My Name Is Earl-Season 1 (2005)

"...certain to be a favorite for years to come with its eccentric characters, brilliant writing, and infinite episode possibilities...  Britt Gillette, The DVD Report
"...a truly unique and funny show...a wonderful mix of humor that is often intelligent and always full of heart.  Erik Martinez, DVD Town
"The season's most original sitcom!  USA Today
"Offbeat and utterly charming.  Alessandra Stanley, The New York Times
"...a sweet, often very funny series that benefits from a terrific ensemble and solid writing.  CurrentFilm.com
"...one of the funniest series on TV and easily the most touching comedy...  Francis Rizzo, III, DVD Talk

Editor's Note NBC's enormously popular and critically acclaimed sitcom MY NAME IS EARL stars Jason Lee as a reformed criminal who sees the light when he loses a winning lottery ticket after getting hit by a car. He decides his bad luck can be chalked up to bad karma, and sets about making amends with everyone he has ever wronged. This very long list includes a former victim of Earl's schoolyard bullying, whom he helps to come out of the closet, and a one-legged girl from whom Earl once stole a car. Ethan Suplee (MALLRATS) plays Earl's slow but good-hearted brother and sidekick, Randy, and Jaime Pressly (NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE) plays Earl's ex-wife, Joy. Guest stars on the show include Beau Bridges as Earl's father, as well as Giovanni Ribisi (LOST IN TRANSLATION). Playing out like a small-screen version of a Coen brothers film, MY NAME IS EARL is funny, creative, clever, full of heart--and one of the best television series to come down the pike in quite a while. This collection presents the debut season in its entirety.

	Eddie Steeples
	Ethan Suplee
	Jaime Pressly
	Jason Lee
	Anthony Parillo - Art Director
	Danny Lux - Original Music By
	Eyal Gordin - Cinematographer
	Gregory Melton - Production Designer
	Gregory Thomas Garcia - Writer
	Jason Lee - Producer
	John Zachary - Art Director
	Lance Luckey - Editor
	Marc Buckland - Executive Producer
	Marc Buckland, et. al. - Director
	Mark Leggett - Original Music By
	Randy Ser - Production Designer
	Victor Hammer - Cinematographer
	William Marrinson - Editor

Entertainment Weekly
"Creator Greg Garcia's notion give unusual depth and elasticity to the storylines, and Lee's wonderfully loose performance is complemented by Ethan Suplee's inspired denseness as brother Randy..." -- Grade: A 09/15/2006 p.60

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[U]ndoubtedly one of the best shows on TV at the moment, thanks to its redneck wit, loveable-yet-frustrating slob characters and a genius premise..." 10/01/2006 p.128

Ultimate DVD
"A premise ripe with possibilities...It's always entertaining..." 08/01/2006 p.84

Uncut
5 stars out of 5 -- "[C]reator Greg Garcia has managed to create a show that, like its main character, opts for a likeable goofiness....Jason Lee and Ethan Suplee are superb..." 02/01/2008 p.113

Reel.com 9 of 10
NBC was so unsure of this show that they tested it five times with sample audiences. But you can't argue with karma...or a great sitcom concept. Along with Everybody Hates Chris, My Name is Earl was one of last fall's offerings to catch a pre-season wave of critical hype, and it just felt the love all year long. By the end of the first season, the show had won a People's Choice award for favorite new television comedy, a Director's Guild award for best direction, and Emmys for outstanding writing, direction, casting, and single-camera editing. If there were an award for best sitcom to have fun with redneck culture, Earl would have won that too, and faster than his friend's fiancee (and his ex-wife) could establish a gift registry at the local liquor store...The real surprise is that this show aired on network television rather than cable. It's off-color in a big, but entertaining way, and as Lee points out, plays a little like a feature film. - James Plath

Variety 8 of 10
Being funny is always a good place for a comedy to start, but when the title character is a crooked lowlife suddenly overwhelmed by the redemptive notion of karma, there's reason to fear that might not be enough. Blessed less with belly laughs than an amusingly wry tone, this single-camera half-hour disarmingly focuses on an underclass that seldom gets much attention in the neatly manicured world of primetime. Yet NBC has done this promising series no favors by asking it to be a self-starter, underscoring the deep state of disrepair into which the net's comedy footprint has fallen...In one of those life-changing moments that Earl takes as a sign from a higher power, he scratches a winning lottery ticket only to abruptly (and pretty hilariously, with "I'm a Loser" playing in the background) misplace it, which briefly lands him in the hospital...Watching TV in bed, NBC's own latenight guru, Carson Daly, introduces Earl to the meaning of karma, inspiring his self-appointed mission to do right by all those he wronged in the past as his "road map to a better life."...Of course, this do-gooding thing is new to Earl, and his first beneficiary, a schoolmate he tormented named Kenny (Gregg Binkley), isn't initially interested in any assistance -- especially when Earl decides the way to help is to find him a woman, which isn't the direction ol' Kenny swings...The show's demeanor, in fact, is essentially that of the Coen brothers' "Raising Arizona," which is to say more an arthouse snack than a full-blown meal. With NBC lacking a solid comedy foundation, the network can only hope that "Earl" and companion "The Office" prove an acquirable taste capable of building a loyal core following...Back when Grant Tinker took over a then-ailing NBC in the '80s, he famously told his lieutenants: "First be best. Then be first."..."My Name Is Earl" isn't the best comedy around, but it's pretty darn good. As for being first, well, it's probably going to be a while before that little bit of karma pays off. - Brian Lowry