Mother's Day: 'Earl' Style! Plus 'Inventor' and a CW Renewal Mix Up

(Photo courtesy NBC.com)

With the NCAA Basketball Tournament causing my usual Thursday night line-up to take a back seat, I'm able to talk about different shows this week. One of those shows is one of my favorite comedies currently on the tube: My Name is Earl. I came late to the party on this show, but since watching my first episode, I haven't missed one. Like my other favorite comedies, Scrubs and Everybody Hates Chris, this show blends big laughs with tremendous heart. Earl is such a good person (since he karma-induced change), and I love how he'll stop at nothing to cross the righted-wrong of the week off his list, even if the person he wronged is himself. Last night's episode found Earl busy with two items on his list. He wanted to make up for the Mother's Days he had ruined in the past. After finally fulfilling the coupon book he had given to his mother after stealing it from another kid one year when he was a child, Earl had to do something for his dad at his mother's request. Earl and his dad don't really speak, but Earl settled on getting his father's car back from the man he lost it to in a drag race years ago. The best part of this story line came when Earl returned the car and found out that his dad had planned to give it to him someday. Earl then had to add himself to his list since he cheated himself out of the car and the potential for better experiences with it. He decided to fix up the car at his parents house and soon enough his father was helping. Earl realized that he hadn't just cheated himself out of a car, but out of the experience of working on it with his dad. Meanwhile, Joy sent the kids with Darnell to his parents house for the week as her Mother's Day gift, but she was so lonely without them that she wound up drunk most of the time they were gone. I loved the way Randy filled the void that her family left. I also loved the many scenes of Joy drunk, especially the one at the bar with the margarita she was drinking directly from the blender.


People were pulling out all the stops last night on ABC's latest reality show American Inventor (photo courtesy ABC.com)! I didn't catch the entire 2-hour premiere, but the things I did see - just wow. I'm going to start with the woman who thought she had a novel idea with the little bed caddie thing. Now, when I graduated high school and went to college more than seven years ago, I almost bought one of these at Bed Bath & Beyond. I also worked in that store one summer, and it was a very hot item. We couldn't keep it in stock! This woman swore up and down, after the judges told her it already existed, that they were lying. I guess I'm lying too. Oh, and so is Bed Bath & Beyond, Linen 'n Things, Target and just about every other retail store in America. I loved how she admitted that she called one of those 1-800 numbers to get her patent, and one of the judges told her that those numbers are a scam, and she still didn't believe him! Oh well, it's her $12,000. What was up with the creepy child-cage-packaged-as-a-fun-timeout-room woman??!! That thing was just disturbing. I loved the man with the exercise weights that brought judge Mary Lou Quinlan to tears. Part of me felt bad for the 14-year old boy with the doggie air conditioner, but the other part felt that he needed a dose of humility. Overall, it was an interesting show, but probably not something that will become appointment viewing for me. Did you catch the premiere of American Inventor last night? What did you think? Leave me a comment with your thoughts.

About Last Night... ABC won the first hour of the night with the premiere of American Inventor, followed by CBS' NCAA basketball coverage and NBC comedies Will & Grace and Four Kings. At 9, a second hour of Inventor easily took the crown for ABC, followed by NCAA coverage on CBS and comedies My Name is Earl and The Office on NBC. The final hour of the night went to NBC's ER, followed by CBS' NCAA coverage and ABC's Primetime. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - Deal or No Deal continues on NBC. CBS bumps its usual Friday line-up for coverage of the NCAA Basketball Tournament (begins at 7 p.m.).

@9 p.m. - Mary has to coordinate a huge wedding for one of Sam's biggest whales on NBC's Las Vegas. Over on ABC, an anonymous tip leads the NJP to reinvestigate a couple convicted of a bombing crime on In Justice. The WB's premieres its new Jerry Bruckheimer comedy Modern Men starring Jane Seymour as a life coach helping three men deal with their relationship issues at 9:30 p.m.

@10 p.m. - Finn investigates the mysterious suicide of a 12-year old girl whose mother claimed her daughter was dying of cancer on NBC's Conviction.

SUNDAY EDITION
@8 p.m. - Lilly and co. use the pieces of a killer's demented puzzle in order to save a young boy's life, all while time is quickly slipping away on CBS' Cold Case. From what I'm hearing this is a can't-miss episode, so clear your schedules Sunday night for this one. It comes to us from writer Veena Sud who also wrote last season's intense serial killer arc as well as some of the series' most emotional episodes. Speaking of last season's serial killer (SPOILER WARNING - STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW), series star Kathryn Morris told TV Guide's Mike Ausiello a while back that there will be some reference to Lilly's experience with George in this episode. She seemed to hint that this guy knows about Lilly's experience with him (END SPOILER WARNING). Over on NBC, an unexpected twist gives Vinnick an opportunity to damage the Santos campaign with only two weeks left before the election on The West Wing.

@9 p.m. - The brutal beating murder of a female Secret Service agent in her home has Logan and Barek looking through her husband's many clients on NBC's Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

@10 p.m. - Mary Kay Place guest stars on ABC's Desperate Housewives as a series of deaths occur at Seattle Grace and the uncanny events bring out the doctors’ superstitious sides and make Izzie nervous about Denny’s surgery. Over on NBC, Jordan investigates why several firefighters perished in a devastating wildfire on Crossing Jordan.



QUICK CUTS

*And finally, you just knew it had to be too good to be true, right? Yesterday, TVWeek.com reported that the new CW network had renewed 13 series including Veronica Mars and Everwood. Not true according to TV Guide's Mike Ausiello who writes about the gaffe in today's edition of the Ausiello Report. It seems a reporter at TVWeek.com "assumed too much" at a development presentation the CW gave to advertisers Wednesday according to a rep from the network. TVWeek.com quickly pulled the story from its site Thursday afternoon, but not before many of the shows' fans quickly spread the erroneous news. The CW will announce who makes the cut on the upstart network during its fall schedule announcement on May 18th. Fans of both shows can show their support for them by writing letters. To find out more on how you can save Veronica Mars, click over to Mars Investigations. To find out how you can help Everwood, visit Save Everwood Now (Be sure to read all the way to the bottom for the latest info).


That's all for today. Be sure to tune in Monday for thoughts on Cold Case (I'm really psyched about this episode. Will it live up to my expectations?). Plus, all the latest television news. And don't forget to check back here later today for the next installment of Friday Fun! You don't want to miss this edition!


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details