I don’t know what it is about William Shatner. He makes me smile. I am utterly bored by Star Trek, but the man makes me smile.
Image from NY Daily News
I think it’s because he’s quite possibly the most self- aware actor this generation has ever enjoyed. Man’s a sci- fi legend. The internet was practically created for Star Trek fans, and fortunately Shatner has stuck around long enough to reap the benefits of it. He has become intermittently rich and very, very famous for captaining a plywood spacecraft. His fans celebrate his character’s future birthday, some actually refusing to understand that he was born in Canada in 1931 and not Iowa in 2233.
But rather than fight his sci-fi fame, Shatner embraces it and the opportunities (and even the liabilities) it’s created. He has learned to work with Captain Kirk, not against him. Therefore, rather than holing up in a career dead-end with phases set to “STFU, everybody,” we instead see him in a stormtrooper kick line during a George Lucas tribute and appearing out of the mist for a priceless cameo in Fanboys.
Here’s the thing about The Shat: He’s a Shakespearean actor, he’s been humbled by failure and tragedy, and what’s left is a desert-dry sense of humor. Patience for irony to come into fashion, combined with impressive performances as Denny Crane on The Practice and Boston Legal, has led to a career resurgence.
But, well–that resurgence includes the leading role on an entire sitcom based on a bloody Twitter account, a Twitter account which is amusing because it consists solely of the profanity-laden musings of a senior citizen. Guess what can’t be said at 8:30 PM on CBS (DISH 245.)
The title of the series, for one thing: $##! My Dad Says. You pronounce it “Bleep,” see. And you get absolutely no hint of why the Twitter account garnered over a million followers in the first place, because… I mean, it’s the Shat, but 24 minutes of bleeping ain’t gonna cut it.
As you might expect, it’s barely watchable. But guess where the “barely” comes it: The one and only The Shat. It won’t last, but never fear… Our Shat is a survivor.
