To go from the coolest space captain in the known universe to a cranky old man… this is the fate of William Shatner. The former Captain Kirk has signed on to star in the TV version of popular Twitter account (I know, I know) Shit My Dad Says. The Twitter feed, for those who are unaware, is by 29-year old Justin Halpern, who ‘moved back in’ with his parents last year and started the account as a way of documenting all the wacky stuff his 73 year old father would say. Here’s one of the latest bon mots:
“Nah, we don’t celebrate it. Don’t know who St. Valentine was, don’t give a shit, and doubt he wants people screwing in his memory.”
I don’t follow the feed so I don’t know if Dad has upped the ante with the recent news that he’s been optioned as a TV show.
With Shatner onboard the show, which is likely to be renamed Stuff My Dad Says, has been greenlit to pilot. Halpern helped write the pilot, which could be funny enough – this concept is really just a more benign All in the Family, after all – but there’s one thing I don’t like here:
Shatner.
Besides the fact that I hate seeing one of my childhood heroes end up in the crotchety dad role on a sitcom, I think he’s just wrong. Ed Asner, a la Up? That’s right. Shatner’s too big for the role, and he’ll play it pissy, not cranky, and there’s a huge difference between the two. Obviously this character is Archie Bunker 2010, and he needs some of Carol O’Connnor’s regular guy persona. Shatner’s no regular guy.
21 comments
"To go from the coolest space captain in the known universe…" you meant Edward James Olmos…right?
Irrelevant old ham cast in irrelevant sure-to-be-cancelled sitcom? I'm finding it hard to muster any kind of emotion over this non-news.
Devin must have missed the last forty years of Shatner's career. Compared to some of the fucking terrible shit he's put his name to, a network sitcom is downright dignified. Your hero was Captain Kirk, a fictional character. William Shatner is just the crappy actor who played him.
Can someone tell me how he would help write anything if the Dad is the one with the potty mouth?
Unless it's all a bullshit ruse and he just writes it all himself anyway.
Not that it matters, because at the end of the day, some asshole who has no talent is still falling ass-backwards into fame because of twitter and a pseudo internet meme.
is anyone else disgusted by the fact that twitter feeds are now being optioned for television shows?
Shatner rules. The man knows he's a walking joke of himself and goes with it. Plus he's borderline poetic sometimes. Also, his version of Rocket Man transcendent and life affirming.
If they do this right he won't be cranky, or pissy, but rather surreal.
My opinion of Shatner changed drastically when he released his brilliant album "Has Been" a few years ago. Its a shockingly vulnerable and honest record with Ben Folds at the helm. None the less, I share Devin's concern that Will won't be right for this. I'd like to see Robert Duvall take a swing at it. But why would he?
Yeah, the interesting aspect is whether the Twitter is real or fake. In terms of a TV Series they'd just get writers who could riff in the style of the source material with a few "authentic" lines scattered through-out.
""To go from the coolest space captain in the known universe…" you meant Edward James Olmos…right?"
Adama was cool until he took to vanity sequences consisting of drinking, crying, and puking.
If you think Shatner has just been a joke since Star Trek, you must have never watched Boston Legal. Brilliant work by an under-rated actor. The man made a movie in Esperanto. In Esperanto, muthafukka!
We never knew Olmos as a space captain, just commander and Admiral. Thanks very much.
I'm disappointed with this news. Shatner was doing really good work with Boston Legal and he was able to not only ACT but also be funny. His recent album was great, his biography was great, his show "Shatner's Raw Nerve" is particularly interesting, this sitcom thing just seems like a step back. That and they're going to have to soften up all the shit the dad says because it's a sitcom. I just can't really see Shatner being a grumpy asshole. It just doesn't work. He's too friendly by nature for that shit.
Anyone who follows the feed (and is not an idiot) understands that it's all fake. The idea might have started with an authentic quote once upon a time, but it's mostly self-parody at this point.
Don't doubt TJ Hooker.
How about Kurtwood Smith? Though having played that role in "That 70's Show" and a similar role in the remake of the UK show "Worst Week of My Life", it might seem like typecasting.
Though if he played the role like Clarence Boddicker …
ZEBRA'S IN AMERICA!!!!!!!! Thats what this reminds me off. This Twittin fucktard got out of the Cheeeeeezeee factory via keystroke, and he didn't even have to jack off a Pacaderm.
"We never knew Olmos as a space captain, just commander and Admiral. Thanks very much." Was waiting for the pedantic correction. Names aside, he fills the same television plot function. I'm well-aware of the commander/Admiral title Dustin. Getting to the topic at hand, Shatner has been a joke for a long time, but it's nothing a cameo in Star Trek II wouldn't help to rectify – I don't care if he died in Generations, they'll think of a way. Go on, someone correct me again…
Shatner's brilliant, not just proved by Has Been and his Boston Legal work but by every single interview he does too. Dismissing him as a joke only shows you're not intelligent enough to recognize the point that he doesn't just play on that joke, he transcends the shit out of it. If you haven't been on board the Shatner Train then the fact is you're behind the game. THE FACT I said!!!
WOW! I thought I was the only one that liked Shatner's music! HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH! To be fair though, it ain't like The Shatner gets a lot of offers to do a quality Sci Fi series anyway … and while I enjoyed Battlestar Galactica ok, it got just a little too serious and gloomy all the time to be a classic like Star Trek is. I mean, come on, you could guess what the worst case scenario was going to be for Battlestar Galactica … and there is was!
Yeah god forbid William Shatner do something to tarnish our image of him as Captain Kirk. Unlike, you know, EVERYTHING HE HAS EVER DONE. By the way, am I the only one who was halfway through reading the first "tweet" before realizing there obviously is no dad and there is no shit he says, just an out of work writer working a gimmick concept?
Comments are shown as archived from the original site; new comments are closed.