Ransom Riggs
From Twitter to TV Show
by Ransom Riggs - August 23, 2010 - 7:59 AM

OK, they’re really reaching now. It was silly enough when they turned a web TV show into a real TV show — remember Quarterlife, canceled after the first episode? — but now a new TV show on CBS is being featured with the tagline “Based on the Twitter sensation!” That’s right — a Twitter-to-TV deal.

You may remember the “Twitter sensation,” a feed called “Shit My Dad Says,” which was, exactly as its title suggested, a 140-character record of salty comments made by the father of the titular Tweeter, a semi-employed comedy writer named Justin Halpern. He had just moved back in with his parents, a rather blunt radiologist at UC San Diego. On Twitter he explained: “I’m 29. I live with my 74-year-old dad. He is awesome. I just write down shit that he says.” After being re-Tweeted by a few prominent folk including Rob Corddry and Kristin Bell, Halpern was sifting through book deals. The resulting tome eventually became a bestseller, and a TV deal wasn’t far behind.

So if a Twitter feed can become a TV show, what’s next? Facebook status updates? Is there a Twitter feed you could see making a movie or a TV show?

If you’re really curious, here’s a preview of the TV show. I love how CBS makes you watch a commercial before the preview, which is itself basically a commercial. Am I curmudgeonly to complain about such things?

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Comments (10)

  1. The promo looks like it could be a flaming hot mess but I have a feeling it might actually do well (Shatner would be the reason why). I am no longer shocked at what does well on broadcast tv these days

    posted by JaneM on 8-23-2010 at 8:19 am

  2. “I am no longer shocked at what does well on broadcast tv these days”

    that makes two of us.

    i think this could actually work.

    posted by Johnny Darko on 8-23-2010 at 8:55 am

  3. The very first thing I thought when I viewed the preview over the weekend was the same thing: CBS is making me watch a commercial to see a preview??

    Personally I think this show proves that Shatner is a whore… will do pretty much anything for a buck… or just for attention.

    posted by Gordon Daily on 8-23-2010 at 9:43 am

  4. *note: This is blocked outside of the US (or at least in Canada.)

    posted by Eilonwynn on 8-23-2010 at 10:19 am

  5. So CBS won’t even let me watch the commercial before their commercial for an upcoming show because I’m not in the US?! v. bizarre

    posted by zippy on 8-23-2010 at 12:28 pm

  6. Ethan Trex’s feed is worthy

    posted by David K. Israel on 8-23-2010 at 12:33 pm

  7. Much as I’m a fan of William Shatner, I see this as the first casualty of the fall TV season.

    posted by Steve from San Diego on 8-23-2010 at 12:38 pm

  8. Charlie McDowell (Dear Girls Above Me) is hysterical! Maybe not television worthy, but he definitely deserves a book deal. I can’t help but laugh at the stuff those girls say…

    posted by Jordan on 8-23-2010 at 1:13 pm

  9. Who knows if the show will survive, but the fact that an actual show was created from a Twitter story is pretty unbelievable. @jgwentworth

    posted by JG Wentworth on 8-23-2010 at 5:34 pm

  10. I think @ConanObrien would make a great tv show. Maybe not the whole show, but a monologue that starts the show before a crazy sketch section and celebrity interviews. Think of what a gold mine that would be for a channel like TBS. :P

    posted by Chris on 8-23-2010 at 6:36 pm

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