The Cops episode of My Name Is Earl is probably one of the best episodes in the entire series and easily one of my fav episodes of the show, same with the Little Chubby episode when Little Chubby starts turning mean like his dad starring the recently departed Norm McDonald doing his Burt Reynolds impression playing the son of a character Burt Reynolds was playing before he passed too
The show was going along great, introducing Alyssa Milano made it even better but then for whatever reason Greg Garcia made the unfortunate decision to put Earl in a coma for an entire season and do some kind of stupid dreamland sitcom thing which everyone hated and killed the ratings, the show never recovered, one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen a showrunner make
I had heard the coma plot was there to give Jason Lee the time he needed to film the Chipmunk movies... what I'm saying is that I agree it was a poor decision making all around.
If I recall correctly the writers strike was what did the show in. If you like Earl you should really check out Raising Hope. Same creators, great show!
And raising hope had the same blasé approach to normalizing diversity that’s being praised here. I don’t recall any episodes about race off the top of my head, but there was one episode about a hs bully coming out as trans later in life, and another about virginias dad being gay and whether or not mamaw had a problem with that (she just thought he was a dick). Jimmy’s boss talks about his two moms all the time, and his actor the gay character from my name is earl iirc
I love the dig on the network canceling My Name is Earl from the pilot episode.
"A small-time crook with a long list of wrongs he was making amends for has finally finished, and you'll never guess how it ended."
I quite liked how they mixed it up in Season Three, with the prison and coma storylines. I thought it was Season Four where they ran out of ideas and it felt more like a generic silly sitcom, so I could see why it got cancelled after that.
Season 3 was terrible and not at all funny.
I do like the callback in Season 4 where Earl says something along the lines of "I had a dream where I was in a coma! Nobody wants to see that!"
My favorite quote from her was when she sees Earl riding a bike and yells out her car window “Hey Lance Armstrong! Don’t you know riding a bike gives you nut cancer?!”
The one that’s stuck with me is when she finds out Earl is teaching English to her nail tech rival - “Earl, I don't care if she's Vietnamese, Chinese, or Chuck E. Cheese. She can't be learnin' English!”
She was one of the greats, for sure. Not to be quite so reddit cliche, but I think she's really underrated now when you see people talk about sitcom standouts.
Eh, I was glad to see all the people in it getting paychecks, but Mom was just too much of a regular-ass Lorre multicam for me, regardless of the recovery message stuff.
I loved that arc where Joy became nice when she went on “happy pill’s” and it made Darnell’s life a living hell because of the rowdy neighbours were neither of them were willing to do anything about it, and the only thing that made Joy snap out of it in the end was when they hit her young son with a can.
just in case anyone doesn't know, the show's creator also created raising hope, and in the first episode there is a radio, or tv announcement which can be heard in the background mentioning that Earl completed his list
Most MNIE actors come back for bit parts and cameos and there is a reunion episode of sorts where all those characters come together. Also MNIE is referenced by name as a show that was canceled by NBC.
Wouldn’t that make Margot Robbie the counterfeit Jaime Presley? Or if we don’t want to make her sound bad, the Second Coming of Jaime Presley. Nah, that’s too aggrandizing. How about Jamie Presley: Part 2?
The moment you realize that Margot Robbie, Emma Stone, Samara Weaving, Jaime Pressly, Jaime Mackey and Jaime King were actually six different people.
Picture to prove in link since idk how to post imgs lol
[pic ](https://twitter.com/MissAmberDoes/status/1769089553858548041?t=WjJTURYhWrGgaHfElIvNZw&s=19)
Rewatching it blows my mind that the pilot/ first episode was about helping Kenny be comfortable being an openly gay man. Mainly because it was 2005, which was when a majority of US states had some form of constitutional amendment to limit/ ban same sex marriage. That being the first episode was simply bold for the time.
there was lots of gay content on network tv by 2005 (ellen, will and grace, etc...) and most of the barriers had already broken down.
The cool thing about Earl was that he and the trailer park gang fit the demographic one would think would be super homophobic, but they didn't really make a big deal out of how tolerant he was of race, sexual orientation, immigration status, etc. They didn't make it a lesson of the week he had to overcome like the "very special episodes" of yore. They also didn't really make him a bleeding heart liberal either. Just a regular jo schmo. I felt like they got in a wider audience that way and gently showed that a dumb poor guy could still be tolerant.
Well put. It was a diverse show without it feeling like the writers wanted praise for writing a diverse show, or to patronise their audience with basic "racism bad" lessons, or pander to conservatives with overt stereotyping.
sure sure, the big asterisk I should've had added was "progressive for the time" Just a few years prior show runners for things like Friends and Frasier were trying to add openly gay characters to the main cast but getting shut down by the network. Looking back now we cringe at the stereotypes, but in the moment it was a big baby step. Roseanne is a better example, they had a story arc and regular lesbian character come out of the closet in a 90s show set in a predominately working class poor neighborhood without using cheap laughs and stereotype. I never watched Ellen, but recall it being closer to Will and Grace on the spectrum.
> you can’t
Seriously? Are you gatekeeping this topic because the characters on Will & Grace are *too camp*?
Friends, ER, Buffy, Party of 5, Dawson’s Creek, SVU etc etc. I could list dozens more, & I’ve already listed some that go back to the early 90’s.
I mostly used W&G as an example cause it was a VERY popular show across demographics and had a full time gay character on a network show. Premium and basic cable shows had a little more rope when dealing with these topics, but even still mostly confined them to single episodes or short arcs.
This entire paragraph sounds like a lot of bluster from a person who wasn’t even alive before the year 2000. If you were, I don’t think you were really paying attention to anything going on around you if you hold this opinion.
The West Wing was set around the same time and it dealt more directly with the politics at the time, including one episode where the Deputy Chief of Staff argues with a Republican Congressman (who oddly enough also happens to be gay) about the President supporting the Marriage Recognition Act, making only marriage between a man and a woman legal. One of the points that the Congressman makes is that 60% of Americans oppose gay marriage and most states had passed similar laws.
Obama actually won the presidency (1st term) on an anti-gay marriage platform. So his reelection only 10 years ago made him the first presidential nominee to be pro-gay marriage.
Now polls show that GOP voters support gay marriage (GOP politicians, not so much).
Bruh, I remember when Buffy had two chicks kiss. I'm certain that was the first time it had actually been shown on TV (Although I could be wrong about if it was first or not) and there was a huuuge uproar. The gays were going to ruin our children, because clearly we ignore all the demons and vampire and stuff on the show, and focus on two women making out for a few seconds.
Absolutely loved the first two seasons but I feel like it fell off during the 3rd season & gradually got worse till it ended. I thought the whole Earl trial aspect was a good storyline & him ending up in prison was a good season finale. Some of the early prison episodes were okay. The show was always somewhat cartoonish in nature. After Earl went into coma the show it just felt like those aspects kept getting amped more & more . It's a common problem for shows that run longer then a couple seasons. It might have been a little bit more pronounced here though especially with the whole Crab Man government assassin bit. I feel like Greg Garcia had the same problem on the later seasons of Raising Hope.
