My Name Is Earl

My Name Is Earl
Title card featuring Jason Lee as Earl Hickey
Genre	Sitcom
Format	Comedy Narrative
Created by	Greg Garcia
Starring	Jason Lee Ethan Suplee Jaime Pressly Eddie Steeples Nadine Velazquez
Narrated by	Jason Lee
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	97 (1 unaired) (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Greg Garcia Marc Buckland Tom Palmer
Camera setup	Single camera
Running time	21-42 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV)
Original run	September 20, 2005 (2005-09-20) – May 14, 2009 (2009-05-14)
External links
Official website

My Name Is Earl is an American television comedy series created by Greg Garcia that was originally broadcast on the NBC television network from September 20, 2005, to May 14, 2009, in the United States. It was produced by 20th Century Fox Television and starred Jason Lee as the title character.

Most episodes from the first season, then only a few from the rest, begin with Earl presenting the premise of the series:

“

You know the kind of guy who does nothing but bad things and then wonders why his life sucks? Well, that was me. Every time something good happened to me, something bad was always waiting round the corner: karma. That's when I realized that I had to change, so I made a list of everything bad I've ever done and one by one I'm gonna make up for all my mistakes. I'm just trying to be a better person. My name is Earl.

”

Overview

The series stars Jason Lee, Ethan Suplee, Jaime Pressly, Eddie Steeples and Nadine Velazquez (Lee and Suplee had also worked together on the film "Mallrats" more then ten years prior). Earl J. Hickey (Lee) is a petty criminal and ne'er-do-well, living in the fictional rural county of Camden, whose winning $100,000 lottery ticket is lost when he is hit by a car while he celebrates his good fortune. Lying in a hospital bed, under the influence of morphine, he develops a belief in the concept of karmic retribution when he hears about karma during an episode of Last Call with Carson Daly. Convinced he has to turn his life around to survive, Earl gives himself over to the power of karma and as his first step of a makeshift 12 step program (the type of "Anonymous" program that has meetings at which attendees introduce themselves only by their first name) to fix his misdeeds, Earl makes a list of every bad thing and every person he has wronged and commences efforts to fix them all. After doing a first good deed, he finds the $100,000 lottery ticket that was previously lost. Seeing this as a sign of karma rewarding him for his commitment, Earl uses his newfound wealth to do more good deeds according to his list.

As he continues to perform good deeds, Earl's motives initially come across as shallow and selfish – that he is only doing good to improve his karma and by extension his own life. However, Earl begins to develop a genuine sense of morality and ethics, refusing to participate in illegal or immoral activities – though sometimes finding himself in very awkward situations, including those involving a suicidal stunt man, a second-hand hot tub that gives his ex-wife Joy a communicable toe disease, a Korean War veteran who wants to reclaim some possessions Earl destroyed (including the ear of a fellow soldier) and a "witch woman" who proves him right in thinking she is evil when she knocks him and many others out and stores them in her basement.

In many cases, Earl discovers that his crimes and misdemeanors had far more repercussions than he could have imagined, and that complete fixes in those cases would require far more trial and effort than could have been imagined. Yet he would also find that repairs would also have deeper and more layered results as well, bringing the realm of the show into the religious and spiritual as well as comedic.

The series generally ended its episodes with Earl and Randy talking about things that have nothing to do with the rest of the show before saying good night and turning in for a night's sleep. In many cases, these conversations took place in their shared motel room bed.

Conception

Creator and head writer Greg Garcia wrote the pilot while working on another sitcom, Yes, Dear. He initially pitched the series to Fox which passed on the series. He then approached NBC, which optioned the pilot on a cast-contingent basis, meaning they would order the pilot provided a suitable cast could be assembled. Jason Lee was approached for the lead role, but was uninterested in working in television and passed on the series twice before finally agreeing to read the pilot script. Though he liked the pilot, he was hesitant to commit to his first TV starring role until meeting with Garcia, after which he signed on to play Earl Hickey.

