I said NO to the Dr. Phil Show!

I said NO to the Dr. Phil show

I got a call one afternoon from the Dr Phil Show. At first I thought it was a friend pulling an early April Fools joke on me. But it turned out it was a researcher for The Dr. Phil Show. I was very surprised, and asked them how they found out about me. I had forgotten that I had sent them some information about my company in hope that they would do a show about my business.

Well, I listened to what the researcher was looking for and wrote it all down. I told her I would call her back as I would have to think about it and talk to some of my customers.

The theme of the show was “Older women with younger boyfriends that they like buying gifts for”, the opposite of a sugar daddy/sugar daddie I guess. So, they wanted me to contact some of my customers who showed a preference for younger men. In the meantime I contacted a few friends that had appeared on the Dr. Phil show to get their feedback. I was not prepared for what my friends had to say. One of them basically said she needed a Dr. after appearing on the show. He had done a show on “Cougars” For those who do not know this term, Cougars are women that date younger men. Not sure where the term came from, but author Valerie Gibson wrote a book about it. Dr. Phil questioned my friends preferences to the point of her feeling like she was some kind of pedophile. I heard other stories from people who have appeared on the show who were left in tears. There was no rehearsal, and Dr. Phil would come up with questions on air that left them stunned. And they call this entertainment? For who?

Now, armed with all of this information I telephoned the Dr. Phil Show back. I told her what some of my customers had said, as well as conversations that I had with previous “guests” on their show. She assured me that any customer of mine would be treated very well and that the purpose of the story is to show the types of lives that some people lead. I went on to repeat one of the comments that one of my customers had said to me, which was “They felt that the show was edging towards the Jerry Springer style. Sure they were not throwing chairs around but they were not prepared to expose themselves on National Television just for the entertainment value” The researcher was not happy with this reference, and said they are not like Jerry Springer at all. But as I spoke to her, the more I thought of some of the episodes that I had seen which I think would have been best left alone. I often wondered how these peoples lives had been changed negatively due to being on the show. I then told her that I loved the business that I was in, what my purpose and my code of ethics. My customers privacy is my highest priority as well as their right to practice in an alternative lifestyle. Nothing positive would have come from me appearing on the show, or my customers.

Here is a little background on Dr. Phil copied from Wikipedia

Career

McGraw owned a construction business with his brother-in-law while completing his internship for his Ph.D. He did one-on-one sessions in private practice in Wichita Falls, Texas and conducted life skills seminars with his father and Thelma Box, before getting out of private practice and founding Courtroom Sciences, Inc., a trial consulting firm, in 1989 with neighbor Gary Dobbs. As president of CSI, he advised Fortune 500 companies and injured plaintiffs alike in achieving settlements.[3]

In 1995, Oprah Winfrey had help from Phil McGraw to prepare her for the Amarillo Texas beef trial. Winfrey was so impressed with McGraw that she thanked him for her victory in that case, which ended in 1998. Soon after, she invited him to appear on her show. His appearance proved so successful that he began appearing weekly as a “Relationship and Life Strategy Expert” on Tuesdays starting in April 1998. In 2002, he launched his own syndicated daily television show, Dr. Phil, produced by Winfrey’s Harpo Studios. The format is an advice show, where he tackles a different topic on each show, offering advice for his guests’ troubles. McGraw has authored a number of self-help books on topics such as relationships and weight loss.

Psychological approach

His technique, which differs considerably from traditional psychology, has been criticized by those inside and outside the profession. McGraw’s critics regard advice given by him to be at best simplistic, and at worst, invective.[7]

McGraw never liked traditional counseling and was awkward in one-on-one situations.[8] In Psychology Today journalist Pamela Paul writes that McGraw “knows what’s best and he’s not afraid to tell you. Dr. Phil issues counsel as marching orders.”[9] McGraw himself admits that “I’m not the Hush-Puppies, pipe and `Let’s talk about your mother’ kind of psychologist.”[8]
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We are all entitled to our opinions, but I did not feel it in my or my customers best interests to appear on the show. I think it is hard enough in this world dealing with the curveballs that life throws at us without appearing on that show and making it so “public”. Have they ever shown the negative effects of people who have made their story public on his show. I have been shocked by some of the story lines to the point that I will no longer watch the show. This Doctor is reported to make over $15 million a year and lives comfortably in Beverly Hills. He has come a long way from his early days as a “Relationship and Life Strategy Expert” on Oprah’s show, to marketing his name on a well known dating service, and now he has his wife answering questions? I think the best thing that he has done in his career is to set up a charity called Toys for Tots. But many celebrities give back to the community and is almost expected these days considering the large amounts of money that they earn.

Now if Oprah called, that would be a different story and a different post. Love ya Oprah, call me!