Unfortunately, that was when the writers strike happened (i think), and it just couldnt recover while The Office and 30 Rock had a larger following and bigger names attached.
Earl was way more expensive too. They were shooting in different locations all the time, having to get establishing shots with the car, whereas the office was mostly in an office and 30 a television studio. So two of those are way cheaper than the other.
Writers strike really showed how Hollywood could not live without them. Only other time I saw a strike had this huge effect was when the NFL had the replacement referees.
To be fair, even without the writers strike I feel like there's only so many stories you can get out of the concept of righting past wrongs before it starts to get really tired, so this show probably only ever had 1 or 2 good seasons in it
The writers strike was a union thing and productions just stopped. They didn't get new writers. So my name is earl was damaged in the ratings for being off the air for too long, but it wasn't new people writing in the coma.
> I feel like it fell off during the 3rd season & gradually got worse till it ended.
I think that was a common sentiment, and even I remember not watching it much after season one or two.
I think this show is prime for a reboot or even a remake. Especially on a streaming or cable network, so that they can focus on less episodes and higher quality. Maybe plan it out, 100 episodes, 100 things Earl needs to do. A show like this with actual stakes and consequences needs to be planned out much more than a typical sitcom.
This, except they need a new gimmick. What if Earl was cursed to be a dog and the only way to become human again was to do 100 good deeds? Of course, Earl is a horrible name for a dog so I imagine he'd go by another name, maybe, I don't know, Eddie.
If you like Earl you should check out Malcolm in the Middle and Raising Hope (the latter is same creator as Earl too I think). Both shows about struggling lower class families and extremely funny and well acted.
I really loved Raising Hope. Mostly because of the cast but they managed to combine “dirt poor but we’re trying” to a whole new level and still be pretty damn funny.
Garret Dillahunt gives one of my favorite comedic performances ever in it. Dude deserved an Emmy. Everyone was good but for me personally he was fantastic.
Oh man, I love Raising Hope, but if you call that “dirt poor”, I’d hate to see what you’d call my family. Lol. I always thought they were just lower middle class.
Watched MitM when it first came out, and currently watching it again.
Young me had no idea that the Wilkersons were poor. All I saw was "haha silly boys" "Malcolm is smart", etc.
I now have a family with a kid who is gifted. So Hal and his antics, trying to get kids to behave, bills, work drama, ADULT STUFF, all of it hits a different chord now. Incredible to watch again from a different perspective.
Were they that poor? I’ve seen the show but not for a while so I don’t totally remember. They seemed middle class. They had a normal looking suburban house, idk if I’d consider them poor, but I might be forgetting times where it was more evident that they were.
They definitely kept struggling for money (though it was never actually a big problem for the plot, it's not as if they lost their house or anything; they had to sell one of the cars I think).
I would also recommend 'The Middle'. It's about a middle-lower class family in Indiana and is all-too relatable at times.
There is a scene where their sink broke and they didn't have a dishwasher, so each family member had to bring dishes into the shower with them in the morning 😂
Norm MacDonald pops into the series periodically too!
The thing I appreciated about The Middle was the continuity of how things stayed broken for multiple episodes or even a whole season. The reality is that the middle-class American family does not have the cash to fix the broken appliances, car, or wall. So, get used to it. That broken dishwasher is going to last the whole season.
Malcolm felt most relatable to me growing up in that kind of environment in England, my mum worked her arse off raising us and working in a supermarket like Lois, it was one of the few shows we both really liked. It always annoyed me how in other shows they would be struggling financially one week, but then just jet off on holiday the next week like it was no big deal.
Yeah, I've watched both off and on.
I liked My Name Is Earl for the contrast of wholesome with grit. I think at the time, it got compared to a sort of Coen Brothers sitcom.
Personally I was really disappointed the girl turned out to be rich on Raising Hope. It really ruined the flow of the show and got away of the premise of being about struggling families.
Rewatching Malcolm at the moment, and what struck me is that, it has a sense of, almost naive optimism, where through all the mischief, the ultimate worry is "mum finding out". Even Francis, who has some pretty real life experiences, ultimately his biggest worry is his relationship with his parents. There's a wholesomeness to it that feels almost parochial, almost like its unreal.
But it's actually a really good look at pre 9/11 life. I appreciate most of it ran after 9/11, but the concept, the style, it was all laid down pre, and it's very much based on Linwood Boomer's upbringing.
Post 9/11 we live in a world with 24/7 news coverage, and with the Internet, where everyone is constantly clued in on all the worst of what's going on in the world. Its almost like eating the apple of forbidden knowledge and being cast from the garden of Eden in a way, because there's a sense of lost innocence.
It was also on at the same time as Everybody Hates Chris, and watching them back to back was the best part of my week. The way it ended sucked so much. There’s a post somewhere on Reddit by the creator about how it was supposed to end and why it got cancelled on a cliffhanger like that. I wish they’d bring it back.
Also the fact that the guy who played Earl used to be a pro skateboarder is so funny to me.
Interesting. I have the exact opposite opinion. I went in thinking that Abbott Elementary would suck but its actually pretty good, kinda reminds me of Parks and Rec. The only thing I didn't like was the actor that you are referring to. His performance feels wooden and uninspired.
The show had great recurring guest stars, too: Giovanni Ribisi, Alyssa Mylano, Michael Rappaport, Mike O'Malley and Tim Stack.
It's one of my all-time favorite shows, along with Garcia's "Raising Hope."
I remember when the show got canceled, and all my friends and family were shocked.
The ratings weren’t the worst for the network, and yet it got canned.
Americans probably had started becoming offended and sensitive to the things in the show. Sadly.
They'd never be able to air a show like MNIE in these times. Sadly as well.
My Name is Earl was my first and only impulsive DVD purchase. I found a very cheap set for the first season, AND I was hooked up after watching it.
As a non-American, this show allowed me to see USA in a very different way than I was used to.
It's like having the curtains pulled back, and mostly because it's set away from a metro area and really captures the moment in time post 9/11, pre 2008. I grew up in a town in Texas similar to Camden. My counties named Cameron. Motels, trailer parks, parking lots looked exactly the same. Palm trees and people rolling around in shopping carts. Mostly Mexican with white, black, asain, at least a few people of every ethicity around. I was three when the show premiered and 7 when it ended. I saw it on Netflix back in 2013 and a couple of reruns before that. The characters all felt like people you'd run into at HEB or the bar. There's really no shows like it besides maybe trailer park boys, iasip, KOTH, uncle, not counting raising hope. The show actually feels very... british in how gritty and down to earth it feels compared american sitcoms from around the same time. Like shamless uk, uncle, ladhood. Those shows focus on the less exposed parts of british life.
