14850 Dining

"When 79 years old you reach, have a hit sitcom, will you?" For most of us, it's unlikely. But for William Shatner, it's just the next step in a long and often outrageous career that's seen him establish one of the most parodied dramatic pauses in cinematic history, give the galaxy a dashing starship captain, a tough Los Angeles cop, an over-the-top Priceline.com spokesman, and an Emmy Award winning attorney with an ego even bigger than Shatner's itself! 

And now, at the age of 79, William Shatner takes on the role of Ed Goodson, touted as the Archie Bunker of the 21st century. Based on the real-life father of writer Justin Halpern, who simply started writing down quotes from his father Sam last year on Twitter, millions of followers and one #1 bestselling hardcover later, CBS green-lighted a new series whose name you can't say on TV without bleeping the first word of the title. But the show's content is anything but unspeakable. It's actually quite lovable and embracing...and certainly hilarious. 

"$#*! My Dad Says" starts September 23rd on CBS. Button courtesy of Janice Willcocks.Earlier this evening, I had the good fortune to be among the live studio audience for the taping of the pilot episode of "$#*! My Dad Says" (or, as I like to call it, for reasons of taste, "Shat My Dad Says") on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank, California. In fact, the sound stage is the same as was used for early seasons of "Everyone Loves Raymond." 

I've sat in a number of studio audiences over the years (living in L.A., it just sorta happens, and you take it for granted). Often, new shows struggle to fill all their seats. Hit shows get sold out, but pilots often have to scrounge and lasso in tourists who come for studio lot tours. But not tonight. William Shatner and the buzz around this "taboo"named new sitcom was enough to make this one of the hottest tickets in Hollywood. And fortunately, thanks to local Trek fan club member Jackie Bundy's connections, another fellow member Janice Willcocks, two of Janice's non-Trekkie friends, and I were able to score second-row VIP seats. 

Things started at about 5:00 p.m. You could actually feel the anticipation, and that's not an exaggeration. This was going to be the first episode of what everyone hoped could become a #1 hit TV series...although it actually wasn't the first time they filmed it. A version of this pilot had been shot back in the spring with actor Ryan Devlin playing the part of Henry, Ed's writer-son. But there were some issues with Devlin that the studio is reluctant to discuss, and this co-starring role was recast with Jonathan Sadowski, who has done mostly movies and some smaller TV roles. Could Sadowski keep up with Shatner? Could Shatner handle a live audience (well, duh!) and the rigors of a sitcom shooting schedule at his age?

But when the cast was introduced, the jitters were gone and the excitement started. Always the crowd pleaser, Shatner wasn't content to simply be introduced and take a bow like his co-stars. He grabbed the microphone and gave the audience a pep talk. He thanked us for coming and explained that there were more geniuses on this show than there were on the Manhattan Project. So the actors would be reading the lines the geniuses wrote, then the geniuses would come up with even better lines, change them, and the actors would perform even better scenes. (And yes, this did indeed happen. Seemingly perfect scenes ended, a gaggle of busy people in suits would descend on the main stars, a huddle would last for five to ten minutes while a professional comedian kept the audience entertained and amped up, and then the scene would be filmed again with slightly different cues and dialog...often better, sometimes worse.) 

It was Janice's friend sitting next to me who pointed out the director of the episode to me: James Burrows, the co-creator of "Cheers" and director of episodes of nearly every hit sitcom since the 1970s: "Mary Tyler Moore", "The Bob Newhart Show", "Rhoda", "Taxi", "Frasier", "Friends" "Third Rock", "Will and Grace", "Two and a Half Men"...the list is endless. 

The moment came for the first scene. Henry is outside the door of his father's house in San Diego, nervously talking to his mother on his cell phone. "Mom? I'm at Dad's. - Because I need to ask him for money. - Yes, I know. How did you manage it? - Um, no, I can't divorce him. - Well, maybe he's changed..." By this point, Henry has paced away from the door, his back to the house. The front door bursts open, and there's William Shater, dressed in pajamas, pointing a shotgun at what he thinks is the backside of a burglar and snarling, "Okay, punk, guts or nuts -- your choice!" 

"Nope, he hasn't changed," says Henry, hanging up with his Mom. A good first take, but nothing in Hollywood is ever done once. We reset, Henry does the same cell phone dialog, the door bursts open, and Shatner can't get the shotgun to click. He juggles the prop and drops it, trying to save the line and bursting into laughter along with the audience. The tension is cut -- this won't be a perfect night, but neither will the little glitches be the end of the world.

