Bleep My Dad Says

$#*! My Dad Says feels hopelessly old school. It relies on a stock sitcom character--the crabby dad--that we've seen over and over. It mainly anchors itself to a claustrophobic sitcom-y living room, and it relies too heavily on a tired, rat-a-tat setup/punchline delivery.

Sadowski, recast in the role of Henry, has better delivery and chemistry with Shatner. And the show may well please fans of throwback insult comedies, longing for the days of The Ropers and C.P.O. Sharkey. But why anyone needed to buy the rights to a Twitter feed to base a sitcom on the concept "Cranky Old Man Makes Wisecracks" is beyond me.

Not a single thing William Shatner's Dad has said in those ubiquitous CBS ads has been even remotely funny, a trend that continues in tonight's premiere.

The new version, with Jonathan Sadowski as Shatner's estranged son seeking to establish a relationship, feels less like a Twitter feed and more like an actual television show--but not a good television show.

The show displays all the sophistication you might expect from a social media that limits its statements to 140 characters. Here's a tweet from me: This show is a piece of (bleep).

A loser it is. Shatner's quips in real life are better and more outrageous than anything Halpern's father or Halpern himself (who exec-produces this bomb) ever came up with. Hearing Shatner deliver them just points that out.

$#*! My Dad Says is a dismal show, harboring the worst qualities of every lame, four-camera, laugh-tracked sitcom on television. The jokes are painful, the acting is hammy, the characters are flat, and it simply isn't funny. Ever.