Have you seen the new Dr. Phil show? Carrol sort of reminds me of him. By chance I caught a Biography episode about Dr. Phil on A&E. Learned that he started out as a psychologist who analysed juries for corporate clients in Texas and when Oprah was sued by the Texas Ranchers in '98 over her comments about beef and Mad Cow disease, he helped her win the case. Then, she helped jump-start his career in the "self-help" field and his books went to #1 on the NYTimes best seller list. The A&E Biography episode had a good psychiatrist critic who took exception to his abrasive tough love style and did a little cultcrit in saying his show is entertaining because people like watching others who are worse off take abuse - i.e. hey, I'm not so bad. But sometimes these people need real therapy instead of being sorts of gladiators for others' amusement.
Biography showed part of a Saturday Night Live clip where Will Ferrel (sp?) did Dr. Phil and guest host Tom Green was one of the screwed people he was "helping." They also showed Dr. Phil doing those huge stadium events with a head set so he could gesticulate. Has anyone else seen or heard the phrase "drinking the Kool-Aid" more and more? In the episode a TV exec used it when he described how Oprah pitched the idea of a Dr. Phil show and he bought into it.
One of my father's first cousins was the attorney for Jim Jones's Californian wife and he went to Guyana to try to get her kid back but was unsuccessful.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/dc_jones.htm (what's the New Religious Movement? Chip?)
Peter