Ratings

The series premiered on September 20, 2005, drew in 14.9 million viewers in the United States, earning a 6.6 rating. By the airing of the third episode it was apparent that My Name Is Earl was the highest rated of NBC's new fall offerings, and a full season (22 episodes) was ordered. In its first month, it was also the highest rated new sitcom of the season to air on any network and was the highest rated sitcom on any network in the 18–49-year-old demographic. The show was renewed for a second season (2006–07), a third (2007–08), and a fourth (2008–09).

Season	Timeslot (EDT)	Season Premiere	Season Finale	TV Season	Viewers (in millions)
1	Tuesday 9:00 P.M. (September 20 – December 6, 2005) Thursday 9:00 P.M. (January 5 – May 11, 2006)	September 20, 2005	May 11, 2006	2005–2006	10.9
2	Thursday 8:00 P.M. (September 21, 2006 – May 10, 2007)	September 21, 2006	May 10, 2007	2006–2007	8.9
3	Thursday 8:00 P.M. (September 27, 2007 – May 15, 2008)	September 27, 2007	May 15, 2008	2007–2008	7.3
4	Thursday 8:00 P.M. (September 25, 2008 – May 14, 2009)	September 25, 2008	May 14, 2009	2008–2009	6.6

Cancellation

The series ended on May 19, 2009 after running for four seasons. Season four had ended with the caption 'To Be Continued'. The series' producer, 20th Century Fox Television, approached the Fox, ABC, TBS and TNT networks to continue the series, but they were unable to come to terms without "seriously undermining the artistic integrity of the series."

Future

On the series premiere of Garcia's next series, Raising Hope, a newscaster in the background reports, "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." However, the newscast is cut off before viewers can hear more. Midway through season two, more nods to My Name Is Earl were made. In "It's a Hopeful Life", when Jimmy is standing outside the movie theater, posters for two movies: My Name Is Earl: The Movie and 2 the Max, can clearly be seen. In "Gambling Again", Patty the Daytime Hooker and TV's Tim Stack make an appearance.

In October 2011, Jason Lee told E Online he has been in talks with Greg Garcia to finish the list via a movie, it remains to be seen whether it will be a TV movie or a proper feature film but he was intent on making the film happen. It was also mentioned that the film could be released online.

