Trivia / My Name Is Earl

• California Doubling: We really don't know where Camden is, but most hints put it somewhere in the US southeast.
• Casting Gag:
  • Norm Macdonald playing Burt Reynolds’ son, having previously impersonated Reynolds on Saturday Night Live’s “Celebrity Jeopardy!” skits.
  • Craig T. Nelson as a corrupt prison warden, having played The Dragon to one in Stir Crazy.
• The Danza:
  • One of Earl's list entries, a depressed veteran named Jerry, is played by Jerry Van Dyke.
  • Billy Gardell as Billy Hoyne. He also portrays Officer Jeff Hoyne and their unnamed sister.
  • Josh Wolf plays Josh Martin.
  • William Suplee plays One-Eyed Willie the mailman.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor:
  • Ruby Whitlow, Joy's deaf lawyer, is played by Marlee Matlin, who is deaf.
  • Didi only has one leg, as does her actress Tracy Ashton.
  • Didi's unnamed boyfriend is played by an actor/motivational speaker who is missing both legs and one of his arms.
• Executive Meddling: As with most NBC shows of the time, NBC forced an episode airing on a particular week to have an environmentalist message. As with a number of other shows, in "Randy In Charge", the writers used the opportunity to take some potshots at the executives forcing it on them.
• Playing Their Own Twin: Billy Gardell plays triplets (Officer Jeff Hoyne, Billy Hoyne and their unnamed sister).
• Real-Life Relative: Willie the One-Eyed Mailman is played by Bill Suplee, Ethan Suplee's real-life dad.
• Screwed by the Network:
  • Italian network "Italia Uno" ("Italy One") has changed the show's timeslot from late evening to early afternoon. And bowdlerisation wasn't even considered. Ironically, they actually managed to show the entire series uncensored and without a single complaint. Not a bad thing for the fans of the show.
  • Greg Garcia asked NBC if it was okay to end Season Four on a cliffhanger and they told him it was okay to do so. The fact they agreed should have tipped him off.
  • This was one of the series notoriously dealt a bad hand by a massive writer's guild strike at the time of its airing, on top of its shaky relationship with the higher-ups in NBC. Several planned stories had to be dropped.
• Throw It In!:
  • Never in the script, but Ethan Suplee frequently works with the director to have Randy doing some sort of Funny Background Event that is entirely within his character while Earl is busy with his list item (jumping on a trampoline, trying out the stripper pole, etc).
  • In the COPS episode one of the scrawny police officer accidentally clipped his face with the squad car door when rushing inside the convenience store Randy and Earl were held up in. The actor didn't miss a beat and went on with the scene.
  • Willie the One-Eyed Mail man was played by Ethan Suplee's actual dad. Greg Garcia said when they met the guy and saw his mustache, they knew they had to work him into the show.
• Tuckerization: The town of Camden is named after one of Greg Garcia's sons.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Greg Garcia has explained that he never intended for Earl to finish the list. Had the show had a proper finale, it would be about Earl having trouble completing an item on his list and beginning to worry that he would never finish it. He would then meet someone who had wronged him in the past, but Earl's actions had inspired someone else to make a list, which inspired the man to make a list of his own and put Earl on it. Seeing that he was inspiring other people to make lists and become better people, Earl realized that he had finally put more good into the world than bad. He would then tear up the list, free to live his life with good karma.
  • Earl Jr.'s father was going to be a celebrity who came to town on tour and had a one-night stand with Joy.
  • The show was going to have a comic book tie-in produced by Oni Press. It was even advertised in the Season One DVD set. However, no issues were ever released.
  • A Greek remake of the show was reported to be in production at one point, but nothing ever came of it.

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