TV's most loveable white-trash loser Earl Hickey continues his quest for karmic restoration in his small town universe.
Jason Lee arrives for the Alvin and the Chipmunks DVD release party and charity concert event at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, California, USA, EPA/JOSHUA GATES WEISBERG
The new season four of "My Name is Earl" is just around the corner, while "My Name Is Earl" season three arrives on DVD September 30 from Fox Home Entertainment.
Earl's life had been defined by poor choices and misdemeanor malfeasance, but a fateful lottery jackpot ushered in an epiphany. Earl now tries to right the wrongs despite interference from his ex wife Joy, dim brother Randy and a rich cast of Camden County's characters.
Jason Lee leads the charge in his Golden Globe-nominated role as Earl, the man trying to do right his past. He is joined an a crack ensemble cast including Ethan Suplee as Earl's hapless brother Randy, Nadine Velazquez as the sexy Catalina, Eddie Steeples as Crab Shack owner Darnell and Jaime Pressly in her Emmy Award-winning role as Earl's ex-wife Joy.
Cast of 'Earl'
"My Name is Earl" returns Thursday, September 25 at 8:00 pm with two new back-to-back episodes.
"My Name is Earl" Star Jason Lee and creator, writer/executive producer, Greg Garcia spoke to Monsters and Critics on a conference call about the new season.
Greg, let's get through the recent unpleasant exchanges with you and Alec Baldwin first .
Greg Garcia: Yeah, I mean, kind of - when you create and run a show, you have a family here, and we all work very hard to do what we do.
And as the head of the family, I would never take the first punch but if you get hit you come out swinging.
Jason Lee: What really happened was I’m friends with Alec Baldwin. I told him to say that stuff unbeknownst to Greg so that Greg would retaliate, so that we could get some press for the show.
Greg Garcia: Yeah, because going into Season 4, if - whatever we can do to get some press, I’m all for it.
The first episode had a Carpe Diem theme, and the second one has the theme of forgiveness. What other 'Earl' themes are we going to see this season from you, Greg?
Greg Garcia: Well we shot an episode we’re very proud of that is kind of a theme of motherhood with, kind of a Jaime story. We’re doing stuff with Ethan who is upset that he has never had a little brother; so kind of a brotherhood story.
Let’s see, what else? We’re kind of - we’re doing our own kind of Into the Wild story about society and people that don’t perhaps fit into society. And those are the ones off the top of my head I can think of.
Ethan Suplee has a great scene where in a rapid-fire delivery montage he belts out iconic speeches from great films in the opening show; can you talk about his performance?
Jason Lee: One of the things I love about the show is the things that you wouldn’t expect and then they become things that you actually start expecting; like of course, Randy (Ethan) -- even though he’s a man child -- of all the people in the cast to do the (math), would be the best actor.
Greg Garcia: Oh, he just rattled off so many of those. They were fantastic. And, , the thing - like Jason was saying, we just thought that a dimension of his character is just that he has the ability to soak up performances that he’s seen and mimic them, and he has no problem being a fantastic actor.
Then we’re blessed with the fact that Ethan himself is a fantastic actor. So when he’s just sitting out there and flipping from line to line, and doing that, it was very fun to watch.
Greg, you put a sentimental spin on each funny script, can you talk about that?
Greg Garcia: That’s always kind of been our mission from the beginning - from the pilot, that we try to mix big, funny stunts, people getting smacked in the face and big cartoonish type things and then - but combine it with characters that hopefully have some realness to them and when we earn it, a nice, sweet moment at the end to kind of make you feel good because
I’ve always thought that those are the best - the most rewarding comedies that I’ve watched is the ones that make me laugh but then at the end kind of make me feel a little something, too.
So when we can do it, we definitely try to. We have some episodes where it’s just a little craziness and we don’t try to force it. But certainly when we break stories right from the beginning, we try to figure out what that moment is going to be and what we’re going to try to make people feel at the end.
Jason, has doing “Earl” inspired you to right some wrongs in your own life?
Jason Lee: Probably, I think so. I mean, at the very least the show has made me feel blessed and I do my absolute best, and never take it for granted.
I always reflect on the success and Greg wanted me to be on it; and it’s made me a better actor and a better producer. And I thank my lucky stars for it.
So I think a big part of karma for me is never taking things for granted and resting on your morals, and ever getting too cocky or (complacent). I still have fun on the show even when we’re shooting like we were last night until 1:00 in the morning, having a new crew around, my friends and making them laugh at - when we’re all delirious.
Shooting in the middle of a parking lot so I think it’s been an amazing experience for me.
Regrets? Just a few movies that that I have done that I probably shouldn’t have done. But other than that, I think I’ve been a pretty decent human being.
