(Season 4, Episode 14 – “Got the Babysitter Pregnant”)
My Name is Earl is a joy of a show. It’s hard to even classify it as a sitcom. Each episode is so rich with great performances and laugh-out-loud moments, the show is more like a little Cohen Brothers movie every week than a TV program. It’s actually sorta hard to believe this show was created by Greg Garcia, whose previous credit was creating the odious Yes, Dear, a sitcom that makes According to Jim look like Citizen Kane.
Thursday night’s episode was another gem. I won’t spoil the plot for you if you haven’t seen it. Knowing NBC’s scheduling, it will most likely be re-run in a week or two, anyway. The story featured Earl trying to make amends to his former babysitter. It seems back in the day, he was jealous of his babysitter’s boyfriend, so he fixed her by punching holes in his condom (plotlines like this make the conservative old man in me wonder what this show is doing on at 8 PM, but it was funny, so what the heck.) It turns out the babysitter and her boyfriend turned out fine, but the child they had, thanks to Earl, is a slacker. Earl resolves to fix this, but ultimately his brother Randy does the fixing in this episode.
Ethan Suplee as Randy is just one of the jewels of this show (but let’s not forget Jaime Pressly & Eddie Steeples), and this episode really highlighted him as he tried to turn the slacker son into his own personal “Randy”. For all you fans of the show, Randy once again does his “Oh no you didn’t” fishing pole dance move. One of my favorite bits.
One big surprise in this episode was the appearance of Faith Ford as the babysitter. I was unaware she still had a screen actor’s union card.
Another great episode of a great show. It made me glad I didn’t have to watch another Law & Order re-run.
Clacked by Bill White
on Jan 10, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
I guess you didn’t get to see Faith Ford in Carpoolers. Totally underrated show! I know it wasn’t the best thing out there, but really, way better than a lot of sitcoms on tv today.
Oh no! I missed this one, but as you note…I’m sure NBC will have it in re-runs within the month. Thanks for the heads up!
Question: Do you do your own drawings in addition to writing the postings?
Yes, I’m afraid those scribbles are my own.
The scribbles are nice, the show I now hate (again). I had 3 episodes sitting here waiting to be watched, I started one and for the third time or so I decided to never ever watch an episode again.
Any ten second cameo of these two guys is better than this… this… abomination of a show.
Besides: Scientology. I can’t get past that. Might make me shallow but still.
I like how you got his eyes right. It’s funny how every time Earl gets his picture taken his eyes are closed.
That’s “Coen Brothers,” not “Cohen.”
So sayeth the spelling fairy!
MarcDom7,
Yeek! You’re correct. My bad. It’s always nice to see your typos publicly pointed out, though.
It took me a little while to get into this show, but I really enjoy the characters now. I think Crabman is my favorite! I also love your drawing–you captured Earl perfectly!
Ford is a good car :)