FAR BE IT from us to promote the Dr. Phil show, which some consider to be little more than a sophisticated version of Jerry Springer…
But.
Tomorrow (Thursday 4 pm) on TV6, we can watch a prominent local family discuss their problems and look for a solution in Dr. Phil’s studio. Complete with an audience.
The main character in this real life drama is Nick Cammarata, 21 years old, a former hockey player in Marquette. He’s smart, likable, good looking. (We’ve met him). His father is Reverend Nick Cammarata of the First Presbyterian Church.
A few months ago young Nick left town and headed west with no money, no phone and no plans. Just a desire to pursue his “call to greatness.”
He wants to be a rap superstar. Not an original ambition but when you’re young and captivated by the popular culture, it’s understandable.
It’s easy to be cynical about all this but if you talk to his mother, Jenny, who actually initiated the contact with Dr. Phil, and with Nick, himself, you get the sense that this family get-together on TV was therapeutic.
They came away feeling good about things even though they all concede that Nick has serious mental problems. It looks as though Dr. Phil will try to help him.
The story of young Nick Cammarata is not a unique one. He wants to do something, to be somebody. Hundreds of thousands of American families can tell you similar stories about their own sons and daughters. In fact, some of us old folks were earlier versions of Nick Cammarata.
But times have changed. Now these poignant, intimate family stories play out, not in living rooms with the curtains pulled, but in a TV studio before millions of viewers.
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