Last call at 'Earl's' Crab Shack
Posted: Monday, June 01, 2009 6:00 AM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Filed Under:
TV
When I first saw the "My Name Is Earl" pilot back in 2005, I dismissed it as another show with a weirdly overcomplicated plot. Hit by a car after winning the lottery, Earl Hickey is introduced to the concept of karma and decides to make a list of all the wrongs he's done in his life and go about making up for them.
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Earl Hickey (Jason Lee) will be missed.
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But while I was on maternity leave, I found myself up late a lot of nights, and plugged the first season of "Earl" into the DVD player. And I started to love it.
Start with the lack of a laugh track. (Why, in 2009, does the laugh track even exist?) Move on to the fact that Earl and his pals often pull humor from the fact that they are barely scraping by, a welcome change from the "Real Housewives" glitz. Add in the excellent comic timing of the leads, especially Jason Lee as Earl, Ethan Suplee as Randy, Jaime Pressley as Earl's ex-wife Joy, and Eddie Steeples as Joy's new husband, Darnell.
There's also a whole universe of delightfully weird supporting characters, from Patty the Daytime Hooker to Willie the One-Eyed Mailman to Earl and Randy's sweetly befuddled parents. And few sitcom settings sprang to life like the scrubbly, barren Camden County, so out-of-step with the country that it declared itself its own nation during the Civil War, supporting neither side. That lasted all of 15 minutes.
In my favorite episode, "Y2K," the cast wakes up hungover on New Year's Day 2000 to an empty town. Everyone's at a parade, but the main characters assume the world has come to an end, so they decide to move into a big-box store, with each character taking over a different section. Earl gets snack foods, simple Randy gets toys, pregnant Joy takes cosmetics. (When Earl tells her a pregnant woman shouldn't be bleaching her teeth, she sneers, "Says the stupid government. Which is dead.") Life in a store -- it's every little kid's joyous dream, brought to life by a group of childlike adults.
But the show wasn't pure comedy. There was almost always a sweet message to an "Earl" plot. People helped each other. Family and friends stuck together. Even though Earl was a petty crook, he was trying to make lives better, minus the Hallmark saccharine of many sitcoms. The message came through because Earl was such a screwup in so many ways. He lived with his brother in a motel, had never had a successful marriage, was cheated on by Joy. He was a misfit surrounded by, and taking comfort from, other misfits. If he had a lesson to teach, it was that it was never too late to try and be a better person, whatever cards fate had dealt you, and despite the mistakes of your past. Top-notch writing and acting meant that message never came across as preachy, but instead as knock-down, drag-out hilarious.
NBC canceled "Earl" last month, and although TBS, ABC and Fox reportedly showed some early interest, it looks like "Earl" has crossed the final item off his list. In a world where "The Bachelor" is on approximately its 400th season, and where every Kardashian has her own show, this is the show that gets the axe? I would have thought karma would have treated "Earl" more kindly.
Were you an "Earl" fan? Discuss the show, or other canceled-before-their-time programs, in the comments.
