My Name Is Earl : When did the show jump the shark?

When the show 1st came out it was the best thing on television. For those of you that love the show through thick and thin I don't mean to piss you off so please excuse and forgive me if I do. But I know that there are some of you that agree with me that the show became weak and jumped the shark. I feel that it was when Earl went to prison to protect Joy. When do you think it happen? When did the show jump the shark for you?

Being a die hard fan since 2005, it never jumped the shark to me.

I don't think the show ever fully jumped the shark, though I do think the quality went down midway through season 3 (when Earl got OUT of jail).

Watching the re-runs, I have to say that the coma/Billie storyline fell flat with me. I think the Alyssa Milano episodes were some of the least funny.

"Why would a banana grab another banana? Those are the kinds of questions I don't want to answer."

I have to agree bemorecynical2001.

totaly agree with this

They were curious to watch - the ?? whats her name eps Billy - not very funny. Even before that the jail ones were weird - even for this show.

Steven Wright: Right now, I'm having amnesia and deja vu - I think I forgot this before.

Not sure how you can say the show jumped the shark when the quality difference between the first and last season isn't THAT big of a drop-offIt's like a 9/10 to 7.5/10.

Season three was definitely the weakest - 6/10 - but I actually think the prison episodes are pretty great (apart from a few like Creative Writing) and a welcome change of the formula. In fact it was only after Earl got released that the season kinda took a nosedive into mediocrity, notably; Earls sitcom, unconscious Killerball, pretty much the whole Billie arc (season finale decent though). Still though a few great eps there with the motorcycle ep, and the one where they find that weed.

The show never again reached the level of it's first few seasons but it was a big step-up from season 3 with a welcome return of the list. So yeah it always remained watchable til it's end, and could still be quite goodit definitely did not jump the shark. And this is coming from only a mild fan of it.

I'm watching the show on Netflix now. While the coma storyline was pretty flat; I think the moment Billie chose Earl is when the show went too far. I'm on Camdenities Pt 1 now Alyssa plays her character well but I just don't like how silly their reunion was and how they totally flipped her character's personality around.

Edit: Well, I forgot about Dan Co-whatever-his-name-is. They should released a version with his scenes edited out.

Billie episodes Easily. I stopped caring for a while, they got better again afterwards But I'm not sure it 'jumped the shark', I know the witness relocation episodes and crab mans secret agentness were very stupid, but they kind of fitted I mean they were always setting crabman up to be something amazing!

When NBC canceled it in favor of "Parks and Recreation", which incidentally jumped the shark right out of the gate.

Wow hate empowered women much???

First off I liked My Name is Earl, I do think Parks and Recreation is bounds better and hasn't decreased in quality over the 7 years it's been on air versus MNIE declining very much in its 4 years. I also liked Raising Hope created by Greg Garcis (which again declined in value over 4 seasons)

Secondly, shame on you for shaming a working mother, how bout shaming Will Arnett who is one who actually filed from divorce from Amy. And Will also started seeing someone involved in his show "Up All Night." So they have both moved on in their work and love life and there is nothing wrong with it. I'm also sure Will is involved and help raises his son (any honorable man would)

Yes men do leave women for younger women, but even bigger shocker women can leave men for younger men. And "snarky" tina can joke about it all she wants about men leaving wives for younger women because it's just a joke, and her friend Amy isn't being hypocritical or whatever you are deducing because she jokes along with Tina.

CBS always does well in ratings versus NBC. Sadly many people watch crap television. Also I prefer quality over quantity of viewers. The Millers has been slammed by critics and been decreasing in viewership from the start. On the other hand, Parks and Recreation is seen as a critical success garnering multiple emmy and globe wins and nominations.

Lastly, 7 years is a great run for a television show and I don't see the Millers achieving that. Also most of Garcia's show don't make it past a 4th season, with the exception of "Yes, Dear". So I don't see where the unnecessary bashing of Amy Poehler and her wonderful show came from. And who knows maybe Community (another failed in ratings but critical success show) is what replaced My Name is Earl. And honestly is more likely that case.


I normally hate responding to stupid post like yours, but for some reasons your really ticked me off.

P&R was good for season 2, and that was about it. I thought I would like season 4, but I just couldn't finish it. There were too many useless characters, and they weighed the show down. I'm glad that Amy Poehler is a Democrat, but that doesn't make the way that Jerry's character was mentally abused any funnier. Neither does the fact that Jim O'Heir enjoyed it. Tom was a superficial jerk. Andy was a moron. April was a brat.

