Bill Engvall's self-titled sitcom is like a time capsule circa 1992. It could easily fit in between "Family Matters" and "Step By Step" on ABC's "family" Friday nights. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
He plays a harried, but understanding dad (who is ironically a therapist), with a harried, but understanding wife played by Nancy Travis. They have three kids. One is the doofy stud guy, one is the pretty gal and one is the precocious younger boy who says things far beyond his years. And Engvall has a wacky best friend played by Tim Meadows.
“I want to make them as relatable as the American family as I can,” Engvall said in a recent phone interview. That’s why the first episode focuses on Engvall having trouble paying for a spring break vacation for his daughter because budgets are tight. “We just don’t want to make it depressing,” he noted.
TBS has given the Blue Collar comic a third season. This time, though, he is being placed on Saturday nights, not a time when fresh scripted shows tend to come out.
“My knee jerk reaction was, ‘What?’ ,” Engvall said in a recent interview. “But once they explained it to me, it made more sense.”
He said TBS has been getting good family demographics on Saturday nights with films. “They feel like this is the best time for us — family viewers,” Engvall said. “This is a company that took a chance on me. I’m returning the favor to take a chance with them.” Plus, people aren’t going out as much due to the economy, he said. So maybe they’ll watch him instead.
Engvall said if he had his own druthers, he’d do 22 episodes a year, like a traditional broadcast network. But he looks on the bright side: “With only 10 shows, your approach is more intense. You have more pressure to make 10 great shows and make sure every joke is the best we can do.”
Meadows’ character Paul on the show a bit like Wilson, the next-door neighbor on “Home Improvement,” who provides him advice to Tim Allen. But while Wilson was usually quite sage, Paul isn’t often terribly useful. Why does Engvall even listen to him? “He hopes Paul will come up with some gem once in awhile,” he said. “And he secretly lives vicariously through Paul, who is footloose and fancy free.”
Engvall recently hosted the "CMT Music Awards" and had a blast. He loved seeing Sugarland with the B-52s and a bit between T-Pain and Taylor Swift he participated in. "I got to meet Ted Nugent, Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow and Def Leppard. And this was a country music show!"
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