Worst TV Show of the Week Brought to you by the Parents Television Council WARNING: Graphic Content!!! Do NOT push play if you don't want to see the explicit video!!!

My Name Is Earl on NBC

My Name Is Earl is quite simply one of the least family-friendly shows on television.  Airing at 8:00 p.m. ET, this program has completely abandoned its original premise, instead resorting to antics more appropriate to The Jerry Springer Show.  Rarely, if ever, is a true good deed actually performed by Earl. More often than not the show serves to promote some of the most despicable behavior our society has to offer.  The November 1^st episode was a follow-up to a previous episode in which Earl’s town was filmed for an episode of COPS.  The earlier episode, which aired last season and was also chosen as Worst of the Week, was truly despicable -- but sadly, it had nothing on this year’s hour-long display.

Strippers, prostitutes, thieves, drunkards, adulterers, drug dealers, and utterly incompetent police officers make up characters in this episode.  Strippers are shown throughout the episode at Chubby’s strip club where Catalina works.  In one scene Catalina gets in a fight with another stripper over rights to give a man a lap dance.  When the two women begin to wrestle on a pool table in their stripper attire, a police officer refuses to break the fight up because he is sexually aroused by the act.  The cop and several other men throw money at the women as they beat each other.  Patti, another hooker, is also a central figure in the show as she allows men to compete for a free hour of her services with “full menu” at the town fair.  Earl and Randy spend the episode trying to steal whatever they can get their hands on.  They ultimately hit the jackpot when they steal $50,000 worth of equipment from the police.  One item they steal is a thermal video camera.  Earl takes the camera home to Joy and finds her in her robe in the living room.  Earl believes she is waiting for him to have sex, but with the thermal camera we see a red glow from behind the curtains.  It is clear that the glow is coming from Darnell’s genital region, indicating his arousal and suggesting that he and Joy were recently having adulterous sex. To make the situation worse, we see that Joy’s genital region is also glowing, as is Earl, who has now unzipped and initiated sex with Joy. Randy, who is standing-by watching, is also visibly aroused.  Darnell jumps out of a window and runs naked across the yard.

To describe this episode as “offensive” is the height of understatement.  This program is extremely troubling and sad.  It is truly disappointing that the producers at NBC would deem this content acceptable for prime-time television and the Family Hour.  Children and families are clearly not a concern to these individuals.  For its blatant disregard for families at 8:00 p.m. and its patently offensive content, My Name Is Earl is once again our pick for Worst of the Week.