Dr. Phil

"What gives you the right to imprison your wife in the basement?!" —Dr. Phil, addressing a typical guest about his wife-abusing problems

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Dr. Phil is a reality/talk television show hosted by Phil McGraw. After McGraw's success with his segments on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil debuted on September 16, 2002 and ran for 21 seasons, airing its final first run episode on May 25, 2023. On both shows McGraw offers advice in the form of "life strategies" from his life experience as a clinical psychologist.

The show is in syndication throughout the United States and a number of other countries. The show's syndication contracts specifically state that if Dr. Phil is on another station, it cannot air at the same time as Oprah. Occasional prime time specials have aired on CBS. The program has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award every year since 2004.

Starting September 8, 2008, Dr. Phil was broadcast in HDTV with a revamped look and a new theme written and performed by McGraw's son, Jordan.

A spinoff, The Doctors, produced by Dr. Phil and his son Jay and featuring a panel of doctors discussing a variety of issues, aired from 2008 to 2022.

Tropes used in Dr. Phil include:

• Abusive Parents: A frequent topic, both physical and emotional/verbal abuse. One mother openly claimed she hated her teenage daughter and had even openly wished the girl dead. When the girl threatened suicide, her mother's response was, "I'll go get a beer and watch you." The mother openly blamed her daughter for their broken relationship and came very close to refusing Dr. Phil's offer of help, claiming she was upset that her daughter had been made to look like "a saint."
• Berserk Button: Dr. Phil once brought in the creator of the infamous Bumfights movies. Halfway during the intro package, he cut it off in disgust and threw the guy out of his studio.
  • Do not insult his staff.
  • Don't tell Blatant Lies, either. Dr. Phil considers liars a waste of his (and their) time and will threaten to send them packing if he doesn't get the truth.
• Bigot vs. Bigot: "The Dr. Phil House." A pretty girl who hates fat people living with a morbidly obese man who hates skinny people! A black racist living with a white racist! A redneck homophobe living with a butch heterophobe!
  • For the most part it was successful, except for the fat guy.
• Can't Get Away With Nuthin': In stories involving abusive parents, Dr. Phil will remind everyone that he's a mandated reporter and will promise to report the abuse if the parents refuse his offer of help.
• Captain Obvious: At times. It should be obvious to anyone that it's not okay to beat, or verbally abuse, your children daily. Many parents justify it by claiming that the child "pushes their buttons"; Dr. Phil will not have it.
• Catch Phrase: Dr. Phil has several.
  • "How's that working for you?"
  • "I don't ask why [said guest is engaging in said destructive behavior]. I ask why not."
  • "What were/are you thinking?"
  • "This is not a [guest's name] problem. This is a family problem."
  • "No matter how flat you make a pancake, it always has two sides."
  • "This is going to be a changing day in your life!"
  • "I am a mandated reporter."
  • (when the audience laughs:) "They're not laughing at the situation. They're laughing because what you just said is so ridiculous."
  • "I'm sorry we're talking about this. I'd rather be talking about almost anything else."
• Colbert Bump: Dr. Phil became famous as a result of his appearances on Oprah.
• Confession Cam
• Cool Teacher: One episode involved a teacher who took in one of her students after the girl told her she was being abused at home.
• Evil Old Folks: One episode featured a young woman who claimed her grandfather had sexually abused her (for which he went to prison) and her grandmother had known about it and turned a blind eye. The grandmother denied any abuse had taken place and accused her granddaughter of making up lies, and stormed off stage midway through the show, announcing she was disowning her granddaughter (as well as the victim's mother, who supported her daughter).
• False Rape Accusation: A mother in one episode accused her ex-husband of sexually abusing their daughter. The girl's father steadfastly denied the accusations and said he believed the girl was being coached. After pointing out inconsistencies in the mother's story and viewing a tape of the mother grilling her daughter about the alleged abuse, Dr. Phil agreed with the father and told the mother he'd report her to Child Services if she didn't cooperate with his offer of help.
• I'm Not a Doctor But I Play One on TV: Dr. Phil's license to practice expired in 2006.
• Happily Married: Subverted in one episode where Dr. Phil spent an episode talking to a couple who have been together for years but don't want to get married, citing this trope as reason that they have a problem. Even when they said they are perfectly happy just being together, Dr. Phil would just keep asking "Well then why aren't you married?". It turns out not everyone feels the need to get married.
  • Played straight with Dr. Phil and his own wife, Robin. She even appears on every show and gets time to promote her latest ventures.
• New Media Are Evil/Old Media Playing Catch Up: Breaking news from Dr. Phil! There are creeps on the Internet! Who knew? It's only the hundredth time he's had a show on it!
  • Then again, since we still live in a time when some teens are still being seduced online and then raped/kidnapped (one girl in Florida tried to fly to the Middle East to get married despite never seeing the guy in person) parents might need to be reminded of this.
  • A number of episodes also deal with "catfishing" - perpetrating a scam on the Internet (often on social media) in order to get money or some other benefit. Many of these involve faking pregnancies (which includes passing off others' ultrasound pictures as the scammer's own) or Playing Sick.
• No Woman's Land
• Pillow Pregnancy: Not played straight (most of the time), but there have been plenty of episodes involving women who fake pregnancies, often to get money or attention from the people they dupe. The online equivalent of this will often be posting a photo of someone else's ultrasound, claiming it's theirs. One woman admitted to faking pregnancies in the past, but refused Dr. Phil's offer of a pregnancy test, even though she claimed she was pregnant at that moment.
• Point and Laugh Show: Has generally turned into a Jerry Springer "for moms" format.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: The guests often don't seem to grasp the fact that their private problems are being broadcast to millions of people; you'd think all the cameras and the giant studio audience would give them a hint.
  • There have been some rare examples where the guests points out that they are being humiliated to "boost ratings". An example of it being a 2006 episode where a father fails a lie detector test after being accused of molesting his daughter. The father only brings it up because he is caught in his lie. Dr. Phil promptly tells him to "get off his high horse."
• Spin-Off: From The Oprah Winfrey Show.
• Straw Misogynist: One episode focusing on sexist husbands featured a man who, while on camera, goes on long tirades to his guest's face about how she as a woman is just not as good at anything as men are. But then subverted with the other husband. He's described as being sexist and mean to his wife, but in all fairness his wife's complaints just make it sound like he came home tired from work a lot and just wanted to watch tv to unwind now and then with their rat terrier on his lap.
• Talk Show
• What Were You Thinking?: Pretty much one of his catchphrases.