Blondie
~*~*~*~<br><font color=blue>This TF always enjoys
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- Aug 18, 1999
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Disputing Dr. Phil's diagnosis
Spotsylvania, Virginia family upset at how they were portrayed on 'Dr. Phil' show.
By BRIAN BAER
Free Lance Star
Stephanie Alvord was hooked on Dr. Phil.
She watched his show every afternoon, taping it when she had to be out. The Spotsylvania County resident bought his book "Self Matters," and even wrote in to ask for his help.
But after a close encounter with the famous advice guru, she feels used and exploited.
"I used to be a big fan of his, and I thought he cared about people, and he really didn't," Alvord said Thursday, a day after a show aired featuring her family. "I had a really bad experience. He basically ambushed us."
The show was the result of a letter Alvord wrote asking Dr. Phil what to do with her 21-year-old nephew, Dustin. He has been staying at her home in the Todds Tavern area for the past two years.
Her husband, Robert, and their four children also live there.
On the air, Dr. Phil billed the episode: "Kick 'em out! They're slackers, deadbeats and moochers--adult children who overstay their welcome in their parents' house."
Alvord is most upset that the host called Dustin and other members of her family who have stayed in her house "moochers."
Alvord also said the show didn't give her nephew what producers had promised, and misled viewers with an inaccurate portrait of her family.
And she's upset the only contact she had with Dr. Phil was on live television; he declined to sign copies of his book while she was there, she said.
Most important, Alvord said, producers told her the talk-show host would present Dustin with gift certificates to buy home furnishings--and an apartment with the first month's rent paid.
"They told us he was going to get all that stuff, and he didn't," she said.
A spokesman for the 'Dr. Phil' show said the family wrote in after seeing a note on drphil.com that specifically included the word "moocher."
"The Dr. Phil show regrets that Ms. Alvord's view of her experience did not meet her expectations," Carla Pennington-Stewart, executive producer of the show, said in a statement released Thursday. "Although never promised in advance, many guests of the Dr. Phil show receive gifts as a part of their appearance on the show.
"In fact, Rent.com offered a free month's rent to the Alvord family, of which they have yet to take advantage," Pennington-Stewart wrote in an e-mail.
"Additionally, we were pleased to send Ms. Alvord her requested books signed by Dr. McGraw after the show."
The show did arrange for Dustin to rent a local apartment for $700 a month, but Alvord said that was more than he could afford.
Further, she said, the family had no contact with Dr. Phil before he tried to solve their problem on live television.
"The first time we saw him was when we were put in the audience. Whatever he knew and whatever he talked to us about was based on what the producers had told him and their conversations with us," she said.
"It's nothing like you'd think. We really didn't get a chance to meet him."
Pennington-Stewart said that's how the show has always worked.
"In the two years we have been taping the Dr. Phil show, guests have never met with Dr. Phil prior to the show due to our taping schedule. All interactions with Dr. Phil are on-stage and on-camera for our viewers."
Alvord said she and her husband enjoy helping Dustin--and other family members--and they were just looking for direction on how to get their nephew on his feet. They don't see him as a moocher.
She feels especially bad for her husband and Dustin, who weren't familiar with the show. Alvord promised them Dr. Phil was different than shock-show hosts such as Jerry Springer.
"I said the worst thing he says to anyone on the show is, 'What the hell are you thinking?' And sure enough, it had to be me" he said that to, she said.
Alvord said she called the show to complain a couple of days after returning home from the taping Feb. 3.
A producer called her back, but Alvord said she doesn't want to talk to a producer.
"If Dr. Phil wants to call me, he knows how to use the phone," she said.
"They take small-time people from trusting towns, and they exploit them on TV to make money and don't give a crap how they feel when they leave the show."
Alvord, for instance, said she left in tears.
There were some upsides.
While the family arrived in California around 9 p.m. Los Angeles time and flew home the following night, "it was a very jet-set life for people that come from Spotsylvania County," she said.
Before they left California, she said, a driver from the show offered to give them a tour of the city. They saw Ozzy Osbourne's house and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, among other sites.
"It was like finally I met someone who gave a crap about how we felt about things," she said. "That was the best part of the trip."
