LOS ANGELES – Good riddance, Dr. Phil!
That’s the cry from feisty neighbors whose complaints shut down production at the “Dr. Phil House” on their block.
The quiet Miracle Mile neighborhood became a war zone when Phil McGraw’s crew moved a string of troubled people into a duplex there to film their tribulations for a weekly segment on the advice guru’s popular TV show.
“We could hear screaming, yelling and cursing over there at all hours,” said Tom Griep, a next-door neighbor whose home shares a driveway with the now-defunct production site.
“The worst of it was the lowlifes that would come in each week. … You can’t fix a family in five days,” said Griep, who says his 3-year-old daughter was exposed to the high-volume trash talk as she played outside.
Seventy-six area residents petitioned the city to stop production, and with the help of their councilman, they won. Filming ceased Sept. 28 and no new permits will be issued.
Residents in Dr. Phil’s help-house included a violence-plagued family with a restraining order against the dad, addicts, and a fat and thin man who despised each other.
Dr. Phil’s crew even hacked down a 12-foot section of shared hedge on Griep’s property line to install a massive 10-foot-wide portable toilet for the 600-pound man, who couldn’t fit in the home’s indoor bathroom.
“Sometimes Dr. Phil would make surprise visits. His voice was so loud you could hear it from inside the pool house,” said Griep.
Dr. Phil’s production company agreed to pay Griep $4,400 to replace the 10-year-old hedge.
Dr. Phil’s reps say the show did not violate any production conditions and was “respectful of the neighbors” at all times.
But other neighbors didn’t see it that way.
“Our neighborhood was taken away from us,” said Evalena Easter, 63. “He’s become a high-end Jerry Springer.”
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Phil McGraw
AP-NY-10-11-06 0919EDT
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