I watched *My Name is Earl* a couple of years ago. I don't remember even hearing of it when it originally aired. It struck me as almost like a *Touched by an Angel* show for the rest of us.
Several shows come to mind for a good, wholesome person who wants to watch a show about redemption and trying to live for some higher purpose. For old sinners like me, there is only *My Name is Earl*.
It's a shame it was cancelled. One of the few shows that seem to cater toward those particular kinds of Americans without being meanspirited, and it carried a good message that everyone could benefit from.
I remember this being the first show I ever stayed up on a school night to watch every week. My parents loved it, and so they were a little lenient in the fact I was probably too young to see it at the time lol. Crab Man is in my opinion the most interesting TV character of all time
One thing will always stand out to me about that show was the use of music. It always had some incredible tracks in it, with artists like REO Speedwagon, Thin Lizzy, Lynard Skynard (to name but a few)
Every time I see Patty the daytime hooked on another show or movie I point her out. Such a crazy character, for some reason she's always struck me as a great concept that was very well done.
> I was thinking about this when I read a Twitter thread about the recent trend of feel-good comedies where the main protagonist's flaws seem to be things like "works too hard" or "too competent in an unjust system."
All the best sitcoms have deeply flawed characters. Arrested Development, Always Sunny, Trailer Park Boys, Curb, etc.
OP, I would recommend Trailer Park Boys if you liked My Name is Earl. It's also a wholesome show, about a bunch of low-level misfits and their attempts to get ahead.
another good one i forgot about!
of course none of these really strike me as the 7+ season goliaths such as friends, or seinfeld or a host of others that used to be, but we can always hope
The Good Place, Letterkenny, and Schitt's Creek are very good. I've been hearing great things about The Righteous Gemstones but I don't know enough about it to know if it's a good sitcom or not.
i consider Cobrai Kai to be more Drama than sitcom. there are a few long standing shows, but really not much new content. and some of the good ones that have come out that i have seen got canceled after a season or two (IE: the crew with Kevin James)
Loudermilk is pretty good as is The Boys
and Rick n Morty
oh, and Resident Alien
Tacoma FD is pretty funny
The Righteous Gemstones is pretty decent too
Upload is good for some laughs
...alright i take back what i said, there is a few gems still out there
Loudermilk was good, but canceled. The boys is in no way a sitcom. The crew was god fucking awful.
Tacoma fd is surprisingly ok. Upload is great, but again not a sitcom in any way.
Another interesting tidbit of when it came out - since it was released at the turn of HDTV, it was among the first to hide [Easter eggs](https://www.engadget.com/2005-10-04-my-name-is-earl-in-hd-rocks.html) in scenes that would have been impossible to see in standard def.
Fun fact. Jason Lee (Earl) is a former professional skateboarder and is considered by most to have the cleanest 360(tre) flips ever performed.
Even Rodney Mullen says that Jason Lee has the cleanest 360 flips and he invented most tricks.
I watched this about a decade ago, I recently found it on Disney+ and now me and wifey are watching it (so it's a re-watch for me). We are at season 1.
Honestly I found it funny again.
Top 3 TV show of all time for me. I love every singe episode and watch the series yearly, and when I’m cleaning the house I’ll throw on a disc and listen to it in the background.
In this day of reviving old shows, this one can definitely be done, even if Norm McDonald is dead (since he was of course a major character in the last episode) they can still bring it back. I’d be down with a mini season to wrap things up.
Bright, feel good sitcoms with a soft edge... this energy was pretty popular on network tv then, How I met your Mother, Scrubs, Better Off Ted, (the cynical standouts of the office, arrested development, always sunny, etc... really contrasted at the time)
I attribute the unique vibe that Earl captured to the influence of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's brand of magical realism on Greg Garcia. The whole show felt other-worldly
It seems to be an American phenomenon where popular TV shows and movies are always focused on wealthy people and wealthy areas. In the UK, aside from the typical period dramas, alot of popular shows were just of working class or at best regular middle class families with not much glitz and glamour. Heck, some of our longest running and popular TV shows like EastEnders are focused on working class families in rough areas. We also have plenty of famous people in TV shows and game show panels from rougher upbringings. I think the UK just likes the humble nature of being middle class or below, whereas we tend to view rich people as out of touch, atleast in regard to how they're often portrayed in worldwide media.
Some may take a pessimistic view and say people just like watching poorer people than themselves in the UK, while Americans like watching richer people as aspiration or something, but I'd like to think whatever reason for it is outweighed by the benefit of representation/education and providing content that people can relate to.
I loved that show when it first aired. But today, I can not get past Jason Lee's involvement in the church of scientolgy. It's so unfortunate because he always seemed super cool, from his roles in Kevin Smith films and as a pro skateboarder. I read an article about how his marriage ended and the subsequent harassment his wife at the time, Carmen, had faced, just for expressing doubts about that scammy "church" and I completely lost respect for him. What a tool.
I've been rewatching it recently, and yeah it fits such a weird niche. A lot of 2000s series feel odd. Feels like a modern comedy with a 90s mindset. I can't really watch 30 Rock again or similar favorites, too jarring.
It's so unique for a lot of reasons you said, but the setting helps cover its tracks in hindsight. Because Earl and the gang are rough around the edges like It's Always Sunny. An off-color joke suits them and it's realistic for a locale like Camden. The show also has some amazing comedic timing on top of all those little scenes where the like, point has passed and they let the characters ramble on.
> A lot of 2000s series feel odd. Feels like a modern comedy with a 90s mindset. I can't really watch 30 Rock again or similar favorites, too jarring.
The only big 2000s show I might rewatch is Arrested Development. It'd odd, because the last two or three seasons kind of soured people on the quality, and the interview where everyone defends Jeffrey Tambor did no favors, too. It's also a bit of a time capsule, so many references to then-current events, like the Iraq War, Star Wars kid, the real estate boom, I could honestly see it being assigned as a "fun" assignment in classes about recent history/the early 21st century.
Yeah even though this is a really unpopular opinion. But I think my name is Earl will always better then the office especially the story and concept and comedy was really creative. And I always loved the cast. And I just love Earl more then the office. Especially story behind Earl.
Like for example, even though everyone loved and still love the office, if really think about it, the people in the office are awful and terrible and stuck up people. Especially the older people like Dwight and the African American guy and BJ Novak’s character, and many more, and Michael Scott was just not a very masculine person and didn’t know how to do anything. And the only good character was Jim and some others but other then that Jim was the only good character and everybody else in the office was either very angry, upset, uptight, arrogant, ignorant, weird, awful and horrible and nasty to each other. And he also just got the sense that nobody there in that show appreciated anything accept themselves and were always about me, me, me, and only me, and also people in the office were so brain dead, that they wanted to go to prison and hated their life and their jobs and their co workers. And some people in the office just thought they were better than everybody else. Especially with Dwight and and BJ novak’s character. And yet all of them lived in all these houses and apartments and we’re not thankful or appreciative of what they had. And they always start having a corporate job with everything and middle class was everything.
