Gaffigan stars as a fictionalized version of himself as a stand-up comedian raising five children in a two-bedroom New York City apartment.

[7] Comedians Dave Attell, Hannibal Buress, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Will Ferrell, Esther Ku, John Mulaney, Jim Norton, and Chris Rock; political personality Joe Scarborough; TV personality Jimmy Fallon; and actors Alec Baldwin, Matthew Broderick, Steve Buscemi, and Nathan Lane make guest appearances as fictionalized versions of themselves.

[10] The network ordered a pilot episode in January 2013, at which time Mira Sorvino was attached to play Gaffigan's wife, with Christian Barillas and Tongayi Chirisa in supporting roles.

It was announced in July 2014 that TV Land had ordered the series and, unlike previous networks, granted the Gaffigans full creative control.

[11] Jim Gaffigan said of the announcement, "I am thrilled that TV Land is giving us this opportunity to do this show that Peter, Jeannie and I have been fine-tuning for three years.

"[12] TV Land president Larry W. Jones said the series was perfect for its target audience of Generation Xers who are raising families.

[12] The age differences between the children were shortened for the television show, and Jeannie said, "The TV kids are sort of a snapshot of an earlier time in our lives when they were all younger".

[3] Although Jim plays a comedian, a conscious decision was made not to regularly intersperse the narrative with his stand-up comedy, like in such popular shows as Seinfeld and Louie.

[11] Comedy Central, a cable network owned by TV Land parent company Viacom, aired episodes of the series one week after they debuted.

Episodes are available on video on demand on cable outlets and for streaming on Hulu (with a paid subscription) three weeks after airing on TV Land.

In a statement released on Jim Gaffigan's Twitter, he announced that "the time commitment to make the quality of show we wanted was taking us away from our most important project, our five children.

Negative backlash from a tweet that some women found to be insensitive lands Jim in a literal "court of public opinion".

Jim has landed a monthly show at Caroline's in NYC and feels pressured to drop his preferred opening act and use Dave.

After each gives their own version of a recent argument that seems to center on Jim's refusal to rent a storage space, it becomes clear that the real disagreement is over having a sixth child.

Jim's older brother Mitch comes to town, claiming he's tired of the banking business and wants to try his hand at stand-up comedy.

When Jeannie has her dentist appointment rescheduled for a Saturday, Jim takes all five kids on a planned trip to the American Museum of Natural History by himself, with disastrous results.

When a thunderstorm has the kids too scared to sleep, Jim tells them a story about life with his stern father and a time when a tornado threatened his family's home in Indiana.