--- description: Dr. Phil McGraw shared his dad's hilarious marital advice on Conan on Tuesday title: Watch Dr. Phil Share His Dad's Almost Unprintable Advice image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7977f9ab7a78ff70/6987643be20a8781d0a82d4e/dr-phil-conan.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch Dr. Phil Share His Dad's Almost Unprintable Advice by [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 5, 2014 3:46 PM CUT  Dr. Phil McGraw speaks onstage during O You! presented by O, The Oprah Magazine, held at Los Angeles Convention Center on October 20, 2012 in Los Angeles,. Dr. Phil McGraw speaks onstage during O You! presented by O, The Oprah Magazine, held at Los Angeles Convention Center on October 20, 2012 in Los Angeles,.Ben Rose—WireImage by [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 5, 2014 3:46 PM CUT Dr. Phil McGraw stopped by Conan’s desk on Tuesday night and shared a “really good” piece of his dad’s advice: “Don’t ever miss a good chance to shut the f-ck up.” The TV personality also said, when a woman says “What?” it’s not because she didn’t hear you, but because she’s giving you a chance to change your answer. That’s a little ironic, considering his show is all about talking through problems, but McGraw later admitted that he and his wife make a point to communicate issues before they become big problems. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3558415/dr-phil-conan-advice-television/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3558415/dr-phil-conan-advice-television/"},"headline":"Watch Dr. Phil Share His Dad's Almost Unprintable Advice","datePublished":"2014-11-05T15:46:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:14:20.247Z","description":"Dr. Phil's dad knew when to stop talking","url":"https://time.com/3558415/dr-phil-conan-advice-television/","keywords":["Television","Marriage","Late Night","conan"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7977f9ab7a78ff70/6987643be20a8781d0a82d4e/dr-phil-conan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Video","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-video/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7977f9ab7a78ff70/6987643be20a8781d0a82d4e/dr-phil-conan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"O You! Presented by O, The Oprah Magazine","caption":"O You! Presented by O, The Oprah Magazine","creditText":"Ben Rose—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3558415/dr-phil-conan-advice-television/","name":"Watch Dr. Phil Share His Dad's Almost Unprintable Advice"}}]}] ```