People Magazine, September 18, 2006



http://drkeith.warnerbros.com/



Step up your game Dr. Shill, youngblood on your tail. I was impressed with the debut show topic, but my oh my, this has got to be the quickest descent from nobility to trash in television history.

I was actually looking forward to Tuesday's episode of this show. He is going to delve into the mind of people that create false confessions. I just hope for the sake of Jon Benet's family that it is tastefully done.

I liked this show, judging from the premiere. Dr. A seems like a genuinely good guy and he handled 9/11 with great care and sensitivity. I was trying to avoid most of the press coverage of the anniversary from overexposure, but wanted to see him in action. Kudos to him, we'll see what really happens when he tacked freaky JMK tomorrow! Eep!

I was really impressed with the show. He handled the anniversary with care and dignity. It will definitely be interesting to see what happens with the episode tommorow with John Mark Karr.

I turned on Dr. Phil and was confused when I saw Dr. Keith - I had no idea they were changing the line-up. Oh well, it was a decent show.

Hey, it looks like some Starting Over thread people are here! (that's always a good thing!)

Anyway, I really like his show, but I liked Ablow since his appearance on Oprah last year and on Court TV. I hope that he isn't as big a shill as Dr. $hill is.

I'm no fan of Tori Spelling, but after seeing her ex-hubby on Dr. Keith, I can see why she's such a mess. She grew up with Aaron encouraging her and his wife to compete against each other, and he would often tell her, "I love you best, even more than mommy." And then, she lived for 19 years with a totally controlling mother who gave her the following marital advice: Make sure the man loves you more than you love him.

Also, it was really shitty that Aaron and Candy, whose estate is worth more than $500 million, wanted to move the wedding from July 4 to July 3, so that they wouldn't have to pay the attendants and waiters time and a half. And after Tori and Charlie agreed to move the date so that the Spellings could save a few thousand dollars, Candy had the nerve to tell Charlie that she would pay the difference for the guests who had to change their flights.

The Spellings are more fucked up than the Carringtons on Dynasty.

When Tori and Charlie were first dating, I remember how Tori used to profess to the media how much she loved Charlie. And also of how she was so excited to start a life with him. I feel for Charlie when he was told that Tori never really loved him. She is self-centered and worthless. I'm glad that he is out of that lifestyle, and I hope he finds his happiness. It was funny how he called Dean McDermont, The Canadian.

The Simpson family should be on this show. That Papa Joe and Jessica need help ASAP.

I haven't seen the show yet, but I've enjoyed Dr. Ablow's novels very much.

But why the H-E-double-hockeysticks would he want to compare himself to a "young Dr. Phil"??? Yuck!

Thank you. THAT's why his name sounds so familiar... novels.

How sad is it that I had to go to the website listed to figure out who the crap Dr. Keith Ablow was? I've seen the show, but I couldn't figure out why he had one.

Darn it! I missed the Shar Jackson interview.

It was good stuff too! I really didn't know hardly any of that. Its funny, I had no clue who Shar was before all this Britney stuff started, she seems so strong and to have such great character and common sense. How did she ever end up with beady eyed K. Fed for 4 years? What a creep. I'm amazed she's able to remain such friends with him after all this stuff, shows how much she really loves those kids.

Did Shar say how she found out about Kevin and Britney? Did he tell her? Did he just say *I met someone else and i'm out*?

IIRC, Kevin told Shar that he hung out with someone for a few days. At first Kevin wouldn't say who then after Shar pressed him he said that it was with Britney.

I came away impressed with Shar.Lots of maturity and strength.She seems to have handled the whole thing well. Shar stressed the importance of making sure the kids are the first priority. I loved how she laid down the law and told Kevin that if he wants to be a part of the kids' lives he has to be there for them at all times not only when it's convenient for him. I also thought it was good that she said she doesn't mind her kids being with Britney but that she doesn't expect Britney to raise them. She emphasized that that's Kevin's role. Hopefully, he is stepping up to the plate and that Shar holds him to that.

I liked hearing that for now she is not dating because she believes that God wants her to have 'me time.' So many people go from one relationship to another and it's nice to see her take some time to heal before dating again.