Jason, congratulations on the new addition to your family, your baby girl joining her brother Pilot Inspektor.
Jason Lee: Thank you.
Have you named her?
Jason Lee: I don’t know.
You don’t know?
Jason Lee: No. Yeah, we’re toying with names
Can you talk about some of the other guest stars like Beau Bridges and Seth Green that you worked with in the season?
Jason Lee: Seth was amazing. Of course we’re all fans and it always means something to us when we’re fans of somebody, when they say yes to coming on and doing our show.
Yeah, he’s just one of those guys who are always on and impersonating people, and telling jokes, and being friendly with the crew and bringing a certain kind of energy to the set which is amazing.
That was a really fun episode. Any time we get to sort of, goof off and do something outside of the everyday sort of, - well I guess there’s not really much of an everyday on Earl is there? But yeah, that was a lot of fun.
Greg Garcia: Yeah, we’ve been lucky to have a lot of guest stars. We usually get pretty lucky with the people we have on the show and we’ve had Seth and Beau Bridges back, and Jenna Elfman and Jerry Van Dyke and John Amos.
And David Arquette just did an episode. And then we’ve got a guy named Ewen Bremner coming in who we really wanted to work with from the movie, Trainspotting among a lot of other things.
And we just cast Malachai from Children of the Corn to play a Unabomber-type fellow, a guy - Courtney Gains. So, we’ve been really lucky with the people so far this season we’ve been able to work with.
Great. No Alec Baldwin, though?
Greg Garcia: No but, maybe. That’d be great. I mean, if we can get some press out of it come on in. I mean either him or Kim Basinger, one of the two we should have on the show soon.
Will this season be a little lighter in tone than last season’s darker episodes?
Greg Garcia: Yeah. I mean, what happened last season was that at the end of Season 2 we always knew we were going to send him to jail and we didn’t know how long we would keep him in jail.
But then we kind of broke stories and we kind of figured out a bunch of them to do, so we kept him in there for a little while. And then we were going to get him out of jail and involved in a relationship.
We kind of knew how we were going to have that relationship end but the problem was we had a writers’ strike and our order got cut back. And we were in a position where we had to figure out how we were going to do the rest of the season with a shorter order.
The thing that I came up with was that we needed to get him in a coma for like five or six episodes because I needed to delay this relationship with Alyssa Milano because that’s how we were going to end the season.
So that’s kind of how the whole coma thing came about. And, I was happy with what we did with it. It was not what we had planned at the beginning of the season.
But after we kind of had him in prison and a coma, and a relationship, we were just kind of thirsty to just kind of go back to Season 1 formula of, let’s just concentrate on some list items and just get back to the basics of what we loved doing in Season 1, and not have to be so crazy and worried about how do we keep getting them out of corners we’ve painted them into.
So far it’s been fantastic. We’re having a blast with it. We get to have all this great guest cast to come in and meet these new, crazy characters every week.
And later in the season we’re going to find out some stuff. We’re going to find out why Darnell is in the Witness Protection Program.
And we’re going to have so many arcs along the way. But for the most part this season we’re trying to stick to the list.
What types of shows growing up did you guys enjoy?
Jason Lee: For me, I think the absolutely top shows were Chips, the Dukes of Hazzard...
Greg Garcia: A-Team.
Jason Lee: The Fall Guy. What did you say, Greg?
Greg Garcia: The A-Team.
Jason Lee: Yeah, the A-Team - anything with action and adventure, I think for me. And Falcon Crest.
Greg Garcia: Yeah, I think we’re both exactly the same age so we watched the same stuff. I think I watched more sitcoms than Jason did but we both kind of watched all that kind of action/adventure stuff as well.
Jason Lee: No, but I had my share of Silver Spoons, Family Ties… But I was really into like Dukes of Hazzard, man, jumping that General Lee.
Greg Garcia: Yeah, and we’re both huge Burt Reynolds fans - Smokey and the Bandit, Cannonball Run - all that.
Jason Lee: Dexter is pretty much the only show I follow (now).
Greg Garcia: I watch a lot of TV. I love it. So, basically I watch a ton of stuff. As far as comedies, I mean, one of my favorite show is ‘30 Rock’ and I like ‘The Office’, too. I’m not saying those just because they’re on NBC.
Those are the comedies I watch along with ‘It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ and ‘Reno 911’, and I pretty much watch anything on HBO – ‘Flight of the Conchords’ is hilarious.
Jason Lee: I haven’t seen ‘Flight of the Conchords’, Greg. It’s good, huh?
Greg Garcia: Oh, it’s fantastic.
Jason, who would be your dream guest star?
Jason Lee: Tom Selleck. He’d come on and we’d find out that he was actually my real dad.