Characters

Main characters

• Earl Jehosephat Hickey (Jason Lee)/young Earl (Noah Crawford)  — The protagonist and narrator of the show. He has a long history of petty crimes (mostly thefts) and other reprehensible acts (like bullying classmates or faking his own death rather than break up with a woman), for which he now must atone in light of an epiphany induced by the confluence of financial loss, pain, morphine, Carson Daly and karma. Although he lacks much formal education, he is bright and open-minded to the metaphysical and has come under the guidance of a strong moral compass provided to him by the unseen hand of karma which has made his life miserable. His conversion to following the dictates of Karma as against his own instinctual misbehavior now drives his life, as he seeks to survive by making up for his past wrongs with a self-created program of damage repair that loosely tracks some of the methods of formal 12 step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous. The linkage between Earl's path and such programs is made plain by the show's title itself, which incorporates the traditional first-name only introduction by attendees at meetings (such as "My name is Earl"). Along the way, Earl often finds that his initial misdeeds have long and enduring tentacles that produce massive negative secondary side effects, but that his patchwork fixes likewise produce substantially deeper and truer benefits to initial victims than could have been imagined or engineered. Earl fears flying, needles and possible attacks from alligators in the sewer when he uses the toilet, owns a 1973 red El Camino that once belonged to his friend Frank: it has a blue driver's side door, found in a tornado. Earl was married to Joy as the series begins, and was subsequently divorced from her (he signed the papers under the influence of morphine) and married and divorced from two other women during the time line of the show, with each marriage being to a woman he barely knew at the time of their vows. Earl's father intended to name him Carl, but his cursive letter 'C' was read as an 'E' by the hospital where Earl was born. In many flashbacks, he is seen wearing an AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd or Metallica shirt, often under the unbuttoned flannel shirt that is his trademark. He also appears to be incapable of keeping his eyes open when photographs are taken. Earl moved out of his parents' house on March 14, 1989 (which his father was so thrilled about that he made 3.14.89 the combination to his gun case). In one episode it says that Earl is allergic to cats, but eventually that is changed when later Randy seems to be the one allergic and not Earl. Dodge is revealed to be Earl's son in the last episode, and was conceived at a halloween party both Joy and Earl attended, although Joy always thought the father was Little Chubby. Earl was sent to Nathanville State Penitentiary as inmate #28301-016 at the start of Season 3 for a crime Joy committed that would have been her third strike. Rather than allow her to go to prison for life and break up her family, Earl accepted the blame and rationalized his sentence as his karmic penalty for other crimes he committed that were never solved.
• Randall "Randy" Dew Hickey (Ethan Suplee)/young Randy (Ryan Armstrong)  — Earl's younger brother. He is thought to be very dimwitted and simple, bordering on mild mental retardation. Described as "borderline artistic" by his elder brother for his creativity and for what a doctor once said about him (unaware the doctor was referring to autism), Randy Hickey possesses a childlike naïveté that manifests as both sweetness toward others, an unawareness of the potentially harmful consequences of his actions, and as occasional tantrums. He doesn't fully understand Earl's List, and sometimes resents the importance it plays in Earl's life, but he supports his campaign out of brotherly love. One of his only two revealed regular jobs Randy had was being a guard at the Nathanville State Penitentiary that Earl was sent to after pleading guilty to a kidnapping Joy committed. Randy Hickey is a huge fan of H.R. Pufnstuf. He is afraid of birds and allergic to cats. He has been shown to be an excellent singer (particularly at opera) many times. He also is very good at acting. He is a fan of Michael J. Fox. At one point he was married to Catalina and in love with her, but later changed his mind about that. Randy Hickey constantly falls in love with women that are too different from him and so his relationships never last.
