  Jason Lee stars in "My Name Is Earl" premiering tonight on NBC. |
Tonight marks the debut of my pick as the funniest new show of the year: My Name Is Earl (9 p.m. on NBC and CH).
Jason Lee (Almost Famous) stars as the kind of shaggy-haired, low-life weasel people go to any length to avoid being in the same Quick-E-Mart with (as a family does at the start of tonight's funny debut).
Then one day, Earl buys a lottery ticket and wins an instant $100,000. He dances for joy in the street and is immediately smacked by a car.
While in hospital, he catches talk show host Carson Daly saying he owes all his success to "good karma."
Earl decides then and there to track down all the people he's been a jerk to and make it up to them.
That, in a nutshell, is the premise of this series. Ethan Suplee (as Earl's couch-slob brother) and Jaime Pressly (as his trashy ex-wife) co-star.
The pilot stood out from the other run-of-the-mill sitcom pilots sent to critics this summer. There was a certain Trailer Park Boys charm to it, reminding many critics of the early Coen Brothers comedy Raising Arizona. It felt like a smart little indie film, with perfectly disheveled Lee exactly right as the star/narrator.
Still, the show didn't exactly kill in the all-important annual OPS (Oliphant Pilot Screenings -- basically where I show pilots to buddies up at the cottage). So the concerns are:
This is one of those shows, like NBC's version of The Office (returning tonight at 9:30 on NBC), that critics like more than most viewers. Why? Because it's different; we burn out fast on the usual Friends clones).
This is one of those "too different" network comedies, like Curb Your Enthusiasm or Arrested Development, that really belongs on HBO or TMN.
This is a one-shot idea that would have worked better as a TV-movie or feature.
In any event, Earl will need all the karma he can get to stay alive during one of TV's busiest nights. Tonight, the big ratings competition will come from ABC's Dancing With The Stars: Dance Off (8:30 p.m., CTV and ABC). This 90-minute special is a cheesy way for ABC to cash in on the outrage over last July's finale when General Hospital sex kitten Kelly Monaco robbed former Seinfeld player John O'Hurley.
Dance was the only reality hit this summer, stealing close to 25 million U.S. viewers for the July finale. The two "stars" will dance again, with viewers deciding (again) who is the better hoofer (the results show airs Thursday at 9 p.m. on ABC).
Beyond that, Earl will regularly square off against red hot House (more than 1.5 million Global viewers caught last week's second season debut), the new sci-fi buddy series Supernatural (CITY-TV and WB) and -- gulp -- The Amazing Race (returning a week from tonight on ABC and CTV). Good luck, Earl.
ALSO TONIGHT: It's our final chance to cheer on Canadian contestant J.D. Fortune, one of the three finalists on Rock Star: INXS (10 p.m. on CH and CBS). The new lead singer will be chosen tonight (although the older Australian singer, Mig, seems to have a lock on it. Oy!).
CBC RUMOR MILL: Anybody remember the CBC? The pooched public network slides further into the history books as the lockout of its 5,500 guild employees extends into Week Six. Shows like Rick Mercer's Report, originally scheduled to launch any day now, need a month just to get up to speed. Launching into the teeth of the U.S.-driven November sweeps would be suicide.
Word on the street is that the CBC season won't likely start until January at the earliest -- right before The Olympic interruption in February. Look for your billion-dollar appropriation rebate in the mail.
