The Bill Engvall Show
The Complete First Season
Bill Engvall, Nancy Travis
8 episodes 2 DVDs
Warner Home Video 2008
The first season of The Bill Engvall Show is good stuff. This is somewhat surprising considering how abysmally dreadful some of the other Blue Collar Comedy side projects like the Ron White Show or Delta Farce have been. In fact, this situation comedy is extremely well-written, the main cast is solid, and the storylines are pretty original for a TV show.
Engvall plays family therapist Bill Peterson. He has a lovely TV wife and three kids: a somewhat spaced out in himself son, a very cute daughter, and a too intelligent for his own good ten-year old. Of course, the kids have smart replies to their parents but they also more believable than most TV sitcom kids.
The shows are centered around Bill’s family life. This is a good thing considering the scenes at the office are pretty lame and feature some very weak actors. Unfortunately, the show opens with those scenes.
The supporting actors like Tim Meadows who plays the best friend and the actress who plays Bill’s mother could be better.
What stands out most here is how smart the writing is. I cannot remember the last situation comedy that used Ulysses as a way to make a point. The storylines, such as Bill being an overeager football dad, his getting Chris Isaac tickets for his wife and learning she had a fling with him, are pretty original. Isaac gets a cameo in the ticket episode.
Not all shows are stellar: the how Bill and Susan met episode, the karaoke show, and Bill’s birthday show are lame.
Special features on The Bill Engvall Show The Complete First Season are the usual stuff like interviews with the cast and a tour of the set. There is a really, really lame segment where Engvall answers some fake fan letters.
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