Dr. Phil Episode Notes: Anything Men Can Do, Women Can Do Better!
Here are my notes from today’s brand new Dr. Phil episode: Anything Men Can Do, Women Can Do Better!
Segment 1
Summary: Dr. Phil conducts playful tests on his guests to see if men or women perform better, instigating a humorous rivalry between the sexes.
They say women handle breakups, driving, doctoring, and a whole slew of other tasks.
Dr. Phil has partitioned the audience. He’s put men on one side of the studio and women on the other. He cited research the women have more effective memory than men.
They’re showing a clip in which men and women are asked to look at a picture containing some small objects. They give the subjects ten seconds to look at the picture. Then they ask the subjects details about what they saw. Women generally displayed better recall in this clip at any rate. Tyler and Jocelyn along with James and Ashley tried this test. There was one fellow who got it all correct, and a comedian joked that this was because he’s still single. Comedian Kate Rigg assisted with this piece.
Then, legal analyst and attorney Dan Abrams joined Dr. Phil on stage. He’s the author of the book: Man Down: Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt That Women Are Better Cops, Drivers, Gamblers, Spies, World Leaders, Beer Tasters, Hedge Fund Managers, and Just About Everything Else. In this publication, he cites numerous studies that he seems to say, prove that women perform better than men at many, many tasks.
Now they’re showing a clip done by comedian Kathleen Madigan. She’s interviewing folks at a farmers market, asking them which sex they think is better at doing various things. Also, comedian Kirk Fox does similar interviews at the same market. Generally, the women interviewed thought women did better than men, while they guys felt that men did better. This clip is definitely more geared to be more humorous than factual.
After the clip, the guests argued playfully about who really is better.
Also, Dr. Phil polls the audience, who each have a Pageant Gadget that allows them to vote on questions that the host asks, and then the results can be instantly tallied. He asked first which sex deals with pain better. 85% of the ladies in his audience said that women deal with pain better, while 75% of the men in the audience felt that men handle pain better.
Segment 2
They’re showing a TV clip montage with Dan Abrams appearing. Abrams is also a legal analyst for the Good Morning America show from ABC.
Abrams says that his book is “more credible coming from a man.” If a woman were to write this, she’d probably be seen as an over-zealous feminist. But a male author would not suffer this handicap.
They’re setting up to wax Kirk Fox. How will he deal with that pain? He did okay as the hot wax was applied by screamed rather profusely when they ripped it away after cooling.
They’re trying another pain test, involving ice water. One man and one woman, each places a hand in a container of ice water. Who can keep it in there the longest? Abrams and Riggs are the contestants this time.
Next: A mystery guest will come on who’s had to deal with lots of women around him his whole life.
Segment 3
Four minutes and thirty seconds have elapsed since they put their hands into the ice water. Dr. Phil ended the contest, calling it a draw, after nearly five minutes, not wanting to participants to injure their hands with frost bite.
The next guest says he has six sisters, five daughters, three ex wives, two step daughters, one step mother; lots of women in his life. They call him The Hit Man. It’s David Foster, accompanied by his fiancé’ Yolanda Hadid. Foster says that women are smarter than men.
Yolanda is European and says that she likes the man to be “king” in her house.
Dr. Phil defers household issues to his wife Robin, calling their home “her domain.”
Dr. Phil asks who drives better; men or women. 57% said women drive better and 43% said men make better motorists. Abrams justified this by citing studies that show that men have more accidents, are killed more often, and pay higher auto insurance rates than women.
Next, another couple comes onto the set who are arguing over which one is the better driver.
Segment 4
They show a clip of this couple, driving and claiming to be the best driver. But the man has more accidents and tickets on his record than does she.
Now the good-natured debate about who drives better, men or women, continues.
Abrams says that women better handle breakups. But one fellow in the audience feels that men are better at it because they’re “stronger.” But a women in the audience thinks women do breakups better because they’re less selfish than men. She thinks women show more concern about the feelings of their partner during a breakup than do men. He thinks it’s easier to be a man because, “women suffer more.” Abrams also says that when lightning strikes a person, that it’s a man who gets it 82% of the time. This may be because men typically try to push the envelope of safety; wanting to get one more hole of golf in or mow one more row of grass before the storm hits. Women apparently are more cautious. He also claims that women make more effective police officers.
Justin and Nicole are shown in a clip, disagreeing with each other over who’s the better driver. He complains that she drives too slow, and pulls out too fast. He says he does not feel safe with her at the wheel. But she accuses him of speeding, getting numerous tickets, wrecking, and so on. He hones his driving skills by driving in a circle around a tree.
Dr. Phil asked the audience to vote on their Pageant Gadgets on which sex makes the better police officer. 75% say men are better policemen. But this contradicts what Abrams says in his book.
Next, an ex female police officer gives her view on this question.
Segment 5
They’re showing a clip of a fellow, Wayne who says he finds female officers tend to follow the book more, by never letting him go with a warning. But male officers do this a lot.
Heidi, the ex female police officer thinks men make better police officers. She thinks that women aren’t large enough to effectively do the job and that the can get excessively emotional. She’d rather have a male officer as a partner.
Next, Dr. Phil asks if women make superior doctors to men.
Segment 6
Dr. Lisa Masterson appears now, who is a co-host from the show The Doctors. They showed a few clips of her in action on that show. She says that she supports equality between the sexes and does not believe that there’s a clear distinction along sex lines in how well men and women perform as doctors. But she admits that women are more maternal than men. Masterson has written a book called Paper Dollhouse. But they really didn’t say what this book’s about.
Abrams says that women multitask more effectively, and the female guests seem to concur.
Dr. Phil is asking the viewers at home who makes better doctors (men or women) and invited them to visit DrPhil.com to enter their choices. He also mentioned David Fosters new CD: The Hit Man Returns, which is a follow-up to his 2008 CD: The Hit Man.
Segment 7
Dr. Phil thanks all the guests, comedians, doctors, et al. He gave everyone in the audience copies of Dan Abrams book Man Down, Dr. Lisa Masterson’s book Paper Dollhouse, and David Foster’s CD The Hit Man Returns. He also thanked Pageant Communications for providing their Pageant Gadgets.
That’s the end of this episode. Take care.
I’ll add the remaining segments presently.