Greg Garcia: And we always say Steve Buscemi but we’ve had no luck there. We’ve even - I even personally offered to fly him out and put him up for the last time we’ve offered it, but he’s always in New York and tends to be busy.
But that’s one we’ve always wanted. And I think we’d love to have Nicolas Cage or Holly Hunter - anybody from 'Raising Arizona'. We’d love that.
We’ve got a lot of people. A lot of the people we’ve wanted to work with we’ve been able to.
Jason Lee: That’s why I was saying earlier, Greg, that we’ve got to get Tom Selleck on the show as my... as our real dad because we can’t use Beau (Bridges) and Nancy anymore.
Greg Garcia: Exactly.
Jason Lee: Maybe Tom Selleck and Lonnie Anderson.
Greg Garcia: Perfect.
Greg, where did you initially come up with the idea for Earl?
Greg Garcia: I was working on the show ‘Yes, Dear’ and I wanted to do something completely different from anything I’d done before and I wanted to do a single camera comedy.
I’d always just really liked the world of trailer parks. I had a friend that lived in a trailer park. I loved to just go over there. It was like Disneyland for me to go over there and the characters.
I’ve just always believed in karma and kind of been drawn to stories about people starting over in their lives. So I think I just kind of combined all those things and came up with this.
I mean, yeah there are things in my past that I would like to go back and make up for like, borrowing a girl’s car in college and having it break down, and never actually returning it.
And letting mice out in my high school play and ruining the 'Grease' play, and stuff like that. And, so I’m sure there’s a part of me that it’s a little wish fulfillment to make up for the - my past transgressions.
Worst thing that Earl ever did?
Greg Garcia: I’m not sure exactly what the worst thing is. I mean, we always kind of toe the line of like that it can’t be too absolutely bad. Stealing Christmas gifts from a little girl dressed as Santa was pretty low.
But I mean I’m not sure. I’m not sure exactly. I’d have to give that some thought.
Jason Lee: And the one coming up, Greg, with David Arquette, that’s pretty bad, man.
Greg Garcia: That’s pretty bad, too, yeah. With David Arquette, he plays a stuntman and Earl was encouraging him to do more and more dangerous stunts so he could sleep with his girlfriend while he was in the hospital.
And he was literally almost killing the man.
That was actually pretty bad.
Care to elaborate on your experience working with Paris Hilton?
Greg Garcia: Yeah, she left a mark. She actually peed over by craft service.
Jason Lee: Yeah, I was going to say she farted near me, so yeah, she definitely left a mark.
Greg Garcia: No, she was fantastic, I mean you cast Paris Hilton to come in and do a quick little funny thing and she had a great a sense of humor. And no, she just came in and said hi, and was nice - very polite and did her thing, and then left.
I can’t say she really left a mark with us or anything, other than she left a positive feeling about Paris Hilton - something that as far as I know I see her with pictures with her little dog in different outfits all the time.
So I didn’t know much about her. But she was a very nice person.
Favorite part of doing the show and least favorite thing?
Jason Lee: Favorite part of doing the show is wondering what the next episode is all about and casting it, getting interesting people on the show. I always look forward to getting beaten up on the show, kicked around.
Even the last episode we filmed I’m doing a bunch of stunts 30-feet in the air and there’s always something going on that - too look forward to that’s really exciting - , the kind of stuff that you wanted to do as a kid I get to do now on TV.
So I always look forward to the adventure of it.
Greg Garcia: My least favorite part of the show is trying to figure out what the hell the next episode is going to be.
Jason Lee: Of course, I feel for you on that, Greg. I feel for you on that.
Greg Garcia: Yes, it’s tough. Well I mean, I think that to start, I mean, it is a credit to our writers. It’s always tough to come up with stories because they have to come out of thin air.
But my favorite part is a combination of being out on the set and hanging out with the actors and watching, all the hard work everybody’s done unfold into these guys, bringing it altogether and getting it on film.
And then my other favorite part of the show is taking home my cut of editing and sitting down with my wife who hasn’t - doesn’t know anything about the stories, and watching it with her and hearing her laugh.
Greg, could you talk more about how you guys keep a running list of ideas that come up for future episodes?
Greg Garcia: Yeah, I mean, we have a ton of just like kind of half ideas. We have a ton of like - little like item - list items that we think are funny. But, , usually a list item is just the first - what - his past transgression is only just about the first, , the two pages of the show and then you got to figure out what the story is.
But it’s a combination of ways that the writers come up with the stories. I mean, either we’ll figure out hey we want to do something - we want to tough on this aspect of a relationship between Earl and Randy.
And then we’ll figure out a list item that can get us to that point, sometimes we just really love the idea of an actual list item that he’s done and so we’ll start from the beginning instead of starting from the end.