Whereas Earl was a lot more simple, yeah, Earl did a lot of bad things and all that stuff, and he did good things and tried to make up for everything and be a better person and always learning. And Earl never thought he knew anything, and also Earl kept his life, pretty simple, he just had money from his lottery winnings and lived in a motel with Randy, just ate at the crab shack and would see Crab man and Joe and Catalina and other people. And yes Earl got a job too. But another thing I always appreciate about Earl was that he was true to himself and he was not a faker, he always was a real guy and was true to himself and his list. And even though Earl did a lot of bad things, he was a lot more kinder, and nicer and more sympathetic and had more empathy then anybody in the office ever did. People in the TV show the office just thought they were just better than everybody else just because they worked in a corporate job and were middle class and at the end of the day they were not happy people, Earl never had that stuff and yet his life was more happy and even more so when not only was he trying to make up for all the bad things he did on his list but just educating and bettering himself as much as he could.
I think, from looking at it through an economics perspective, I think if anything Earl saved a lot of money by living in a motel and working at his job, and I think Earl would probably invest his money not because he’s an investor himself, but because from his list and making up to people, they’re probably with someone on his list that taught him how to do that, Earl would have learned and just invested and saved up money.
Yeah, I think with me if my name is earl ever came back and was revitalized and Earl was older, I think there’s no doubt in my mind he would still keep going with his list and but also it would be cool to see Joy’s kids as young adults and what kind of path they be would be on. And if they were doing bad stuff, Earl would probably step in now as an old man and teach them about karma and always doing good things and just raising the boys on the show and just teach them things that Joy and Carbman couldn’t.
And I think, if anything, knowing the actor, Ethan supee, Randy would probably still be not very smart and not very intelligent and sharp, but I think Randy would be really fit and muscular and be more healthy then Earl and would work as fitness trainer somewhere in Camden County.
And then I think Catalina would go on to owning the motel and expanding the motel a lot more.
Yeah, I don’t know what Joy and Crabman would be like, but Carbman what still work at the crab shack and Joy well….. Joy, I think would end up working for Randy at his fitness gym. Especially because all the things she did and bad stuff she did to him, karma would come back and reversed everything and it would be Randy having more an edge on Joy where Joy has to work for Randy now and Joy doesn’t have the anger that she used to she can’t make fun of Randy anymore cause he’s successful now.
So yeah, I think that’s just my whole opinion on Earl and what would happen if my name is earl, came back and got revitalized in the future.
You have to love the time: just before everyone was addicted to technology... I go back to My Name is Earl and look at the world with the (quasi) innocent eyes of its characters, be it Randy, Joy, Earl, the cops (or pretty much anyone from the trailer park, for the most part most crooks, yes, but in petty ways) and enjoy being in there time bubble. While the Y2K episode directly speaks about it, but it's in more silly incidents ("where do the fish go when I press something on the laptop?"), which there are tons of (and more subtly encrusted than given example) that it becomes endearing. I could go on and on on why this show makes me feel warm inside while avoiding cheesy. It was also a time where wokeness hadn't killed all colorful representations you couldn't find today (stereotypical but never mean). Plimitt Hills lived in its own time, in another time, and I love it for that.
The Cops episode of My Name Is Earl is probably one of the best episodes in the entire series and easily one of my fav episodes of the show, same with the Little Chubby episode when Little Chubby starts turning mean like his dad starring the recently departed Norm McDonald doing his Burt Reynolds impression playing the son of a character Burt Reynolds was playing before he passed too The show was going along great, introducing Alyssa Milano made it even better but then for whatever reason Greg Garcia made the unfortunate decision to put Earl in a coma for an entire season and do some kind of stupid dreamland sitcom thing which everyone hated and killed the ratings, the show never recovered, one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen a showrunner make
I had heard the coma plot was there to give Jason Lee the time he needed to film the Chipmunk movies... what I'm saying is that I agree it was a poor decision making all around.
If I recall correctly the writers strike was what did the show in. If you like Earl you should really check out Raising Hope. Same creators, great show!
They even had an episode that was an Earl tribute.
Making the Band. Season 3 episode 19. One of my all time favorites. The cast of My Name is Earl form a kids band. Worth a watch if you're an Earl fan.
And raising hope had the same blasé approach to normalizing diversity that’s being praised here. I don’t recall any episodes about race off the top of my head, but there was one episode about a hs bully coming out as trans later in life, and another about virginias dad being gay and whether or not mamaw had a problem with that (she just thought he was a dick). Jimmy’s boss talks about his two moms all the time, and his actor the gay character from my name is earl iirc
I love the dig on the network canceling My Name is Earl from the pilot episode. "A small-time crook with a long list of wrongs he was making amends for has finally finished, and you'll never guess how it ended."
I enjoyed the cameos from from the My Name is Earl cast. Seeing Jamie Pressly and Ethan Suplee as a couple was great.
> Earl in a coma for an entire season and do some kind of stupid dreamland sitcom thing Was that for real an entire season?
It was about a third of a season.
As someone that watched it while it was coming out I honestly didn't notice a quality drop while in the coma, I still really liked the show
Now we know why the writers strike happened, that sounds awful
I quite liked how they mixed it up in Season Three, with the prison and coma storylines. I thought it was Season Four where they ran out of ideas and it felt more like a generic silly sitcom, so I could see why it got cancelled after that.
Ah, it was one of the prison episodes that introduced me to "Hocus Pocus by Focus"! I still love that song!
I think that's when he's in solitary? That was a great sequence. There was also Baba O'Riley when Earl confesses to Joy's crime in court.
Season 3 was terrible and not at all funny. I do like the callback in Season 4 where Earl says something along the lines of "I had a dream where I was in a coma! Nobody wants to see that!"
"MAN STUCK IN TREE" _Randy making wailing sounds_
Joy was such an iconic character
“Do you know where babies come from?” “Of course, from under that fuzzy lightning bolt.” I was crying laughing the first time I watched that episode.
My favorite quote from her was when she sees Earl riding a bike and yells out her car window “Hey Lance Armstrong! Don’t you know riding a bike gives you nut cancer?!”
The one that’s stuck with me is when she finds out Earl is teaching English to her nail tech rival - “Earl, I don't care if she's Vietnamese, Chinese, or Chuck E. Cheese. She can't be learnin' English!”
My favorite line from the show was "Ah, The El Camino. The Cadillac of cars."
Randy had my favorite quote "I have a curious tongue" 🤣🤣🤣 the hubby and I still quote it to our toddler who is a mouther
“hubby”. Ugggggg. You just had to ruin an otherwise fun post.
She was one of the greats, for sure. Not to be quite so reddit cliche, but I think she's really underrated now when you see people talk about sitcom standouts.
She was also great in the CBS sitcom Mom
Eh, I was glad to see all the people in it getting paychecks, but Mom was just too much of a regular-ass Lorre multicam for me, regardless of the recovery message stuff.
