Overview
Creator, Greg Garcia wrote the pilot while working on another sitcom, Yes, Dear. He initially pitched the series to Fox, which passed on the series. He then approached NBC which optioned the pilot on a cast-contingent basis, meaning they would order the pilot provided a suitable cast could be assembled.
The pilot episode featured the songs "It Takes Two" by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock, "99 Luftballons" by Nena, "Been Caught Stealing" by Jane's Addiction, as well as "Do The Monkey" by The Wiggles.
Jason Lee was approached for the lead role, but was uninterested in working in television and passed on the series twice before finally agreeing to read the pilot script. Though he liked the pilot, he was hesitant to commit until after meeting with Garcia.

Conception
The series premiere on September 20, 2005, drew in 15.2 million viewers in the United States, earning a 6.6 rating. By the airing of the third episode it was apparent that My Name Is Earl was the most popular of NBC's new fall offerings, and a full season (22 episodes) was ordered. In its first month, it was also the most popular new sitcom of the season to air on any network and was the most popular sitcom on any network in the coveted 18–49-year-old demographic. The show was renewed for a second season, which although has seen a dip in average viewers (around 10 million or so in Season 2 compared to 12 million for Season 1) is still a critics' juggernaut and has recently been renewed for another season.
Season 1 #40 (10.9) Tuesdays at 9:00 (September-December 2005) Thursdays at 9:00 (January-May 2006)
Season 2 #58 (8.9) Thursdays at 8:00

Ratings

Characters

Earl J. Hickey (Jason Lee) — The protagonist and narrator of the show. In flashbacks, we see Earl before he began reforming himself: a jobless ne'er-do-well with no respect for authority or just about anyone. Self-described as the guy who would've stolen anything that wasn't nailed down, Earl now stands by the principle of good karma by doing good things and avoiding bad ones. He was supposed to be named after his father, Carl, but an extra loop on a cursive "C" was Earl's first step into a life of misfortune. Earl has never had a photograph taken without blinking at the wrong moment, something regularly demonstrated throughout the show.
Randy Hickey (Ethan Suplee) — Earl's dim-witted brother who assists Earl with righting his wrongs. He initially assumed he and Earl would resume stealing once Earl completed his list. Despite his poor intellect, he often says profound things and has proven to be extremely helpful to Earl in his missions, though he is sometimes resentful when Earl's list forces him to make sacrifices. He has a boyishly innocent nature. He has a schoolboy crush on Catalina. It is also revealed that he has an extreme fear of birds; he is afraid of the pope's mitre because he thinks there might be a chicken under it. He mistakenly believes that ET is not an alien, but a monkey. Squeaky noises make his toes hurt. He hates cats and is allergic to them. He holds the Camden County record for staring at the sun.
Joy Turner (née Darville, previously Hickey) (Jaime Pressly) — Earl's ex-wife, Darnell's current wife, and mother of Dodge and Earl Jr., neither of whom are Earl's biological children. She operates a nail parlor in her home. Though she puts on a front of self-centeredness, she fully appreciates the people around her, even Earl, and has been found to be a dedicated, loving mom. She is also a very good fighter, a fact she puts down to "watchin' a lot of Springer" — when she was pregnant with Dodge, Joy knocked Earl's girlfriend Jessie (and her front teeth) out.
Catalina Aruca Hickey (Nadine Velazquez) — A maid at the motel where Earl and Randy currently reside. She is an illegal immigrant who entered the United States on January 1, 2000 (just as Earl and the gang assumed they were the last humans alive). She learned English a year ago. She worked for a month as a pole dancer at Club Chubby and was very successful at it because instead of dancing, she jumped. She has a fear of snakes and rape. Her mother is dead but Catalina tells others not to feel sad, as "It's OK, it was either her or me." She also says her brother killed her father, her father was shot down and her cousins were slain execution style in the Festival of Redemption. She and Joy have a mutual hatred stemming back from when they first met. (The first thing Joy ever said to Catalina was "who's the whore?"). During Season 2, Catalina went back to stripping in order to help Earl, although she had to help Joy along the way. She seems to be very fond of Earl, even hitting on him when they first met. Earl appreciated but rejected the pass because Randy called "dibs." Her last name, Aruca, hasn't been mentioned on the show but was revealed in a newspaper article in Bad Karma. She recently married Randy to get back to America after being deported. While she originally found Randy to be unattractive, she later became infatuated with him after they had fantastic sex, and, in somewhat of a role-reversal, Randy now reffers to them being together as just "a greencard marriage".
Darnell "Crab Man" Turner (Eddie Steeples) — Joy's new husband and father of Earl Jr. Despite this, he and Earl are good friends (although they rarely do anything together, they greet each other every episode with the famous lines: "Hey, Earl!" ... "Hey, Crabman!"). Darnell works as a cook at the local Crab Shack (hence his nickname). It was revealed that his real name is "Harry Monroe," (a reference to Richard Pryor's character in Stir Crazy who is also named Harry Munroe) but he was forced to change it through the Witness Protection Program. Although generally calm and soft-spoken, Darnell is implied to be very intelligent (graduated college at age 14) and occasionally makes highly intellectual statements, which the others usually ignore or brush off. He has a fondness for cheese and a pet box turtle named Mr. Turtle. Before marrying Joy and moving to the trailer park, he lived in Camden with his grandmother, where he grew a large amount of marijuana in his bedroom; his grandmother didn't know what the plants were and simply thought he enjoyed gardening. Main characters

