24.559 PTC would formally petition the government to 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:27.080 revoke their right to broadcast. And that is 00:12:27.080 --> 00:12:29.120 a nuclear threat to a local station's bottom 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:31.940 line. Absolutely. So CBS was forced into a defensive 00:12:31.940 --> 00:12:34.080 posture. Yeah, they issued statements promising 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:36.519 that the content of the show itself would absolutely 00:12:36.519 --> 00:12:39.610 not be indecent. said it would adhere to all 00:12:39.610 --> 00:12:41.669 network standards. And they also suggested that 00:12:41.669 --> 00:12:44.529 concerned parents simply use the VCHIP. Which 00:12:44.529 --> 00:12:46.450 was a very convenient deflection. Oh, totally. 00:12:46.750 --> 00:12:49.590 The VCHIP was that piece of parental control 00:12:49.590 --> 00:12:52.389 technology mandated in televisions at the time 00:12:52.389 --> 00:12:55.450 that allowed users to block programs based on 00:12:55.450 --> 00:12:57.809 rating. Right. It was a hardware solution to 00:12:57.809 --> 00:13:00.429 a cultural problem. Essentially, CBS telling 00:13:00.429 --> 00:13:02.470 parents, you know, if you don't like it, program 00:13:02.470 --> 00:13:05.129 your remote. Pass the buck to the consumer. Exactly. 00:13:05.570 --> 00:13:08.679 But. The most fascinating defense in this entire 00:13:08.679 --> 00:13:12.519 deep dive came from the star himself. William 00:13:12.519 --> 00:13:15.220 Shatner did not hide behind corporate PR statements. 00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:18.220 Not at all. During the Television Critics Association 00:13:18.220 --> 00:13:21.259 press tour in July, Shatner gave a remarkably 00:13:21.259 --> 00:13:23.740 blunt, very philosophical defense of the title. 00:13:23.860 --> 00:13:26.460 Oh, I love this quote. He told the gathered press, 00:13:27.200 --> 00:13:29.899 We say spit. Why can't we say shit? The word 00:13:29.899 --> 00:13:32.159 shit is around us. It isn't a terrible term. 00:13:32.259 --> 00:13:34.539 It's a natural function. Why are we pussyfooting? 00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:37.059 And this is where the mechanics of media manipulation 00:13:37.059 --> 00:13:40.080 become incredibly clear. Because Shatner's blunt 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:44.019 defense and the PTC's massive outrage, they collided 00:13:44.019 --> 00:13:46.480 to create a textbook example of the Streisand 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:49.779 effect. Yes. If we connect this to the bigger 00:13:49.779 --> 00:13:52.860 picture, the Streisand effect is that phenomenon 00:13:52.860 --> 00:13:57.059 where attempting to hide, censor, or suppress 00:13:57.059 --> 00:14:00.539 information ironically amplifies it. Right, drawing 00:14:00.539 --> 00:14:02.580 exponentially more attention to the very thing 00:14:02.580 --> 00:14:05.039 you wanted hidden. Exactly. Bill Gorman, who 00:14:05.039 --> 00:14:07.639 was a media analyst writing for TV by the numbers 00:14:07.639 --> 00:14:10.019 at the time, pointed out the beautiful irony 00:14:10.019 --> 00:14:13.539 of the situation. Which was? The PTC's aggressive 00:14:13.539 --> 00:14:16.559 protest was functioning as a multi -million dollar 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:19.980 nationwide marketing campaign for CBS entirely 00:14:19.980 --> 00:14:22.730 for free. By threatening local stations and making 00:14:22.730 --> 00:14:25.070 national headlines about a stylized curse word, 00:14:25.370 --> 00:14:27.750 the PTC guaranteed that every single demographic 00:14:27.750 --> 00:14:30.269 in America was suddenly aware of this new sitcom. 