My Name is Earl

In gay neighborhoods, tv is the enemy, an incursion of heterosexist brainwashing, but when I moved to Dayton in 2005, it became warm and comforting, an emblem of home.  My favorite program was My Name is Earl (2005-2009),  set in the same world as John Waters'Pink Flamingos, a redneck suburban wasteland of trailer parks, mini-marts, and rednecks with missing teeth.

Earl (Jason Lee) was once a small-time crook and petty scoundrel, but now he's reformed, and going through a list of people he's wronged to make amends:

62. Stole a neighbor's gas.
86. Stole a car from a one-legged girl.
239. Made a kid scared of the boogey man.
263. Broke bus stop while looking for Poncho the Blue Fish.

Each episode involves an item on the list, crazy situations, and quirky characters.


Earl is assisted on his quest by his dim-witted brother (Ethan Suplee), his caustic ex-wife (Jaime Pressley), and her current husband Darnell (Eddie Steeples), plus a vast assortment of friends, crooks, and people he has wronged.










There was a semi-regular gay character, the nerd Kenny (Gregg Binkley), who Earl bullied as a child.

Plus a number of characters who didn't express much heterosexual interest, such as reformed thief Donny (Silas Weir Mitchell, left) and non-reformed thief Ralph (Giovanni Ribisi, top photo), leaving room for plenty of gay subtexts.

Plus a substantial beefcake quotient, lots of shirtless or semi-nude rednecks, lots of close-ups of baskets and bulges.


Disabled athlete Cameron Clapp had a cameo as the boyfriend of the One-Legged Girl.


Josh Wolf played a Bargain Bag employee who Joy accidentally kidnapped.

It was fun while it lasted.  Then Season #3 abandoned the List and sent Earl to prison, then put him in a coma.  I don't know what happened in Season #4 -- I stopped watching.

Producer Greg Garcia went on to Raising Hope, set in the same world, with just as much beefcake but fewer gay subtexts.