Main article: List of minor characters on My Name Is Earl Recurring characters
For a complete version of The List, see Earl's list
While hospitalized and under the influence of morphine, Earl hears Carson Daly talk about karma on TV and comes to the conclusion that his bad luck has been caused by his lifestyle. (It is typical of Earl that he believes Carson Daly invented the concept of karma.) He decides to make a list of everything bad he has ever done, with the intention of making up for all of his mistakes and crossing the items off the list as he goes.
Earl's first good deed, picking up garbage, leads to him finding his lost winning lottery ticket.
Karma is a recurring theme throughout the show, and its effects are shown not just on Earl, but also on other characters, such as Earl's ex-con friend Ralph, who ends up wanted by the police again after refusing Earl's offer to help him change his ways and trying to steal Earl's money.
In some instances, Karma exists not only as a theme, but also a character that dictates Earl's actions. Earl will occasionally address Karma directly as if it were a deity or an otherwise omniscient and powerful being, and will (almost) always yield to whatever he perceives as its will. Earl proclaims in one episode, "I am Karma's bitch." The List is portrayed as the physical manifestation of Karma. Karma is also portrayed in the final episode of the first season as the old woman who ran Earl over in the first episode ("I saw Lady Karma again")
Earl's behavior raises an interesting question of morality: Is he motivated only by his desire to gain good 'karma', thus acting only in his own self-interest, or is he truly sorry for everything he has done, and has turned his life around? The show is somewhat ambiguous on this matter, with different episodes suggesting different answers, and some implying that it could be both. For example, in episode 1.04 Earl intends to confess to his ex-girlfriend that he faked his death to get away from her because she was too clingy. When Catalina points out that this will hurt her feelings and asks him what's more important, his list or someone's feelings, Earl responds, "I dunno. My list?" On the other hand, Earl shows true empathy in episode 2.02 when Joy is arrested. He eventually passes out from worrying about Joy. When he asks Catalina why that happened, she responds, "Because you're a good person, Earl."
In a number of episodes, Earl will not cross something off if he isn't sure that he has solved all the problems that his actions caused. For example, in episode 1.15, Earl states that while he has crossed someone off his list, when he discovers that the person is going to kill himself, that he can't not help him. Earl even says that the list is making him feel things he didn't feel before. It's been suggested that while Earl may have started the list for his own ends, he has eventually come to genuinely care about righting many of the wrongs in his life.

The List
The state in which the show takes place is never mentioned, but according to the creator, Gregory Thomas Garcia, the show takes place in the fictional town of Camden County (not to be confused with the actual Camden Counties in New Jersey, Missouri, Georgia, and North Carolina). Creator Garcia said that the town is named after his son.
The references to Maryland locations (such as Hagerstown, Cumberland, Shady Grove, and Frostburg State University) are due to his familiarity with an area he hails from and that "the show doesn't technically take place anywhere ... we like to think it's anywhere. We don't really say exactly where it is." The pilot episode showed that Earl and Joy drove from Camden County to Las Vegas, Nevada within a single night, suggesting a location in the American Southwest.
The street scenes seen in most episodes are shot on Woodley Avenue in Van Nuys, CA, next to the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area. Joy's wedding and the Win a Dodge Neon contest ("White Lie Christmas") take place at the Recreation Area. The exterior hotel shots are filmed at the Palm Tree Inn in North Hills, California. And the set for the trailer park where Joy and Darnell live is situated in a vacant lot on Louse Ave. and Roscoe next to a church in Van Nuys, California. The church itself appeared in an episode as the orphanage Joy visits in "Broke Joy's Fancy Figurine" (1.6). The scenes involving the ransom drop in the episode "Buried Treasure" were filmed on High Street in Moorpark, California. The exterior of the convenience store where Earl bought the lottery ticket and the street where he was hit by the car in the first episode (with the car wash in the background) are in Beaumont, CA.

