I’m madly in love with Catalina…that is all.
So many good moments.
I loved that the burning golf clubs looked like a cross and a swastika.
“We’re not leaving!”
HA!
I also really liked Earl and Randy’s golf scheme in the flashbacks!
All for a beer and some free food!
I think it’s really hard to burn golf clubs. They’re mostly metal. I suppose the grips would burn, but they likely wouldn’t do much. I suppose you would have to cover them in rags.
Regarding the location: I’ve always thought somewhere in the quasi south, like Maryland or Kentucky (i.e. a border state). The Maryland-connection is fed by the John Waters-esque celebration of white trash. Then again, there are those damned palm trees, which make me think of some blue-collar wasteland like Bakersfield (or maybe the limitations of a Hollywood set). I’ve also felt kind of a Bottlerocket vibe as well, but that might just be the motel. I think a Maryland-like Anystate, U.S.A. is probably the answer because there is definitely a portion of the population that speaks with a southern drawl mixed in with plain-vanilla “Americans.”
fwiw, I read on another message board that it was filmed in the San Fernando Valley
Did anyone notice the theme of the episode was that joke about what happens when you play a country song backwards?
He got his job back, his girlfriend back, and I knew that there was going to be a missing dog somewhere. And I was right!
Great pick up, I missed that completely. I can just hear that it the writers meeting.
Cool
That went right over my head. But you’re right!
I liked when all of Randy’s friends from the bar showed up at the country club, expecting the golf-mad accountant to buy them all drinks when he hit his next Earl-and-Randy-assisted hole in one: “And that’s when the club started checking ID’s…”
If you have it on tape, check Earl’s expression (a) when the accountant asks his girlfriend if she had sex with anyone while he was away, and (b) when the dopey secretary says she recognizes Earl in the photo with his brother. I tell ya, Jason Lee should get an Emmy for his expressions alone!
I agree that the show is purposefully ambiguous as to where it’s set. In the first few episodes I would’ve said central California, but it’s really Anywhere USA. I’ve looked closely at the license plates (they often have a closeup when a car is peeling away from the camera), and they’re always just black numbers and letters on a white plate, without any state identifier.
Saying that a show is filmed in the San Fernando Valley doesn’t prove much about where the show is supposed to be set. I live in L.A. and I’ve seen the following shows filmed here:
Grey’s Anatomy (Seattle), E/R (Chicago), West Wing (DC), The District (DC), Crossing Jordan (Boston).
I could go on and on and on and on.
It’s obvious where My Name is Earl is set:
Springfield!
As someone pointed out last week, Tim Stack is described as a “hometown celebrity” and according to his bio, he was born in Doylestown PA.
You know, this show has had more character development in the few episodes that have been on than Friends did in it’s entire 10 years.
I think it was middleman.
Are you sure? I thought it was more like CenterGuy. 
You know you need to be careful, I always here about people trying to eliminate you.
Jim
I know. Not only are they trying to eliminate me, my first name is Wil and people are always saying “FIRE AT WIL!”
I am getting a complex!
Boy I guess you learned Duck and Cover at an early age.
I almost cheered when he said Hagerstown, and then Cumberland. Yay! Earl lives in Maryland!
I was rolling on the floor at the Smokey and the Bandit references, especially with the “East Bound and Down” playing while they messed with the golf balls.
Damn, this is a funny show.
I just watched it last night, what an excellent episode. I loved when Earl and Randy were on two separate buses, “Everybody’s Talkin’” was on the sound track, and they saw each other as the buses passed. Great moment. And Earl still had the “blue sugar in a bag” on his finger through the whole scene.
As for the location, I could swear I saw something in the first episode that made me think it’s in New Jersey, but on the other hand it kind of has to be within driving distance of Las Vegas, because of Joy and drunken Earl’s impromptu wedding.
Was that Vegas or Atlantic City?
It was Vegas, No quickie weddings in NJ. Bloodtest and all that crap required.
But Earl doesn’t really know how he got to Vegas. She could have even had him on an Airplane at one point. (Where she would get the money I have no clue)
But I prefer the Simpson answer, don’t try to figure it out and use logic or they will just play with our heads even more.
Jim
Up until tonight I figured the show was set in a particularly run-down and white trashy part of the Inland Empire area east of Los Angeles (“Rivertucky” as a friend calls it). That would have worked perfectly with the quickie Vegas wedding, semi-desert landscape, hills in the backgrond. Oh well. But even if its “set” in Maryland/Pennslyvania it sure as heck isn’t being filmed there, nor are they making much of an attempt to make it look like it.
Going out on a limb here, but I highly doubt that NBC would take their one new hit sitcom and repeat it on FOX…but they are repeating the last four episodes of Earl on NBC this Saturday.
“World’s Tallest Midget” cracked me up and reminded me of an interview with the cast of the Simpsons and the guy who plays Moe said, “welcome to the bar - home of the world’s smallest big screen tv.”
The beauty of Earl is that there are so many small, throw-away lines that sometimes need a second for you to process…if the writers of this show don’t cart some Emmy’s home next year, their ain’t no justice in this world.