William Shatner - William Shatner's Tv Twitter Trouble

William Shatner admits it was hard turning a twitter feed into his new TV show '$#*! My Dad Says'.

The actor is set to portray Sam, the father of Jim Halpern - a twitter user who dedicated his entire account to comedic quotes from his dad and then published a book about them - and admits it wasn't always easy to suss out his alter-ego's true emotions from the 140 character-long online messages.

He told IGN: "What we discovered then was that in Jim Halpern's book... there's a deeper relationship between the father and the son. So what we've had time to do, between the pilot and when we start shooting, is to have conversations between me and the creators of the show about what I think the father is really about."

Because of this, William had to create a made-up background story for his alter-ego to make it easier for him to act.

He explained: "The tweets themselves are pithy and carry no character. But we've invented a more in-depth character who has a relationship with the two sons which varies like bonds tend to do. It's tight and it's loose."

The new comedy series airs on CBS on September 23.