DISAPPOINTMENT, thy name is “Earl.” It was once one of the most promising and original comedies on network TV, but tonight, in just the second episode of the brand-new TV season, “My Name Is Earl” crashes and burns with an episode that is so putrid that few who watch it are likely to return next week.
The episode, titled “Jump for Joy,” is so crude and so vulgar that it is hard to believe it was created by the same people who a little over a year ago produced the “Earl” pilot, which happened to be the sweetest single episode of a TV comedy seen in years.
Well, those days are long gone. Tonight, “My Name is Earl” presents an episode – at 8 p.m. no less – that takes place almost entirely in a strip joint, with surgically altered freakazoid Burt Reynolds gueststarring as the joint’s owner.
The episode is so slimy that you might want to take a shower after it’s over (although you would then miss “The Office” at 8:30, which would be a shame).
The plot, such as it is, has Earl (Jason Lee) and his brother, Randy (Ethan Supplee), trying to figure out how to bail Joy (Jaime Pressly) out of jail following her arrest last week for stealing a truck.
They decide to hit up local sleazeball Richard Chubby (Reynolds), owner of the strip joint, for the money. This plan eventually results in both Joy and Catalina (Nadine Velazquez) dancing at the club before an audience of drooling, slack-jawed extras.
When they meet Reynolds, he invites Earl and Randy to each follow his example and bury their faces between the ample breasts of one of his dancers. The reason for this request, or its relevance to the plot, is unfathomable.
Meanwhile, dim-witted, lovable Randy, who is particularly taken with Catalina’s performance, spends the episode slobbering like a perv in a porn shop.
When it premiered to rave reviews in September 2005, “Earl” attracted 15.2 million viewers, according to Nielsen. It ended its first season last spring with an average weekly audience of 10.8 million. Last week, the season premiere drew 8.86 million.
“My Name is Earl” is a series on the way down, if not out. Tonight’s repugnant episode – coupled with the premiere of the widely anticipated “Ugly Betty” on ABC at the same time-won’t help any.