• Joy Farrah Darville Hickey Turner (Jaime Pressly) — Earl's first ex-wife, now married to Darnell and the antagonist of the show. She is unsophisticated "trailer trash", self-centered, manipulative and aggressive. She tricked Earl into marrying her when she became pregnant with another man's child (which turned out might actually be Earl's after all), then had an affair with Darnell while she and Earl were still married. However, she is very protective of her family. Joy is the mother of two boys, Dodge and Earl Jr. She is openly scornful of Earl's List. She has a strong dislike for Catalina, although ends up saving her life in the fourth season. She drives a Subaru BRAT painted with the American flag. Her frequent catchphrases are "Oh snap!", "What the Hell", and she frequently calls both Earl and Randy "Dummy". In the episode "Pinky" it is revealed that Joy and Randy were childhood sweethearts who knew each other as 'Pinky' and 'Skipper.' Eventually Joy became a surrogate mother for her estranged half sister, doing so partly out of love for the sister (during the sister's pursuit of employment as a pro wrestler) and partly as a ploy to evoke sympathy from a jury that would try Joy for inadvertently kidnapping an appliance-store employee. Joy subsequently averted her "third strike" (third felony, which would have meant a life long prison sentence) when the man she kidnapped died from a fold up bed malfunction, which then allowed Earl to confess to the crime as a way to prevent Joy from being split from her family. Earl accepted the much shorter sentence given him by rationalizing it as karmic retribution for the crimes he had gotten away with. Joy believed throughout the show that Little Chubby was the father of Dodge and Darnell was the father of Earl Jr., but in the final episode it is revealed Dodge is Earl's son and Earl Jr. is not Darnell's son. The identity of Earl Jr.'s father is unresolved.
• Darnell 'Crabman' Turner, formerly Harry Monroe (Eddie Steeples) — Joy's husband, and still one of Earl's best friends despite apparently impregnating Earl's then-wife Joy. He now acts as father ("New Daddy") to Joy's two sons. He works in the local dive, "The Crab Shack". He is educated, having graduated from college at 14, mild-mannered, and a capable rapper, but is actually a former assassin for a secret government organization, having been trained by his own absentee father for the job. He was placed in the witness protection program after he refused to kill the child leader of a socialist nation and testified in court against his former employers. Darnell demonstrates greater intelligence than those around him. A running gag within the show is that Darnell smokes marijuana. He had a sister Pam who was killed by honesty, according to Joy. Darnell's dad is called Thomas Monroe and works for the agency. Occasionally, Darnell's afro is shown to hide cell phones which self destruct after use. Earl calls him Crabman because he took so long to learn his name. It is revealed in the very last episode of the show that Earl Jr., generally believed to be his son, is not. In the episode Our 'Cops' is on it is shown that he used to live with his supposed grandmother and grew and sold marijuana in his bedroom.
• Catalina Rana Aruca (Nadine Velazquez) — The beautiful housekeeper at Earl and Randy's motel. She is also the number one dancer/stripper at Club Chubby and a close friend of Ernie Belcher, occasionally participating in three way sex with him and Patty, the daytime hooker. She killed her mother (albeit in self-defense) in order to get to America in a crate. Now shares a green card marriage with Randy performed in her hometown after Earl, in recognition of the huge crush Randy had on her, deliberately failed a test of manhood. The marriage to Randy de facto ended after she purposefully made their consummation of their marriage an experience unenjoyable (although she regretted her actions when she found out that Randy was a very good lover). She has a strong dislike for Joy, as Joy called her a whore when they first met. Later she softens up when Joy proves she would be willing to knock out Darnell in order to save her life. Though obviously Latin American, her specific origins were kept vague, except that she was not from Mexico, until the fourth season in "Earl and Joy's Anniversary" when it is revealed that resided in La Paz, which may or may not be the city in Bolivia, and in other episodes it was revealed she was born in "Guadalatucky." In the same 'prequel' episode it is also revealed that she lost her virginity during an orgy with Patty, Darnell and Kenny in a phone booth when they were all avoiding the killer bees. She occasionally breaks the fourth wall by seemingly shouting insults to Joy in Spanish which are actually notes for the fans. She also seems to have an obsession with kicking the male characters in the testicles while wearing only a bikini and she has performed in several of Ernie Belcher's sex fetish videos, as did many other characters of the show.

