Doctor Phil Good: McGraw’s quick-draw approach resonates with fawning public

Kirk Baird

Monday, March 10, 2003 | 12:35 p.m.

It was Dr. Phil's moment to shine.

Or fail.

At stake was really nothing more than broadcast bragging rights in a battle between TV talk-show titans.

In one chair sat David Letterman, the acerbic host of "The Late Show With David Letterman," who's known for not pulling punches with his guests.

In the other chair sat Dr. Phil McGraw, the no-nonsense "life-strategist" (read: self-help guru) with a talk show of his own, "Dr. Phil."

On more than one occasion, Letterman had referred to McGraw as a "pinhead," and flaunted video segments of the former Dallas psychologist from his daytime show saying funny words or otherwise looking goofy in out-of-context snippets.

It was only after months of needling by Letterman that the burly Texan, who appears Saturday at the Aladdin Theatre for Performing Arts, even agreed to appear on Letterman's show.

Finally, the two could look each other square in the eye. And in the end, Letterman blinked first.

It was McGraw who patiently answered Letterman's questions, while deftly placing the talk-show host on the defensive throughout the interview. Time and again, it was McGraw who deflected Letterman's biting remarks with scathing swipes of his own.

McGraw even came to the show armed with a brief video clip of his own, taking a typical Letterman aside and twisting it for the good doctor's own comedic pleasure and gain.

In short, Dr. Phil out-Daved Dave.

"I have to say this, it was a lot of fun," McGraw said in a recent phone interview from his Los Angeles home. "When I went on the show I found David to be very gracious. He treated me as if I were a guest in his home. And we got along very well.

"People ask me, 'Are you upset about Dave taking you out of context and making fun of you?' My attitude about that is, if you're gonna be in the public eye, you need to have a thick skin. I think most everything he does has really been in good spirit ... and I think I took it in the spirit in which it was offered."

Thus, the clash of the talk-show stars proved to be a success. Everybody, it seems, wants a piece of Dr. Phil McGraw.

A savior to syndicated TV since his hourlong show debuted in September, "Dr. Phil" is the second-highest rated daytime program, according to Nielsen ratings. "Dr. Phil" trails only "Oprah," the talk show where McGraw first gained national notoriety a few years ago. ("Dr. Phil" can be seen locally at 3 p.m. on KVBC Channel 3.)

The bestselling author of several self-help books, McGraw has since taken his "you can do it" message beyond the living room and onto the road.

"I actually started doing this ... three or four years ago. I was sitting onstage with Oprah talking about some situation and after the show I was able to go into more detail," he said.

He still recalls Oprah telling him: "TV happens too fast. You just need to take this to the street and give people a chance to slow down a little bit and and get more detail about things."

McGraw eventually took his mentor's advice and hasn't looked back.

"I've done a number of cities now," he said. "It's really nice to be there live with the people and to take some questions sometimes (and) sometimes not. I talk about any number of things in some depth, instead of just speeding right along. I really enjoy that."

But don't confuse his live appearances with those of a traveling motivational speaker. Known for his good-ol' boy charm and tell-it-like-it-is demeanor, McGraw said he's not much of a "rah-rah" kind of guy.

"I always encourage people because I am very optimistic about the human experience," he said. "But I think it's much more content-driven than that. We go to school."

And for many, school is precisely where the problems begin. McGraw said that childhood education focuses solely on the basics of learning -- the three R's: reading, writing and arithmetic.

But no one really teaches how to live.

"We didn't have any classes on human functioning. Or marriage and how to pick a mate. Or how to be a better mother or father or a husband or wife. We don't really get that," McGraw said. "So there's a terrible void there.

"What I'm trying to do is kind of touch on some of those real core bases: marriage, family, your relationship with yourself, some goal-setting. Some things that have to do with your overall attitude and approach when you go into your career or life in general."

In that respect, the program is more or less a workshop on how to improve the quality of life on physical, mental and emotional levels.

Instead of guests or topics, McGraw said he spends two hours delivering "good, common-sense, scientifically sound information" just as he does into living rooms nationwide five days a week.

"Rather than reacting to stories, what I do is to really dig in and say there are like five, six, seven things you need to know about this and know about that to put into your life," he said. "So I cover those instead of dealing with stories. It's almost information download instead of learning about stories or a situation in somebody else's life that you might relate to."

However, unlike his TV show, the information comes with a price tag. The least-expensive ticket for his Aladdin appearance is $65.

But McGraw said that's still an "absolute bargain."

"I think you get a couple hours of real quality input and information," he said. "When I was practicing psychology, which was, gosh, 15 years ago, it was $180 an hour."