Reviews & Ratings for
"The Jeff Foxworthy Show" More at IMDbPro »

9 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Good intentions, but troubled execution, 4 July 2004
Author: balkaster from United States

If any comic in the last ten years stood out as the potential source of a possible hit sitcom -- like Bill Cosby, Roseanne, Andy Griffith, and others before him -- it would be Jeff Foxworthy. He's a likable presence and his humor appeals to a wide range of Americans. Yet instead of taking a cue from these past successes and building around him a world inspired by his humor, the producers instead transplanted him to suburban Illinois. It was a fish-out-of-water comedy set in a Northern college town (without actually embracing his distinctly rural Southern humor), and complicated his life with snobby, intellectual in-laws who always misjudged him. It was well done, for what it was, but it wasn't what his fans were expecting and it didn't stand out for the rest of the audience. It got lost, the ratings tanked, ABC cancelled it.

But someone wisely saw Foxworthy's potential, and brought the production to NBC...with changes. New producers who were more in tune with Foxworthy's strengths built a new world for him. Gone were the snobby in-laws and curvy, sexy Anita Barone as his wife, Karen, to be replaced with willowy, neurotic Ann Cusack (younger sister to John and Joan). Foxworthy was uprooted from the North and planted back in the South, in his small fictitious Georgia hometown. No longer would the show be taped in a studio with a laugh track, it would be filmed before a live audience. And no longer was pre-"Sixth Sense" Haley Joel Osment an only child; he now had to contend with sibling rivalry from Jonathan Lipnicki, fresh off the set of "Jerry Maguire". Add the always fun G.W. Bailey as Foxworthy's womanizing get-rich-quick-scheming father and Bill Engvall as his best friend, and you've got the kind of riotous yet heartwarming comedy that harks back to "The Andy Griffith Show".

Unfortunately, retooling any show to this extent seems to doom it. Cusack played off Foxworthy better (with Barone, he always seemed a little henpecked, although that was due to the writing, not the actress), but the addition of Lipnicki felt like stunt casting. The fictional Foxworthy's friends were essentially the same doomed losers as in the first version, but they fit better, had more heart and were a lot funnier. Viewers who had stuck with it on ABC felt lost -- even though the past "incarnation" of the show was referenced early on, there were too many structural changes in the Foxworthy family to accept a continuity between the two versions of the show. Foxworthy's stand-up fans had largely tuned out during the previous version and weren't likely to give it another chance.

If the second version of the show had been the first, this show might still be on the air, and Foxworthy would be retiring it soon after ten successful years. Unfortunately, it wasn't.

7 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Funny show, 28 March 2001
Author: 4-Kane from Arlington, MA

I actually started watching The Jeff Foxworthy Show soon after it switched to NBC. It's no secret that it didn't do very well in the ratings during its first year (when it was on ABC); then when it was on NBC for its second year, the ratings were somewhat better, but it still got cancelled. That's very unfortunate. I found it to be a funny series. If it had only been renewed for a third season, it might have become a hit. (I mean, the same thing happened with Cheers, Seinfeld, and Everybody Loves Raymond: they all initially gathered poor ratings, but gradually climbed to the top.) This show deserved a long run on prime-time. But, I guess, if you have ever been cancelled by two or more networks, then you might be a redneck!

9 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Cute series that ended too early., 4 August 2000
Author: kasimon from FLORIDA

Jeff Foxworthy and company were very funny in this small CBS series that should have lasted longer. With a sharp cast (including an Oscar nominee), this underrated show did deserve at least Emmy or Golden Globe recognition. It had comedy, drama, and most of all, heart, which many of us today don't watch or even care about, unfortunately.

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Not bad, should have been given another chance, 3 October 2005
Author: jwhouk from United States

The original series on ABC had some funny moments, but most of the scripts seemed forced. It's also generally never a good idea to have the female lead get pregnant one or two shows in to the series.

The series on NBC was a good one, and should have gotten at least another year to build up an audience - which I think it would have. I didn't care for Cusack as the new Karen, but that version of the show was a lot more "Foxworthy" than the ABC version.

Jay Mohr... was just awful. Bill Engvall was a better (and funnier) foil for Jeff. The addition of his character (and Michelle Clunie as Dee Dee Landreaux) was a vain attempt by ABC to boost up the ratings on the show.

The only thing that could have saved the original ABC show was different writers - but by the time that happened, it was on a new network. NBC was just as forgiving as ABC was.

This show doesn't taint Jeff's comedy at all, but I can only imagine that he didn't care much for the ABC storyline.

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Very good "Redneck-hour comedy" every Saturday night!, 20 October 2005
Author: picrob2000 from United States

I happen to like that redneck comedian Jeff Foxworthy, yet I can't tell which TV show is better, "The Jeff Foxworthy Show" or "Blue Collar TV." Both are good comedies, however, "The Jeff Foxworthy Show" is more of a family-oriented comedy while "Blue Collar TV" seems to be a redneck version of "Saturday Night Live." I just purchased a copy of "The Jeff Foxworthy Show: The Complete First Season" on DVD, which is pretty funny, but I think Sony Pictures Television (formerly Columbia-Tristar Television) should release the complete second season on DVD because I would like to purchase a copy. Besides having the show on DVD, the only other way to watch this show is via Saturday nights on Nick @ Nite (I like to call this Nick @ Nite's Saturday Night "Redneck Hour"). Very good show, and should have had a longer run. Bill Engvall (second season "The Jeff Foxworthy Show"), is very good as well.