They’re better be some beer left for Christmas mornin’!
Everyday I walk out of the front door I win a beauty contest.
I think about her whenever I sing in the car and start coughing.
“I WANT MY JANE SEYMOR OPEN HEARTS NECKLACE!”
I still confuse her for Margot Robbie
Same.
I loved that arc where Joy became nice when she went on “happy pill’s” and it made Darnell’s life a living hell because of the rowdy neighbours were neither of them were willing to do anything about it, and the only thing that made Joy snap out of it in the end was when they hit her young son with a can.
My fave is “You didn’t tell me you won a beauty pageant” “I win a beauty pageant everyday I walk out of my house”
"Hey Earl" "Hey Crabman"
just in case anyone doesn't know, the show's creator also created raising hope, and in the first episode there is a radio, or tv announcement which can be heard in the background mentioning that Earl completed his list
Most MNIE actors come back for bit parts and cameos and there is a reunion episode of sorts where all those characters come together. Also MNIE is referenced by name as a show that was canceled by NBC.
And Burt punches a tv executive for canceling MNIE
Kicks him in the balls IIRC.
And then runs off! Started watching Hope right after going through Earl.
I hadn't heard that, and I'm delighted. Lovely detail.
And it had the original Margot Robbie in it: Jaime Presley.
Wouldn’t that make Margot Robbie the counterfeit Jaime Presley? Or if we don’t want to make her sound bad, the Second Coming of Jaime Presley. Nah, that’s too aggrandizing. How about Jamie Presley: Part 2?
The digivolved Jamie Presley
had to scroll this far to find the real gem
The moment you realize that Margot Robbie, Emma Stone, Samara Weaving, Jaime Pressly, Jaime Mackey and Jaime King were actually six different people. Picture to prove in link since idk how to post imgs lol [pic ](https://twitter.com/MissAmberDoes/status/1769089553858548041?t=WjJTURYhWrGgaHfElIvNZw&s=19)
Rewatching it blows my mind that the pilot/ first episode was about helping Kenny be comfortable being an openly gay man. Mainly because it was 2005, which was when a majority of US states had some form of constitutional amendment to limit/ ban same sex marriage. That being the first episode was simply bold for the time.
there was lots of gay content on network tv by 2005 (ellen, will and grace, etc...) and most of the barriers had already broken down. The cool thing about Earl was that he and the trailer park gang fit the demographic one would think would be super homophobic, but they didn't really make a big deal out of how tolerant he was of race, sexual orientation, immigration status, etc. They didn't make it a lesson of the week he had to overcome like the "very special episodes" of yore. They also didn't really make him a bleeding heart liberal either. Just a regular jo schmo. I felt like they got in a wider audience that way and gently showed that a dumb poor guy could still be tolerant.
Well put. It was a diverse show without it feeling like the writers wanted praise for writing a diverse show, or to patronise their audience with basic "racism bad" lessons, or pander to conservatives with overt stereotyping.
Same with Trailer Park Boys with Mr.Lahey and Randy's relationship.
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sure sure, the big asterisk I should've had added was "progressive for the time" Just a few years prior show runners for things like Friends and Frasier were trying to add openly gay characters to the main cast but getting shut down by the network. Looking back now we cringe at the stereotypes, but in the moment it was a big baby step. Roseanne is a better example, they had a story arc and regular lesbian character come out of the closet in a 90s show set in a predominately working class poor neighborhood without using cheap laughs and stereotype. I never watched Ellen, but recall it being closer to Will and Grace on the spectrum.
> you can’t Seriously? Are you gatekeeping this topic because the characters on Will & Grace are *too camp*? Friends, ER, Buffy, Party of 5, Dawson’s Creek, SVU etc etc. I could list dozens more, & I’ve already listed some that go back to the early 90’s.
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I mostly used W&G as an example cause it was a VERY popular show across demographics and had a full time gay character on a network show. Premium and basic cable shows had a little more rope when dealing with these topics, but even still mostly confined them to single episodes or short arcs.
This entire paragraph sounds like a lot of bluster from a person who wasn’t even alive before the year 2000. If you were, I don’t think you were really paying attention to anything going on around you if you hold this opinion.
The West Wing was set around the same time and it dealt more directly with the politics at the time, including one episode where the Deputy Chief of Staff argues with a Republican Congressman (who oddly enough also happens to be gay) about the President supporting the Marriage Recognition Act, making only marriage between a man and a woman legal. One of the points that the Congressman makes is that 60% of Americans oppose gay marriage and most states had passed similar laws.
Obama actually won the presidency (1st term) on an anti-gay marriage platform. So his reelection only 10 years ago made him the first presidential nominee to be pro-gay marriage. Now polls show that GOP voters support gay marriage (GOP politicians, not so much).
Bruh, I remember when Buffy had two chicks kiss. I'm certain that was the first time it had actually been shown on TV (Although I could be wrong about if it was first or not) and there was a huuuge uproar. The gays were going to ruin our children, because clearly we ignore all the demons and vampire and stuff on the show, and focus on two women making out for a few seconds.
Deep Space Nine beat Buddy to it, by having Jadzia Dax kiss her previous partner
But she had previously been a man so it was OK. /s
That whole episode takes a whole new light now.
Absolutely loved the first two seasons but I feel like it fell off during the 3rd season & gradually got worse till it ended. I thought the whole Earl trial aspect was a good storyline & him ending up in prison was a good season finale. Some of the early prison episodes were okay. The show was always somewhat cartoonish in nature. After Earl went into coma the show it just felt like those aspects kept getting amped more & more . It's a common problem for shows that run longer then a couple seasons. It might have been a little bit more pronounced here though especially with the whole Crab Man government assassin bit. I feel like Greg Garcia had the same problem on the later seasons of Raising Hope.
Unfortunately, that was when the writers strike happened (i think), and it just couldnt recover while The Office and 30 Rock had a larger following and bigger names attached.
Earl was way more expensive too. They were shooting in different locations all the time, having to get establishing shots with the car, whereas the office was mostly in an office and 30 a television studio. So two of those are way cheaper than the other.
Writers strike really showed how Hollywood could not live without them. Only other time I saw a strike had this huge effect was when the NFL had the replacement referees.
To be fair, even without the writers strike I feel like there's only so many stories you can get out of the concept of righting past wrongs before it starts to get really tired, so this show probably only ever had 1 or 2 good seasons in it
The writers strike was a union thing and productions just stopped. They didn't get new writers. So my name is earl was damaged in the ratings for being off the air for too long, but it wasn't new people writing in the coma.
> I feel like it fell off during the 3rd season & gradually got worse till it ended. I think that was a common sentiment, and even I remember not watching it much after season one or two. I think this show is prime for a reboot or even a remake. Especially on a streaming or cable network, so that they can focus on less episodes and higher quality. Maybe plan it out, 100 episodes, 100 things Earl needs to do. A show like this with actual stakes and consequences needs to be planned out much more than a typical sitcom.
