Bill Engvall's Blog

Hey everyone,
Hope that you are enjoying the Bill Engvall Show. Well, it's time for another installment of what's been going on at the set. This week's show deals with a common problem that most couples and parents have.

The "A story" is about giving gifts to each other. I have found that the longer that you are married the harder it is to find the right gift. Now, some people are blessed with the ability to find that perfect gift. My wife has this attribute. I on the other hand for the life of me cannot find the perfect gift. I think that is because being a male, we just don't think that hard about gifts. Women remember the tiniest things that we say and in turn are able to turn that into the gift that we really want. I have also learned in my years of being married that when a woman says "I don't care what you get me." They really mean, "I do care but I am going to see what you come up with."

A prime example: One year my wife said those famous words "I don't care" and I found out she really does, because she never plays with the golf clubs that I bought her. So we thought it would be fun this week to turn the tables. Susan (my TV wife) cannot for the life of her find the right gift. This was evidenced last season when she bought me the scooter instead of the Harley. So this season for our anniversary she bought me the worst gift. Now the fun begins, I have to act like I love it... and it's bad.

The "B story" this week is something that all parents have gone through: Getting your kids to get up to in time to get to school. It has always amazed me how hard it is to get my son to drag himself out of bed. Now when he was younger I totally understood, because he was too young to know how to set an alarm. But he is 17 now and is somehow able to drive and expertly navigate around an X Box game, however setting an alarm for school seems to be out of his field of expertise.

So this week Trent (Graham Partrick Martin) has trouble getting out of bed in time for school and the family decides that it is time to take matters in to our own hands. Brian (Skyler Gisondo) tries to explain to the family that there is a medical reason for Trent’s over-sleeping and Lauren (Jennifer Lawrence) just wants Trent to get up so that she is not late so that she can visit with her boyfriend before class starts. It is a very funny episode and one that I believe will ring true with any family.

Thanks to you, The Bill Engvall show is doing just great. I love hearing from fans when I am out on the road. Thanks to you, we are bringing the family sitcom back to television. I am thrilled that we have found an audience that appreciates the fact that I am committed to providing a clean, family-friendly, and most of all, funny show that anyone can watch. We have a lot of very funny episodes coming and I will be checking in with you and giving you the latest updates.

On another note, I wanted to let you know that I have a movie coming out this summer called Bait Shop. It is another funny, family project that stars Billy Ray Cyrus and me. The DVD should be out around Labor Day and I hope that you will check it out. Speaking of checking things out, please check out my web page, Billengvall.com. You can see where I am going to be performing and maybe you can get out and see one of my live shows. Until then take care and hope that you will enjoy this week's episode.

As always,
Bill Engvall

Well, we are underway! The Bill Engvall Show is well into production now and it just gets more fun. I am so thrilled with the way the writers have stepped up this show. We had a great year last year and my charge to the writing staff was to make it even funnier and they have.

In our first episode we deal with a couple of things that are near and dear to my heart. First off, anyone who has a cell phone will understand, and by now I am guessing that is pretty much anyone with a heartbeat. One of my pet peeves about these things is that we can put a rover on the planet Mars but I cannot get a good cell signal in the area where I live. I don’t know that there is anything more frustrating than finding in the middle of a conversation screaming into the phone, ARE YOU THERE, ARE YOU THERE? AGGGGH. Now the cellular companies will tell you, ‘well the signal is a straight signal and the buildings get in the way.’ Here is a novel idea: why not put a satellite in space and beam the signal down to earth instead of beaming it across the earth? But what do I know? I am just an actor on television.

Also along these lines there is a very funny scene between me and the cell phone clerk. Have you ever gone into a store because you were upset about something that they have done wrong? So you ask to speak to the manager and you realize half way through your conversation that HE is the manager and is still unable to help you. What is the point of being a manager if you don’t have the ability to solve problems?

