Why America Loves My Name Is Earl

[Stephen of Borg 2]

We're fools for scruffy Earl By David Hiltbrand

Inquirer Staff Writer

 

America has fallen in love with Earl Hickey. Heaven help us. It's the type of tawdry tryst that Sammy Kershaw sang of as a "third-rate romance, low-rent rendezvous."

 

Though he's not the brightest light on the Christmas tree, Earl delivered an accurate self-assessment in the debut ofhis sitcom My Name Is Earl, describing himself as "that guy you see going into the convenience store when you stop off in that little town on the way to Grandma's house - sorta shifty-looking fellow who buys a pack of smokes, a couple lotto scratchers and a tallboy at 10 in the morning." Breakfast of champions.

 

Yet, on average, 11.6 million viewers tune in to NBC to catch Earl's bumbling effort to sweeten his "karma" (a concept he picked up watching Carson Daly blather on TV). Each episode, he tries to make restitution for one of the items on the long list of stupid and selfish things he's done during his life.

 

Along the way, My Name Is Earl (Thursday, 9 p.m.) has become the season's top new show among the coveted 18-to-49-year-old crowd.

 

Why is everybody so smitten with this small-town screwup and truly petty thief? It isn't his looks. Earl has the messiest mustache to hit prime time since Wilford Brimley got caught in a twister. He's a guy who actually looks like his driver's license photo.

 

Earl is small-screen kin to H.I. McDunnough, the antihero of the Coen brothers' classic film Raising Arizona. Along with his dimwit brother Randy (Ethan Suplee) and hootchie-mama ex-wife (Jaime Pressly), Earl represents the dregs of the earth, the uncouth epitome of white trash.

 

Jason Lee, who plays the title truant, believes that viewers are responding to the show's heart. "It's the most diverse group of people I've ever experienced as an actor in terms of who approaches me to say they love it," he says in a telephone interview from the set in California. "I can't help but think a huge part is because each episode comes together at the end. There's always a sweet moment with Earl smiling and crossing another thing off the list. You like this guy."

 

It's hard not to. Earl is the latest evolution of some of prime time's most enduring stock comic personas.

 

There's no denying that television loves a fool. Always has. Over the years, we've laughed ourselves silly at guys who are dazzlingly slow on the uptake, from Gunther Toody on Car 54, Where Are You? to Gomer Pyle to Gilligan to Joey. (Well, at least we liked him on Friends.)

 

Usually, when the medium wants to hold characters up to ridicule, it gives them a Southern accent and a pair of overalls. In the '60s, there was a whole genre of rusticoms, shows like The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction and The Andy Griffith Show. Green Acres put an interesting twist on the formula, with the hayseeds constantly outsmarting city slicker Eddie Albert.

 

That regional bias still exists, according to Jim Goad, Philadelphia native and author of The Redneck Manifesto. "If you watch Jerry Springer," says Goad, "you'll have Caucasians and blacks participating in the same kind of borderline retarded behavior. But if one of those whites lives in a trailer park, they have this stock derisive music they play. And if they have a Southern accent, there's this hillbilly music they play. They allow cultural slights against poor whites but not poor blacks."

 

Television has always had class issues. It gets a little snarky about people who are scrambling to make ends meet. Network types are clearly more comfortable building shows around the Darren archetype from Bewitched: the guy who dons a suit and tie, slicks back his hair and heads off to some nebulous desk job in the city.

 

When sitcoms do center on working-class families, they are usually presented as unattractive, crude and riddled with flaws. Think of All in the Family, Sanford and Son or Married... With Children.

 

Curiously, lower-class households on television are often conceived as matriarchies, like Roseanne, Mama's Family, and Grace Under Fire. It's as if the very idea of a man not being able to provide amply for his family is too grotesque to depict.

 

My Name Is Earl departs from these stereotypes in a number of ways. First of all, the setting is kept purposely generic. "It's a fictional town," says show creator Greg Garcia. "I named Camden County after my son. It could be an hour outside any city in the United States. I've read on chat rooms that I've been using some town names from western Maryland where I went to college."

 

Secondly, although Earl is virtually unemployable (at the moment, he's living off his lottery winnings), he's not treated as an abject failure. In fact, all the characters on the show are handled with a goofy kind of respect.

