Jason Lee, star of My Name is Earl, also has another career apart from television: crapping all over my childhood memories. Lee will not only provide the voice of Underdog in the upcoming live-action feature based on the beloved children's cartoon, but has also joined the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie as Dave Seville, the human "father" to Alvin, Simon and Theodore (the Chipmunks will be computer generated). Seville was the stage name of songwriter and performer Ross Bagdasarian, who first used the sped-up voice technique on his song "The Witch Doctor" and later used the same technique for his Chipmunk records.

The film is being produced by Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. and his wife Janice Karman. Tim Hill, director of the second Garfield feature film, will direct.

[via Toon Zone]

I managed to get a copy of the first three episodes of the new season of My Name Is Earl yesterday, and I watched the first episode "Very Bad Things" last night. After a successful first season and a summer of wondering how the show will evolve, I, at the very least, got a chance to get some perspective on how things will go.

I'm not sure I like this news. The television reporter at the Washington Post is reporting that every episode of My Name is Earl will not be about checking something off his list. According to Lisa de Moraes, the writers/creators felt confined by the format and only stuck with it to see if they could get through the first season (and be renewed). Apparently, some episodes will have nothing to do with the list. The Post reporter doesn't say what the other episodes will be about. The writing on the show is definitely hilarious but I kind of liked the gimmick of Earl having to cross something off his list each week. Although, I can see how that would get old after a few seasons. Guess we'll have to see what they come up with. See how I talked myself off the edge?

How do you feel about this change?

Yes, My Name is Earl is getting its own comic book. Oni Press announced it yesterday ahead of Comic-Con. Earl staff writer and script coordinator Hunter Covington is taking on the project. Oni says he's a comics fanatic and he also wrote possibly the best episode last year, The Bountyhunter, starring Juliette Lewis.

So, comic book fans... would you buy a comic of Earl working to cross other things off his list?

[Via TV Tattle]

The news about September TV on DVD releases just keeps coming! This time it's the first season of My Name Is Earl, but wait til you hear about the extras.

This is going to be a 4 DVD superset, and extras will include not only the usual commentaries, deleted scenes, featurettes, and gag reel, but also the never used alternate pilot episode, where Earl was changed not by watching Carson Daly on TV, but by watching Stewie from Family Guy. It was supposed to be sort of a crossover ep, but they went with Daly instead.

That should be pretty cool, as will guest commentaries from Jon Favreau and Juliette Lewis.

OK, you owners of the Video Tape Recorder, I'm putting you on alert. NBC is 'super-sizing' some of its Thursday night shows during May sweeps. This, of course, will be putting your VCRs into a state of apoplexy.

On May 11th Will & Grace and the season finales of My Name is Earl and The Office will expand to 40-minutes apiece in a ratings-grabbing scheme that hasn't been seen on Thursday nights since Friends was on the air. The belief is, by adding an additional ten minutes to each show, viewers are less likely to surf to other networks.

This will be the next-to-last episode of Will & Grace and will feature a bit of baby drama for the two main characters. On Earl, the main character (Jason Lee) will encounter some problems as he tries to cross off the number one item on the list. The finale of The Office, written by star Steve Carell, will feature a charity casino night.

In a related story, ER will be ten minutes shorter that evening to see if anyone really notices. Heh. Heh.

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."