New show review and actor interview: the Bill Engvall show

Warning: the family depicted is not dysfunctional.

by John P. Meyer

I've gotta warn you: if you plan on tuning into the new TBS sitcom series called (imaginatively enough) the Bill Engvall show (premiering Tuesday, July 17 at 8 p.m. Central), you should know that there'll be no heavy drama complicating the lives of Bill, his wife Susan (Nancy Travis) and their three children, because - glory be - they all get along together pretty well, and none of them (judging from the two episodes I've screened, at least) are serial murderers, child molesters or drug dealers. Or even seem likely to become such.

What you will encounter is a pleasant half-hour's light entertainment featuring amusing dialogue and likable characters who interact convincingly with each other in situations that seem close to everyday reality. What a concept.

In other words, this might prove to be a good lead-in to the murder and mayhem dredged up in CSI: NY later in the evening - kind of like a bruschetta hors d'oeuvre before the heavy beef main viewing course.

In addition to Bill and veteran actress Nancy Travis (TV: Becker; big screen: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants), Bill's fictional family includes Jennifer Lawrence (as 17-ish daughter Lauren, who's exploring the possibility of having her navel pierced); Graham Patrick Martin (as 14-ish son Trent, who's intensely interested in video games and emergently interested in girls) and Skyler Gisondo (as 10-ish son Bryan, who displays a precocious knack for manipulative parental psychology - and a talent for losing his pet snake).

Also credited as a cast member is long-time Saturday Night Live funny man Tim Meadows, but Tim didn't make an appearance in either of the episodes I screened; presumably his character kicks in as the season progresses.

I had a chance to converse with Bill Engvall - who many will recognize from his stand-up comedy association with the Blue Collar Comedy Tour - by phone this week; we'd arranged for an in-person interview, but at the last minute his flight from Chicago to D/FW was canceled due to (you guessed it) stormy weather. So we spoke over the phone instead, through the auspices of a young woman named Julie at TBS, who you can hear cutting our conversation short at the end of the sound file appended.

Turns out Bill spent much of his young adulthood right here in the metroplex, going to high school in Richardson and hanging out with his girlfriend(s) at the Gemini Drive-In (which some of my fellow old codgers out there may remember). Bill now lives in California, and - judging by his responses to some of the questions - he's looking to separate his Bill Pearson TV persona from his Bill Engvall/Blue Collar background.