Recurring characters

Main article: List of minor characters on My Name Is Earl

• Carlton "Carl" Hickey (Beau Bridges) — Earl and Randy's father. Earl was supposed to be named after him, but Carl "got a bit too fancy with the C" and the hospital read it as an E. At the start of the series he refused to have anything to do with Earl, but gradually realizes his son's efforts to improve his life were sincere and they have since become close again.
• Katherine "Kay" Hickey (Nancy Lenehan) — Earl and Randy's mother, a friendly woman who gently chides Earl to be nicer to his father. In Season 4, it was revealed she once slept with a neighbor, causing Carl to leave home for a while before he returned and they made up.
• Eric "Dodge" Chaz Hickey (Louis T. Moyle) — Joy's oldest son. Named Dodge because all she could remember about the man she believes to be his father was that he drove a Ford pickup truck. However, in the Season 4 final episode Earl is revealed to be his father.
• Earl Hickey Jr. (Trey Carlisle) — Joy's son due to an affair. His father was presumed to be Darnell Turner, but the final episode's cliffhanger this is found not to be true.
• Kenny James (Gregg Binkley; as child, Andy Pessoa) — Kenny is a childhood victim of Earl's bullying and a formerly suppressed homosexual, who became the first person Earl helped with the List. Later he developed a gambling problem when Earl was teaching him to be more manly. He is now dating Stuart, a male police officer, whom he liked to the point of faking break ins to call the cops. It is implied that his first male kiss was with Darnell during the phone booth four-way, due to fear of death from the killer bees.
• Patty the Daytime Hooker, Patricia Michellee Weezmer (Dale Dickey) — A friendly Camden prostitute who also works as a night-time waitress. She got 1500 on her SATs, holds a Masters Degree and speaks Bengali. In the episode "Witch Lady", her full name was revealed to be Patricia Weezmer and she is revealed to be the Witch Lady's daughter. In the episode "Inside Probe", her middle name was revealed to be Michelle. On January 31st, 2012, Dickey played Patty again on an episode of Greg Garcia's Fox series Raising Hope.
• Ralph Mariano (Giovanni Ribisi)  — Earl's childhood friend. He is constantly in trouble with the law and has betrayed Earl and Randy for as little as $175, but they always forgive him. In season two Earl married Ralph's mom but later had the marriage annulled. He was in jail with Earl but quickly escaped. He was not seen at all in the fourth season.
• Willie the One-Eyed Mailman — (Bill Suplee). He lost an eye when Joy broke Earl's Def Leppard mirror with a bowling ball and a shard flew into his eye. In real life, he is the father of Ethan Suplee, who portrays Randy
• Billie Cunningham (Alyssa Milano)  — Earl's third wife. She is a little crazy and gets very jealous of Earl spending so much time with his List instead of her. After finding inner peace in an Amish-type settlement near Camden, she not only divorced Earl but gave him $72,000 she had received after being hit by a car.
• Former Officer Stuart Daniels (Mike O'Malley) — An inept Camden County police officer, on the List because Earl stole his badge and abused its authority. He comes from a family of female cops, who often make fun of him for his professional ineptness. He is revealed to be a talented bowler and has aspirations to go pro. It was revealed that he was no longer a police officer after he hit Billie Cunningham with his car. He is later revealed to be homosexual and has a relationship with Kenny James.
• Liberty Washington (Tamala Jones) — Joy's mixed race half-sister. They hated each other for years but eventually bonded to the point where Joy became a surrogate mother for Liberty and her husband Ray-Ray's baby. She tends to treat Ray-Ray exactly the way Joy treats Darnell: with full measures of both hostility and love.
• Ray-Ray Washington (DJ Qualls) — Liberty's husband, who shares many character traits with Darnell. He owns a bearded dragon named "Mr. Bearded Dragon" whom he treats in the same fatherly manner that Darnell treats Mr. Turtle. His father's name was "Ray" and named him "Ray-Ray", that is why he would like to name his unborn child "Ray-Ray-Ray".
• Jeremiah "Jerry" Hazelwood (Craig T. Nelson) — The Camden County prison warden. He is an immature, whiny man who has his job because his wife is the Governor. He gave Earl numerous "time off" certificates when Earl helped him out with prison problems, but later broke Earl's spirit by reneging on the agreement, having come to rely on Earl. Hazelwood was then revealed to be a former porn star, so he restored Earl's "time off" certificates to keep the scandal quiet.
• Mr. Sydney Turtle — Darnell's beloved pet. He is apparently Jewish and was born in 1913. In "Made A Lady Think I was God", Darnell mentions that Mr. Turtle had no first name; but in "Got the Babysitter Pregnant" his grave marker reads Mr. Sydney Turtle.
• Donny Jones (Silas Weir Mitchell) — An intimidating reformed thug who went to jail for a crime that Earl committed. While in prison he read the Bible and started believing in Jesus, and forgave Earl. His mother (Kathryn Joosten) did not forgive Earl for 'taking her son away for 2 years' until he helped her quit smoking (effectively giving her 2 extra years of life).
• Didi (Tracy Ashton) — She is a one-legged girl whom Earl claimed to love. She hates Earl since he stole her car. She was #86 on Earl's List, and he crossed her off when she made him walk all day on one leg, and buy half of a pair of shoes.
• Little Chubby (Norm Macdonald) — Little Chubby owns most of Camden. He appeared on Earl's list after Earl kicked him in the testicles and had a stripper grab them. After getting them fixed, Little Chubby then became extremely aggressive, like his father. After deciding to change his ways, he took a baseball hit to lose his testicles again. In the final episode ("Dodge's Dad"), he says he got new testicles transplanted from a bull, because being nice was bad for business. (He couldn't say no to a geriatric stripper who after he hired her slipped and broke her pelvis.)
• Frank (Michael Rapaport) — Earl's old friend. While Earl got married to Joy, he robbed an indian casino and kidnapped (Howie Mandel) — ,because Randy didn't show up. Went to prison for 20 years with his friend, Paco. Earl assumed he was rich so he took the trailer and his 1973 El Camino.

