Who wouldn't live with this guy?! Oh...

Sometimes, you gotta wonder about things. Like why the moon is MASSIVE on the horizon and then shrinks back to a small little orb in the sky when it gets up there. Or why birds suddenly appear everytime you are near. Or why Channel 9 – in its infinite wisdom – chose to hold over an entire season of this show after it went to air in the middle of 2010 AFTER they plugged it to death at the start of 2010 as “the next big thing” to come out of America.

It made history as the first ever twitter account to be made into anything of note into a TV show – so that may set the tone and corner your interest or have you reaching for the remote immediately. The account is hilarious, so it was an easy target for producers… and here we are.

Painfully, the reviews have not been good. That hasn’t stopped it being renewed for a second season and getting an airing here. Given the lead in it’ll likely do OK. I really want(ed) it to work, as I’m a massive fan of Shatner from his time on Boston Legal. Ed is like a retiring Denny Crane, just without the means or James Spader to enable or validate his cantakerousness. Who knows, I always get the guessing game of what will rate well or poorly wrong. From the press release:

$#*! My Dad Says, the hilarious and heartfelt new sitcom based on the Twitter account of the same name that has over a million followers, premieres Monday, January 31, at 8.00pm on Channel Nine.

From the executive producers of Will and Grace, $#*! My Dad Says is the story of a son searching for approval from a standoffish father who has seen it all and a father who realises it is never too late to be a dad – even if that means letting your unemployed, post-graduate son shack up with you.

The legendary William Shatner (Boston Legal, The Practice, Star Trek) stars as Ed, a 72-year-old living, breathing fountain of wisdom with the pressure of a fire hose. A thrice-divorced ex-doctor and veteran of three wars, Ed hates beating around the bush. Forthright and opinionated, he’ll express his unsolicited and often wildly politically incorrect observations to anyone within earshot. And speaking of shots, if you’re on his property after 9.00pm without prior notification, chances are he’ll greet you with his shotgun.

Nobody is safe from Ed’s rants, including his son Vince (Will Sasso), the meek half of a husband-and-wife real estate duo. The other half is the domineering Bonnie (Nicole Sullivan).

Enter Henry (Jonathan Sadowski, Friday the 13th), Ed’s estranged, twentysomething other son from his third marriage. Henry’s a good kid who has spent his life doing everything right. But he’s been dealt a bad hand by the economy and is forced to seek help from his father – a man whose approach to parenthood has meant never doing his children any favours. Yet Ed reveals a surprising soft spot and invites Henry to move in with him. Henry agrees, knowing that the verbal assault will not abate and now there will be no escape from Ed’s outrageous tirades.

Describing this father/son relationship is tricky … but Ed could easily come up with a few choice words.

$#*! My Dad Says – 8:00pm 31/01, Ch9
New Two and a Half Men – 7:30pm Mon 31/01, Ch9