Now the second part of the kick off show deals with the kids. It has come to my attention that we as parents pay our kids an allowance. This is a fine idea as long as the children do the jobs that we are paying them for. But if you have kids, you know that invariably you end up doing the chores and continue to pay your kids. So basically we are paying our children to be our children. I told my real life kids that if I am going to continually pay them for doing nothing then I am going to take that money and hire better kids!

In the first episode the kids are supposed to clean out the garage. However once they get out there they realize that it is more work than they are willing to do. So in their infinite wisdom they decide that they are going to go on strike. On STRIKE??? I am trying to imagine what my dad would have said if I told him that I wanted to go on strike. In the show I decide that the kids’ privileges are going to be revoked and the game is on.

I really believe that this season we are hitting on issues that everyday American families go through. We are going to deal with drinking parties, learning to drive, and unruly neighbors. If you watch this show you are going to sit there and say OH MY GOD, they have a camera in my house. Listen I am not trying to tell people how to parent because we all know that there is no book that tells you what to do. As parents all we do is try to keep the lid on things until our kids go off to college. I mean if our kids had any idea how little control we have over them, there would be complete anarchy in the house.

The Bill Engvall Show is bringing the family back to television in a big way. The Pearsons are a family that could live right next door to you. Once again the writers have done a great job and have really honed in on what is real and very relatable to you, the American viewer. So there you have it, The Bill Engvall Show is back for a second season and is better than ever. I will be talking to you periodically and giving you an update on what is going on behind the scenes and on the screen. So enjoy The Bill Engvall Show and I will talk to you soon.

TBS' The Bill Engvall Show premieres its second season Thursday, June 12, at 9 pm/ET

Related:
• VIDEO Q&A: Bill Engvall and Tim Meadows preview the new season

Well here we are the season finale of The Bill Engvall Show. It has just flown by. It seems like only yesterday that I was writing you about the season premier of my show. Over the last eight weeks I have been telling you about various aspects of putting on a show. However this week I thought that I would take the time to thank you the viewer for watching my show.

I am so blessed to have such great fans like yourself, not only have you supported me in my stand-up but now with the TV show. I am thrilled that you have stood up and said that yes we want a family type sit com. Sometimes I feel that the viewing public is over looked or not even considered when shows are put on. This is where I must give a great deal of thanks to TBS. They believed that my show is the type of show that the viewing public wanted to see and you answered with a resounding yes.

It looks as though we will be back for another season next year and more fun shows. Please tell your friends and co workers to give us a shot and watch the show I really think that they will enjoy it.

Tonight’s show is called “Go Ahead and see if I Karaoke.” It is about Bill and Susan going out to a Karaoke bar with our friends. Now if you have ever been to one of these establishments then you know it usually goes like this. People walk in and say “Oh no I am not going to sing, I will just watch.” Then a few cocktails get spread around and the next thing you know they think that they are Elvis, only without the good voice. I have personally experienced this. I think that when we are in the car or the shower and are singing along with a song we all sound fairly decent. But when you take away that other singer and we are on our own WE SUCK. (at least I do) I will say that karaoke is the best people watching place on the planet. Some night grab your better half and head on out to the local drinking/singing bar and sit back and watch the fun begin.

The B story tonight involves every dad’s nightmare, the boyfriend. Lauren has a date with a young man that I make a judgment call on merely on how he looks. Having a daughter myself I can tell you that I have done this one too. You try not to but you just can’t help yourself. It comes merely from a protective stand point. I will admit that I have made some mistakes in my parenting skills but I will also tell you that I am man enough to admit them when I am wrong. There is a really nice scene tonight between Lauren and myself. Jennifer Lawrence plays this scene to the max.

I have been truly blessed with having a great cast. I learned early on with this cast that you had better bring you’re A game or you are going to get left in the dust. Well I hope that you have enjoyed the first season of the Bill Engvall show and that we can count on your viewership for next season. Until then, from Nancy Travis, Tim Meadows, Steve Hytner, Graham Patrick Martin, Skyler Gisondo, Jennifer Lawrence and myself thank you so much for watching our show. Until next season may your life be blessed and your dreams come true.