Other recurring characters include Electrolarynx Guy, Bruce, Nescobar-a-lop-lop, Doug, Jasper and his Russian mail-order bride, Joy's deaf lawyer and her interpreter, DJ Dave, Ernie Belcher (missing and discovered deceased proprietor of the Crab Shack, and the subject of "Inside Probe's" two part investigation of his disappearance), Slow Roger, Creepy Rodney, Bob Smiley, and TV's Tim Stack. Stack (also a writer for the show) usually appears in his Son of the Beach costume and completely intoxicated. Geraldo Rivera appeared as himself in the two part "Inside Probe" episode in the fourth season, and Nascar driver Michael Waltrip also appeared as himself in those episodes.

Several of the show's characters appeared on the July 8, 2008 episode of Celebrity Family Feud: the Hickey Family (Earl, Joy, Randy, Crabman and Catalina) played against "Camden County" (Tim Stack, Patty, Wilford, Kenny and Nescobar). The Camden County team defeated the Hickey Family but lost to the cast of The Office in the finals.

Notable guest stars

• Trace Adkins
• David Arquette
• Sean Astin
• Dave Attell
• Rosanne Barr
• Barbara Billingsley
• Ewen Bremner
• Brett Butler
• Larry Joe Campbell
• Duane Chapman
• Gil Christner
• Carson Daly
• Charles S. Dutton
• Jenna Elfman
• Erik Estrada
• Morgan Fairchild
• Jon Favreau
• Leo Fitzpatrick
• Ben Foster
• Courtney Gains
• Johnny Galecki
• Danny Glover

• Adam Goldberg
• Seth Green
• Kadeem Hardison
• Paris Hilton
• Clint Howard
• Eric Allan Kramer
• John Leguizamo
• Juliette Lewis
• Faizon Love
• Jane Lynch
• Jenny McCarthy
• Norm Macdonald
• Howie Mandel
• Marlee Matlin
• Alyssa Milano
• Katy Mixon
• Chloe Moretz
• Niecy Nash
• Timothy Olyphant
• Andrea Parker
• Jason Priestley
• Michael Rapaport

• Burt Reynolds
• Geraldo Rivera
• Chelcie Ross
• Amy Sedaris
• Jane Seymour
• Dax Shepard
• Jimmi Simpson
• Christian Slater
• Christine Taylor
• Paul Teutul, Jr.
• Paul Teutul, Sr.
• Michael Teutul
• Melody Thomas Scott
• Joan Van Ark
• Jerry Van Dyke
• Michael Waltrip
• John Waters
• Betty White
• Matthew Willig
• Jon Heder
• Arne Starr (uncredited)

Location

My Name Is Earl is set in fictional Camden County. Creator Greg Garcia says:

“

The show doesn’t technically take place anywhere....we like to think it’s anywhere. We don’t really say exactly where it is.

”

On episode Inside Probe (Part 2), Earl hints at a general location by saying, "I guess we are in the central time zone." The show is filmed in the San Fernando Valley, in Southern California. On the last DVD, in reply to a viewer's question, Greg Garcia admits that Camden is loosely modeled on Waldorf, Maryland.

Critical reception

The show was well-received by critics and audiences alike, on Metacritic it garnered a 77% "generally favorable" critics' metascore; 8.7 out of 10 users' rating. One reviewer speculated that Earl's forthrightness to having led a life of idiocy is what endears him to the viewer, and is what suggests there is a depth to his character beyond what is initially seen. Many of the negative and ambivalent reviews center on what are perceived to be base and bigoted humor.

Some critics claimed the series had a Scientologist bias or message, with actors Jason Lee and Ethan Suplee being Scientologists. In 2008, Alec Baldwin publicly accused Earl creator Greg Garcia of also being a Scientologist; Garcia quickly denied any involvement with Scientology, claiming that the Daily Mirror had incorrectly reported him to be a Scientologist.

