User Reviews

I saw this program on a "self-erasing" videotape sent to me by a marketing firm in June of 2006. The printed materials that came with the tape suggested that this program was "being considered" for network series status. Nine years after it was made? I don't think so! Apparently this pilot is being used as a shill to get recruited audiences to sit through commercials for products like Energizer batteries and Pepperidge Farm cookies. It must have been chosen because it is so utterly non-controversial (and bland) that it made the commercials seem lively by comparison. Its plot, if you can call it that, focuses on three youngish dads trying to support each other through divorce, their kids starting preschool and other mildly interesting mini-crises. I can see why it was never picked up for broadcast. A cookie-cutter "cute" show with some of the most obnoxious child actors I've ever seen, it even featured a bad performance by Rue McLanahan (with an on-again-off-again German accent) as the preschool's headmistress. Not worth watching, even if you ARE getting paid to do so!!

Headrazz has the right idea. I got the tape like he did and I have to say it was one big waste of a half hour. The sitcom wasn't really bad, it was just totally uninteresting. It had archetype characters who were the typical lovable buffoons who can't do anything right but have a heart of gold and the maturity of 16 year old. The kids were heartbreakingly typical too, making wise-guy light hearted comments to there parents in a way that strikes me as trying way too hard to be cute. The plot is borrowed from countless other sitcoms too: three struggling dads trying to raise their kids and getting into all the old shenanigans. Even the teacher was the tough German matriarch who's motherly criticism to the dads even I could have written. All in all, I'm very glad this show never made it. It wasn't terrible but it was nothing new, nothing interesting, and nothing you wouldn't see on a different show. The only difference is the writers' angle of centering the show on three divorced dads: the immature playful dimwitted mechanic, the nervous sarcastic businessman, and the normal one. Kinda sounds like Joey and Chandler from friends with Mr Normal to balance it out.

Yes, 'Dads' is back from the dead as a market research tool. You're asked to watch this "new" sitcom to help with its development on a "self-erasing" tape, then drilled for 45 minutes about the commercials. Beware! Audience Responses, Inc. is truly evil, because this is quite possibly the worst sitcom I've ever seen, and they make you watch it under completely false pretenses. It's got acting from the "Three's Company" school, child wannabe-stars who make you want to commit infanticide, Rue McClanahan with a "German" (drunk/Southern/Russian) accent ... ack. Vile. But "Mr. Lizard" holds a special place in my heart.

So: get on board with this movement. Get the sitcom, rip out the magnet that erases it, mess with the market researchers' heads, upload it to YouTube, write fan mail to the child actors... do what needs to be done.

so i was mailed some tickets to show up for some decisions on some "new" sitcoms and a reincarnation drama...well, the drama was a s****y show called SOULMATES starring Kim Raver and Rob Knepper and had recycled music from other movies and TV shows; it was about reincarnation and repressed memories...i wish i could repress this memory.the show looked to be made in the late '90s, and i can tell because the cell phones used were about the size of my size 13 sneakers...and then came DADS starring C. Thomas Howell and that jackass from the WEST WING who banged his babysitter...wow...what a steaming pile as well. I hadn't seen such awkward acting since Iran Contra Hearings...ironically, when i looked these shows up, i only found DADS, obviously, and neither Kim Raver nor Rob Knepper had SOULMATES on their bios, but i don't blame them. and then the questions about products...my group of friends and i pretty much just walked out after the two shows...

I saw this in the same manner as the last comment-er - as part of an "opinion panel". Oh so bad!! The jokes were all old, tired and extremely obvious. The idea is vaguely interesting, could be good, but the execution was horrid, and Rue McClanahan's now you have it, now you don't accent was embarrassing to say the least. Adam Ferrara, who I've never seen do stand up certainly doesn't help the cast, and since this was filmed almost 10 years ago, I'd assume there is no real chance at it getting picked up, and if it does, you obviously wouldn't have the same cast . . . The kids are "wise-guy" kids, smarter than their years and making jokes at the adults expense. It seems that every character in this was basically a stereotype and they threw some standard predictable "jokes" on top. Blah - a total miss.

My first tipoff, aside from the fact that they want detailed consumer information from you, is that C. Thomas Howell looked considerably younger in this pilot than he did just this year in '24'. Secondly, the ads were off. They seemed a little dated and didn't seem to go with the program. Then when I noticed the date I just got angry. I came on here to find out the story on the show only to find out someone else gotten taken in as well.It's small wonder the show was never picked up. It was terrible. The kids were incredibly annoying. Rue McClanahan, uneven as her accent was, was still the only bright spot in this half hour I'll never be able to get back.

yep i too was sent this self erasing video tape as a marketing exercise in December 2006 and cottoned on pretty quickly once the adverts came on that it was not about the terrible sitcom. Feel like i have watched that video on 'the ring' and something bad will happen to me for being sucked into it.