I still don't like her (Shar Jackson)

Something about her just 'rubs' me the wrong way and I don't know why. She seemed phoney during the entire interview.

He was using her, and then traded her in for someone who is rich & famous--which is why I'm not buying this "I'm a strong woman" act. She never had a backbone to begin with.

Why do you say "she never had a backbone to begin with"?

She was weak then and still is.

I think you're still confusing Shar with her character on Moesha.

She and that woman, who had the skating husband, are pretty darn strong women.

I tend to believe otherwise. She let Kevin use her for years.

We don't know that.

"she let Kevin use her for yrs"

How do you know that? Shar has said that she thought she and Kevin were happy, that she didn't know for a long time that Kevin was seeing someone else.

I guess he "first" became a user when he started dating Britney Spears.

That reminds me of when Britney spears was doing the Dateline interview and she would throw up air quotation marks around random words.

LOL

Did any of you see the show on "The Plastics" from myspace?

I saw the Plastics. That episode was so... weird. On the one hand, I loved how utterly real it was - here's this terribly damaged boy, doing his best to damage other people so he feels better (either that, or he's just a sociopath), and people who desperately want to be accepted, and this poor woman whose son hung himself, and the outcast 14 year-old girl... it was messy and hard to take, which was much "realer" than other shows usually are.

On the other hand, the fact that it was so messy made a through-line hard to pinpoint. Some people are assholes. Okay. So what do we do about it if we don't have access to that kickass Internet privacy lawyer? And what's gonna happen to that horrible no-socks guy?

Forgot the name of the leader's name, John or Jeff, but I can't wait for the day someone puts him in a bootcamp and see how tough he is. He'll be crying in a minute.

High five mrskitty! The whole time I was watching the show, I kept longing for the old days when Maury would bring out a boot camp leader and off they would go. The show in general is painful(I don't particularly like dr. ablow), but this episode was headache inducing. I realize that the kid must obviously have something he's hiding in his background, but he was such a punk ass snot, it was hard not to want for him to get his comeuppance and I was so disappointed that it wasn't delivered in this little hour.

John from the plastics (what a loser) was obviously in some serious hang up about something in himself, me thinks its about his sexuality since he totally avoided it when confronted by the other guy up there. I like Dr. Keith, but I wish he would've smacked him down rather than saying "aww I know you're in pain". It's probably true, but the guy just didn't get it.

I just had to add a comment about yesterday's show about mothers who show extreme anger at their kids. I felt Dr. Keith had a point with the first two mothers but somewhat missed the mark on the single mother with three kids. First off I blame both her and the two oldest kids. Obviously she is an ineffective disciplinarian. And why can't those kids pick up the house if they know what time their Mom was coming home each day?! I would blow my top too if I came home after 8 to 12 hours of work and a house in disarray and two grown ass teens sitting on their butts watching tv, playing video games and on the computer. How about turning everything off putting on some relaxing music and make things nice for her at once! But of course it's all her fault! These kids need at least do their parts to make home a relaxing place to come home to, or perhaps she never trained them to clean up?

Kristy Swanson and her skating partner will be on Tyra Banks this Friday. We'll see what their side of the story is.

I felt Tuesday's episode was the best so far. Anger could definitely be a sign of clinical depression and I suspect that there are many such people who function reasonably well, to an extent, but are always ready to blow their top.

Kristy Swanson claims she's not a homewrecker. Hmm... Well, the exwife thinks otherwise from her visit to the show last month.

I attended the taping of the show that is going to air on Thursday. I was very disappointed in Dr. Keith. It was VERY Jerry Springer. It's a show that was supposed to be about how kids are affected by divorce and they ended up changing the title of the show and re-taping the introduction. It is now about a son's rage at his mother. It was just heartbreaking to see how real the guests are yet how much the host doesn't care during commercial breaks. They left these people up on stage....sobbing....while Dr. Keith got his makeup touched up. Then just let them loose on the streets of NYC. I was seriously scared that the two brothers were going to throw down at one point and I was on the front row. Heartbreaking. The mother on the show....sucks big time. She should be ashamed to be on TV.

