Wall Street Journal
Friday October 6, 2000
Jim Gaffigan plays an Indiana weatherman of the same name, a tall, balding, bespectacled exemplary of Midwestern reason thrust head-first into the big, shallow and piranha-filed pond of a morning New York news show. He's a real find -- and fellow Indianan David Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, found him.
Rocky Carroll is a hoot as the show's anchorman who sees Mr. Gaffigan's most innocent gestures (and his eyeglass frames) as personal threats. And Christine Baranski? As Jim's boss, Marsha Bickner, she could take her high-strung performance down a notch and still make Marsha seem a prime candidate for the Betty Ford Clinic's latte abuse program. All this and Sara Gilbert, too, as Marsha's understandably snappish assistant.
This is the sitcom standout among the new shows this week, and perhaps of the season.
New York Times
Sept. 10, 2000
In a televison season whose big names include Bette Midler, Geena Davis and Gabriel Byrne the most promising series belong to Andre Braugher, David E. Kelley and some guy who looks like David Letterman. . . .
Among comedies, there is one clear standout, "Welcome to New York," set in a television newsroom that is far away, in miles and in tone, from the Minneapolis station that sheltered Mary Richards in "The Mary Tyle Moore Show." Here, Christine Baranski plays the acerbic, jaded executive producer of a morning news program. She hires a Midwester weatherman (a job David Letterman actually used to have), whose culture shocks include the backbiting and paranoia of his ruthless colleagues.
The weatherman is played by Jim Gaffigan, who looks and sounds a lot like the early Dave (same sandy hair, same round face), without the sarcasm. Since Mr. Letterman's comapny, Worldwide Pants, is one of the show's producers, let's assume this is intentional.
Mr. Gaffigan's engaging demeanor, Ms. Baranski's better-known comic edge and the series' sharp writing allow "Welcome to New York" to rise above its unlikely premise.
-- Caryn James
Associated Press
October 11, 2000
Wholesome, wide-eyed Jim Gaffigan gets the "you're not from around here" treatment as he reports for his first day as a New York TV weathercaster.
Gaffigan (played, conveniently, by standup comic Jim Gaffigan) has been hired by producer Marsha Bickner (the sublime Christine Baranski), whose neck is out a mile. She must acclimate this transplanted Hoosier to Manhattan mores (for instance: always wear black), while waiting to see if his Midwestern essence clicks with viewers.
Already, she is plagued with misgivings: "Somehow you looked elegant in Indiana," she frets, "surrounded by the pear-shaped folk."
What makes "Welcome to New York" funny is not its heavy reliance on Gotham-versus-heartland stereotypes, but the fact that Jim, for all his dweebishness, is pretty sharp. And Marsha, despite her brash exterior, is a pussycat.
Add to that a good supporting cast that includes Sara Gilbert ("Roseanne") as Marsha's assistant and Rocky Carroll ("Chicago Hope") as pompous anchor Adrian Spencer.
On first meeting Gaffigan, Spencer takes umbrage at the fact that, like himself, this upstart wears eyeglasses.
"Why," presses Spencer, whose glasses are his bid to look like an intellectual, "do you wear YOURS?"
"To see."
Score one for the Hoosier.
--Frazier Moore
Some Raves on the Web
"Best of all is Jim Gaffigan"
Cleveland's Sun News
"Gentle humor runs through 'Welcome to New York'"
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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