Peace
Bill Engvall

Well, gang, we are coming to the end of the first round of shows. I hope that you are enjoying our little play. Tonight’s episode deals with gift-giving. When we are children we really don’t think much about gift-giving because we are usually the ones receiving the gifts. Even when when we did have to give gifts, like on birthdays or Mother's Day, our parents would go and buy them for us. When we had to give gifts to our parents, we usually made a coin holder (in the old days this was also an ashtray) out of clay and then painted it. Or we mushed our hands into wet clay so that our parents had a permanent impression of our little mitts. So when we grow up and start dating or get married we (especially men) are totally unprepared in the proper ways of buying gifts. Trust me on this one: It took me forever to figure out that women actually do care what you give them.

But in defense of my stance on this subject, when I ask my wife what she wanted for her birthday she told me face-to-face, eye-to-eye that she really didn’t care. Well, guess what, she hardly ever uses the men’s golf clubs that I bought that year. Lesson learned! Guys are easy to buy for — pretty much anything shiny or electronic and we are happier than puppies with new chew toys. And it's not always men who make the mistakes; I remember one Christmas my mother-in-law gave us the worse gift that one could imagine.

Let me tell you the story. My wife likes this certain brand of toilet paper. I know, it makes no sense to me, either — guys are happy with dry leaves, newspaper, whatever. Anyway, when we moved to California they did not have her favorite brand of toilet paper. So my mother-in-law thought that it would be cute to give us a case of this certain brand of toilet paper. But not only did she give it to us, she wrapped it. Now, I don’t know if you have seen a case of toilet paper wrapped, but it is the exact dimensions of a 24-inch color tv. She put my name on the box. Christmas morning I beat my kids to the tree, I ripped opened the box and there it was, a case of toilet paper. My first thought was that it was a joke; there was a DVD player in there. Nope, just 144 roles of toilet paper. Then she gave me 10 pair of underwear — what do I need those for? With that much toilet paper I could have made my own underwear and still had some left over.

So gift-giving has to be thought out, and the receiver needs to be very clear about exactly what they want. When I was a child I told my parents that I wanted the song “War” by Edwin Starr. Well, my parents didn’t know rock and roll from Adam. So what I received was an album called “Tobacco Road” by the group War. Totally wrong that I grew to love that album, but my point is that I wasn’t clear about what I wanted. So in tonight’s episode, we deal with that point exactly: Be clear! We also deal with the issue of growing older and trying to hold on to your youth. I mean, I make noises getting into bed now.

So I hope that you will continue to spread the word about The Bill Engvall Show on Tuesdays on TBS. Because we are very funny.

Well here we are five weeks into The Bill Engvall Show, I hope that you have enjoyed what we have done so far. It hit me that every week I have been writing these things and told you all about how a show is written and performed and which I like best stand up or acting. Yet I have not really told you anything about me, or how I got to this wonderful point in my career. So here goes...

I started doing stand up in Dallas, Texas in 1981 at the Comedy Corner. I was the “house emcee” which was a fancy term for a guy who did everything. I hosted the shows all week and picked the comics up at the airport and then dropped them back off at the airport when the week was over. This was a great training ground for me because at the time I was working with other stand-ups like Garry Shandling, Jay Leno, and Jerry Seinfeld. So I got to learn from the best.