Ron was the only character worth watching. And maybe, given the way MNIE ended, P&R deserves some credit for the fact that every season finale "could have served as a series finale." But, can you honestly say that you prefer a show (P&R) that tells us that people in small towns are stupid over a show (MNIE) that told us that all people, specifically those in small towns, deserve respect?

It is unfortunate that Amy Poehler's most honored work (P&R, "Inside Out") involves her being a bully. Is that what you mean by "empowered"? She bullied Jerry, but she didn't seem so "empowered" when she was dealing with anyone else, did she? Was she "empowered" when she dealt with April? With Ron? With Tom? With Andy? With the towns' people? No, it seemed limited to Jerry. Ditto with Tina Fey's Liz Lemon and Don Lutz. In Poehler's defense, the climax of "Inside Out" did occur when her character realized that the character that she was bullying actually had some worth after all, but I don't think that Poehler had anything to do with the writing of that film.

Community had a good twist in the season 1 finale w Jeff + Annie, but they couldn't decide what to do with it. They tried backing over it, but then they went back to it in the alternate timeline episode. Then, they went back to that one. And they did a bunch of parodies. Hey, look, it's "The Muppets". "GI JOE". "Goodfellas". And, I've forgotten the rest. Oh, yeah, they were also "empowered" when they were bullying "Pierce". But they didn't seem so "empowered" with Abed. It's hard to call that "quality".

There are three indications that your show has "jumped the shark". One is when your show does a fantasy episode. Another is when you have unneccessary guest stars that are there for no other reason than to be a guest star. And the third is when someone goes into a coma. "My Name Is Earl" hit all three in one episode.

Damn, you hit it right on the money. You are sooooo right.

i cant believe there only ended up being 4 seasonswhat a tradgedy

Bingo.

Well, technically I would say that given your list, there are 4.
The last one being when Fonzie actually jumps a shark, while on water skies, wearing a leather jacket.
This show may not be as good as the first season - but 'jumping the shark' shouldn't be used lightly & I don't think this show is there, quite yet ;-)

Thank God they didn't replace Ethan Suplee with Ted McGinley http://www.tvguide.com/keywords/jts-ted-mcginley

Don't forget "when an episode does a musical, or goes to Hawaii or Europe." Another killer is when two people who are antagonists/love interest (like Sam and Diane) get married.

I concur, the show really took a nosedive with these 3 (coma,fantasy,Billie). There are several great shows after this period but they are the ones when they fall back to the list items. I love the show but hate them for ending on a cliff hanger .

The season in prison finished it for me. I stopped watching or taping long before he got out. It put the show in a straight-jacket.

That is precisely when I quit watching tooit was truly just "cr*p" at that point, however, one of our local stations is rerunning all the episodes and now that my kids are old enough to watch, we laugh hysterically every night at "Poor Stupid Randy" as they have affectionately dubbed him.

Earl in prison

I think it jumped the shark the day NBC signed the rights to air it. It had pretty high ratings for a night that competed with another network who had that night dominated with CSI and what not. I'm bitter at the cancellation because they were so quick to cancel it as soon as they tested 'the office'..oh I'm sorry it's 'parks and recreation' in Earls timeslot. It's the same exact type of format as the office, except instead of a dunder mifflin, it's the parks and recreation office. Anyways, that show is heading to the dumpster soon, so we'll see what NBC decides to air in the slot. Maybe they'll get Earl back on, as FX tried to do. But they've already lost the hot maid to some weird show on FX already. Fantasy something Anyways, Earl was a good comedy show. A natural type of comedy show we don't see a lot of anymore.

As much as I loved the show, when Earl went into the coma and that stupid sitcom dream sent the show over the shark tank. What was the point of just having Paris Hilton stand around and say "That's hot." for her entire appearance? On top of it, they added a laugh track for that storyline. Something the real show didn't need at all.



s to the left of me.
s to the right.
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you!

They had paris hilton saying that the entire time just to make fun of her being an air headed bimbo, which I have no problem with

It seemed the whole coma dream was making fun of sitcoms. See Paris Hilton/catchphrases, and the little boy who lived with them when their old children stopped being cute.
But considering another post about the three signs, I wonder if the coma arc was parodying jumping the shark.

