I Have Surprising Praise for the Second Season of The Bill Engvall Show

Given the chance to preview the first two episodes of The Bill Engvall show from TBS, I didn’t have high hopes. I honestly didn’t think I’d like the show. But I was wrong. Read on to see why.

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Ausiello of TVGuide.com recently said that Lost alum Cynthia Watros (Libby!) will be on season two of the TBS program,The Bill Engvall Show. I actually was just allowed to have an advanced view the first two episodes of the second season for the show. This is a TV show I’d never seen before, so going into it I didn’t know too much. Having now watched and read up on it,  I feel prepared for the rest of the season. And it’s a sseason I truly do want to watch - especially since Watros will be in it for three episodes.

I will tell you that The Bill Engvall show is nothing like Lost. It’s not a serious drama. It reminds me a bit of the ABC Family show Greek. I loooove, love Greek! What these shows have in common is that they’re (mostly and usually) light-hearted, cheery shows that leave me feeling happy. Feeling happy can be hard to come by. My go-to method to feel happy these days is to surround myself with good, funny friends, and good, funny shows. (Or both at the same time for a double whammy of happy.)

Why was I surprised to like The Bill Engvall Show? Well, to be honest I don’t always like a lot of comedies, especially if there’s any cheesiness or it seems impossibly happy. (The song Don’t Worry Be Happy also annoys me sometimes. This might be because my Dad once made my family listen to it about 40 times on a ride down to summer camp.)  I really did enjoy watching this show. In fact I ended up watching each episode twice. I can’t say exactly why, but the show is addictive like a serving of sugary double fudge brownies. Luckily, there’s no calories when you watch the show, I can’t say that for the brownies.

You know what else? Sitcoms like this are not emotionally exhausting or taxing! (As much as we love shows like Supernatural or Bones, it takes a hard toll on us when the season finale leaves us in a sad state of limbo - especially if it’s a literal limbo *cough*spoiler*cough*.)

This family sitcom is the equivalent of a nice break in a big, comfy chair, to just relax (like Frankie says) and just enjoy what’s on TV. There aren’t a ton of family sitcoms on TV anymore, and what’s more - a lot of us have grown out of watching these sorts of TV shows and/or TV sitcoms. Do you forget the pure and easy-to-come-by joy you got from watching the TV sitcom Family Matters? Or Full House? Family Ties? Alf? C’mon!

Bill Engvall, whom you may know from the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, plays Bill Pearson on this particular family sitcom. Pearson has a family consisting of a wife and three kids (one daughter - you do the rest of the math). Nancy Travis plays Susan Pearson, the wife. I remember her mostly from Becker and the 1995 movie Fluke - which is about a a woman’s dead husband being reincarnated as a dog. No, really. And it’s fabulous. It makes you question things about your own pets, though. Which is, I’ll admit, kind of freaky.

Within the first two episodes you get to see the grin-inducing SNL alum Tim Meadows (who plays the best friend to Bill Pearson). What else? Suzanne Somers makes an appearance in these two episodes in her own special way. You will also see Bill and Susan working on their parenting skills in some interesting ways - observing what it takes to punish their kids and get them to do chores. (They didn’t go the bribery route, but I have to tell you THAT works! I will wash windows for chocolate and DVDs!)

The commentary on popular culture of today in the show is spot-on, shown nicely when the Pearson daughter complains that without having her cell phone to text people she’ll be a freak and no way is she going to talk to them in person. I must not be as hip as I thought I was because I don’t really enjoy texting. (And people who do texting while driving really scare me.) Still, I know people like this! The texting phenomenon is crazy, but also very popular. Luckily, the Pearson children are going to grow up with their parents’ voices in their heads and won’t text while driving. They also won’t like pimento loaf. But that’s understandable. A pimento loaf is gross. I didn’t even know what one was until I just googled it. Yikes.

Tune in to watch The Bill Engvall Show on TBS on June 12th, 2008 on 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Until then, you can watch episodes online: www.tbs.com/shows/billengvall