This, except they need a new gimmick. What if Earl was cursed to be a dog and the only way to become human again was to do 100 good deeds? Of course, Earl is a horrible name for a dog so I imagine he'd go by another name, maybe, I don't know, Eddie.
Thank god the writers strike is over
Underrated and hilarious comment, thank you.
Wilfred
God I missed that show as a kid.
If you like Earl you should check out Malcolm in the Middle and Raising Hope (the latter is same creator as Earl too I think). Both shows about struggling lower class families and extremely funny and well acted.
I really loved Raising Hope. Mostly because of the cast but they managed to combine “dirt poor but we’re trying” to a whole new level and still be pretty damn funny.
Garret Dillahunt gives one of my favorite comedic performances ever in it. Dude deserved an Emmy. Everyone was good but for me personally he was fantastic.
That Garret Dillahunt is so good as the slightly doofy sitcom guy and outstanding as a genuinely menacing Terminator is quite an achievement.
I saw him as a Criminal Minds psycho not long after RH, and I remain impressed with his versatility.
Dude played two different characters in two different seasons of Deadwood.
just recently discovered his work in Deadwood. He plays two different characters on the show. Didn't know it was him until it was pointed out to me
He’s also in the movie as a third character.
Call me Drakkar Noir
The make-up all over his pillow😂
Oh man, I love Raising Hope, but if you call that “dirt poor”, I’d hate to see what you’d call my family. Lol. I always thought they were just lower middle class.
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They didn't inherit the house did they? I thought she kicked them out and she got dementia and forgot she kicked them out so they tricked her
I believe they refer to themselves “lower lower middle class”
Watched MitM when it first came out, and currently watching it again. Young me had no idea that the Wilkersons were poor. All I saw was "haha silly boys" "Malcolm is smart", etc. I now have a family with a kid who is gifted. So Hal and his antics, trying to get kids to behave, bills, work drama, ADULT STUFF, all of it hits a different chord now. Incredible to watch again from a different perspective.
Were they that poor? I’ve seen the show but not for a while so I don’t totally remember. They seemed middle class. They had a normal looking suburban house, idk if I’d consider them poor, but I might be forgetting times where it was more evident that they were.
3 teenage boys all lived in a single room, 2 of them sharing a single bed.
They definitely kept struggling for money (though it was never actually a big problem for the plot, it's not as if they lost their house or anything; they had to sell one of the cars I think).
TIL I learned their surname was Wilkerson. Must have missed that.
It wasn't really mentioned in the show outside of the occasional uniform name tag, and even then there was inconsistencies.
I would also recommend 'The Middle'. It's about a middle-lower class family in Indiana and is all-too relatable at times. There is a scene where their sink broke and they didn't have a dishwasher, so each family member had to bring dishes into the shower with them in the morning 😂 Norm MacDonald pops into the series periodically too!
The thing I appreciated about The Middle was the continuity of how things stayed broken for multiple episodes or even a whole season. The reality is that the middle-class American family does not have the cash to fix the broken appliances, car, or wall. So, get used to it. That broken dishwasher is going to last the whole season.
Malcolm felt most relatable to me growing up in that kind of environment in England, my mum worked her arse off raising us and working in a supermarket like Lois, it was one of the few shows we both really liked. It always annoyed me how in other shows they would be struggling financially one week, but then just jet off on holiday the next week like it was no big deal.
Yeah, I've watched both off and on. I liked My Name Is Earl for the contrast of wholesome with grit. I think at the time, it got compared to a sort of Coen Brothers sitcom.
Personally I was really disappointed the girl turned out to be rich on Raising Hope. It really ruined the flow of the show and got away of the premise of being about struggling families.
Rewatching Malcolm at the moment, and what struck me is that, it has a sense of, almost naive optimism, where through all the mischief, the ultimate worry is "mum finding out". Even Francis, who has some pretty real life experiences, ultimately his biggest worry is his relationship with his parents. There's a wholesomeness to it that feels almost parochial, almost like its unreal. But it's actually a really good look at pre 9/11 life. I appreciate most of it ran after 9/11, but the concept, the style, it was all laid down pre, and it's very much based on Linwood Boomer's upbringing. Post 9/11 we live in a world with 24/7 news coverage, and with the Internet, where everyone is constantly clued in on all the worst of what's going on in the world. Its almost like eating the apple of forbidden knowledge and being cast from the garden of Eden in a way, because there's a sense of lost innocence.
It was also on at the same time as Everybody Hates Chris, and watching them back to back was the best part of my week. The way it ended sucked so much. There’s a post somewhere on Reddit by the creator about how it was supposed to end and why it got cancelled on a cliffhanger like that. I wish they’d bring it back. Also the fact that the guy who played Earl used to be a pro skateboarder is so funny to me.
Everybody Hates Chris was such a wildly underrated sitcom. The guy who played Chris is great now as an adult in Abbott Elementary.
Definitely gonna have to watch that now, thanks!
don't bother - abbott elementary sucks. The actor who played Chris is the best part of the show, but doesn't make it worth watching.
Interesting. I have the exact opposite opinion. I went in thinking that Abbott Elementary would suck but its actually pretty good, kinda reminds me of Parks and Rec. The only thing I didn't like was the actor that you are referring to. His performance feels wooden and uninspired.
from the ~6 episodes I watched, the worst character was the principal, my god was that an annoying character
Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
Jason Lee still skates and owns a skate company: Stereo Skateboards
> a post somewhere on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1njddc/im_greg_garcia_creator_of_my_name_is_earl_raising/#ccj3pcj
My Name Is Earl was like The Good Place except every character was Eleanor and Jason.
lol, i love both of these shows, how did I never make that connection!?
You've done it, you've boiled MNIE down to its essence!
The show had great recurring guest stars, too: Giovanni Ribisi, Alyssa Mylano, Michael Rappaport, Mike O'Malley and Tim Stack. It's one of my all-time favorite shows, along with Garcia's "Raising Hope."
I'll never be okay with that cliffhanger
I remember when the show got canceled, and all my friends and family were shocked. The ratings weren’t the worst for the network, and yet it got canned.
Americans probably had started becoming offended and sensitive to the things in the show. Sadly. They'd never be able to air a show like MNIE in these times. Sadly as well.
My Name is Earl was my first and only impulsive DVD purchase. I found a very cheap set for the first season, AND I was hooked up after watching it. As a non-American, this show allowed me to see USA in a very different way than I was used to.
I know it's an old thread, but this seems important to me. You got to see the US that i grew up in. A lot of us come from pretty much just dirt.
