It seems like the natural next step for a popular stand-up comedian to take is to star in a television sitcom.  Great comedians from Bill Cosby and Red Foxx to Jerry Sienfeld and Tim Allen have all had successful TV shows built, at least in part, around their stand-up acts.  Another comedian to follow this track is Bernie Mac who stars in the Emmy winning Bernie Mac Show, the first season of which has just been released by Fox.

The show is derived from a bit of shtick that Bernie preformed in his stand-up act.  Bernie plays himself, a popular comedian.  In te first episode, his sister is arrested for drug possession, and Bernie steps up and offers to take care of her three children. He and his wife Wanda (Kellita Smith) never wanted children of their own, so finding themselves with a house full is a little bit of a shock.  First there is Vanessa (Camille Winbush,) the teenager who just wants to be left alone to do her own thing, and then there is the boy, Jordan (Jeremy Suarez,) who is asthmatic and always getting into mischief.  The family is rounded out with Bryanna (Dee Dee Davis,) the cute as a button four-year-old who can twist Bernie around her little finger with a smile.

The comedy revolves around Bernie's attempt to live the same style life he lived before the children arrived.  Something he fails at miserably.  He starts out the first episode with "I'm gonna kill them kids!" which is said in some variation almost every episode.  But the thing that gives the show its punch is the fact that Bernie is not politically correct.  He swears in front of the children, and threatens them with violence (even spanking Jordan in one episode.)  In this day and age of time-outs and reasoning with children, those are radical statements, and his devil-may-care attitude towards what the country thinks of his non-PC opinions gives the show an edge.

The Bernie Mac Show is funny, with a lot of great lines in every show.  Some of them fly by so fast that you might miss them.  In one episode he tells Jordan to go out and play "It's a beautiful day" he says, "You think we live in Los Angeles for the culture?"   There is also a lot of bittersweet humor, as you may expect with the premise of a drug addict mother.  In a show where he isn't sure how to discipline one of the children his wife asks Bernie what his father would have done.  "He would have taken a non-confrontational approach."  "Why don't you do that?" Wanda asks.  "No, I'd never leave you and the kids." Bernie quickly mutters.

One of the things that I appreciated the most about this show is that there is no laugh track.  I've always thought that if a show has to tell you when to laugh, it must not be that funny.  Though there are many great shows with canned laughter, I enjoy programs that give the audience credit for being intelligent enough to know a joke when it hears one.  The Bernie Mac Show does that.
 
The 22 episodes that compromised the first season are presented in the order they originally aired on four DVDs.  The shows are:

Disc One:

Pilot
Now You Got It
The Main Event
Bernie Mac, Ladies Man
Saving Bernie Mac
Here To Stay

Disc Two:

A Christmas Story
Starting School
Hot Hot Hot
Wanda's Week Off
The King and I
Hall of Fame

Disc Three:

Handle Your Business
Back in the Day
Lock Down
Mac 101
If I Were N-Riched Man
Stop Having Sex

Disc Four:

Secrets and Lies
Kelly's Heroes
Sweet Home Chicago (1)
Sweet Home Chicago (2)

The show was presented in Dolby surround sound, with optional English and Spanish subtitles.  The show sounded good, as a recent TV production should. There was no hiss or distortion, and the dialog was clear and easy to understand.  This is a fine sounding set.

Video:

This set presents the show in a full frame format.  The video looks very good overall, though there are some compression artifacts that are visible.  Aliasing and some pixalation are the most noticeable, but these aren't distracting.  The image is clear and sharp with good contrast and bright colors, just what I would expect from such a recent show.

The Extras:

There are only a couple of extras included with this set.  Bernie Mac, Larry Wilmore, and Ken Kwapis have a commentary track on the pilot episode.  This was drier than I was expecting.  Bernie only cracks a few jokes, and the trio mainly talks about how the casting of the show, and what sections they enjoyed the most in the episode.  I wasn't expecting a laugh a minute, but I was hoping for something more dynamic.

There is also an episode of the show TVography that looks at Bernie Mac's life.  It is a standard biography, but very informative.  It starts off with him growing up in a tough part of Chicago, and traces his rise to fame and fortune.  It's a nice 45-minute look at the star that fits in well with this set.

Final Thoughts:

Bernie Mac has created a funny and entertaining show.  The program has an edge, and the style, influence by Malcolm in the Middle, fits well with the material.  I found myself laughing at each show, and that's what I want out of a sitcom.  Recommended.