Spotsylvania, Virginia family upset at how they were portrayed on 'Dr. Phil' show.
By BRIAN BAER
Free Lance Star
Stephanie Alvord was hooked on Dr. Phil.
She watched his show every afternoon, taping it when she had to be out. The Spotsylvania County resident bought his book "Self Matters," and even wrote in to ask for his help.
But after a close encounter with the famous advice guru, she feels used and exploited.
"I used to be a big fan of his, and I thought he cared about people, and he really didn't," Alvord said Thursday, a day after a show aired featuring her family. "I had a really bad experience. He basically ambushed us."
The show was the result of a letter Alvord wrote asking Dr. Phil what to do with her 21-year-old nephew, Dustin. He has been staying at her home in the Todds Tavern area for the past two years.
Her husband, Robert, and their four children also live there.
On the air, Dr. Phil billed the episode: "Kick 'em out! They're slackers, deadbeats and moochers--adult children who overstay their welcome in their parents' house."
Alvord is most upset that the host called Dustin and other members of her family who have stayed in her house "moochers."
Alvord also said the show didn't give her nephew what producers had promised, and misled viewers with an inaccurate portrait of her family.
And she's upset the only contact she had with Dr. Phil was on live television; he declined to sign copies of his book while she was there, she said.
Most important, Alvord said, producers told her the talk-show host would present Dustin with gift certificates to buy home furnishings--and an apartment with the first month's rent paid.
"They told us he was going to get all that stuff, and he didn't," she said.
A spokesman for the 'Dr. Phil' show said the family wrote in after seeing a note on drphil.com that specifically included the word "moocher."
"The Dr. Phil show regrets that Ms. Alvord's view of her experience did not meet her expectations," Carla Pennington-Stewart, executive producer of the show, said in a statement released Thursday. "Although never promised in advance, many guests of the Dr. Phil show receive gifts as a part of their appearance on the show.
"In fact, Rent.com offered a free month's rent to the Alvord family, of which they have yet to take advantage," Pennington-Stewart wrote in an e-mail.
"Additionally, we were pleased to send Ms. Alvord her requested books signed by Dr. McGraw after the show."
The show did arrange for Dustin to rent a local apartment for $700 a month, but Alvord said that was more than he could afford.
Further, she said, the family had no contact with Dr. Phil before he tried to solve their problem on live television.
"The first time we saw him was when we were put in the audience. Whatever he knew and whatever he talked to us about was based on what the producers had told him and their conversations with us," she said.
"It's nothing like you'd think. We really didn't get a chance to meet him."
Pennington-Stewart said that's how the show has always worked.
"In the two years we have been taping the Dr. Phil show, guests have never met with Dr. Phil prior to the show due to our taping schedule. All interactions with Dr. Phil are on-stage and on-camera for our viewers."
Alvord said she and her husband enjoy helping Dustin--and other family members--and they were just looking for direction on how to get their nephew on his feet. They don't see him as a moocher.
She feels especially bad for her husband and Dustin, who weren't familiar with the show. Alvord promised them Dr. Phil was different than shock-show hosts such as Jerry Springer.
"I said the worst thing he says to anyone on the show is, 'What the hell are you thinking?' And sure enough, it had to be me" he said that to, she said.
Alvord said she called the show to complain a couple of days after returning home from the taping Feb. 3.
A producer called her back, but Alvord said she doesn't want to talk to a producer.
"If Dr. Phil wants to call me, he knows how to use the phone," she said.
"They take small-time people from trusting towns, and they exploit them on TV to make money and don't give a crap how they feel when they leave the show."
Alvord, for instance, said she left in tears.
There were some upsides.
While the family arrived in California around 9 p.m. Los Angeles time and flew home the following night, "it was a very jet-set life for people that come from Spotsylvania County," she said.
Before they left California, she said, a driver from the show offered to give them a tour of the city. They saw Ozzy Osbourne's house and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, among other sites.
"It was like finally I met someone who gave a crap about how we felt about things," she said. "That was the best part of the trip."
Basically, he told those people to light a fire under the mooching kid and get him moving to assume responsibility for his own life rather than mooching off them. What's the problem with that?