The first time I ever went on stage at a comedy club was basically on a dare. I was working at a local disco spinning records for people to dance to. One night a friend of mine called and said “Hey they opened up a new comedy club, do you want to go and watch open mic night? Well I had nothing going on that night and the thought of watching beginning comics eat it on stage sounded like a lot of fun. I know, looking back that was not nice thought, but hey I was young. So we headed on over to the Comedy Corner and the place was sold out!! Not a seat to be had, I figured me and my friend would go find another bar, because that is what we were good at. Nope, he pulls out a twenty and tips the doorman. The next thing I know we are sitting at a prime table and the waitress is taking our order. I guess money does talk. Well after a few rounds of beer my boss from the disco comes over and asks if I am going up on stage. I said no way man, I am just here to watch. Well a few more rounds hit the table, when my boss comes over again and this time he has a woman with him. He introduces us and come to find out that this woman is the lady who runs the comedy club. My boss says “You gotta get this guy on stage, he is really funny.” Of course I replied “no, no way”. When all of a sudden my friend jumps up and say “yeah go on up, your better than these guys.” The lady looked at me and said “Well it looks like your out numbered. You will be going up after the next guy.” I guess I wasn’t the only one who was there to see some comic eat it. I was so nervous I didn’t know what I was going to talk about. I turned to my friend and said “what the heck do I talk about?” He said just talk about what you know and you will be fine.

Well, the next sound I heard was my name being introduced and people were clapping (they were just being nice, but no one had ever clapped for me before) I walked on stage and remember the lights being so bright, my stomach felt like someone had slugged me so hard I was going to puke right there. Then I don’t know what happened next, but I apparently said something that elicited a laugh and before I new it my five minutes was up. I walked off stage and they started clapping again only this time it was louder. My friend ran up and said “Way to go man, you killed.” I said “what did I talk about, I don’t remember a thing.” “You just talked about the disco man and people were howling.” The lady who ran the comedy club came up to me and ask me if I wanted to be the “house emcee”, told me what it paid, I said yes and never looked back. So I guess I owe a great deal of thanks to my friend for having twenty bucks to get us in, my boss for egging me on and to the lady who made me the “house emcee”. Well there you have it, talk to you nexts week. Keep watching The Bill Engvall Show on TBS.

See ya
Bill

Hey, everyone, hope that you're continuing to enjoy The Bill Engvall Show. This week's blog is about the difference between stand-up comedy and acting on a sitcom. One of the questions that I always get asked is, “Which do you prefer? Stand-up or acting.” They are two completely different forms of entertainment, yet they are also somewhat similar. Stand-up basically involves me standing in front of a microphone and talking to people and hopefully making them laugh. There are no do-overs and the response is instant. I think that's one of the things that makes me love stand-up so much. I love being out on the high wire with no net. When you are doing a stand-up show and the crowd and you are on the same wavelength, there isn't a better feeling in the world. It is as if you are in total control. I have had several shows in which there was almost an out-of-body experience. Not to get weird here, but I see myself pacing back and forth and the audience is laughing and the feeling is awesome. I always thank my fans for buying the CDs and DVDs, but there is nothing quite like seeing a live performance. But as good a feeling as it is when you are “killing,” it can be just as bad when you are not in sync with the audience or it is just a bad night. There is nothing more painful to watch or be a part of than when a comedian is dying on stage. Now here's a weird thought: Whether it's good or bad on stage, the verbs are both dark, "killing" or "dying." If you are doing great you are killing, but if you are doing badly you are dying. Doesn’t sound like a win-win situation, does it?

Now let's look at acting. I love being an actor. It is so much fun to take someone else’s words and make them come to life. In acting there is a moment for me in each scene that defines the story line, or makes a statement about your character. I think that's the difference between a good actor and a great actor. The actors who are able to find those moments are the ones who define great roles. People like Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman find those moments and make them their own. That, my friends, makes a great actor. One of the good things about acting that you cannot do in stand-up is what I like to call the do-over. If you flub a line or hit the wrong mark, it's OK because you can just do it over. Trust me, I have my share of do-overs in the course of a taping. But having this ability to do-over also gives you the chance to find that moment that we talked about earlier. Theater is most like stand-up in that sense. An actor on stage doesn’t have the ability to do it over: You'd better nail it on the first take. Now, the down side of television acting is that you don’t get that instant response. You don’t know if the viewer at home is sitting in front of the television laughing or reaching for the remote while muttering, “He sucks.” Hopefully you are sitting there with your family and laughing hysterically. On stage I play a character, in my stand-up I am Bill Engvall. It is fun to step into someone else’s life and try to see things through another set of eyes, but it can also be scary and weird. On stage I know exactly what I am thinking because it is me. So which do I like more? I'll leave it like this, and please don’t be upset that this isn't a deep thought, because I am not really a deep thinker. (I know that comes as a shock to some of you.) Stand-up and acting to me are like pizza: There are different kinds but I love them all. I am saying that I am blessed to be able to do both and have a blast doing them.

