The Jim Gaffigan Show Season 1
Jim Gaffigan, Ashley Williams, lots of kids
11 Episodes 2 DVD
TV Land / Comedy Central 2016
The Jim Gaffigan Show is an excellent sitcom. It is also really hard to pigeonhole. The comedy focuses on positive family values but some of the language and incidents are adult oriented and the focus of the stories is on the adults in the show and their misadventures. Though Gaffigan sometimes comes across as a stand-up comic who does rather facile material, the story lines featured in the 11 Season One episodes of The Jim Gaffigan Show are quite original, interesting, and remain faithful to the kind of person the comic is.
It is fun to see a functional TV family. Gaffigan and his wife Jeannie (played by Ashley Williams) have four kids and like the real Gaffigan family live in a walk-up in Manhattan. Secondary characters include the maid, Jim’s skirt chasing comic friend Dave, Jeannie’s ex and now gay friend Daniel (Michael Ian Black), and Father Nicolas, the parish priest. Daniel is a version of the wacky neighbor who walks in all the time and gets his nose in everything.
The premise of most episodes is Jim sets out to do something and things go wrong. One is having to deliver a letter of recommendation to a private school the Gaffigans want to send their daughter to but dropping off a controversial drawing another of the kids made.
Gaffigan’s job as a stand-up is part of some of the story lines. A memorable one is when he is photographed with a bible, something he is uncomfortable with as it limits him as being a Christian comic. Another has Gaffigan being invited on the Jimmy Fallon Show and being upstaged by his parish priest.
A lot of sitcoms have done their take on It’s A Wonderful Life. Episode 11 of season 1 of The Jim Gaffigan Show is one of the best ones and features Steve Buscemi as Clarence. The ending tot his episode is stellar.
I find it interesting that the episode sequence on the 2 DVD Jim Gafffigan Show is not even close to the sequence in which the episodes aired. Odd but not important. Various stand-up comics have cameo appearances.
There are unfortunately no special features on this set.
Season Two of The Jim Gaffigan Show premieres in June 2016 on TV Land