So guess what? “The Jackie Thomas Show,” a sitcom about the cast of a sitcom, is almost enough to give nepotism a good name. As the incorrigibly obnoxious Jackie, Arnold seems so … well, natural as his character terrorizes everyone in range: his writers, his camera crew, his teen-idol costar (“a publicity-sucking little pimple farmer”), even his toadying network boss (“How can you speak with your lips pressed against my butt?”). Talk about reality-based concepts. After his wife helped make him executive producer of “Roseanne,” Arnold became infamous for just this sort of bullying.
In any case, it takes a big man to poke fun at his own nasty rep: Jackie’s victims freely refer to him as “the rabid whale” and “a walking boil.” The comedy-within-a-comedy premise, though hardly fresh anymore, is always good for satiric jabs, and if the ones here start missing, just wait for Roseanne’s upcoming guest gig. She’ll play the big lug’s most passionate fan-which is, come to think of it, how all of this began.