00:14:30.570 --> 00:14:32.690 Everyone knew about it. And Gorman predicted 00:14:32.690 --> 00:14:34.990 that this manufactured controversy would mobilize 00:14:34.990 --> 00:14:37.649 viewers out of sheer curiosity, basically gifting 00:14:37.649 --> 00:14:40.029 the show a massive initial ratings boost. And 00:14:40.029 --> 00:14:42.269 the data proved him absolutely right. Spot on. 00:14:42.429 --> 00:14:44.470 Which leads us to the ultimate paradox of this 00:14:44.470 --> 00:14:47.200 deep dive. The outrage -fueled marketing campaign 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:49.220 worked flawlessly, but it resulted in one of 00:14:49.220 --> 00:14:51.620 the most glaring divides between critical consensus 00:14:51.620 --> 00:14:54.320 and audience behavior in modern television. Let's 00:14:54.320 --> 00:14:56.700 look at the raw numbers. When the pilot premiered 00:14:56.700 --> 00:15:00.799 on September 23, 2010, the data was staggering. 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:05.539 Huge numbers. It drew 12 .58 million viewers. 00:15:06.059 --> 00:15:07.860 Wow. In the landscape of network television, 00:15:08.220 --> 00:15:10.320 pulling over 12 million people for a brand new 00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:13.320 comedy is a massive runaway success. Now you 00:15:13.320 --> 00:15:16.240 might be thinking that a premiere with 12 .5 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:18.500 million viewers means the show is actually good. 00:15:18.700 --> 00:15:20.820 You would think that. But then you look at the 00:15:20.820 --> 00:15:23.779 professional reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, based 00:15:23.779 --> 00:15:27.940 on 26 professional critic reviews, the show holds 00:15:27.940 --> 00:15:31.019 a devastating score of zero percent. Literally 00:15:31.019 --> 00:15:33.700 zero. Zero. The critical consensus explicitly 00:15:33.700 --> 00:15:36.299 highlights the childish jokes, abysmal writing, 00:15:36.299 --> 00:15:38.720 and the half -baked stunt casting of William 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:41.220 Shatner. Ouch. And over on Metacritic, it holds 00:15:41.220 --> 00:15:43.919 a dismal score of 28 out of 100. The critics 00:15:43.919 --> 00:15:46.980 universally rejected it as an unwatchable corporate 00:15:46.980 --> 00:15:49.470 cash grab. But the audience didn't just tune 00:15:49.470 --> 00:15:51.809 in for the premiere. Millions of them stayed. 00:15:51.909 --> 00:15:53.590 Yeah, they kept watching. Here's where it gets 00:15:53.590 --> 00:15:57.070 really interesting. How does a show with a zero 00:15:57.070 --> 00:15:59.649 percent rating keep an audience? It's like a 00:15:59.649 --> 00:16:01.990 fast food burger, right? The culinary critics 00:16:01.990 --> 00:16:04.730 gave it zero stars, but millions of people lined 00:16:04.730 --> 00:16:06.950 up at the drive through anyway. That's a great 00:16:06.950 --> 00:16:09.769 analogy. Did the controversy create a national 00:16:09.769 --> 00:16:12.649 hate watch phenomenon or were people genuinely 00:16:12.649 --> 00:16:15.399 enjoying it? Over the next two episodes, viewership 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:18.220 did drop by about 20%. Which is normal. Yeah. 00:16:18.919 --> 00:16:21.799 But then, defying all critical logic, the ratings 00:16:21.799 --> 00:16:25.320 stabilized. Deep into the season, episodes with 00:16:25.320 --> 00:16:27.779 those bizarre plots we mentioned, like fighting 00:16:27.779 --> 00:16:30.240 over the coffee mug in Not Without My Jacket, 00:16:30.519 --> 00:16:33.320 they were still pulling in nearly 11 million 00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:35.799 viewers. It's crazy. It consistently hovered 00:16:35.799 --> 00:16:38.600 right around that 9 -10 million viewer mark every 00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:41.019 single week. It speaks to a massive disconnect 00:16:41.019 --> 00:16:43.279 between coastal media critics analyzing the art 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:45.659 of television, and the broader audience just 00:16:45.659 --> 00:16:48.100 looking for the comfort of ambient television. 