I hope you'll continue to enjoy me and my television family, the Pearsons, every Tuesday on TBS.

Hey everyone. Well now that we have covered pretty much all there is to making a sitcom over the last three weeks, I thought that I would tell you how dreams do come true. When I was a young man living in Winslow, Arizona, one of my favorite pastimes was to go to the Tonto drive-in with my father. We would sit there in his Ford pick-up with a big bag of home-popped popcorn. (Why should we pay for theirs when we could pop our own and put as much butter on it as we wanted?) Anyway, he and I would sit there and watch John Wayne movies like Rio Bravo and the Sons of Katie Elder. As I would sit there watching the Duke beat the snot out of the bad guys, I would think "Man I want to be an actor someday." Of course back in those days you didn't tell your father that you wanted to be an actor, because a) he would not have known what to say, and b) where was he going to get me any training in Winslow? The only department store we had was a Montgomery Wards catalogue outlet. That's right, if we wanted clothes we had to order them.

So my dreams of being an actor for the time being went out the window. When I was in college I dabbled in community theatre but I am sure that the only reason I got a role was because the woman who was producing the plays was older and I was younger. (Think Mrs. Robinson, The Graduate, older woman, younger man. You get the idea.) So I still had no training as a skilled actor.

After I got married my beautiful wife and I moved to Los Angeles. By this time I was doing stand-up full time but I still thought that anyone who wanted to be an actor could just be an actor. I got my first audition for a sitcom. Now I should let you know at this juncture that my wife was eight months pregnant with our first child, we had rented a house that we could not afford and I still had no training as an actor. So I had my wife rehearse the scene with me, I thought it went very well. I was to find out years later that after we finished reading the scene I walked outside and my wife started crying. Her thought process was, "What have we done, I am eight months pregnant and he can't act his way out of a paper bag!" Normally I would have been offended by this comment, but she was right. So in her own sweet way she convinced me to go to acting classes.

Finally I was being trained as an actor. Now came my first experience to sit in with other wannabes. It was different, I will say that. There was a wide range of talent from those whom you watched and thought, "Wow, I am going to see him or her at the Oscars, to those who you thought would have a tough time reading a menu at McDonalds.

I got my first acting job without even having to audition. It was for Designing Women and they were looking for someone with a Southern accent — bingo!!!! I was the man. The part was so small the character didn't even have a name, I was just "Hey guy in the red shirt, move over next to Annie Potts." I didn't care though, I was an actor!! Several guest-star parts followed after that on different shows.

Flash forward to July of 2007. TBS calls and says that they want to do a sitcom with me called of all things The Bill Engvall Show. So here I sit writing a blog for TVGuide.com and talking about my own sitcom. So if you don't believe that dreams can come true, I am living proof that they can. I honestly believe that if you really want something and are willing to put up with what it takes to make it, there is no dream too big. I can vouch for that.

Take care and I hope that you enjoy The Bill Engvall Show.

Peace,
Bill

Hey everyone! Well it is time for another installation of Bill’s Blog. I have been asked several times how we decide what storyline we use for a show. Well, I will try to explain this, because to be honest with you, I did not know myself until I started working on this show.