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On top of it, they added a laugh track for that storyline.

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But that was part of the comedy. They were making fun of shows with laugh tracks. That's why the laugh track came on when there wasn't even a good joke, and why there were "Aaaaahs!" at the stupidiest things.


Saulisa

Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

when they did those cops episodes and when he was in the coma

I disagree with the Cops episodes, I thought the Cops episodes were the best (even the one in season 3), I think the last part of season 3 is where they lost it, season 4 I liked (plus like Crabmans little story)

My Name Is Earl & Scrubs are the 2 best shows on TV!!!

I'm currently re-watching season 3.. which I can't remember very well.. I did think season 4 felt more like a return to form though. I am watching right now "Our OTHER Cops is on.." But where it really fell FLAT to me was the Earl in a coma episode arc. Even the prison one was ok.. although it did feel a bit "off".

I agree with many on here, It jumped the shark with the coma episodes. And I also agree that it looked like it was intentional. I was even waiting for Ted McGinley to show up somewhere.

Crab man being a secret agent is also in the running for the shark jump, but not as bad as the coma.

Too bad though, it was a great show.

I agree, the show went downhill when he went to prison. It was great up until that point. It just got to be stupid.

Billie really done it for me, alyssa millano's wooden ass acting paired with the lack of the list really sucked, infact i probably would have quit watching (or downloading) alltoghther if not for Frank (billie's former boyfriend) as he was 90% of the funny's in those episodes

I'll only pay for a movie if its good.

I loved the first season, liked the second season, but I stopped midway through the third season because of all the 'Cops' episodes.

I got bored of the show when Earl went to prison, because I liked the list aspect of the show and it seemed like it was a subplot to just make the series last longer (because he can't get through much of the list while in prison).

Mr Flibble's very cross.

I'd say, much like a previous poster, that it got worse after he got OUT of prison. The coma was a terrible, terrible idea and went on for way too long as well. Though, to it's credit, No Heads and a Duffel Bag was my favorite episode of the entire series.

Still, the whole coma business as well as Billie being in the show at all really made it stale, especially when both of these two terrible ideas overlapped with eachother.

Well Season 1 was great Season 2 as well it was Season 3 and the Prison storyline that i didn't like to much, you could say it jumped the shark there for me.. though i have to say it wasn't that bad, just not the direction i wanted My name is Earl to go then the koma was also not up to season 1 and 2 standards looking back, it was good they mixed everything up a little, but i have to say i still enjoyed Season 1 and 2 more Now Season 4, i haven't seen much of it, i'm at episode 8 right now, but so far, great season back to Season 1 and 2 style

I didn't mind the prison arc. I like Craig T Nelson, so I actually enjoyed it a little.

The coma stuff was unbearable, but I still started watching it again when he got out of it.

What killed the show for me was when the characters started changing for the worse. It turned from a light-hearted fun show to people just becoming bad, mean people for no reason (aside from Joy, because she's always like that).

I'd say what officially killed it for me was the Pinky episode.

For me, season 1 had a magic to it that 2, 3 and 4 just didn't manage to capture. I was dreading the Earl Gets Banged Up season, but it turned out to be all right, except for the Creative Writing episode, which was probably the worst ever.

Plus, they should've used Ralph more. Setting him up as Earl's cell mate at the end of season 2, then immediately telling us he's escaped at the start of season 3? I would've stoned the producers if I was in range. Not to mention that whole, er "him off Kids" thing. I forget his name. I want to say Sonny for some reason.

i dont think it ever jumped the shark the reason they done those eps was bcoz they wanted to change it around abit and not do the same things pretty much all the time i reackon the coma eps were sometimes funny u could see they were taking the piss out of other sitcoms the only thing wrong with it though prob went on for 1 or 2 eps to long.

its honestly ppl like u who think the show jumped the shark and the only reason it got cut is coz of dicks like u guys who stopped watching the show but once its off the air and might not be coming back on u are on her cracking the *beep* coz it got the axe

get a clue and watch it from start to finish and stop ur crying it must of been a top show if it went on for 4 seasons and all these other ppl like myself want the show back on asap

watch the show or SHUT UP and dnt come on here and bag it

Meow

Damn harro, calm down. It's just a T.V. show. You've really gotta get out of the house and get a life. There is a lot more to life then building your whole world around some fictitious images on a television screen. Dude you seriously need a girlfriend.