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It was hugely disappointing news when Jim Gaffigan announced he would not do a third season of his sitcom for TV Land — but his reasoning made me like him even more. And I'm a fan.
Gaffigan partnered with his wife, Jeannie, on the autobiographical "Jim Gaffigan Show." They wrote all the episodes; they were the executive producers — Jeannie was the showrunner; and, of course, Jim was the star.
And while it was "a great experience," it also turned out to be all-consuming for the couple — who are the parents of five children between the ages of 4 and 12.
"We had this naive expectation that we were going to figure out a way to make it more manageable from a time-commitment standpoint," said Gaffigan, who's performing at the Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City on consecutive Fridays — Dec. 2 and Dec. 9. "But because it was a personal show about our lives, we really couldn't delegate much."
During production, both Gaffigans "were preoccupied with the show for, like, 16 hours a day. And you just can't do that when you have five young children."
Which is not to say that we'll see less of Gaffigan. He's starring in featured roles in the upcoming films "The Bleeder" and "Chappaquiddick." And Gaffigan will play a police officer in Season 3 of "Fargo."
"I love 'Fargo.' And I was really pleasantly surprised when I got offered this part," Gaffigan said. "I also like it because this will be my third accent in the past year.
"In 'The Bleeder,' I did a Bayonne, New Jersey accent. And then I just finished 'Chappaquiddick, where I used a Massachusetts accent. And now I'm going to go and do the Minnesota accent, so that will be fun."
All three are set in the past. Season 3 of "Fargo" just six years ago , but "The Bleeder" is in 1975 and "Chappaquiddick" in 1969.
"It's like you put on a costume and you have an accent. You're really in this kind of pretend mode," Gaffigan said. "It's like, 'Alright, I'm going to smoke a cigarette and I'm going to pretend to be from Bayonne, New Jersey.' Or 'I'm going to have a Boston accent and pretend to be a lawyer.' There's just these moments where you're, like, 'I'm totally just getting paid to play.'"
But he's thrilled to be getting so many acting jobs.
"I remember 10 years ago just wanting to be on 'West Wing,'" Gaffigan said.
Acting is not as time-consuming as writing and running a show with your spouse, which made giving up their sitcom a "rather easy decision for me."
"In the end, our kids are the most important thing," Gaffigan said. "Nothing bad happened, but we didn't want to look back on this time period and say, 'What were we doing, doing this show when we had a 3- and a 4-year-old?"
But they'll continue to work on things together. Jeannie directed Gaffigan's upcoming TV special, and they have other projects in the works."
"We are a creative couple, so we're going to figure it out," Gaffigan said. "It's all good."
Scott D. Pierce covers TV for The Salt Lake Tribune. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.