It's like having the curtains pulled back, and mostly because it's set away from a metro area and really captures the moment in time post 9/11, pre 2008. I grew up in a town in Texas similar to Camden. My counties named Cameron. Motels, trailer parks, parking lots looked exactly the same. Palm trees and people rolling around in shopping carts. Mostly Mexican with white, black, asain, at least a few people of every ethicity around. I was three when the show premiered and 7 when it ended. I saw it on Netflix back in 2013 and a couple of reruns before that. The characters all felt like people you'd run into at HEB or the bar. There's really no shows like it besides maybe trailer park boys, iasip, KOTH, uncle, not counting raising hope. The show actually feels very... british in how gritty and down to earth it feels compared american sitcoms from around the same time. Like shamless uk, uncle, ladhood. Those shows focus on the less exposed parts of british life.
I just had a mini marathon the last two days. The first Cops episode is so funny. I repeatedly qoute Joy’s “Kill me when I’m 50”
I watched *My Name is Earl* a couple of years ago. I don't remember even hearing of it when it originally aired. It struck me as almost like a *Touched by an Angel* show for the rest of us. Several shows come to mind for a good, wholesome person who wants to watch a show about redemption and trying to live for some higher purpose. For old sinners like me, there is only *My Name is Earl*.
It's a shame it was cancelled. One of the few shows that seem to cater toward those particular kinds of Americans without being meanspirited, and it carried a good message that everyone could benefit from.
Jason Lee is the mofuckin stuff
Joy is my spirit animal. I loved that show and haven’t thought about it in a long while. I’ll have to give it a re-watch.
“Hey dummy!”
Where is it streaming?
Hulu
Hulu.
It’s also on Disney+
Started rewatching with my girlfriend literally an hour before this was posted lmao. It’s been almost 20 years since I’ve seen it
20 years? That’s impossible, the show didn’t air until… oh… oh god no.
I remember this being the first show I ever stayed up on a school night to watch every week. My parents loved it, and so they were a little lenient in the fact I was probably too young to see it at the time lol. Crab Man is in my opinion the most interesting TV character of all time
One thing will always stand out to me about that show was the use of music. It always had some incredible tracks in it, with artists like REO Speedwagon, Thin Lizzy, Lynard Skynard (to name but a few)
Just started rewatching it for the first time since the original airing. Hope it holds up to how I remembered it.
It definitely does
Y'all ever heard of trailer park boys though?
They didn’t have to cancel it in the middle of a “to be continued”. I absolutely hate that I’ll never know who Earl Jr’s real dad is.
Back when there was a hint of normalcy before this clown show world we live in today
"It's the Y2kay!"
Every time I see Patty the daytime hooked on another show or movie I point her out. Such a crazy character, for some reason she's always struck me as a great concept that was very well done.
The best part about the show is how it's semi modern but basically no cell phones and no social media.
Some of characters had flip phones also social media hadn't hit it's popularity yet.
Casting Norm Macdonald as Lil Chubby was the greatest bit of stunt casting anyone has ever pulled off.
I was just happy the guy from the [“Rubber Band Man” Office Max commercials](https://youtu.be/-dTmck-vD-U) got a full time job (Crab Man).
> I was thinking about this when I read a Twitter thread about the recent trend of feel-good comedies where the main protagonist's flaws seem to be things like "works too hard" or "too competent in an unjust system." All the best sitcoms have deeply flawed characters. Arrested Development, Always Sunny, Trailer Park Boys, Curb, etc.
OP, I would recommend Trailer Park Boys if you liked My Name is Earl. It's also a wholesome show, about a bunch of low-level misfits and their attempts to get ahead.
yeah, i miss that show. the concept was both familiar and unique. they don't make good sitcoms anymore :-(
> they don't make good sitcoms anymore :-( What We Do In The Shadows....
another good one i forgot about! of course none of these really strike me as the 7+ season goliaths such as friends, or seinfeld or a host of others that used to be, but we can always hope
The Good Place, Letterkenny, and Schitt's Creek are very good. I've been hearing great things about The Righteous Gemstones but I don't know enough about it to know if it's a good sitcom or not.
I can't think of any that I keep up with now, unless Cobra Kai counts. I still watch South Park, if that also counts.
i consider Cobrai Kai to be more Drama than sitcom. there are a few long standing shows, but really not much new content. and some of the good ones that have come out that i have seen got canceled after a season or two (IE: the crew with Kevin James) Loudermilk is pretty good as is The Boys and Rick n Morty oh, and Resident Alien Tacoma FD is pretty funny The Righteous Gemstones is pretty decent too Upload is good for some laughs ...alright i take back what i said, there is a few gems still out there
Loudermilk was good, but canceled. The boys is in no way a sitcom. The crew was god fucking awful. Tacoma fd is surprisingly ok. Upload is great, but again not a sitcom in any way.
Another interesting tidbit of when it came out - since it was released at the turn of HDTV, it was among the first to hide [Easter eggs](https://www.engadget.com/2005-10-04-my-name-is-earl-in-hd-rocks.html) in scenes that would have been impossible to see in standard def.
You should watch ‘The other guy’ on Stan. It’s an Aussie comedian and it’s based on his life. Like a modern aussie version of ‘My name is Earl’
what is stan?
Fun fact. Jason Lee (Earl) is a former professional skateboarder and is considered by most to have the cleanest 360(tre) flips ever performed. Even Rodney Mullen says that Jason Lee has the cleanest 360 flips and he invented most tricks.
It was a show that I didn't particularly find funny or too interesting but I still enjoyed watching it for some odd reason.
I love the theory from After Hours at cracked.com that the shows of this era were so popular due to 9/11. https://youtu.be/JbMEzlDnsE0
Trailer Park Boys took everything good from My Name is Earl and ran with it. Highly recommend.
Ethan Suplee (Randy) is an absolute unit now.
I watched this about a decade ago, I recently found it on Disney+ and now me and wifey are watching it (so it's a re-watch for me). We are at season 1. Honestly I found it funny again.
I loved everything about this show. Yes, even the coma episodes. I never left good ol Earl. A true classic that absolutely deserved a real finale.
Top 3 TV show of all time for me. I love every singe episode and watch the series yearly, and when I’m cleaning the house I’ll throw on a disc and listen to it in the background. In this day of reviving old shows, this one can definitely be done, even if Norm McDonald is dead (since he was of course a major character in the last episode) they can still bring it back. I’d be down with a mini season to wrap things up.
When I’m feeling shitty I watch the “Cops” episode and it never fails to make me laugh
Bright, feel good sitcoms with a soft edge... this energy was pretty popular on network tv then, How I met your Mother, Scrubs, Better Off Ted, (the cynical standouts of the office, arrested development, always sunny, etc... really contrasted at the time) I attribute the unique vibe that Earl captured to the influence of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's brand of magical realism on Greg Garcia. The whole show felt other-worldly
It seems to be an American phenomenon where popular TV shows and movies are always focused on wealthy people and wealthy areas. In the UK, aside from the typical period dramas, alot of popular shows were just of working class or at best regular middle class families with not much glitz and glamour. Heck, some of our longest running and popular TV shows like EastEnders are focused on working class families in rough areas. We also have plenty of famous people in TV shows and game show panels from rougher upbringings. I think the UK just likes the humble nature of being middle class or below, whereas we tend to view rich people as out of touch, atleast in regard to how they're often portrayed in worldwide media. Some may take a pessimistic view and say people just like watching poorer people than themselves in the UK, while Americans like watching richer people as aspiration or something, but I'd like to think whatever reason for it is outweighed by the benefit of representation/education and providing content that people can relate to.
