Shelby's Life and Whatnot

Dr. Phil One More Time

I went to see Dr. Phil being taped again this morning. No, I'm not turning into a Dr. Philaholic, they called me! My interest in Dr. Phil is purely academic--research for my novel. And boy, did I glean a bunch of information.

Three things were markedly different between this show and the last one I went to.

1) I was inside, not outside
2) It was positively freezing, not boiling hot
3) I got no free gifts, unlike the haul from last time

Yes, that's right. No autographed copy of the book. I didn't even get a lousy coffee mug. They did give these things away to seemingly random people, but only about 10-12 of them, and I was not one of the lucky winners. Not that I wanted his book anyway, but it's the principle of the matter. Is it so wrong to want free stuff?

This time I got to see how the Dr. Phil show really works. I had a great seat, in the 4th row up from the stage, 2 rows above the guests on the show. I could see Dr. Phil's makeup. And that of his wife Robin, whom I am convinced is an animatronic cyborg. Just kidding. Sort of.

They raced through a number of guests on this show--far more than usual I believe. The theme was "Ask Dr. Phil and Robin." People had sent in questions and were brought on the show for Dr. Phil to address. One memorable one in particular was this man who felt that his daughter was a child prodigy on the piano and was the next Mozart. The mother of the child felt that the father was making the child (whose name was Nila, just like my Aunt!) practice too hard. Oh, and the child was SEVEN MONTHS OLD. No, that wasn't a typo. Seven MONTHS old. Ummmmmm, okay. Nila played a little Beethoven for us at the end. Just kidding. She was basically just pounding on the keyboard with her palms as 7 month olds are want to do. She was very cute though.

No word on when the show will air. I'll have to keep you posted on that, if I remember. I was nodding and shaking my head enthusiastically so maybe I'll actually make it on TV!