greg garcia

NBC's press tour day continued with a panel on Sunday Night Football.

When it concluded, panelists including Tiki Barber, John Madden and Al Michaels tossed out signed footballs to 10 or so lucky members of the press. Score! I caught the ball thrown to me by 2006 Super Bowl champion Jerome Bettis, formerly of The Pittsburgh Steelers, now an NBC sports analyst.

In my dreams. It actually sailed over my head to a journalist behind me. "Fumble," he said as he scooped it up.

Sometimes press tour swag can be elusive.

Have you heard of Twitter? All the techies are doing it. It's a cell phone or IM tool that allows you to update your friends on what you are doing. It's basically text messaging a whole bunch of people at the same time. The idea is to send out a line or two about what you're up to.

One of the writers on My Name is Earl is a friend of the Twitter creators and so he's incorporating the technology into tonight's show. During the west coast feed (woo! West Coast!), writer Mike Pennie will send 'extras' to accompany the show. Think of it as real simple DVD extras but in real-time on your cell phone. That means you're going to have to watch Earl live tonight from beginning to end if you want the messages to make any sense.

To get messages from Mike Pennie during Earl, join his network here. (By the way, his latest message says they're working on an upcoming script for Norm MacDonald to appear on Earl)

Remember that shout-out to Television Without Pity on last week's My Name is Earl? It's been in the works for a very long time. In fact, it looks like the character on Earl was created first on TWoP. This blogger figured out how the writers did it. Here's how it went down: In 2005, someone registered on TWoP forums with the screen name of "Whojackie". That person posted about 15 times before last week's episode aired. Then, on January 17th, one day before the episode aired, someone named "Bramlet06" posts how he/she wishes Earl would give winks to the audience more. "Whojackie" chimes in, noting that he tends to read out loud as he's posting. Then he goes off on television writers who try cheap gags and says, "No, I don't think shows should do more meta that cater to the online bloggers and I'm sure everyong at Television Without Pity agrees with me." If that line sounds familiar, it's because the character, Dead Josh, said it during a flashback on Earl as he typed on his computer. Two days later, posts from Joy and Crabman show up on TWoP notifying people of "Whojackie's" death.

I've gotta say that I like how Greg Garcia and company did this. They didn't monopolize the forum, but they just used it once to coincide with a show where they were giving the website a shout-out.

One of the perks of having a top twenty show is that it often gets you a deal to make another show. Such is the case for Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn, creators of Two and a Half Men. CBS is looking at an untitled comedy from the pair starring Allison Janney (West Wing), who has a talent holding deal with the network. There are no details on the show yet, but given the creators and the involvement of Janney, I'd give it a better than average shot at moving forward.

In other comedy news at the Tiffany Network, they have ordered a pilot for a show called Fugly. Written by My Name Is Earl creator Greg Garcia, the show tells the story of three not so attractive sisters who pool their money to get one of them an extreme makeover. The plan is for the three of them to then take advantage of the sister's good looks. It's an interesting premise, and I think Garcia could do a lot with it, but I suspect a name change is coming if the show actually makes it to air. I can't see the management mucky mucks at CBS actually putting a show called Fugly on their schedule.

[ via cynopsis ]

When I posted the question about why the word "Amish" was bleeped from last night's My Name Is Earl, series creator Greg Garcia responded in the comments that the bleeping was his choice. After we got that comment here at TV Squad HQ (think of it as the old Letterman home office... its location changes at our whim), I called Greg's office to see if I could get more details. Here is his response:

Joel Keller: So, you were the one who decided to bleep out the word "Amish" from last night's episode?

Greg Garcia: Yeah. I mean it was pointed out to me, but not like in a... we shot that so long ago, um... It was pointed out to me; somebody was watching whatever finalization they do at NBC, and they were like, "Hey, do you remember that this (line) was the Amish thing?" And I was like, "Yeah, ooh... I don't want to start the episode out like that." I mean, it wasn't like we were making fun of the Amish.

Ethan Suplee (pronounced soo-PLEE) plays lovable Randy Hickey on the NBC hit comedy, My Name is Earl. He has a long list of movie roles, including three Kevin Smith movies and a cameo in the upcoming Clerks II, roles in American History X, Without a Paddle, Cold Mountain, Butterfly Effect and the newly released Art School Confidential. Ahead of tonight's season finale, Ethan took some time to talk to me about the first season of Earl, antics on the set, and about a certain cat he let out of the bag regarding an extra episode on the upcoming Earl DVD.

Network executives amaze me. It's a wonder that they can tie their shoes in the morning, much less put together a seven-day-a-week schedule that contains a passable amount of quality shows. Not only do they cancel shows before they have a chance to develop (ask any fan of My So-Called Life), but they turn down shows that end up being hits elsewhere. Big hits. Seinfeldian hits.

Think I'm exaggerating? Read this New York Times story. According to Greg Garcia, the creator of the hit My Name Is Earl, the show got rejected by all the networks before NBC came back to it in a fit of desperation last year. Some of the executive's comments about the show were priceless. "Too downmarket," said Fox (the same network that promoed that screaming 300-pound Jesus freak on Trading Spouses for an entire month). NBC said it was "outside their brand," whatever the hell that means (apparently people eating horse rectum on Fear Factor is considered "inside their brand"). Even after securing Jason Lee and making a pilot, an NBC exec said "it just isn't funny" (but Joey was freakin' hilarious, right?).

Granted, Earl's a quirky show. But given the lack of anything creative on network TV these days, I'm surprised an executive didn't jump at the chance to air a quirky -- and mostly clean -- comedy that was a little different. But I guess that's why I'm a blogger and not a network executive. I'm just too damn creative.

He has the pox! Production for My Name is Earl was halted over the weekend because Jason Lee has red, itchy spots all over his body. So far, no one else in the cast or on the production crew has chicken pox. NBC says Jason is pretty miserable and highly contagious, so he'll be out of commission for several weeks.

Of course, show creator Greg Garcia had a great comment about Jason's misery. He said, "I saw him shake Charlie Sheen's hand at the Golden Globes, and the next morning he woke up with bumps all over him."

Anyone with an eye for detail knows that the Internet Movie Database isn't always accurate in its bio or trivia sections. This isn't so much the fault of the site as it the fault of people who submit information, but in the case of My Name is Earl creator Gregory Thomas Garcia, he has only himself to blame. It seems that Garcia actually submitted some information about himself for his IMDb page which stated he was the grandson of Cantinflas, a Mexican comedian who passed away over ten years ago. The thing is, it's not true. Garcia was just having a bit of fun, but that little tidbit has made it's way into a few news stories about him. I've always found the truth to be overrated, anyway.

[via TV Barn]