'Earl' Star Wants Help Saving Axed Show

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posted: 73 DAYS 22 HOURS AGO

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Goodbye Earl.

NBC has dropped the axe on 'My Name Is Earl' and members of the cast and crew predictably aren't digging the decision. Ethan Suplee, who plays Earl's buffoonish brother Randy Hickey, took to his Twitter feed to vent.

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"Just got the call that 'My Name Is Earl' has been canceled," he wrote."They sure did take their time with that decision or rather informing us of it." Suplee then prompted his followers to support a last-minute campaign to save the series with a "Save Earl" movement on the microblogging site, aimed at pushing FOX to pick up the show.

Suplee told PopEater exclusively that the cancellation was unexpected, leaving fans and the cast little time to organize a support campaign. "After having a working relationship with someone for four years," he said, "it would have been nice to get a call two weeks ago, or a week ago, saying 'Hey, this isn't going to work.' Or even months ago, when they were saying 'Earl' is going to be on NBC.' If they'd said, 'We really don't know,' we could have done something."

"When it happened," he added, "[Co-chairman of NBC Entertainment] Ben Silverman said the reason they picked up 'Chuck' and not 'Medium' and 'Earl' is that the fans didn't make a big stink about picking up 'Earl' or 'Medium.'"

That's where the Twitter petition comes in. "If it's just a matter of some people saying, 'We want to watch the show,' let's see if some people want to say that," Suplee said.

"It's my job, it's my kids' school," he said, noting his personal reasons for seeking fan support, but adds that "ultimately there are just a couple more episode that I'd like to see done. It doesn't have to be the show that runs infinitely, but there a few episodes that ['Earl''s creator Greg Garcia] wanted to make, that I was excited about making. Just to close it out - is this guy stuck making amends for the rest of his life?"

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The show, which stars Jason Lee and has run for four seasons, is produced by 20th Century Fox Television, making a move to FOX more likely. "If there is a shot in hell of our show being on the air again," Suplee says, "it would be on the FOX network."

What else can fans do? Suplee suggests, "Send [FOX] lists! Send them lists of why you think 'My Name is Earl' is a good show."

Greg Garcia laughed off the news, but with a jibe at the ratings-starved network. "It?s hard to be too upset about being thrown off the Titanic."

The online petition to save the show, @EarlTwitition, currently has 9,110 followers.

Also snapped off the Peacock was Patricia Arquette's supernatural show 'Medium,' which ran for five seasons. CBS, which produced the show for NBC, has quickly picked it up for its Friday lineup -- putting it smack dab between 'Ghost Whisperer' and 'Numb3rs.'

2009-05-21 08:38:59

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