So there’s a lot of different ways that we break the stories.
With regards to Earl - you want him to learn and grow but you still want him to stay the way he is, how do you keep that balance?
Greg Garcia: I think the important thing to do is - and we talk about this a lot and sometimes we go a little bit too far, and then we have to reel ourselves back in.
We have to always remind ourselves that this guy is still not the brightest guy in the world and he may be learning little life lessons along the way about how he feels about particular things.
His eyes are open to global warming in an episode or he learns how to have acceptance of homosexuality even in the pilot and slowly get a little bit more and more comfortable with his gay friend, Kenny.
I think that the important thing -- like you said -- is you have to spoon it out very carefully or you could change this guy. And the only time that we ever really started to change him too much was at the end of Season 2 when he got a job and he got his apartment, and his life was really getting together.
We only did that because we knew we were going to take it all away from him when he, when he went to prison. So, it is a dance to try to figure out ways to continually enlighten him but also keep him true to who he is.
Favorite episode ever?
Jason Lee: Wow, let’s see, geez. Wow, that’s a hard one. What’s yours, Greg?
Greg Garcia: It’s tough because, you get caught up in what you’re doing at the present moment.
Joy played by Jaime Pressley
I mean, there are a lot of shows in the past that I’ve - that I thought turned out really well. I’ve always been - I’ve always liked the one we did with the circus freaks in Season 2.
Sticks and Stones is always one that I’ve enjoyed a lot. There’s one from Season 1 called Touchdown which I continually go back and watch a number of times just to kind of remind myself of the episodes that I like the most and to try to emulate the style of them.
And then there’s one that’s going to be - , there’s a bunch this season already we’ve done that, we’ve been talking about - that we really are enjoying them and it feels like we’re just kind of back to kind of where we were in Season 1.
And one in particular calls Joy’s Bubble that we just - maybe it’s because it’s just fresh on my mind but we just finished it and it’ll air, I think - the second week we’re on it will air - October 2, I think it is.
That one to me is just like - it’s just a perfect example of the perfect Earl episodes in that it has just big, funny things along the way and just probably one of the sweetest scenes at the end that we’ve ever done.
Jason. Any desire to go behind the camera or write an episode?
Jason Lee: No, I feel like my involvement is enough to where I’m in there enough and working with Greg and working as a team.
I think because I’m in pretty much every scene and there’s usually a week of press work, it’d just be too much to actually, get behind the camera on one of these.
But I’m fine with the involvement that I have right now on the show. I think we have a great thing going, Greg and I. And so elsewhere in life, sure yeah, but not on the show.
Greg Garcia: Yeah, we already have a very collaborative process here so it’s not like...Jason creatively is yearning to be able to have some say on the stories we do or the editing process, or be able to talk about how the show is being directed because he already does all those things as a producer. We really act as a team.
Greg Garcia: Thank you.
Jason. Talk about the challenges of sustaining a character over more than one season.
Jason Lee: The worst thing that I could do is settle into a kind of routine or rhythm that might happen if one just sort of started falling into I guess what might be considered their job.
I have to do a lot of things in - with my body and my facial expressions, and the dialogue that’s been written to basically keep Earl likeable. I have to keep Earl confused when he needs to be confused.
He can only be confident when it’s justified. , it can never be me acting like Earl. I have to keep so much in mind because he has progressed a lot as a human being.
But at the same time, he’s still Earl. He’s not a (professor) by any means. So we constantly have to walk that line. And it’s just - to rest on my laurels, to just show up and do your thing, and just kind of read the dialogue it just doesn’t really work.
So yeah I mean, there - that’s been a challenge absolutely. And – but I’ve found things that work – ‘Earlisms’, I guess you could say…I think for the most part we see me as Earl and we see Earl - and it’s Earl to us. But I think more goes into it than just sort of trying to act funny because this is a guy who is progressing but we have to watch the pace at which he progresses.
I think about all that stuff.
Greg-what’s the most rewarding career benefit for you?
Greg Garcia: What’s made it rewarding for me because I’ve had two big shows that I’ve worked on over the past -- Yes, Dear and My Name is Earl. And with both shows, I’ve been able to surround myself with great people and just had a blast.
Whether the show is well received by critics, not well received by critics, has buzz for awhile but then seems to go away with the buzz, gets Emmys for awhile then doesn’t get - that’s all just - that’s all secondhand stuff.
The fact that I’ve been able to stick around with a lot of the same people through those ten years and then meet new great people, and work with them and just come to work - and it’s a job where you have to work, 16-17 hours a day.
But to be able to come to work and just have a blast and have fun, where everybody is smiling and do your dream job, I mean, that’s the most rewarding part of it.
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