Setting and shooting locations

Main article: List of My Name Is Earl episodes Episodes
Season Releases
Season 1 DVD Set
The season one "mini-episode", titled Bad Karma, is an alternate version of the events of the pilot episode featuring what would have happened if, instead of seeing Carson Daly talking about karma while in the hospital, Earl saw Stewie Griffin of Family Guy talking about vengeance.
The season one DVD set also came in two "special" versions only available at certain stores:
Season 2 DVD Set

At Best Buy locations the set came wrapped in a cosy replica of Earl's flannel shirt and contained a limited-edition bonus CD with three songs, including the show's theme song. There were at least two variations of the material used for this flannel replica as well as two types of buttons. Pictures of these bonus items can be seen here.
The DVD set at Target stores featured a limited-edition bonus DVD with extra bloopers and other bonus features.
A limited edition Season 2 DVD set at Target and Best Buy contain a scratch and sniff card for use with the viewing of the "Get a Real Job" episode. DVD releases
The show is unusual among sitcoms not only for its lack of a laugh track, but also for its soundtrack. The music on the show includes bands as widely varied as Queen, Rush, Metallica, Thin Lizzy, The Band, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blue Öyster Cult, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Buckethead, The Who, Lynyrd Skynyrd, MC Young, Jerry Reed, The Steepwater Band, Nick Drake, Eric Clapton, Guns N' Roses, Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, The Cardigans, Nancy Sinatra, Cyndi Lauper, AC/DC, Jet, Cat Stevens, Ted Nugent, Santana, The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils,The Doors, The Wiggles, Dire Straits, Canned Heat, Bob Marley, ELO, Joni Mitchell, Los Lobos, Social Distortion,The Ramones, Jet and Beastie Boys, as well as a blues underscore by composers Mark Leggett and Danny Lux. A lot of the soundtrack was replaced with generic background music in the DVD, likely for copyright reasons. A often featured song in the series is Hair of the Dog by Nazareth.

Soundtrack
Jason Lee and Ethan Suplee both got their start and co-starred in four Kevin Smith films: Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma and Clerks II. My Name Is Earl has contained several references to the "View Askewniverse" (the universe in which most of Smith's films take place):

Earl claimed to have robbed a "Quick Stop" - a convenience store which was the main location of Smith's films Clerks and the sequel Clerks 2. Lee and Suplee both had appearances in Clerks 2.
Whenever Earl wakes up Randy, the first thing that Randy says in his half-awakeness is "poopie trim" — in Mallrats, when Ethan Suplee's character, Willam Black, is interrupted from trying to see the hidden image in a Magic Eye, he says, "poopie trim." The same is uttered by Chris Rock when he is asleep on the train in Dogma.
When Randy first takes the GED, he fills in the bubbles to make a picture of a sailboat. The hidden image of the Magic Eye picture he was trying to see in Mallrats was of a sailboat.
In "O Karma, Where Art Thou?" Earl refers to a roll of toilet paper as "the soft stuff", which is one of the old mans requests before he enters the bathroom in "Clerks".
In "White Lie Christmas," Randy says that his favorite-ever Christmas present was "Weeble-wobbles." Weebles were the gift that Randal asked for when Santa was demonstrating his toy making machine located in the Apartment beside the video store in "Clerks: The Holiday Special" comic book. Kevin Smith connections and allusions

Easter eggs
During its first season, My Name Is Earl was aired in HD, where fourth-wall breaking signs were seen, out of frame in standard-definition. The second season was broadcast in letterbox format on standard-definition channels, so further widescreen gags are unlikely. These signs were also fully visible on the DVD set.

In "Randy's Touchdown" (1.3), when Earl is in the copy store, Randy is in the background holding a handwritten sign that reads "High Def Rocks." The sign can only be seen when the show is viewed in 16x9 widescreen associated with high definition digital broadcasts.
Another sign legible only in widescreen reading "Carl Hickey loves High Def" can be seen among the campaign materials in "Cost Dad an Election" (1.9). However, the sign is still only half visible in widescreen.
In "Something to Live For" (1.15), when Earl brings Philo to the Crab Shack to see Joy, the beer spigot (out of frame in 4:3) says "HD Draft". Spanish language easter eggs

Nominated for 2006 Golden Globe for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy.
Jason Lee nominated for 2006 Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy.
Jason Lee nominated for 2005/06 Screen Actors Guild award for best actor in a comedy series.
Cast nominated for 2005/06 Screen Actors Guild award for best ensemble in a comedy series.
Jaime Pressly nominated for a 2005/06 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
Marc Buckland won the 2005/06 Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series (episode: Pilot).
Gregory Thomas Garcia won the 2005/06 Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series (episode: Pilot).
Jason Lee nominated for 2007 Kid's Choice Award for Best Actor.
Nominated for 2007 BAFTA TV Awards for International Programme of the Year [3].
Jaime Pressly won the 2006/2007 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.