See, before The Bill Engvall Show, I was just another actor on a show. So I would show up on Monday, be handed a script and that was the story we were doing that week. When we started production on my new show, we had no storylines. We had to come up with eight shows. So the process began: I would sit in a room with the writers and basically we would just talk. I would convey different ideas that I had come up with over the previous few weeks. Now, in this room there was me, Mike Leeson and four other writers. There is also a person who sits at a laptop and writes down every idea that comes out of our mouths. We would do this for about three hours and then we would break for lunch. When we would come back from lunch, the person who had taken down all the notes would now have them all printed out on sheets of paper and each of us would have a little notebook of ideas. Then we start by picking the ideas that we feel are the funniest and these are written down on a board and put into groups. There might be 40 or 50 different ideas on this board by the end of the day. While we are doing this we are coming up with general story ideas. For example, let's say that we come up with an idea to do a show about jealousy. So there will be a card that just says "jealousy" and under that we will put different ideas about jealous actions or ideas that have come up in our discussions. That will be our "A" storyline. Then we come up with a "B" storyline. This is a storyline that will be going on alongside of the main idea. Maybe this storyline will involve the kids on the show. Now these two storylines will intersect at various points in the show. Sometimes the B storyline will affect the A storyline, other times it will be its own independent story.

OK, now we have a basic idea for a show that week. Now these ideas are put into an outline form. So, following our idea about jealousy, the outline might look like this:

Jealousy

1. Susan feels like she and Bill don’t go out enough.
— talks to Bill about it
— Bill goes out and gets tickets to a show.

2. Trent is learning to drive
— Bill takes Trent out for a drive.
— Bill and Trent discuss the responsibility of driving.

So that is a basic idea of how we outline a story — obviously that is a shortened version of what we do. This outline when finished will be several pages long. Once this outline is approved by the network, the writers take it and start putting dialogue with each of the ideas. This then becomes a rough draft of the show for that week. After it has been written, we all read it and make notes on the rough draft. We get back together and talk about these notes. Then the writers take it again and start to put the finishing touches on the script. It is at this point that the actors will read the script out loud and the writers make more notes, go back and rewrite it again. Finally there is a finished script and even then, on tape night there might be last-minute changes made.

So as you can see, it takes quite a bit of work to go from idea to finished product. I hope that this has given you a little insight into what goes on before you even see the finished show on TBS. Until next time, hope you are enjoying the show. See ya next week.

— Bill

Hey everyone! Hope that you all enjoyed the pilot episode of The Bill Engvall Show (Tuesdays at 9 pm/ET, on TBS). When I am traveling around the country doing my live shows, people are always asking me how long it takes to shoot a show like ours, so I thought that we would dedicate this blog to telling you how a typical sitcom is made.

Usually we receive the next week's scripts on Thursday night, after the taping of the previous week's show. Then we all show up Friday morning and do what we call a table read. It is basically exactly what it sounds like: We all sit around a table and read the script out loud. I always enjoy this because it is funny to me to see everyone come dragging in after a late night of taping. Needless to say, the coffee is the first thing to go. After the reading, which usually takes about an hour even though the show is only 30 minutes (I never figured that one out), we — meaning me, Nancy and the kids — all go home for the weekend. The writers then retire to the writing room and begin making changes to the script. You know, making things funnier that maybe didn't get a laugh during the table read. Then sometime late Friday night the person that I like to call the "script fairy" drops off my script at my doorstep. They are like the tooth fairy — you never see them, but like magic the script is there. Then we have all weekend to look over the story and begin learning our lines.

On Monday morning we all show up at the stage and do another table read for the writers. After that we begin rehearsing the show. We start with the first scene and work our way through. We will usually work for about four hours and then we will break for lunch. After lunch we begin finishing up the rehearsing, because that afternoon we do what is called a producers' run-through. This is basically the first time that anyone has seen the show run from the beginning to the end. This is always a stressful time for me, because we are still learning the lines and trying to remember where we are supposed to stand and move and react — all while the producers and writers are watching to see what works and what doesn't. When we are finished, the actors head home. The writers, however, go back into the writing room and make further changes to the script. Then late that night guess who shows up again? That's right, the script fairy.