I just saw that episode this afternoon and I really have to agree with you. It was very Springer first, and second Dr. Keith seemed waaayyy out of his league here. When he was trying to talk they wouldn't shut up because they didn't respect him and he really looked like he didn't know what to do. I can kind of see why he would just take a break and go get a touch up during the commercials, these people were defiant and drove me nuts, I wanted to take a make up break. I agree about the mother, if she feels so strongly, don't pay all of his bills you moron! But I really hope Dr. Keith doesn't behave like that again, it lowered my respect for him and made him look pretty bad. Don't go all Dr. Phil on me now.

I've seen it a few times and don't like it.

I can't remember which one it was a month or two ago, but there was a mom who had just gotten sober. I guess she was having problems with alcohol and painkillers. He asked if she's still taking pills, and she was trying to explain that she just takes what is prescribed now (Xanax, which can become addictive, but wasn't the drug she had addiction problems with) and is not addicted to it, but takes it for anxiety. He started in on her about how she's not clean if she's taking that. I know there is some debate that even if you're just a recovering alcoholic, you can't take a number of things-different prescription drugs being on that list. I feel that if you haven't taken the one drug that is your problem drug (or had a drink if you're an alcoholic), then you are clean. Just because you become addicted to say, painkillers, doesn't necessarily mean you'll become addicted to Valium or Xanax. And, often when comming off painkillers, your doctor will often prescribe Xanax, because anxiety and insomnia sneak up real quick.

Back to my point, she was trying to tell him she only takes Xanax as prescribed (again, not the drug she was addicted to) and he was, in my opinion rude that she takes Xanax. Now, she hadn't exactly had the top mothering skills in the past few years and had like all 3 of her teenage girls pregnant. He asked her how much she takes, and she couldn't remember the exact milligrams, she said, "Whichever the milligrams are the blue pills". He got all pissy after that and started saying, "No you must have problems with those because 'blue pills' is drug street talk", and never let her finish. I can tell you that if I have alot of medications, I know how many pills to pull out of the bottle to take what I'm prescribed, but I often don't know what the mg's are of it. And alot of Pharmacuetical Manufacturers are making different color pills for each different mg's they have available. I'm making this up, but just an example: Same medication, but the 5mg pills are yellow, 10mgs are orange, 15mgs are blue, etc. I just felt bad for her and angry at him for the way he was judging her. He wasn't there to help, he purely judged her because she had a problem with addiction (but was clean).

The other show I watched was with Adrianne Curry and Christopher Knight. For those that don't follow, he was Peter on The Brady Bunch, she won America's Next Top Model. They then appeard together on The Surreal Life and fell in lust. Then, they have their own show together on VH-1 called My Fair Brady. They got married some time earlier this year. There's a 25 year age difference, as well as a 25 year maturity difference. So I guess they need all the counseling they can get.

So anyway, it's a fact men find her sexy (according to Mr. ShaNaeNae, Brother ShaNaeNae, and several other guys I've heard say it). I guess she won Dr. Ablow over (I'd LOVE to make a bad joke about his last name and female guests, but I won't. Mainly because I can't think of a good one). It seemed no matter what she did, it was ok. However, the Dr. picked on Chris quite a bit. She has a tendency to whine about alot of things-which brings her maturity level down even further. No word from DKA about how she might want to drop the whine and bring the maturity up a notch. Yet, Chris can be a little anal (somebody's got to be in that family!) and didn't like the church they picked for their wedding and wanted to make a bunch of changes-starting with bringing in lighter flowers to brighten the place up (she wanted black roses, I think). He did what I'm sure a million brides wished their fiancee would do-be involved (if not overly involved), but he got chastised for be too controling. It was the same song and dance throughout the episode. Totally one sided.

So unless it's something REALLY good, I can't watch it anymore. I knew he was bad, but it confirmed my decision when I had to go to page 3 or 4 in the Talk Show catagory, and there was only 3 pages to his thread. Heh.

Have you seen the other show with Adrianne and Chris on it? He publicly announced her misscarriage without even telling her. It was awful to watch. she blogged about it on her myspace here Adrianne's Blog I thought he sunk incredibly low. I dont see much "nice" about this guy

I'm going to be the only one here who thinks this guy is the real deal. He is the only tv therapist that sounds like a real therapist.