00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:49.820 Right, something to just have on in the background. 00:16:50.100 --> 00:16:52.279 Exactly. To millions of viewers, William Shatner 00:16:52.279 --> 00:16:55.159 is a familiar comforting presence. Add in the 00:16:55.159 --> 00:16:57.159 familiar rhythm of a multi -cam laugh track, 00:16:57.559 --> 00:16:59.679 and the actual quality of the writing becomes 00:16:59.679 --> 00:17:02.019 secondary to the comfort of the format. Which 00:17:02.019 --> 00:17:04.720 culminates in the absolute height of irony for 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:08.809 this entire saga. On January 5, 2011, right in 00:17:08.809 --> 00:17:11.589 the middle of its first season, this critically 00:17:11.589 --> 00:17:15.089 despised show won the People's Choice Award for 00:17:15.089 --> 00:17:17.950 Favorite New TV Comedy. You can't make it up. 00:17:18.130 --> 00:17:20.990 A show with a 0 % on Rotten Tomatoes was handed 00:17:20.990 --> 00:17:23.210 a physical trophy because the public actually 00:17:23.210 --> 00:17:26.269 voted for it. But, you know, a populist trophy 00:17:26.269 --> 00:17:28.789 and 10 million loyal viewers weren't enough to 00:17:28.789 --> 00:17:30.650 save it from the realities of the television 00:17:30.650 --> 00:17:32.890 business. Right. Despite holding that massive 00:17:32.890 --> 00:17:35.819 audience every Thursday night. CBS pulled the 00:17:35.819 --> 00:17:39.140 plug. Really? Yeah. After just 18 episodes, they 00:17:39.140 --> 00:17:41.619 replaced it mid -season, moving the established 00:17:41.619 --> 00:17:43.759 show Rules of Engagement into its time slot. 00:17:44.059 --> 00:17:48.220 And on May 15, 2011, CBS officially canceled 00:17:48.220 --> 00:17:50.559 Bleep My Dad Says. It's an incredible contradiction, 00:17:50.839 --> 00:17:53.720 because by the metrics of 2010 network television, 00:17:54.119 --> 00:17:56.619 10 million consistent viewers was usually a golden 00:17:56.619 --> 00:17:58.880 ticket to a second season. Almost always. So 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:01.240 why kill a hit? Because eyeballs are only one 00:18:01.240 --> 00:18:02.960 part of the equation. OK, what's the other part? 00:18:03.140 --> 00:18:06.119 The ongoing friction with advertisers, who are 00:18:06.119 --> 00:18:08.400 likely still skittish about the title controversy 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:10.759 and the tonal whiplash of the episodes, combined 00:18:10.759 --> 00:18:13.640 with the absolute toxicity of the critical reception. 00:18:13.549 --> 00:18:16.529 it made the show a headache for network executives. 00:18:16.710 --> 00:18:19.710 Oh, I see. It just wasn't building the prestige 00:18:19.710 --> 00:18:23.029 brand CBS wanted. So in the world of television, 00:18:23.569 --> 00:18:27.549 what matters more? The prestige of critical acclaim 00:18:27.549 --> 00:18:31.089 or the raw data of 10 million eyeballs? That 00:18:31.089 --> 00:18:34.220 is the big question. If we step back and look 00:18:34.220 --> 00:18:36.700 at the lightning fast life cycle we've just uncovered, 00:18:37.079 --> 00:18:39.640 the timeline is genuinely breathtaking. It really 00:18:39.640 --> 00:18:42.480 is. A guy quotes his aging dad on Twitter. The 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:45.579 internet finds it hilarious. Within months, network 00:18:45.579 --> 00:18:48.140 executives panning by the rights. It gets reverse 00:18:48.140 --> 00:18:50.359 engineered into a multi -camera sitcom