Earl Hickey, Meet Stewie Griffin
LOS ANGELES -- Imagine for a moment a TV world in which Earl Hickey, after winning his $100,000 and getting run over by a car, doesn't see Carson Daly talking about karma from his hospital bed.
Imagine, instead, that he instead took a life lesson from ... Stewie Griffin.
Or, save yourself some imaginative effort and just wait until the first season of "My Name Is Earl" is released on DVD sometime later this year. Because then you'll find out.
Greg Garcia, creator of the hit NBC comedy, unveiled plans for the show's first-season DVD set Tuesday night (March 7) to the audience at the Museum of Television & Radio's annual Paley Festival. He says it should be released before the show's second season begins in the fall, and it will contain a fair number of bells and whistles including commentary tracks and selections from "hours and hours" of gag-reel footage cast and crew have accumulated this year.
"We're actually doing 15-minute mini-episode [that asks] what if Earl [Jason Lee] passed by Carson Daly and landed on Stewie from 'Family Guy,'" Garcia says. Garcia is a former producer on "Family Guy," and both it and "Earl" are produced by 20th Century Fox TV.
Lee and Garcia also discussed the origins of television's most famous facial hair since the heyday of "Magnum, P.I." Garcia says that NBC initially was hesitant about having a mustachioed Earl, "but Jason said, 'Trust me, I look funny with facial hair.'"
The network did, however, convince Lee to trim the 'stache back a little bit. "I originally went for a fu manchu, but NBC said no. I guess it made me look a little bit too trashy," he says. "So we sort of shaved off the chu and left the fu man."
"My Name Is Earl" is in the homestretch of production for this season, with three episodes and part of a fourth left to shoot. Garcia says in the season finale, we'll find out the No. 1 item on Earl's karmic to-do list, which was the misdeed he performed just before he won the lottery.
Other upcoming episodes include two that were screened for the audience Tuesday: one in which Earl and Randy (Ethan Suplee) try to make up for all the bad Mother's Days they've given their mom (Nancy Linehan and Beau Bridges reprise their roles as Earl's parents) and a flashback-heavy episode that shows how Earl, Randy, Joy (Jaime Pressly) and Darnell (Eddie Steeples) lived through Y2K.
Sequel Planned For "The Pink Panther"
Sony may have bought them last year, but MGM is apparently still in the movie business with plans to put their Pink Panther in front of cameras again.
According to IESB.net, the studio's famous roaring lion is hot on the Panther's tail for a follow-up family/comedy film. We can be sure to expect Steve Martin to return to the role of Inspector Jacques Clouseau, first made famous during the '60s by the legendary British comedic actor Peter Sellers.
With negotiations failing to bring back the large cast of Martin's on-screen family for more Cheaper by the Dozen films, the 59-year-old funny-man is free to sink his teeth into another movie remake franchise.
Family Guy video game? Giggidy-giggidy-giggidy
(KP International) Tired of having to wait week-in week-out for the adventures of the dysfunctional Griffin family to continue? 2K Games is ending that longing by bringing the characters to your fingertips with "some freakin' sweet" Family Guy vid games, the first of which is due out this fall.
2K Games, who brought the TV hit "24" to consoles, is collaborating with Seth MacFarlane, the comedic mastermind behind 'The Family Guy,' to make the game as hilarious as the cartoon.
"The irreverent and satirical humour from 'Family Guy' that has made the show a smash hit opens up exciting and untapped possibilities in game development," said Christoph Hartmann from 2K Games. "We are looking forward to bringing the colourful 'Family Guy' characters to life in a one-of-a-kind action/adventure style game.
'Family Guy' debuted in 1999 and ran for three seasons. It was cancelled twice, but the popularity of the animated sitcom grew during reruns and its DVD releases, prompting Fox to bring the show back in 2005.
The voices that bring the zany characters to life include the creator MacFarlane, Mila Kunis from 'That '70s Show,' Alex Borstein from 'MADtv' and Seth Green from 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Gamers will be able to play as either intellectually-challenged father Peter, malevolent baby genius Stewie, or scathingly witty, martini-slurping talking dog, Brian.