Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
The Jim Gaffigan Show returns to TV Land for a second season tonight — on Father’s Day. We got a chance to chat with the cast and creators last weekend at the ATX Festival. In between revealing how the show almost landed on Netflix, showrunners Jim Gaffigan and his wife Jeannie Gaffigan told us that while The Jim Gaffigan Show features stories about families and children, it deals with “adult themes.”
“It’s not that kind of show about the drama of the kids having their first cigarette or something. They’re little kids,” said Jeannie Gaffigan. ” It’s about what happens in your adult life when you’ve got these little children present in your lives. How that influences you, what decisions do you have to make in terms of are you going to compromise your ideals to get a job or get a role just for the money?”
Unlike other comics whose sitcoms focus on their comedy careers or dating lives, The Jim Gaffigan Show takes a different tact. Jim Gaffigan said, “The storylines are what’s happening when I’m not doing stand up…So that way we can do interesting, compelling stories.”
Ashley Willams plays the onscreen version of Jeannie Gaffigan (also named Jeannie Gaffigan). She told us, “I had, like, the best time this year. I got hit on by Tig Notaro. I got to wear a 1970s bouffant wig, fingernails — I was playing Jim’s mother — cigarette hanging out of my mouth, drinking a Tab, cooking scrambled eggs, and screaming at the kids. And I got to grab an internet blogger by the lapels and scream at him in his face.”
“The shows I liked best last season were the ones that went a little left of field and I think that Jeannie and Jim also liked those shows the best,” said Michael Ian Black (who plays Daniel). “So they have moved more in that direction this season where things are a little less conventional, a little more surreal, a little more absurd, but still rooted in their comedy.”
Tonight’s double whammy of episodes includes one where Jim looks for his calling in life. The episode balances some huge Catholic references with an irreverent guest appearance from Jerry Seinfeld. The second episode, entitled “The Trial,” plays out like a court case. Jim is being tried in the court of public opinion. His prosecutor? Zachary Quinto. His fellow inmates? Carrot Top, Gilbert Gottfried, and Nickleback. The episode plays out like a longer, more in-depth riff on a concept we saw Amy Schumer play with last season on her sketch show. Only there, Schumer was defending Bill Cosby.
Season Two of The Jim Gaffigan Show debuts on TV Land tonight at 10/9 C.
