My Name Is Earl is an American sitcom created by Greg Garcia. It is produced by 20th Century Fox Television. In the United States is broadcast on the NBC television network Thursdays at 8:00 PM Eastern time.

The Writers' Guild strike caused production to end after only 13 of the 25 episodes originally planned for the third season were filmed. When the strike ended, production resumed. A further nine episodes were filmed for Season 3, and new episodes began airing April 3rd, 2008. Season 4 premiered on September 25th, 2008.

Overview

The series stars Jason Lee, Ethan Suplee, Jaime Pressly, Eddie Steeples and Nadine Velazquez. Lee stars in the title role as "Earl J. Hickey", a petty crook with occasional run-ins with the law, whose newly won $100,000 lottery ticket is lost when he is hit by a car. While lying in his hospital bed after the accident, he develops a belief in the concept of karma when he hears about it during an episode of Last Call with Carson Daly. He decides he wants to turn his life around and makes a list of all the bad things he's ever done. After doing his first good deed, he finds his $100,000 lottery ticket. He sees this as a sign and, with his new lucky money, he proceeds to cross items off the list, one-by-one, by doing good deeds to atone for them.

Conception

Creator 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 after 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 then for fourth (2008-09).

Main characters

• Earl J. Hickey (Jason Lee) - The protagonist and narrator of the show, was born on April 25, 1970. Married three times: to Joy Turner, Ralph's mom in Season two (they got an annulment) and Billie in season three; Joy and Billie divorced him (albeit under very different circumstances). He is often the voice of reason among his friends. He is a huge fan of Southern rock and heavy metal bands including Def Leppard,Van Halen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Guns N Roses, Metallica and ACDC. He also played bass guitar in a band with Ralph and Randy and owned a stolen guitar.
• Randy Hickey (Ethan Suplee) - Earl's younger brother, former husband to Catalina in a green-card marriage. He is very dimwitted and a criminal, but is at heart a very sweet and sensitive person and shows signs of having much more comprehension than he lets on. He frequently does stupid things when trying to help Earl. His relationships are always failures like 'cat woman' and Catalina.
• Joy Turner (née Darville, previously Hickey) (Jaime Pressly) - Earl's ex-wife, now married to Crabman. She has been pregnant three times during the show; first was in the pilot episode when she was 6 months pregnant with a baby that has an unknown father, second was with Earl Jr (Darnell's and Joy's baby) and the third time when she was the surrogate mother to her half-sister's baby. At the beginning of the series, she divorced Earl after his lottery win/hit by car day, and later tried to steal his lottery winnings by attempting to kill him numerous times. When she married Crabman, these efforts ended. Joy was at first shown as violent and ungrateful, but has since evolved into a loving and devoted mother who is more appreciative of the things others do for her. She has remained aggressive to those who threaten her family or friends.
• Darnell "Crabman" Turner (Eddie Steeples) - Joy's current husband. Works at the Crab Shack. His real name is Harry Monroe and he graduated from college at age 14, but he hides the truth about himself as he is part of the Witness Protection Program. Joy is suspicious about his identity. He keeps a pet turtle called Mr. Turtle. He speaks French, Russian and Arabic and can identify hundreds of different types of cheese by smell alone. He is shown to be very intelligent and calm, although no one seems to take notice. He greets Earl by saying "Hey Earl" which Earl responds to saying "Hey Crabman". In the musical episode, he implores everyone to "Respect the Meat."
• Catalina Aruca (Nadine Velazquez) - A beautiful Latin American immigrant who works as Earl and Randy's hotel's housekeeper and is a stripper at Club Chubby. Randy married her to allow her to come to the USA (he had a brief crush on her) after Earl accidentally 'ratted' her out. Her troubled past is often alluded to or shown in flashbacks. She claims to have once killed someone. And her brother killed her father saying "men don't like it when other men sleep with their moms" when she was helping Earl cross off 'Slept with Ralph's mom'. She frequently breaks the "Fourth Wall" when she delivers what appear to be angry diatribes in Spanish but are actually messages to the show's fans.