Engvall's sitcom a throwback to early-'90s family comedies

Henderson Gleaner - Henderson, KY, USA - For anyone who complains, "They just don't make sitcoms like they used to," TBS's "The Bill Engvall Show" (8 p.m. Tuesdays) is the ideal throwback to early-'90s sitcoms in the "Home Improvement" tradition.

It's by no means a great show — most of the humor is low-key, the characters are all cookie-cutter types — but there is something comforting in its ordinariness, decency and even an announcer's voice that assures viewers it was "taped before a live studio audience."

Engvall ("Blue Collar TV") stars as Bill Pearson, a suburban Denver family therapist who naturally has family issues of his own.

Wife Susan (Nancy Travis) is the more permissive parent, prone to saying phrases such as "He's just a teenage boy." Daughter Lauren (Jennifer Lawrence) threatens to pierce her belly button, lunkhead son Trent (Graham Patrick Norton) will take football seriously only if it means he gets to date hot girls and brilliant oddball Bryan (Skyler Gisondo) looks as if he wandered in from a "Brady Bunch" episode filmed 37 years ago.

James Widdoes directs some of the episodes, including the Aug. 14 installment, written by Engvall and sitcom veteran Michael Leeson, co-creator of "The Cosby Show." Engvall's new series never rises to the comedic heights of "Cosby," but it doesn't stoop to the dumb-daddy brand of humor that put a nail in the family-sitcom coffin.

Overall the humor is gentle without dodging modern parenting topics. It's refreshing to see the family pray before dinner in the Aug. 14 episode, the original pilot that TBS is airing out of order. However, it's disturbing to see Engvall dredge his blue-collar roots for a line in the Aug. 14 episode that some might interpret as homophobic.

But on the whole, this throwback sitcom may be ideal for families craving the familiar rhythms of the thought-to-be-extinct family comedy.