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Another Victim of Network Suit Madness, 27 July 2006

Author: jabo1971 from United States

I guess when they started filming the first season, the network executives at ABC didn't know that Jeff Foxworthy had already sold more comedy albums than Carlin, Cosby, or Pryor. Instead of going with Foxworthy's proved style of comedy, they decided to juxtapose a Southern, rural, redneck Jeff against his Midwestern-intellectual-snobbish in-laws, his neighbor Craig, and his wife Karen. Perhaps the suits thought the in-laws and others would act a foil against which Jeff's Southern persona could be displayed. It never really worked. Jeff's existing fan base, myself included, did not recognize Jeff Foxworthy in his own show; "Who's this guy?" - it was nothing like his comedy - totally alien. In an interview years later Foxworthy explained that for the first six months of filming he wasn't even allowed in the writer's room.

ABC tried to retool the show by dumping the characters Russ and Walt, who worked at Jeff's HVAC business and bringing in Jay Mohr as Jeff's wild brother, Wayne. Still didn't work. Eventually the ABC suits cancelled the show.

But it was resurrected and retooled by NBC. Jeff's business tanks and he returns to his hometown, the fictional Briarton, Georgia, but his wife is played by a different actress, Ann Cusack. I don't know why Anita Barone left, maybe NBC thought she was too saucy to be believable as Jeff's wife, so they brought in whiney Cusack. They also have another son, Justin, played by Jonathon Lipnicki.

The move to the South provided Jeff's character with a history from which Foxworthy's comedy could flow. The setting and characters allow more of the familiar Foxworthy comedy to come out – professional wrestling, big hair, trailer parks, mud boggin', cousins marrying and so forth. Jeff's high school best friend, Bill Pelton, played by real life friend and comedian Bill Engvall, Jeff's dad Big Jim Foxworthy played by G.W. Bailey are central characters that add so much more to the show than the ABC version's peripheral characters ever did.

But even NBC couldn't leave the show alone. The biggest changes were at Jeff's place of employment, Pitt's Trucking. Bosses came and went, so did truck drivers and dock workers. The second season had strong episodes and weak ones, but overall was a vast improvement. Unfortunately the network suits didn't want to invest another season in hopes of improved rating, and the show was eventually cancelled, this time for good.

0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Good show, 15 September 2010

Author: joed1667 from charlotte nc

I have the first season on DVD and started watching it again last night. I thought this was a very good clean show that the family could watch instead of the garbage we see today. It wasn't dealing with the dysfunctional family like we saw on Roseanne, The Simpsons and Married with Children. It's just too bad the networks didn't give it a chance to build an audience and bring in the people needed to tweak it. But then again, these same networks got all panicky and wanted to can shows like All in the Family, M*A*S*H, and Seinfeld because they weren't doing so good in their first few seasons. Big mistake on the networks part and the reason you see so many people watching more shows on networks like The Discovery Channel than are watching the major networks.

0 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Not his best, but not his fault., 29 May 2008

Author: wickedgood from United States

Jeff Foxworthy gets the title of a redneck comedian because of those "You might be a redneck...." jokes. What a lot of people don't realize is that his best stuff is about family and his wife. In this show they tried to get him to far away from his roots to work. I liked the show, i thought it was a good family sitcom maybe his target audience were those who already liked his stand up (but he is one of the top selling comedians of all time so that target audience is pretty vast) maybe the target audience were those that had never heard of him, regardless ABC dropped the ball, NBC did a little better, but still if you want a family friendly show, take a peak, it's a pretty cheap DVD set.

0 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Good Show, Bad Endong, 20 March 2007

Author: freshprince2 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I liked the show a lot. I watched it every Saturday. The cast was good and I really liked it when they brought on Bill Engvall. I didn't start watching the show until it came on Nick @ Nite. They made a mistake taking of Anita Barone... her show The War At Home is hilarious. My only problem is the ending. When they come up from the basement and the house is gone... what kind of ending is that? What I think happened is they meant for it to be an end-of-season cliffhanger, expecting there to be a third season. I also liked the first season better. In the first season, his son is eight and his baby is 0. They are eight years apart. In the second season, his son is ten and his baby is six. They are only four years apart. Anyway, I think Jeff Foxworthy is a great comedian, but not the best. That is Larry the Cable Guy or Bill Engvall. If you've never seen the Blue Collar Comedy Tour movies, you are insane. They are freaking hilarious. I even have season one of Blue Collar TV, a hilarious show, on DVD!!

7 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
Lame overused jokes., 22 December 2003
Author: Speedy_Lube from Lexington KY

The reason why this show was a flop was this: 1) The only people who watched it were fans of his comedy acts. 2) Those people knew all his redneck and other jokes by heart already 3) The show was just another forum for him to tell these same jokes.

Now I noticed the second season they actually started trying. But it was too late.

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