I know parents don't like to hear this, but if you've yelled abusively at your kids all their lives, it is your fault if they don't clean the house to your specifications and it makes you so damn angry you have to scream in a near-possessed way. Who wants to lift a finger for a mother who screams at you every day about how awful you are?

And no kid in the world is responsile for putting on "comforting music" for mom after she comes home from work. You know what would be comforting? Not having your mom come home every day and tell you how much you suck. Does she ever just come home and say "Hey kids! I'm home! I love you!" ??? A clean house is not the best indication of quality parenting, nor is a dirty one. (Of course, Dr. Keith always acknowledges that the parental anger comes from their own childhood pain, which is legit, so he does offer them a way to understand themselves. He's trying to stop the cycle.)

Chris Night is a controlling weirdo--he even admits it. And the announcement of his wife's miscarriage--characterized by him as "Adrienne already made one mistake." Gross. She has daddy issues, no doubt, and based on the sexual abuse, it is lucky she's still alive and was able to kick drugs by herself. That's strength. People who have not been through similar experiences just can't--or won't--understand what it takes for her to get up every morning. I find it disheartening to see such a lack of empathy for other people's pain.

Unlike Dr. Phil, Dr. Keith is actually capable of empathy. it's also very clear to me when he's annoyed that he has to interview celebs for ratings. The celeb shows do seem to always be on Mondays...

Just to back up my last post, I had written that after Adrianne and Chris' first appearance.

I just saw the second one with the other Reality TV "stars" a few days ago.

Now that I've seen the second one, their interview makes more sense on why Dr. Keith was leaning toward her side. The first show was edited lightly, the second, much more dark.

Some of the things they didn't show in the first show but on the second show was-

-Christopher outing her miscarriage

-Her times of torture in the closet

-I can't remember exactly-wasn't it some sort of molestation as a small child?

-Her drug use.



I'm not sure if this was directed to me since I wrote the first post on them. There was no lack of empathy for her pain because, like stated above, I wrote that after the first show and not the second-when she admitted her drug abuse when she was younger. For what it's worth, I do somewhat understand first hand. While I am not familiar with sexual abuse, I am personally familiar with addiction. And trying to beat it by yourself is never easy. The depression on top of already mounted depression makes it almost impossible to get up in the mornings.

I thought it was odd that they had 2 seperate shows on them based on one interview. I felt bad for Chris, though, too, for all the childhood problems he had. I know some would think he had it made as a kid being on the most popular sitcom, but from we've all seen, being a kid star sucks. And it seems his parents weren't very comforting or nuturing as well. I know she said she doesn't believe in divorce, but I see no way these 2 can make it. I'm not against age difference in relationships, just maturity differences. And these 2 just seem to be at opposite ends of the earth.

Anyway, still not real crazy about the guy, but I do now check to see what's on his show because I will tune in for a good topic. And the guy finally asked Erica from The Bachelor what makes her a "Princess", something I've been waiting for anyone to ask her. I also liked the show on Little People. These families were great-some things the said or did made me think that maybe The Roloff's can learn something from them.

ShaNaeNae : None of my comments were directed at you specifically...it was more of an overall observation about the general lack of empathy in America these days--people blaming kids for trauma inflicted by parents, for instance, as though parents own them outright or something and should never be blamed for abuse short of hitting, etc.

In the example of Adrienne Curry, 22 IS immature--it's not something to judge her for and tell her to "grow up." She's trying! But without help, people in her situation will use their old defenses way past the point that they stop working and start alientating others. I know Chris Night has a hard life, but he's had far more time to work with that and, as much as I was crushing on him with Adrienne during the Surreal Life, I'm kind of anti-him now. He is the one who should have been mature enough NOT to live their romance out on camera.

Dr. Keith, to me, is the first talk show personality with some expertise who doesn't think everyone should change in that moment because he told them to. He understands that the way to fix the boys who don't clean the house for mom is to start with mom, not the boys--because the fact that they don't clean is not the root of the problem--it's not what's making mom mad.

(Sorry, this topic pushes my buttons and I'm ravenously hungry--but I'm in it for the conversation--as heated as it may be--not any judgement to other posters specifically.)