I guess this dismal sitcom is destined to be used for pimping products and will never actually see the light of day. The actors must be rather embarrassed to say the least. bad enough to make the pilot, but to then have it shown 9 years later to a critical audience.

Wow - some blow to the ego.

I'm in pretty much the same boat as everyone else - got hosed into thinking I was actually going to see a not yet released TV show and in reality ended up getting asked an hour's worth of stupid questions about Listerine. I always try to be nice to telephone survey people, because I worked at one of those places during high school and now what an awful job it was. But in this case, the guy was so incredibly pushy and annoying (and barely capable of speaking English) that it really made me angry. Not to mention the fact that he kept going on and on even though I told him 20 times I don't use Listerine, I never will so long as the Target brand is cheaper and works just as well.

I'm not sure where the Television Preview folks got this show. But, it was horrible. I went to the 'free preview' of it thinking 'scam' but, since I had nothing else to do that night I went to see what it was.

It is a marketing scam. My scamdar went off the scale as soon as they said "National TV" If it had been a real preview, they would have mentioned the network or the production company. At first they asked you to fill out your name and address in the product prize booklet. If you win they deliver to your door. Well, I wasn't fool enough to fill out my address. Then the show came on some disjointed POS called Soulmates. Then we filled out the survey after about 3 minutes into 'Dads' I realized the lead actress was the girl from Herman's Head and Ross' first wife from friends.Also in the cast was Rue Mclanahan. Both looked younger than when I saw them on their hit shows. The 'comedy Dad's really not funny. The marketers made the mistake of leaving a door open in the room and I bolted. Seems its a marketing scam for hair and toothbrush products. The shows themselves? Wow they were awful. Probably the worst two TV shows I've seen in a long time. And I've sat through "Full House".

I actually received this tape twice back in 2001, so this scheme with this same pilot has been going on for quite some time! The first time it happened they gave me the whole story about commenting on some unaired pilot and I was all excited. It arrived in the mail a few days later along with 2 thick booklets. One to fill out before watching the show and one to fill out afterward. Naturally I looked through both and threw them into the garbage. Then I noticed the "self-erasing" sticker thing which intrigued me (more than the actual show did) so I flipped up the thingy, found the magnet held in place with scotch tape (top level technology here) popped it out, stuck the tape in my VCR and watched the awful show. There isn't much more I can say about it.. It was just really bad.. The only actual "stars" were C. Thomas Howell, Rue McClanahan and that blond lady from "Hermans Head" who later played Ross's wife on "Friends". Anyway, the show sucked, I watched the credits, saw that it was already several years old (even back in 2k1) and cursed the company that had sent this to me. The next week the calls started but I have caller ID so I just ignored them and eventually they stopped. A few months later they called and I answered. They asked if I wanted to watch a pilot.. I said "yeah!" hoping it'd be something different... It wasn't.. Same commercials, same show and I gave them the same response. I didn't answer the phone and eventually they went away. Now I have 2 tapes of "Dads".

I, too, was hooked into watching this "erasable video", but I must say that I did enjoy the show. Too bad this was all a marketing research ploy. I knew it must be as soon as I was filling out the "prize" survey that listed nothing but commercial products. Give me a break! I did watch all of the tape and will talk to the marketing people tomorrow. What I don't understand is why they bother to disguise their agenda with asking questions about the show? It is obvious from the get go what is going on. I, too, was curious about the ages of the actors, so I logged on to see if there was something to this and found all these comments - which confirmed my doubts. I will probably be gracious to my caller tomorrow, but I am certainly NOT wasting more than 10 minutes of my time talking about commercials! Loved the show, but it's sad that it's gone to a marketing research graveyard.

I am shocked to see such terrible reviews. I really didn't mind this show. I just watched this sitcom on this erasable VHS... I got some good laughs out of it. This series is about the friendship between three single fathers and each of their children, who may I add are very small and cute. I really liked the cast. The only downside was the pretty week episode plot. A man wants to impress his X-wife by setting up their child's birthday party, but of course things go the wrong way. It's one of those plots which you watch and say "hey, I've seen that before!" I do hope this returns and gets better reviews!

7/10

As part of a marketing ploy, a VHS tape of a hoped for possible sit-com to be shown on TV. The episode sent was merely a pilot episode for the series that those responsible for it hoped that if it got public approval, they could use this to try to get the series sold.

I remember receiving this VHS tape around the year 1997 in my mail and one day, when there wasn't anything on to watch on TV, I decided to pop the tape in my VCR and give it a watch.

After I watched this pilot episode, it make me ask myself "What the H-E-double hockey sticks did I just watch and sit though?"

This sit-com was actually a boring, and unfunny, retread of a previous short lived sit-com that was on ABC during the year 1986. It also shared the same title. However, the only difference was that it had three single dads living together rather then two, which the previous 1986 sit-com had.