Now it is Tuesday and we all arrive at the stage to start rehearsing again. Now remember, we were learning one thing and maybe it is still there... and maybe it has changed. That day is pretty much like Monday except that today the "network people" show up. (These would be the executives from TBS.) We do another top-to-bottom show for them that afternoon. Afterwards, they give us their notes for the show and further changes. Then once again, you-know-who shows up late at night with another script.

Wednesday is what we call blocking day. This is when the camera operators show up and we do the show scene by scene so that they can set the shots that you see on TV. This can be a very long day because each scene and every movement has to be written down so that when they are shooting it, they know exactly where to go.

Thursday is tape day, the day that we shoot the show. We basically do another run-through and finalize all our movements. By now, everyone is supposed to have the script memorized, but that doesn't always happen. At 5 o'clock the audience is in their seats and at five minutes before six I come out and the cast is introduced and away we go.

Filming usually takes about three hours. When we are finished we say "good night" and get our script for next week.

Well, there you go, the typical week in a sitcom. See ya next time and tell all your friends to watch The Bill Engvall Show on TBS.

Hello TV Guide fans. Bill Engvall here, and I am thrilled to tell you about my new show on TBS. It premieres July 17th. Some of you may know me from my first album, Here’s Your Sign; The Blue Collar Comedy Tour; or my latest DVD, 15° off Cool.

I know a lot of you are like me and are family people. And one of the things that I feel has been missing from television is the lack of family viewing. Well worry no more my friends. The Bill Engvall Show is just the medicine that the doctor ordered. It’s is about a family that lives in Lewisville, Colorado. I play a family therapist who gives no-nonsense advice to his patients, but then has difficulty in applying the same principles to his own family. In the show, I have three children and a wife, played by the extremely talented and beautiful Nancy Travis. Now you know Nancy from things like So I Married an Axe Murderer, Becker and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. On my show her name is Susan, and she is the one that keeps everything moving and keeps me in line. Our children are Lauren, who is played by Jennifer Lawrence; Trent, our middle son played by Graham Patrick Martin; and Bryan, our youngest played by Skyler Gisondo.

The show is based loosely on my act. I have always been a family guy and came from a family that loved each other. My biggest disappointment in sitcoms is that the kids are always way too smart-alecky, the wife too overbearing and the dad too meek. When TBS came to me about doing this show I said that I wanted to do a show that the whole family could watch. I wanted a show about a family that you really believes loves each other, so that when everything else fails, they still have each other.

In our show we achieve that, and believe it or not, this is actually a normal family. We deal with the same type of issues that every American family would deal with, such as dating, curfews, birthdays, money issues and so on. I have always felt that these types of things were overlooked by other sitcoms, in lieu of some huge subject. That is not the way life works. Some of the funniest things come from everyday life. I firmly believe that if you will watch this show, you will find yourself sitting there saying “Hey, that happened to us!”

The thing that has given me the most success in my stand-up career is the ability to connect with the average American. Why? Because actually I am the average American, and that is what I am going to bring to this show. I am honored to have TBS as a partner in this venture. They have stepped up and said, “We are bringing family back to television.”

As I said earlier, we premiere on July 17th, and I hope that you will become a fan of the Pearson Family. We will make you laugh and maybe even make you tear up a little. I am so proud of this cast and the writers because they have captured the essence of what I have wanted to do since I was a little boy.

I will be writing a blog about the show each week and will give you some insight as to what goes on in the taping of a show and some of the backstage pranks.

I hope that you will get on the internet and read about The Bill Engvall Show and tell your friends about it. Lets bring family back to television together. I will never forget that if it wasn’t for fans like you, I would not have the shot to do this. I am eternally grateful for all your support over the years and thank you for allowing me to do what I love. Don’t forget, The Bill Engvall Show on TBS premiering July 17th on a television near you.

As always,
Bill Engvall