Scenes would continue to play out with a variety of cast members in them. Canadian Will Sasso, a veteran of "MadTV", plays Henry's half-brother Vince, a good-hearted bungler who's more of a screw-up than Henry and yet has a better life at the moment. (Henry has just been laid off as a writer at a "men's" magazine.) Joining Sasso as his TV wife is his MadTV fellow alumna Nicole Julianne Sullivan, who is likely more recognizable as the wife on the hit CBS sitcom "The King of Queens." 

The show isn't trying to introduce too many characters in its opening episode, which is good. It gives the audience a chance to get to know the situation and the relationships. In this pilot episode, a broke and unemployed Henry must ask his father for help -- a tall order because the two have been estranged since his parents divorced when Henry was still a youngster. But more than just money or a roof over his head, Henry wants to finally get to know his father. 

Ed isn't so sure, though. He's a no-nonsense loner who calls it like it is. When Henry starts to tell his father why he came, Ed interrupts, "If you're going to come out to me, don't bother. You'd never be able to handle the gay lifestyle. They'd annihilate you. You dress like you just robbed a Mervyns!" 

Yep, they're keeping in as many of the pearls of wisdom as possible. After all, this is "$#*! My Dad Says." Among other notable lines I remember are: "If it looks like manure and it smells like manure, then its either Wolf Blitzer or it's manure..." and (to a clerk at the DMV) "Why the heck do I have to read letters on a wall??? I've never been rear-ended by a giant E!" 

So, how did Shatner do? It was interesting to watch him. The man is as comfortable in front of an audience as he is breathing. Anyone who has seen him at a Star Trek convention knows how fun and silly and charming he can be. But he's also an accomplished actor. Some might snort at that remark, but he really does have more acting ability in his little finger than most other actors will ever be able to develop in a lifetime of trying to perfect their craft. And a lot of the time, I felt that Shatner was only testing the waters, holding a lot back and showing us just a taste of what he can do. 

On the other hand, he's not a trained sitcom actor, and you could tell that, too. Sasso and Sullivan, two amazing comedy veterans, could play a scene flawlessly from any script in-point. Their timing and energy are impeccable, and it shows. If you watch, you'll see them carry their scenes along easily so nothing ever looks awkward. Co-star Sadowski as Henry also seemed more comfortable in the sitcom situation, while Shatner occasionally made some obvious sitcom errors, like muttering lines too quietly or not waiting for the audience laughter to die down before going to the next line (although his hearing problems might be the cause of the latter). 

However, I got the feeling that these minor glitches will disappear within a few episodes. Shatner is smart enough to pick up the little tricks from his cast mates and the directors. Those are just little elements of timing and getting to know the oddities of taping before a live studio audience. On a drama like "Boston Legal", whispered lines for dramatic impact were fine, as the boom mike would pick up a lot. And there was also no need on that show for Shatner to wait for audience laughter to fade before continuing with the scene. Those nuances of sitcoms, though, can be easily learned. 

What you can't teach as easily is something that Shatner brings with him in a freight-car-sized package: his ability to magnificently act and deliver lines in captivating ways. It earned him two Emmys and a Golden Globe. But those awards were for an ensemble show where Shatner was but one piece of a much-larger whole. Now, with "$#*! My Dad Says", this is unquestionably Shatner's sitcom. The leading man with the ego gets to be the big star and take this show as far as he wants to.

And so far, that's not all that far -- which is an unbelievably good thing. Shatner is not overwhelming his co-stars, as he so easily could, I'm certain. Shatner is allowing the show and its other characters to develop naturally. He himself is discovering Ed, just as Henry will over the course of the series, I'm certain. Sir Lawrence Olivier once said, "Never show them everything you have -- because then there will be nothing left for you to give them." Shatner is doing just that. He's still incredibly fun to watch, but you know there's more...and with luck, audiences will keep watching to see just how much more.

In the meantime, I have no doubt "$#*!" will do well in its Thursday at 8:30 p.m. time slot (starting on September 23). Besides Shatner, it has some great writing, wonderful acting, and a good, solid grounding in family and love. Like Archie Bunker before him, Ed Goodson truly loves his family but just doesn't know really how to show it. Unlike Archie, however, as Ed enters his twilight years, he begins to realize just how lonely and empty his life has become. As viewers, we learned to love Archie for what he was, not hate him for what he wasn't. With Ed, we will love him for what we know he can become...with help from his family, from genius writers, and from Mr. William Shatner himself. 

At the end of a four-plus hour taping, the first 22-minute episode was now in the can, and the audience gave a standing ovation to everyone...loudest for Shatner himself, of course. Far from exhausted, we left there energized, knowing that we'd just seen the start of something special. With luck, America will agree and "$#*! My Dad Says" will have a long and healthy run. If so, I'd love to have an opportunity to sit in that studio audience again...if tickets are available, that is. I have a suspicion, though, that after tonight's amazing taping, tickets won't be all that easy to come by.