starring 00:18:50.359 --> 00:18:52.900 Captain Kirk. It survives a national censorship 00:18:52.900 --> 00:18:55.240 threat involving the FCC and parent advocacy 00:18:55.240 --> 00:18:58.200 groups. It debuts to over 12 million people, 00:18:58.579 --> 00:19:01.359 wins a People's Choice Award, and is unceremoniously 00:19:01.359 --> 00:19:04.000 canceled. And every single part of that happened 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:06.660 within a window of roughly 18 months. It burned 00:19:06.660 --> 00:19:09.500 incredibly bright, fueled almost entirely by 00:19:09.500 --> 00:19:11.839 the friction of its own existence. That's a good 00:19:11.839 --> 00:19:14.119 way to put it. For you listening, this forgotten 00:19:14.119 --> 00:19:16.579 sitcom is so much more than a piece of trivia. 00:19:17.220 --> 00:19:20.039 It is the definitive blueprint for the growing 00:19:20.039 --> 00:19:22.740 pains of adapting internet culture for mainstream 00:19:22.740 --> 00:19:26.140 audiences. Absolutely. Today, the pipeline from 00:19:26.140 --> 00:19:28.980 the internet to mainstream entertainment is heavily 00:19:28.980 --> 00:19:32.380 paved. We see TikTok creators getting multi -picture 00:19:32.380 --> 00:19:35.099 movie deals and YouTube stars hosting massive 00:19:35.099 --> 00:19:38.779 game shows. Totally normal now. Right. But in 00:19:38.779 --> 00:19:42.190 2010, Nobody knew how to navigate that translation. 00:19:42.589 --> 00:19:45.329 They were blindly throwing resources at the wall, 00:19:45.529 --> 00:19:47.490 just trying to capture lightning in a bottle. 00:19:47.730 --> 00:19:49.849 And that translation process leaves us with a 00:19:49.849 --> 00:19:51.690 really compelling final thought to consider. 00:19:51.910 --> 00:19:54.450 What's that? Because the story of Justin Halpern's 00:19:54.450 --> 00:19:56.710 blog post didn't actually end with this cancellation. 00:19:56.890 --> 00:19:59.910 It didn't. No. A few years later, he actually 00:19:59.910 --> 00:20:02.619 got a second television series made. adapted 00:20:02.619 --> 00:20:05.259 from his material, a show called Surviving Jack. 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:08.119 And it begs a fascinating question for you to 00:20:08.119 --> 00:20:10.819 explore on your own. When you look at the spectacular 00:20:10.819 --> 00:20:14.839 failure of Bleep, my dad says, was it proof that 00:20:14.839 --> 00:20:17.539 raw internet culture simply cannot be adapted 00:20:17.539 --> 00:20:20.119 into the structured world of television? That's 00:20:20.119 --> 00:20:22.299 interesting. Or does it prove that the highly 00:20:22.299 --> 00:20:25.900 rigid, artificially lit, laugh track driven format 00:20:25.900 --> 00:20:30.259 of the 2010 multicam sitcom was just the absolute 00:20:30.259 --> 00:20:33.859 worst possible vessel to capture the raw authenticity 00:20:33.859 --> 00:20:36.480 of the internet? That is exactly what makes this 00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:38.859 era of television so fascinating. We started 00:20:38.859 --> 00:20:42.180 today by picturing that massive Hollywood machine 00:20:42.180 --> 00:20:45.799 being disrupted by a 140 character tweet. And 00:20:45.799 --> 00:20:47.859 maybe the ultimate lesson of this entire deep 00:20:47.859 --> 00:20:50.059 dive is that you can easily force a viral tweet 00:20:50.059 --> 00:20:51.980 into a corporate pitch meeting, but no amount 00:20:51.980 --> 00:20:54.140 of money can force the internet to sound natural 00:20:54.140 --> 00:20:56.359 waiting for a laugh track. Perfectly said. Thank 00:20:56.359 --> 00:20:58.000 you so much for joining us on this deep dive. 00:20:58.160 --> 00:20:59.960 Keep questioning the media you consume, look 00:20:59.960 --> 00:21:02.460 past the ratings, and above all, stay insanely 00:21:02.460 --> 00:21:02.960 curious.