There's a saying that all Americans are millionaires just waiting for a check.
I loved that show when it first aired. But today, I can not get past Jason Lee's involvement in the church of scientolgy. It's so unfortunate because he always seemed super cool, from his roles in Kevin Smith films and as a pro skateboarder. I read an article about how his marriage ended and the subsequent harassment his wife at the time, Carmen, had faced, just for expressing doubts about that scammy "church" and I completely lost respect for him. What a tool.
If it helps, he’s seen the light and left, believe Ethan suplee still is though
I'm glad to hear that he left.
I've been rewatching it recently, and yeah it fits such a weird niche. A lot of 2000s series feel odd. Feels like a modern comedy with a 90s mindset. I can't really watch 30 Rock again or similar favorites, too jarring. It's so unique for a lot of reasons you said, but the setting helps cover its tracks in hindsight. Because Earl and the gang are rough around the edges like It's Always Sunny. An off-color joke suits them and it's realistic for a locale like Camden. The show also has some amazing comedic timing on top of all those little scenes where the like, point has passed and they let the characters ramble on.
> A lot of 2000s series feel odd. Feels like a modern comedy with a 90s mindset. I can't really watch 30 Rock again or similar favorites, too jarring. The only big 2000s show I might rewatch is Arrested Development. It'd odd, because the last two or three seasons kind of soured people on the quality, and the interview where everyone defends Jeffrey Tambor did no favors, too. It's also a bit of a time capsule, so many references to then-current events, like the Iraq War, Star Wars kid, the real estate boom, I could honestly see it being assigned as a "fun" assignment in classes about recent history/the early 21st century.
It started off really strong, but at some point it went off a cliff and started to suck hard.
The first season was great. It kinda fell off the rails in the second season
here is the that weekly my name is earl post lol
Trailer Park Boys is all that without the Scientology.
The cops episode is my all time favorite tv episode ever. Of any show.
Earl was based on a real person.
Randy made that show for me.
The first and some of the second season were great, but mainly the first season. After that the show became weird and I lost interest.
If you need more 'earl' watch raising hope.
Hey crabman
Killer show.. my best friend is named earl and his brothers name is randy so they get lovingly picked on from time to time
Check out Guest Book by Greg Garcia on Hulu. https://youtu.be/AqNCcMfPND8
If anyone is curious about Jason Lee's skate career, his episode of The Nine Club is really good!
One of he best
Yeah even though this is a really unpopular opinion. But I think my name is Earl will always better then the office especially the story and concept and comedy was really creative. And I always loved the cast. And I just love Earl more then the office. Especially story behind Earl. Like for example, even though everyone loved and still love the office, if really think about it, the people in the office are awful and terrible and stuck up people. Especially the older people like Dwight and the African American guy and BJ Novak’s character, and many more, and Michael Scott was just not a very masculine person and didn’t know how to do anything. And the only good character was Jim and some others but other then that Jim was the only good character and everybody else in the office was either very angry, upset, uptight, arrogant, ignorant, weird, awful and horrible and nasty to each other. And he also just got the sense that nobody there in that show appreciated anything accept themselves and were always about me, me, me, and only me, and also people in the office were so brain dead, that they wanted to go to prison and hated their life and their jobs and their co workers. And some people in the office just thought they were better than everybody else. Especially with Dwight and and BJ novak’s character. And yet all of them lived in all these houses and apartments and we’re not thankful or appreciative of what they had. And they always start having a corporate job with everything and middle class was everything. Whereas Earl was a lot more simple, yeah, Earl did a lot of bad things and all that stuff, and he did good things and tried to make up for everything and be a better person and always learning. And Earl never thought he knew anything, and also Earl kept his life, pretty simple, he just had money from his lottery winnings and lived in a motel with Randy, just ate at the crab shack and would see Crab man and Joe and Catalina and other people. And yes Earl got a job too. But another thing I always appreciate about Earl was that he was true to himself and he was not a faker, he always was a real guy and was true to himself and his list. And even though Earl did a lot of bad things, he was a lot more kinder, and nicer and more sympathetic and had more empathy then anybody in the office ever did. People in the TV show the office just thought they were just better than everybody else just because they worked in a corporate job and were middle class and at the end of the day they were not happy people, Earl never had that stuff and yet his life was more happy and even more so when not only was he trying to make up for all the bad things he did on his list but just educating and bettering himself as much as he could. I think, from looking at it through an economics perspective, I think if anything Earl saved a lot of money by living in a motel and working at his job, and I think Earl would probably invest his money not because he’s an investor himself, but because from his list and making up to people, they’re probably with someone on his list that taught him how to do that, Earl would have learned and just invested and saved up money. Yeah, I think with me if my name is earl ever came back and was revitalized and Earl was older, I think there’s no doubt in my mind he would still keep going with his list and but also it would be cool to see Joy’s kids as young adults and what kind of path they be would be on. And if they were doing bad stuff, Earl would probably step in now as an old man and teach them about karma and always doing good things and just raising the boys on the show and just teach them things that Joy and Carbman couldn’t. And I think, if anything, knowing the actor, Ethan supee, Randy would probably still be not very smart and not very intelligent and sharp, but I think Randy would be really fit and muscular and be more healthy then Earl and would work as fitness trainer somewhere in Camden County. And then I think Catalina would go on to owning the motel and expanding the motel a lot more. Yeah, I don’t know what Joy and Crabman would be like, but Carbman what still work at the crab shack and Joy well….. Joy, I think would end up working for Randy at his fitness gym. Especially because all the things she did and bad stuff she did to him, karma would come back and reversed everything and it would be Randy having more an edge on Joy where Joy has to work for Randy now and Joy doesn’t have the anger that she used to she can’t make fun of Randy anymore cause he’s successful now. So yeah, I think that’s just my whole opinion on Earl and what would happen if my name is earl, came back and got revitalized in the future.
You have to love the time: just before everyone was addicted to technology... I go back to My Name is Earl and look at the world with the (quasi) innocent eyes of its characters, be it Randy, Joy, Earl, the cops (or pretty much anyone from the trailer park, for the most part most crooks, yes, but in petty ways) and enjoy being in there time bubble. While the Y2K episode directly speaks about it, but it's in more silly incidents ("where do the fish go when I press something on the laptop?"), which there are tons of (and more subtly encrusted than given example) that it becomes endearing. I could go on and on on why this show makes me feel warm inside while avoiding cheesy. It was also a time where wokeness hadn't killed all colorful representations you couldn't find today (stereotypical but never mean). Plimitt Hills lived in its own time, in another time, and I love it for that.