Episodes

Main articles: List of My Name Is Earl episodes, My Name Is Earl (season 1), and My Name Is Earl (season 2)

Season		Episodes	Originally aired	DVD release	Blu-ray release
	1	24	2005 – 2006	September 19, 2006	TBA
	2	23	2006 – 2007	September 25, 2007	TBA
	3	22	2007 – 2008	September 30, 2008	TBA
	4	27	2008 – 2009	September 15, 2009	September 15, 2009

DVD releases

Season releases overview

DVD Name	Release dates		Ep #	Additional Information
	Region 1	Region 2
Season One	September 19, 2006	September 25, 2006	24	The four disc box set includes all 24 episodes. Bonus features include deleted scenes, commentary tracks on selected episodes, selections from the season's gag reel, and a "mini-episode" vignette where Stewie Griffin from Family Guy influences Earl to get revenge on everyone who wronged him.
Season Two	September 25, 2007	January 28, 2008	23	The four disc box set includes all 23 episodes. Bonus features include deleted scenes, commentary tracks on selected episodes, as well as other featurettes.
Season Three	September 30, 2008	October 20, 2008	22	The four disc box set includes all 22 episodes. Bonus features include a gag reel, "Creating the characters" featurette and deleted scenes.
Season Four	September 15, 2009	October 5, 2009	27	The four disc box set includes all 27 episodes. Bonus features include deleted scenes, a gag reel, "Earl's Fan Mail" featurette and a movie trailer inspired by the premiere episode.

Season 1 DVD set

The season one "mini-episode", titled Bad Karma, is an alternate version of the events of the pilot episode featuring what would have happened if, instead of seeing Carson Daly talking about karma while in the hospital, Earl saw Stewie Griffin of Family Guy talking about vengeance.

• At Best Buy locations the set came wrapped in a miniature replica of Earl's flannel shirt.
• The DVD set at Target stores featured a limited-edition bonus DVD with extra bloopers and other bonus features.^{[citation needed]}

Syndication

20th Century Fox Television has cleared My Name Is Earl in nearly 50% of the U.S., said Bob Cook, the company’s president and chief operating officer. 20th had sold the off-net sitcom to the Fox, Tribune, CBS, Hearst-Argyle and Sinclair station groups for a fall 2009 debut.

My Name Is Earl is being currently rerun in off-network syndication and on TBS, Ion Television and MyNetworkTV.

In September 2009, The Comedy Network in Canada began to show My Name Is Earl on a nightly basis at 8:30 PM EST, however The Comedy Network ended their run in 2010.

In Canada, Joytv currently airs My Name Is Earl on a nightly basic at 6:30 PM.

In March 2011, E4 in the UK began to show two heavily edited episodes of My Name Is Earl every weekday at 6:00pm, showing them again uncut later that night. This slot was previously occupied by Scrubs. Channel 4 has recently moved the My Name is Earl timeslot to 8:00 pm.

Adaptation outside the U.S.

• Greek Adaptation

Με λένε Βαγγέλη (Μy name is Vaggelis). Starring Vasilis Charalampoupoulos as Vaggelis, Makis Papadimitriou, Klelia Renesi, Anna Dimitrievic and Michalis Afolayan. The show premiered on November 14, 2011 in Mega Channel.

Comic book

Independent comic book publisher Oni Press had announced a comic book tie-in to the series in 2006, and season one's DVD release included ads for the comic; but none were produced. Since the cancellation of the show, Oni has abandoned the comic.

See also

• List of My Name Is Earl episodes
• List of My Name Is Earl minor characters

Further reading

• Fry, Kim (November 28, 2005). "California church plays role in My Name Is Earl TV series". United Methodist News Service. http://www.umc.org/site/c.gjJTJbMUIuE/b.1212677/k.8897/California_church_plays_role_in_My_Name_Is_Earl_TV_series.htm. 
• "Nominations and Winners". Hollywood Foreign Press Association. http://www.goldenglobes.org/nominations/year/2005. Retrieved January 13, 2006. 

External links

• My Name Is Earl at the Internet Movie Database
• My Name Is Earl at TV.com