$#*! My Dad Says Creator Justin Halpern on Proving Himself, Conspiracy Theories and His Dad's Writing Career

Long before Justin Halpern launched the Twitter feed Sh*t My Dad Says to catalog his father's cranky observations about life, the writer spent five years waiting tables at the Crocodile Cafe in Pasadena. At that point in his struggling writing career, the recent New York Times bestselling author cites the time that he served sparkling water to Home Improvement co-star Richard Karn as the most exciting moment of his life. Since then, Halpern moved back into his parents' house in San Diego, accumulated over a million Twitter followers, wrote a book, moved to Los Angeles and created a network sitcom starring William Shatner that premieres in September.

Earlier this week, Justin Halpern phoned Movieline to discuss his whirlwind success, his Twitter technique and the sh*t his dad says about his CBS series.

Congratulations on all of your success. How does it feel to have your book on the New York Times Bestseller List?

It's unbelievable. Not even in my wildest dreams did I ever think that that would happen.

Do you think that your journey from Twitter to a book deal to a television show is the new American Dream?

[Laughs] I guess it is sort of a new-age American dream, I guess?

What kind of feedback have you been getting from people? I imagine that some writers who have been trying to break into the entertainment industry for years are jealous, while some are genuinely happy for you.

Yeah, I have gotten a lot of positive feedback. It's funny because I wrote on the internet before this and I think that if I had seen this happen to someone else, I would think, "What an a**hole." So I totally understand any kind of negative feedback, because not many people are given the chance to do exactly what I have been given a chance to do. I am pretty lucky. People have been overall really supportive, though. The only time I see guys get really angry [about my success] is on certain web sites... but I totally get it.

Are your brothers jealous that they didn't come up with the idea for the Twitter feed first?

No, no, no. I am the youngest. They don't care at all. I think only one of my brothers has actually even read my book. They just don't really care.

Not only did CBS order a full season of $#*! My Dad Says but they gave it one of the best time slots on the network -- right after Big Bang Theory.

I was shocked. I had no idea when we were writing the script if it would get picked up to pilot, even. And after that, we weren't sure we would be lucky enough to be picked up as a midseason replacement. We really had no idea that we would be picked up until I found out in New York at the upfronts. I was shocked.

Did your dad have any input in the casting process?

He wanted James Earl Jones to play him. Yeah, he was serious about it too. I thought he was joking. He thought it would be cool if James Earl Jones was the father of a white son. I said that it had to be kinda close to real life. He said it shouldn't matter.

I would have watched that show. Have you introduced your dad to William Shatner yet?

Yeah, he met Mr. Shatner once at the taping of the pilot. He was a little reluctant. We finally got him to come down to take a picture. So my dad and Mr. Shatner approach each other, Mr. Shatner says "Hello," my dad says "Hello," they take the picture and they both turn around and walk away from each other in opposite directions. That was it.

That's great.

They were both super cool about it. I don't think it was about being rude. They are old guys and you know old guys -- they don't really want to ham it up and shoot the sh*t and have little chit-chat conversations.

Does your dad have his own agent now?

No. He doesn't have anything. He actually writes books on his own. He's retired so he doesn't care about any of that stuff. It was hard enough to get him to come to the pilot taping.

What kind of books does he write?

He was in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident and he wrote a book about that when he got back from Vietnam. I actually just started reading his book a little bit ago. I asked him if I could read it awhile back and he was like, "No, it's f*cking sh*tty." So for awhile, I didn't want to read something that he hated because I figured if he hated it, it was probably bad. He's really tough on himself. It was really hard to find a copy of it because it is out of print. It was published in like '71 or '72 and i think it might have even been self-published.

Is he writing anything now?

Yeah, he writes stuff now. It's funny because I said to him, "Hey, I could probably help you find an agent or something like that" but he is really wary of that stuff. If he wrote a book, he doesn't want it to say "From the dad of $#*! My Dad Says!" That would be his worst nightmare.

How has your television writing experience been so far? Do you feel pressure to constantly prove that you are more than "that guy who started the funny Twitter feed?"

Definitely. First though, I have to prove that to the other writers on the show that I can write. And I should have to prove that, so I try to do the best that I can and work as hard as I possibly can. Hopefully some of the things that I write make the other writers laugh. But again, people have been incredibly nice to me. I could have walked into the writers' room and had people thinking, "I can't believe that i have to write with this kid who lucked out with this overnight success." But people haven't been like that.

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