 

That gives My Name Is Earl, despite its farcical shabbitude, a rather jaunty air of plausibility. When we contacted Ruby Ann Boxcar, author of the Down Home Trailer Park book series, about the show, she e-mailed back, "I must confess that I ain't had the chance to see a whole episode of My Name Is Earl on account of how our TV antenna keeps fallin' off the trailer when the good shows seem to be on. I tell you that doggone hot glue ain't what it use to be when it comes to bondin'... By the way, you might want to check your facts, 'cause from what I saw, My Name Is Earl is a reality show."

 

Ruby Ann is currently in Las Vegas, mounting a production of her play Double Wide, about a 350-pound drunken stripper named Little Linda with a "heart as big as Dr. Phil's forehead." The playwright believes My Name Is Earl connects with viewers because of its accessibility.

 

"Some humor, you have to know certain words to catch the pun," she says on the phone. "All you have to do to appreciate trailer-park humor is attend a swap meet or bingo parlor. It's basically getting back to basics."

 

Perhaps My Name Is Earl is succeeding simply because the time for white trash has finally arrived, after years of stultifying and soulless yuppie dominance. "Think of it as the overthrow of the forces of plastic," says Pete Kotz, editor of the alternative newspaper Cleveland Scene. Under the pen name Dr. Verne Edstrom Esq., Kotz has written the forthcoming White Trash Etiquette, which addresses important issues like the proper way to fake a back injury and how to improve your drunken-driving skills.

 

Kotz sees in Earl a kindred spirit, a fellow Northern reprobate. "I personally believe," he says, "that the Northern species is far superior to the Southern. We know how to hot-wire a snowmobile. It's those small distinctions that make us the upper crust of white-trash nation."

 

Garcia came up with the idea for the show while vacationing on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. "I've always been drawn to trailer parks," he says. "I believe in karma. And I'm a big fan of Raising Arizona. I wanted Earl to be a derelict, but at the same time somebody you love."

 

That leaves Lee treading carefully as his character walks the rocky road to redemption. "We don't want him to change too rapidly," he says. "We don't want him turning into an overnight saint. But we don't want to keep him in ignorance too long."

 

Gotta love that Earl.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

Because this show has gotton so much hoopla - I've tried to watch it a couple of times - I couldn't sit through an entire ep.

[Matt 0]

Because this show has gotton so much hoopla - I've tried to watch it a couple of times - I couldn't sit through an entire ep.

 

Why not? What'd you dislike?

 

I really like the show, some great acting in there and I think it really is very funny. I'm not usually a fan of slapstick but they work it really well in the show and combine it nicely with more subtle humour too.

[Jack_Bauer 1]

I also enjoy My Name Is Earl. Its an original concept and is pretty funny.

 

Ironically, I actually consider it to be the least funny (relative scale) of what I considered to be the top 4 comedies on network television (behind Scrubs, The Office and the unfairly cancelled and utterly brilliant Arrested Development). Still pretty funny but I just laugh more with the other three.

[Kor37 9]

I like watching "Earl" as well. Its a great concept and very funny. I likeScrubs too. "The Office" makes me cringe sometimes. I actually feel sorry for the main character.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

Because this show has gotton so much hoopla - I've tried to watch it a couple of times - I couldn't sit through an entire ep.

 

Why not? What'd you dislike?

 

 

I'm not sure I can put into words exactly why I don't like it but CSI is a rerun so I sat through an ep of Earl - it just really isn't that funny to me.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

I watched an episode tonight - and tonight I have to say it was funny - maybe because it was about trying to pay the government

[gul_nodrog 2]

Man, I hate "The Office," but I really like Earl. I loved the episode where he and the old lady worked together to stop smoking. It actually brought a tear to my eye!

 

I think Earl himself is not nearly as dumb as those around him. Jaime Presley is pricelessly funny as Earl's ex, and that Darnell "Crabman" guy is wonderful, too.

 

Funny show.

[ARMS 0]

I occassionally watch 'Earl', but not often.

 

I like Scrubs :biggrin:

 

The Office was originally British, and a little better, even know no one watches it here either, no one wants to be reminded of work, at home.

 

Red Dwarf, the BBC version launched in 1987 (year of my birth, fan since a young age, and entire collection owner) was a million times better than the America reject version, it was too clean cut, lines and acting too dramatic.

It didn't have the stupid comedy amidst the sci fi, and the dirty ship was now Enterpise-D, just doesn't work that way.

[Stephen of Borg 2]

My Name Is Earl is nominated for some Emmy Awards

 

a couple of the nominations are

 

 

Oustanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – Jaime Pressly

 

Outstanding Casting For a Comedy Series

Edited July 6, 2006 by Gamera