Since great television comedy always begins with the script, this series of posts considers the individual episodes that have claimed the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series over the years.

“Well, one down, two hundred and fifty eight to go.”

With the pilot episode’s finale line, writer Greg Garcia established that there were a lot of stories to tell with his new series My Name Is Earl. The very premise of the show guarantees more than a couple hundred quests for its title character, the scruffy ne’er-do-well Earl Hickey, played by Jason Lee. After a brush with mortality and an introduction to the concept of karma through a televised Carson Daly interview, Earl decides he needs to make up for his misbegotten past to clear his cosmic slate. He makes a list of all the wrongs he had done previously and sets out to atone for them one by one, crossing them off his piece of notebook paper one by one.

The instigating portion of the story plays out with brisk efficiency in this pilot episode, aided immensely by Garcia employing voiceover narration to lay out the particulars. That world-building extends to the entrances of the various characters who will swirl around Earl: his brother, Randy (Ethan Suplee); his ex-wife, Joy (Jaime Pressley, who would eventually win a well-deserved Emmy for the role); Joy’s new fiancé, Darnell (Eddie Steeples); and Earl and Randy’s friend Catalina (Nadine Velazquez), a maid at the motel where they live. In addition to all that set up, Earl performs his first act of service for someone he previously treated poorly, coming unsolicited to the aid of Kenny (Gregg Binkley), someone he bullied back in school.

Garcia wrote the sitcom expecting it would be a perfect match for Fox, the network airing his family comedy Yes, Dear. That executive suite target audience comes through in the some of the brashness of the comedy, which was somewhat out of step with the other shows on NBC, the actual broadcast home of My Name Is Earl. There’s a crudity and cartoonish energy to the storytelling, as when Earl is hit by a car or a flashback shows young Earl tormenting Kenny with a heartily delivered kick in the groin. In direct contrast, Earl’s attempts to better himself invite greater thoughtfulness. Earl discovers Kenny is lonely because he’s a closeted gay man who believes the small-town community won’t accept who he is, and the jokes that stem target Earl’s ignorance and gradual move towards tolerance and acceptance rather than Kenny’s identity. For 2005, that level of respect for the Kenny was still notable enough for a network sitcom that this introductory episode of My Name Is Earl won a GLAAD Award.

Of course, the pilot of My Name Is Earl also nabbed the Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series, triumphing in a field of nominees weird enough to include an episode of HBO’s Entourage. Marc Buckland’s directing for the episode also won, and it’s logical to interpret these matching trophies as an appreciation of how solidly the episode performs the always tricky chores of a pilot. In around twenty minutes, the My Name Is Earl pilot truly puts every important detail into place with room to spare for a quick version of the sort of plot that will comprise the entirety of further installments.

As it turned out, My Name Is Earl actually had ninety-five to go from this point, and it can be reasonably argued that its creatively energies flagged well before that finale. Still, watching this pilot, it seems plausible that the series could go on until the last list item is crossed off.

Other posts in this series can be found at the “Golden Words” tag.