Titus/Dad's Dead

Dad's Dead
Season 1, Episode 2
Airdate	March 27, 2000
Production Number	1ADK-79
Written by	Jack Kenny Brian Hargrove Christopher Titus
Directed by	Michael Lessac
← 1x01 Sex with Pudding	1x03 → Dave Moves Out
Titus — Season One

Dad's Dead is the second episode of the first season of Titus, and the second episode overall. Dave and Titus believe that their father is dead after realizing he hasn't come out of his room for 4 days, not even to get a beer.

Starring: Christopher Titus (Christopher Titus), Cynthia Watros (Erin Fitzpatrick), Zack Ward (Dave Titus), David Shatraw (Tommy Shafter)

And: Stacy Keach (Ken Titus)

Also Starring: Phoenix Forsyth (10 Year Old Titus), Dylan Capannelli (5 Year Old Titus)

Plot Overview

Titus' father has been in his room for four days straight without even getting up to get a beer. This leads Dave to believe that his father is dead, an idea that he relays to Titus who took half of the day off from work in order to be there. Dave refuses to look in the room for fear of being scarred for life (although Titus insists that because they've been living with their father since they were 8, they're already plenty scarred for life).

Dave goads Titus into going in to see if he's dead, but Titus wusses out at the last second. They make another bold attempt at opening the door but, again, scramble away when Titus' girlfriend shows up at the back door. She mocks them for not opening the door themselves, but also backs away, citing the other horrible scene she walked in on that day (her parents having sex, presumably).

She reveals to the two that their father secretly gave her his will days before he "died," seemingly indicating that he killed himself and left Erin, the only responsible one of the three, to carry out his last wishes. Shortly after checking their deadpool bets on when Ken would die, Tommy shows up to console the Titus brothers. Again, they dodge the responsibility to check to see if their father is really dead by eating cake and laughing about "Anti-dad" in the kitchen. In the middle of Titus' bit about how he's making more money than his father ever did or ever will make, Papa Titus appears behind him, tells them to keep it down because he's trying to sleep and leaves the room.

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• Rescheduled: Although this is the pilot episode, it was shown second in the season instead of first. The other episode was aired first because the network believed the show to be a "Boyfriend/Girlfriend" relationship sitcom rather than the son attempting to impress the father show that it was.
• Crew Cameo: The hand for the "fist cam" belongs to Al Jones, the stunt coordinator for the series. Also, the woman slapping Titus in the "Psycho Bitch Cam" was Eva Charney.
• One-Shot Crew: Because this episode is the pilot, most of the crew members were not signed on for the full series. In order to shoot the pilot, the series producers used many crew members from Dharma & Greg to fill the holes.