This was simply unoriginal. Again, not a bad idea for a sit-com, but likewise with the aforementioned 1986 ABC sit-com, this pilot was boring and unfunny. It was bittersweet, but not charming. Plus, the characters weren't very appealing. The episode is badly written and even the laugh tracks make it much worse.

The pilot suffered from a real lack of real comedy. I remember yawning throughout my whole viewing of this as again, it was boring and really bad. It was just as bad as the aforementioned 1986 ABC sit-com.

With the exception of C. Thomas Howell and Rue McClanahan, I didn't know the rest of the actors. Howell and McClanahan are/were both wonderful actors (I use "were" as Rue McClanahan died in 2010) , but their talents are wasted in this pathetic excuse for a sit-com. Both of them have done much better than this in films and televison (films for Howell. McClanahan for television), but this time, their talents just didn't gel for this sit-com, though they both try. The rest of the actors here are no help as their performances are wooden.

The only other difference was that the aforementioned 1986 sit-com lasted nine episodes while this was only a single pilot. Thank goodness for small favors.

After I viewed the VHS tape of the pilot, it went right into the garbage, where IMHO, it truly deserved to be. IMHO, it was garbage plain and simple.

Overall, a very bad and boring retread.

I too saw this TV show on a "self erasing" video tape. When I got the call to review a "potential" new TV series I was happy to do so. I did exactly as I was instructed and then I when I got the call, they went immediately into questions about commercials. I told the lady (approximately 15 times) that I did not watch the commercials, but I took excellent notes on the show. She kept up with asking questions in detail about these commercials that I had already told her that I did not watch and that I wanted to make "proactive" comments about the show, she refused to talk about my thoughts on the show and said that she had to ask these questions first. I told her that I did not pay attention to any of the commercials and every answer would be no or 0. I also told her that when I received a call about this "potential" new series there was no mention about commercials or any products, if so I would have never ever agreed to such a thing, I was mislead and I was disrespected by this company, she even told me after the fact that the conversation may be taped, but I was not made aware of this until half way through the conversation. I will never ever buy a product that she was bound and determined to speak about before I hung up. As for the show, it was dry, boring and really could not believe anyone would have wasted their time and money to show up to work after one day of shooting. I am a fan of Rue McClanahan, she is lucky that this show did not make it, it would have tarnished her career.

I just want to say that I've read all the comments on here and you people are lucky you just got sent a tape and didn't have to waste your gas going to a hotel out of town to preview this show! I guess they realized that sending people the tapes wasn't a reliable way to get opinions on their products. So they've resorted to making people sit in a room and telling them they can't leave until the whole thing is over. Literally the guy said we all had to stay until they told us it was OK to leave. I think this is even worse then telemarketers, especially since gas prices are so high. I just feel really stupid for falling for this, but I guess there was no way of me knowing what it was about, since I've never heard of this happening before.

The whole time I was sitting there I kept thinking "god these shows look like they are from the 90's" and it turns out I was right! The first show they made us watch was "soulmates" and man was it a pile of crap. But the sad thing is I actually liked this pilot. I thought it was really cute. It doesn't really have a place on television right now, but back in 1997 when it was originally made I'm sure it would have done pretty good. It's kind of funny because when they asked me what I thought about "soulmates" I put "it looks like it's from the 90's" If only I'd known then how right I was.

One thing I also noticed was people saying in the forums who also got sucked in to attending one of these, was that there were a lot of old people. And there were at the one I attended too. I wonder why that is? I'm 23 so the first thing I noticed were all the older people. And of course most of them liked "soulmates" haha

When I was in Beeston, UK getting groceries I got stopped by a nice polite canvasser. She gave me the video and all the paperwork. I took it home and watched it, all the way to the end. When the caller phoned me the next day, I lied to him and told him someone else watched it before I had the chance to. He sent me another one through the post. If you take the magnet out, rewind the tape, record over the tape til the end, you'll find the tape counter is around and hour and a quarter long. Now I have two brand new blank videos thank you very much!! Trouble is, they keep phoning me, and I'm ignoring the phone. Ringing me every half hour from 8am - 8pm.

Yes! The terror is now worldwide. Same selling technique, but now in DVD, has arrived to Spain. Same awful chapter, full of commercials in the middle (two times, like 7-10 minutes every time). Some questions you have to answer about the show the next day when they call you home and you're supposed to be "rewarded" with some gifts, they thank you for your "collaboration with this new TV show". Oh? New? Really? I was expecting something like the 6th "The Wire"season or "The sopranos" Special comeback... bad luck! Thank you very much, IPSOS ("...a company of inquiring minds and passionate people giving a voice and shape to the thoughts of millions of individuals around the world..."eeeerr What?) to make my girlfriend & me waste some 35 precious minutes of our lives watching this lousy DVD.

Anyway, the worst TV show EVER!