But... :) in response to your post about the mother on Xanax, I think Dr. K was responding to her total evasiveness about what she was taking. It did seem as though she was trying to parse things a bit, rather than saying "I'm only taking the Xanax prescribed to me by my doctor." when he questioned further, instead of trying to guess, which made her nervous, she should have said, "I take what the label tells me to. would you like to see it?" The "blue" pill thing was a little "street," as he said.

My favorite epi so far was the one with the 11-year-old boy whose father had been murdered by his ex, and the boy blamed himself? I thought Dr. K was amazing to him. He even gave him his home phone number and told him to call him any time day or night.

I just had to add what a craptistically disappointing show this turned out to be!
Sorry, I just don't get what his point is with each show. It's as if he can't decide whether to have the obnoxiousness of DrP or kinda sorta try to have something to say?
He can't carry an interview. Five minutes into them and he's repeating points adnauseum that don't mean anything. So then he already has to go for the shock crapola.
But do listen for the random psycho-babble just for good measure and to remind everyone that he's a Dr.

WHATEVER!! YAWNS ALL AROUND!!

Today's show is about hoarders. GOOD GOD!

The first thing I noticed was that all the women who were hoaders also had a big weight problem. I think i've been mistaken about what hoarding really is. I thought that hoarders never threw anything away but kept it neatly arranged, well as much as that is possible with hoarding. The houses they showed today were competely filthy. In one house, someone used a spray bottle, etc and just tossed it on the floor in the hallway. There was trash everywhere.

So hoarders never take out the trash? Ever?

I felt very sorry for the kids.

Can you imagine. "Honey," (or, Cinderella), "We've sold your bed. Use this old nasty one, or buy yourself a new one." That might make any one of us want to keep everything we ever came into contact with for fear of "needing it someday." I might just start collecting beds--which would take up a hell of a lot of space. One of those women kept scraps of bark and broken glass!

Puts into perspective the people who claim to have OCD because they check three times to make sure the oven is off before they go out of town. Check 103 times, maybe...or women who don't understand why they can't throw away old makeup. As long as it's relegated to a drawer or three, it doesn't seem so bad. We all hoard a bit, but this was crazy. I'll admit to being a slob, but the three empty coffe cups on my desk will be thrown away when I get around to it. I'm not saving them!

Show makes me feel grateful for my apparently quite healthy mental health!

Taodys' show is called "Help My Outrageous Mom"

It's about mom's who dress too sexy and the daughters who are embarrssed by them.

Well, the first mom that came out is only 41 yrs old but she looks like she's in her mid 50s. She is there with her 13 yr old daughter who says that her mom likes to wear super small clothing and dance sexy for her teenage friends.

Anyone watching this trainwrech?

OH. MY. GOD.

Danelle's mom is ony 39.

I tuned in when they had Halley Berrys sister and niece on-eh- I like the trashy mom stories better on Maury. On Maury we hear the crazy story, see the makeover, and then it's over with- on Dr. Keith we drag out a story make the mom look extra trashy talk about feelings see the makeover and talk about feelings some more- not interested..... This was actually my 2nd time seeing Dr. Keith.

Wait. Halle Berry's sister and niece were on?

Twixters? Quarter life crisis? Eeeesh.

Uh-huh. Ever notice that these kinds of shows never show the Internet Geeks or the WoW addicts? I certainly haven't seen that. Can't imagine why not...

As for Johnny, considering what he's majoring in, is it any wonder why he'd rather stay in college? Still, I think he could get a decent career once he finally graduated.

Employers would be rather suspicious of someone who was in college for 13 years without some kind of life-hardship story.

I work at a college--in fact, the same college I graduated from--and I can tell you, this guy has serious problems. And the friends that support him? The biggest losers on campus. (Did you look at them?) It's one thing to take classes perpetually while living in a college town, but to hang out with college-aged people when you're 30 is flat-out weird. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some younger female students who would find it innapropriate for him to hang out in their residence hall.

I loved college--in fact, I loved my college so much I've spent the last decade working to promote it. But the idea of hanging out at a college party is absurd. In fact, it was absurd by my senior year...

Eric Stoltz's character in the 1996 film "Kicking and Screaming" is a great example of how to be a "perennial" student without being completely stuck.

This guy kills me. He practically browbeat some poor girl on the show today because she wouldn't take her buttwipe hubby back