You might be skeptical about a sitcom starring a former participant in the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, but, based on what we saw of “The Bill Engvall Show,” it looks at least a little bit better than the average family comedy, and you can thank the cast for that, I think. In addition to Engvall, you get Nancy Travis, Tim Meadows, and Steve Hytner.
Who’s Steve Hytner, you ask?
He looks familiar, but you can’t place him, right? Probably his most immortal role was that of Kenny Bania on “Seinfeld,” but he also had a really funny show called “Working,” where he co-starred along with Fred Savage. (I asked him if he’d heard anything about it coming out on DVD, but despite his excitement at the mere thought of such a thing happening, he admitted that, no, he hadn’t heard a thing.)
Anyway, the show comes across as a very sweet look at family life without getting too saccharine, mainstream without being too generic…and, hopefully, it’ll work better than, say, “The Jeff Foxworthy Show,” which its star doesn’t exactly remember with great fondness.
“I was on his show,” recalls Engvall, “and he would come to work, and I would say, ‘Oh, I can’t wait till I get my own show. I cannot wait.’ And he goes, ‘Why do you want this?’ And I go, ‘Because this is the ultimate achievement.’ And I think the reason he did not have a great experience is because that particular network didn’t get him. They didn’t know where to put him, what to do with him. And this is where I give TBS all of the credit in the world. They got me. They got what I do. And they’ve let me — they’ve put me in a vehicle that allows me to be Bill, and it’s — so for me, as bad as Jeff’s experience was, mine has been ten times the good way, you know, just from — our set — I wish you guys could all come down to the set, because one of my favorite things to hear is that people, like from guest stars to — it’s a fun set. We have a great time. We laugh. We cut up. And we do a great show. And I will give credit to James Widdoes for this, because he helps keep this — even when things got a little tense, he was there to not only make a great show, but to also — it was fun. You wanted to come to work. It was a great time. So I’m sorry that Jeff had a bad experience, but this has been just completely wicked!”
