My Name Is Earl
Question: After watching this past week's episode of My Name Is Earl, I realize how surprisingly good Jaime Pressly is in her role as Earl's ex-wife. A little over the top, but it fits in well with this quirky show. So much so that I think she should get an Emmy nomination come next year. What do you think the chances are of that, along with Jason Lee (who is always pretty solid) and Ethan Suplee (who plays the dim-witted heart-of-gold brother so subtly)?
Answer: Far be it from me to trust Emmy voters to be that much on the ball, but all three of these actors more than deserve to fill a few of those slots left open by the departure of Everybody Loves Raymond. Jason Lee is probably a slam dunk, but it can get trickier in the supporting categories. Still, Jaime Pressly is sensational. In my initial review, I championed her "fearlessly vulgar" take on the venal Joy, and she's only getting better. I was able to screen next week's (Nov. 15) episode, entitled "Ruined Joy's Wedding," and it' ...
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When is a born loser actually a winner? When his name is Earl.
Get to know him. Maybe some positive karma will rub off on you.
NBC's My Name Is Earl (Tuesdays at 9 pm/ET) is a rare bright spot of rambunctious merriment for a network that sure could use something to smile about. The show pulls off a neat trick. Like its underdog hero (the effortlessly likable Jason Lee) — a scruffy ex-crook who tells us each week he's "just trying to be a better person" — Earl is unashamedly crude, at times downright stupid in its lowlife caricatures, yet it's all so cheerfully endearing that you can't help but be won over by its lowbrow high jinks.
This quirky, funky and rip-roaringly hilarious tall tale of white-trash redemption is delivered by Earl — in voice-over, the season's favorite device — with a wink and a shrug and without a trace of self-pity. Earl may be a dim bulb, but he sees the
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Ethan Suplee in My Name Is Earl
Of all the shows debuting this fall, NBC's My Name Is Earl (Tuesdays at 9 pm/ET) may be the most original and irreverent. (And the early ratings seem to agree.) Jason Lee stars as Earl, a hapless loser with a checkered past who's trying to get karma on his side. Ethan Suplee (Mallrats, American History X), who plays Earl's simpleminded brother Randy, spoke with TVGuide.com about the new show and whether he'd like the opportunity to make up for any missteps in his own past.
TVGuide.com: How would you describe Randy?Ethan Suplee: I think of Randy as a kid. It's not that he's stupid; he's just young and innocent. He loves his older bro
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My Name Is Earl
Question: With My Name Is Earl, do you think NBC finally has a show it can pair naturally with Scrubs, if and whenever they bring it back? I think the shows would play off one another quite well, as they both seem to have the same level of energy and snark. And what about the inevitable stunt crossover, when Jason Lee's and Ethan Suplee's characters end up in the hospital as a result of Earl's quest to do good? I hope this happens.
Answer: Join the club. The minute I saw the pleasant surprise of the strong ratings for Earl's premiere, the first thought I had was: "Bring Scrubs back right this minute!" They'd be a perfect fit, much better than the bleak The Office, which I know has some critical support but still seems to me to be a failed experiment (though not nearly as unwatchable as NBC's Coupling). A number of e-mails came in suggesting a similar solution. Heck, I'd even move this Earl-Scrubs combo to Thursdays, kicking The Apprentice to some other night. Counterprogramming CSI with
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Jason Lee
Though its lead-in, The Biggest Loser, drew an audience of less than 8 million, Tuesday's debut of My Name Is Earl propelled NBC to a big victory in the second night of the TV season: The Jason Lee comedy collared 15.3 million viewers and a 16 share in the all-important 18-to-49 demo. Pretty amazing for a show without tiki torches, castaways or Felicity Huffman.
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The talking-ad insert NBC put in my Entertainment Weekly last week, in which Jason Lee yelled, "I'm talkin' about karma!" every time you opened the magazine, nearly turned me off of the show (especially after my husband hid it under my pillow one night). But I'm glad I disregarded all that. And I could just about ignore this whole plot conceit about Earl righting his past wrongs by hunting people down and forcefully becoming their Roma Downey for the day. What gets me about Earl are the little things — these ignorant, lying, cheating, lazy, small-town characters and the details of their pitiful lives and simple pleasures: the "We're gonna do the monkey" song at the opening; perfect white-trash temptress Joy (Jaime Pressly); Earl and Sonny's ongoing game of beer-can tag; Earl and Randy's childhood habit of calling "dibs" on girls; Patty the daytime hooker; Randy's bliss every time someone presses B-7, "It Takes Two," on the jukebox; Kenny James' parent
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Kevin Smith
Director Kevin Smith always gives his fans a bit more than they expected (OK, and sometimes wanted) with his fully loaded DVD releases. His ’95 flick Mallrats (out today on DVD) has Smith showing his indie spirit by presenting a brand-new cut of the comedy. Here the sly director relaxes with TVGuide.com to riff about the 'rats, a new Clerks and why he’s not buzzing around The Green Hornet.
TVGuide.com: Mallrats didn’t set the box office on fire when it came out in theaters. Why do this extended DVD?Kevin Smith: I thought after Mallrats came out and wasn’t well received that no one would ever talk about it again, other than in film class as, "Never do this!" At the time it came out I felt like I was hav
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My Name Is Earl
Is silver-screen wiseacre Jason Lee done Chasing Amy, living the life of an Almost Famous rocker and hanging with the Mallrats beneath that bizarre Vanilla Sky? Yes... and no. Yes, the affable actor is braving the frontier of episodic TV, but no, his starring role in NBC's My Name Is Earl (premiering Sept. 20 at 9 pm/ET) does not signal the end of his film career.
So why the switch? Are Kevin Smith and Cameron Crowe simply not churning out enough movies for him to
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NBC is heading for a fall this fall, and it isn't likely to be pretty. The network didn't even make much effort to pretend otherwise over the last few days of presentations, and that's rare honesty for a summer press tour. Entertainment chief Kevin Reilly, mired in the post-Friends doldrums that his predecessor Jeff Zucker left behind upon ascending the corporate ladder, knows the turnaround will be slow and ugly.
Certainly, the response was tepid to hostile for such middling-to-awful new series as Surface (a "big tent" family/sci-fi/fantasy drama about a new species of sea creature), Inconceivable (a smarmy drama set in a fertility clinic) and E-Ring (a rare misfire from Jerry Bruckheimer's factory, an uninspired JAG-lite set
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