Earl Hickey

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Earl J. Hickey

First appearance	Pilot
Information
Gender	Male
Age	36
Family	Carl Hickey (father) Kay Hickey (mother) Randy Hickey (brother)
Relationships	Joy Darville (divorced) Mrs Mariano (annuled)
Portrayed by	Jason Lee
Created by	Greg Garcia

Earl J. Hickey is the protagonist and narrator of the American TV show, My Name Is Earl. Earl is played by actor Jason Lee (though young Earl has been played in various flashbacks by Noah Crawford and Anthony De Marco).

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 Biography
2 Bad karma
3 Trivia

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Earl was born April 25, 1970 in Camden County to Carl and Kay Hickey (this is Jason Lee's birthdate as well), though a flashback to 1973 in one episode showed Earl a baby. He was originally supposed to be named Carl after his father, but an extra loop on a cursive "C" on his birth certificate was Earl's first step into a life of misfortune. His younger brother, Randy, was born c. 1976.

Earl and Randy quickly developed into a pair of troublemakers and juvenile delinquents, tormenting both their parents and other children (a young boy named Kenny James was a particular target for Earl's bullying).

Earl and Randy's increasingly destructive antics led to them being sent to the "Right Choice Ranch", a ranch for troubled kids. Unfortunately Earl was kicked out soon after for burning down a barn with his cigarette (he would learn years later it was actually Randy who had accidentally burned the barn).

[edit] Later life

Earl and Randy would grow up into habitual criminals who could never keep a job. Earl, by his own admission, would "pretty much steal anything that wasn't nailed down". Some of his more bizarre crimes included stealing a car from one-legged girl (after telling her he loved her), having a garage sale while house-sitting for neighbors, peeing in the back of a cop car, fixing a high school football game, and letting mice out at a school play.

At first, Carl often bailed them out after they were arrested, but eventually stopped. He was particularly bitter after Earl's antics ruined his campaign to run for mayor.

In late 1999, Earl was seeing a woman named Jesse when, after a night of drinking at his favorite watering hole, the Crabshack, he met and eloped with a woman named Joy Darville. She was six months pregnant at the time, but Earl was too drunk to notice at the time. The only thing Joy remembered about the baby's father was that he drove a Ford, so they named him Dodge. At some point, Joy began cheating on Earl with Darnell Turner, an employee at the crabshack (who Earl calls "Crab Man"). A year after Dodge's birth, Joy had another baby, fathered by Darnell. Although the baby boy was obviously not Earl's son (Darnell and the baby both being black), he was nevertheless named Earl Jr.

[edit] Finding karma

In 2005, Earl's life would change dramatically in more ways than one when he won $100,000 from a scratch-off lottery ticket. His excitement was short-lived however, as he was hit by a car only seconds later. While recovering in the hospital, Joy finally left him for Darnell.

A short time later, while still in the hospital, Earl was watching Last Call with Carson Daly when Trace Adkins, a guest, asked how Carson Daly had such a great life. Carson explained his belief in karma, which would prove to be a revelation for Earl. Earl concluded that his miserable life was due to the fact that he had done nothing but bad things his whole life.

After Earl left the hospital and moved into a motel with Randy, he decided the way to improve his life would be to start doing good things. To that end, he wrote a list of all the bad things he'd done all his life and set out to make up for them. His belief in karma was strengthened by the fact that he found his winning lottery ticket as soon as he started working on his list.

[edit] Bad karma

Bad Karma, a mini-episode exclusive to the My Name Is Earl first season DVD, shows Earl's life taking a significantly different direction after being hit by a car. Rather than learning about karma from Carson Daly, Earl watches Family Guy and hears Stewie Griffin talking about vengeance. Earl is inspired to write a list of all the people he feels have "screwed him over". The episode ends with Earl being run over by a car (this time fatally) by Joy and Darnell and Randy inheriting the show, which is now called My Name is Randy; whether or not Randy had a list was not mentioned, but he did have Earl's mustache. For obvious reasons, Bad Karma isn't canon with the rest of the series.

[edit] Trivia

According to the featurette on the Season 1 DVD, Earl is loosely based on series creator Gregory Thomas Garcia's step-father, who is also named Earl. Like his TV counterpart, the real Earl married a woman who was pregnant with another man's baby, then would later have an African-American baby with yet another man. The real Earl was also involved in some questionable activities (though not as exaggerated as on TV) but would later reform and attempt to right his wrongs.
Earl's last name, Hickey, is a reference to the lead character in Eugene O'Neill's classic play The Iceman Cometh, who comes to realize that resisting the judgement due (his karma) is making his life unbearable.
Every time Earl gets his photo taken, his eyes are closed. This is considered to be a nod to the movie Forrest Gump in which every photograph of Forrest shows him with his eyes closed.
In 1.23, the close up of Earl's driver license shows he lives in Pimmit Hills Trailer Park, Space C-13, Camden County. His date of birth is 4/25/1970 (Jason Lee's birthday), his height is 6'1", his weight is 190, his eyes (closed in the picture, of course) and hair are brown, and he is an organ donor. It's a class 1 license, #023052378, expiring on 4/25/2009. It was apparently issued on 4/25/1970.
Earl often shows signs of computer illiteracy, this has been shown in various episodes.
Earl claims to be allergic to cats, but in the pilot, he appeared to have had a cat, and even had a cat in his childhood.
Earl's truck is a 1973 Chevrolet El Camino. In episode 1.10 Earl says it has a 1977 door (the blue driver's door) and a 1987 Camaro transmission.
Earl moved out from home on 3/14/1989. It is revealed in episode 1.18, when Earl's dad reveals the combination code for his gun safe.
The role of Earl was originally supposed to be played by Trace Adkins [1]