Shalom in the Home
7 tonight
The Learning Channel
If only everyone had a Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in their closet. Things get a little too hairy between mom, dad and the kids in the house? Pull ol' Shmuley out from behind the ironing board, dust out his thick beard and let him work his magic. Through carefully watching and listening and applying good old fashioned common sense, the Oxford-trained theologian and philosopher quickly identifies what is truly ailing a family—and then works with each member to gently solve that problem—or at least address it because not every show ends happily. Which leads to this huge warning: often times, one or two or every family member involved does not see the problem as Shmuley does. Indeed, one of the strongest episodes had the good rabbi essentially showing a woman what a royal bitch she was being in denying her children visitation with her ex-husband. A the woman watched the video of herself, the recognition that she was the problem washed over her face—and the tears and sobs soon followed. Tonight, in “The Herrons,” the children say mom's a nag and dad's away from home too much. If I had a nickel for every time I've heard . . . hey, anyone seen my Shmuley?
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.