History Series / Titus

-->'''Young!Titus''': Dad, dad, I want a gun!\\
'''Ken''': Oh, you don't need one of those, Christopher. Men in our family ''have'' penises!

* CreatorCameo: Co-creator Jack Kenny had a semi-recurring role as Principal Wells, who was there when Titus was in high school and also shows up in modern-day scenes taking place at the high school. Also, Erin's brother was played by one of the writers.

Originating as a {{FOX}} mid-season replacement in early 2000, '''''Titus''''' is an extremely faithful adaptation of comedian Creator/ChristopherTitus' one-man show ''NormanRockwell is Bleeding''. ''Norman Rockwell'' itself is closely based on Titus' own life, such as having an alcoholic, five-times-divorced, patronizing, yet caring father; a violent, manic-depressive-schizophrenic mother; and himself having once [[NeverLiveItDown fallen into a bonfire while drunk]].

* EvenEvilHasStandards:

* FauxAffablyEvil: Ken Titus

->''"The great thing about being screwed up is that [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror nothing rattles me]]. Hey, once you've driven your drunk father to mom's parole hearing, what else is there?"''

* DoubleStandard: Addressed when Tommy encounters an old girlfriend with a restraining order against him. They had sex when they were together and she was debating on breaking up with him. When he approached her (naked) to have sex again she used it as an excuse to break up with him and filed the restraining order. When talking to her in the present she claimed he tried to rape her. Titus picked apart the trope by telling her that claiming rape when they already had regular intercourse is not a substitute for telling Tommy that she hated him and never wanted to see him again.

* TakingYouWithMe: Subverted. In a flashback one of Ken's past wives says that she's breaking up with him and is "taking everything with me" when she shows up with a bomb strapped to her waist. Ken asks her if he can at least have a beer. She obliges and promptly blows up in the kitchen.

* {{In Memoriam}}: The real Ken Titus was honored in the episode "The Pendulum" (where Titus is in a coma and Ken [Creator/StacyKeach] is narrating the story in the Neutral Space) with [[http://youtu.be/SJs9Tze-CFU#t=5m41s a clip from a visit he made to the set where he sat in the Neutral Space chair]] and said, "There's about 10% of truth to any part this..." with Christopher laughing in the background going "Right..."

* RealitySubtext: Titus's real father (Ken Titus) died in mid-second season and Christopher got some time off to take care of things. The first episode upon returning involved Christopher and Papa Titus (played here by Stacy Keach) being manipulated by Erin to take a road trip together (each thinking the other was dying). The real Christopher had to take a break a few times because he felt really uncomfortable doing an episode about the death of his father.

-->'''Titus''': (holding a glass of water) If sex were water...Tommy hasn't had sex in two years. (shrugs and takes a drink)
* MistakenForCheating: "Sex With Pudding"

* {{In Memoriam}}: The real Ken Titus was honored in the episode "The Pendulum" (where Titus is in a coma and Ken [Stacy Keach] is narrating the story in the Neutral Space) with [[http://youtu.be/SJs9Tze-CFU#t=5m41s a clip from a visit he made to the set where he sat in the Neutral Space chair]] and said, "There's about 10% of truth to any part this..." with Christopher laughing in the background going "Right..."

'''Affectionate!Mom''': Me again! Sorry, I guess the machine cut me off. '''Murderous!Mom''' ''You're a dead man! You're gonna leave that house in a body-bag''!\\

** Most of the women Ken Titus dated/married were either this or [[CuteAndPsycho just plain crazy]]. Juanita (Titus's mom and Ken's second wife) qualified for the later (which is justified as she was a manic-depressive schizophrenic who preferred to medicate herself with alcohol rather than take her prescribed medication).

* SpecialGuest: A few over the three seasons, but they weren't hyped up too much. Jay Leno (as himself in the two-parter where Titus crashes his racecar and ends up in a coma), Frankie Muniz (as a car executive in "Too Damn Good"), David Hyde Pierce (as a motivational speaker who tries to help Titus around the time that his hot rod shop went out of business), [[Series/{{MADtv}} Alex]] [[FamilyGuy Borstein]] (as the pregnant single mother in "Bachelor Party"), and [[SavedByTheBell Elizabeth Berkley]] (as Titus's sister, Shannon).

* AbuseIsOkayWhenItsFemaleOnMale: Deconstructed or averted, depending on the episode.
** On "The Last Noelle," Titus told of how every woman he dated was either unfaithful (like Dakota, who made out with a busboy) or mentally deranged (Taylor, who was so depressed over her dead dog that she cut Titus's hair in his sleep, Chastity, a Satan worshiper with telekinetic powers, and Noelle, a seemingly sweet girl who [[{{Yandere}} threatened to kill Titus if he ever left her or looked at other women]]). Erin explains that the only reason he ever stayed with those women was because he was secretly attracted to women who were as mentally ill as his mom.
** The episode where Titus and Erin try to have their wedding without any members of their respective dysfunctional families coming had Titus, Dave, Ken, and even the priest threatening to kill Juanita's fiance after hearing that he slapped her for not taking her medication. Juanita's response: [[spoiler:She shoots him]]. In the next episode ("The Trial"), Juanita is acquitted of all charges, but ends up taking Ken and the judge hostage because she was sick of Titus condoning her abusive behavior to the men in her life.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: While it's hard to do, pushing Tommy too far may get him to [[spoiler:tase your juvenile delinquent ass up or kick the homophobic shit out of you and force you to scream "I'm a homo!"]]
* BiTheWay: Dave is seen dating Nancy (the Asian girl he picked up when Titus went to the funeral of his abusive ex-girlfriend), but in the middle of Season 3 hints are dropped that Dave doesn't mind being sexual around men (i.e., kissing Tommy to prove that Tommy isn't gay in the episode [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment "Tommy's Not Gay"]] and working at a bar on nights when gay men drink at half-price.

* CampStraight: A downplayed version with Tommy, whose campish mannerisms are a direct result of [[spoiler: his father being in the closet while raising him]].

* MistakenForGay: Tommy. Justified in that [[spoiler: Tommy's father was gay and Tommy emulated what his father did -- minus the "having-sex-with-men" part -- not knowing that it would brand him as being gay]].

* TheUnfairSex: Comes up in one of the flashbacks, where the social worker claims "A boy should be with his mother"... despite the fact that Ken has a house and stable job (even though Ken is an functional alcoholic who has marijuana growing in his backyard and a history of [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood hilarious child abuse]]), while Juanita is [[NakedPeopleAreFunny pantsless]] and lives in a cardboard box under the freeway, and ''says'' as much right in front of the social worker.

* BigWhat[=/=]FlatWhat: Both are running gags on this show, especially in the flashbacks of Titus's childhood where Ken does something to humiliate Titus and/or Dave, a stranger stares at Ken in shock, and Ken replies with a FlatWhat.

Because it made fun of such sensitive subject matter (a lot of which was based on Christopher Titus' life), it was considered pushing the envelope too far and was canceled after three seasons. In retrospect, Christopher Titus said that the ratings were always solid but he would prefer it be canceled for how controversial it was rather than being a failure.

According to [[https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Real-Christopher-Titus/176979062329771 Titus' Facebook page]], he and the crew are in the process of [[Website/{{Kickstarter}} Kickstarting]] the series back into production, with no network, for 13 more episodes.

* TheSadisticChoice: Titus being asked which parent he wanted to stay with.