'My Name Is Earl' creator is OK with being 'thrown off the Titanic'

"My Name Is Earl" creator Greg Garcia, right, is a writer because he has a way with words.

Asked for his take on NBC's unceremonious cancellation of his single-camera comedy today, Garcia didn't miss a beat: "It’s hard to be too upset about being thrown off the Titanic."

In case the reference isn't obvious, NBC is in fourth place among networks, after a lackluster season in which it launched seven new shows and five of them failed and the other two have not broken out.

Garcia found out NBC no longer wanted his series during a phone call with Jeff Ingold, executive vice president of comedy programming -- just 30 minutes before NBC released its schedule to the media.

"They woke me up at 7:30 to let me know," Garcia said. "I e-mailed Jeff Zucker [president and chief executive of NBC Universal] on Sunday, and I never got a response. But this is show business. The writing was on the wall. When you go to bed the night before the schedule is out, and no one has spoken to you, you know what’s happening. You get somewhat frustrated with how it’s being handled, but that’s the business we work in. I’ve never fooled myself that it’s a fair or friendly business."

Garcia then had to call his cast and crew. Ethan Suplee instantly took to Twitter to complain about how NBC handled the matter.

"Just got the call that My Name Is Earl has been canceled. They sure did take their time with that decision or rather informing us of it," he wrote.

But star Jason Lee told Garcia that he would love to continue doing the show -- for another network. Garcia said that he and 20th Century Fox Television, which produces the show, will try to sell the show to Fox or ABC. Both of those networks have expressed interest in it in the past.

"There’s a lot of reasons the show would work well on another network, and I think we’d do very well with some promotion," Garcia said. "We certainly feel like we have more stories to tell. That’s why we left the show on season 4 on a cliffhanger. And I know we’ve got at least another season in us and a lot of great ideas. So if another network wants to put us on, fantastic. Nothing that would make me happier."

During a conference call with reporters today, Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, said the network opted to cancel "Earl" and "Medium" because neither the fans nor the advertisers had waged a campaign to save them the way viewers and the Subway restaurant chain did for "Chuck."

"If that’s how they’re running their network, good luck to them," Garcia said." I don’t believe that for one second, but if that’s true, if that’s how they’re deciding what shows to pick up, wow."

-- Maria Elena Fernandez

Photo: From left, Marc Buckland, Jason Lee and Greg Garcia hold their Emmys for writing on a comedy series in 2006. Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Jim H]

Networks, cable, satellite - it's all coming down. It's long Cable is high-speed data. Networks will no longer be the choke point, TV broadcasting and tiering and channels themselves, all gone. It's an iTunes world. First music, now visual media. The content creators are king. When I gave up cable recently, I didn't miss a thing except Comedy Central, and particularly Colbert and Stewart. Increasingly, networks and cable providers are seen as simply coercive. Because of the Internet, people want to watch what they want when they want it, on the screen they want to watch it on. Boxee users, unite!

[Drew]

They canceled "Earl" and "Medium" because the viewers didn't mount a silly "save the show" campaign?

Maybe we didn't mount such a silly campaign because the ratings for both of these shows indicated that they were solid if unspectacular performers for the Peacock net.

And considering NBC's overall ratings this season, "solid" is pretty good.

Hopefully, "Medium" will be picked up by CBS and "Earl" will find a home on Fox.

[BA]

If I thought My Name is Earl was going to be canceled, I would've bought an El Camino to show my support.

[Dustin]

I'm so sad about this. I really hope FOX takes the show.

[Linda Barrett]

Wow, the decision-makers at NBC have definitely blown it. They say the fans of "Medium" didn't launch a campaign to save the show? I would think that solid ratings despite moving it around didn't require additional 'campaigns.' At least the folks at CBS were wise enough to pick it up. Come on, NBC! You used to have it going on.

[Sue Rhodes Calhoun]

I don't write fan letters, go gaga over thesps, or wage campaigns but there are a few shows I like to catch and NBC has just cancelled two of them. So...now...what must I do to save The Dog Whisperer, The #1 Ladies Detective Agency, The Mentalist, Two and a Half Men and the Big Bang Theory? Oh..right..nothing..they're not on the Titanic.

[Rev. C. Interruptus]

Of course, the only actually funny sitcom on network television gets canceled. Actually, the only thing that I ever watch on network television. The major networks are a cesspool, our media will forever be tainted by advertising and marketing and nothing of any quality will be sustainable.

[Matthew Peerce]

Got to love Garcia's candor. I wouldn't call NBC the Titanic, but rather the Lusitania; Titanic's sinking was an accident. NBC implied that if you could get a corporate sponsor and a bunch of nutty bloggers, you could save the show. That sounds disingenuous to me, too. Hope Earl lands on another network, just to see it succeed again.

[Craig W]

What do George W. Bush and Jeff Zucker have in common?

THE WORST PRESIDENTS EVER!

Talk about torture...

[Dick Andersson]

"When I gave up cable recently, I didn't miss a thing except Comedy Central, and particularly Colbert and Stewart". JIm, that is why god created Hulu.

[John Pecod]

"My Name is Earl" didn't get thrown off the Titantic, it was the iceberg that helped sink it. Now if it will only die out in syndication then I won't have to scramble for the remote everytime it comes on.

[Dave]

One less reason to watch NBC. I have a feeling I'll only be watching the Office and the local news on it by the time next fall comes around.

[John Pecod]

"My Name is Earl" didn't get thrown off the Titantic, it was the iceberg that helped sink it. Now if it will only die out in syndication then I won't have to scramble for the remote everytime it comes on.

[RT]

The people calling the shots at NBC are either full of it, or far too disconnected from the rest of us. They want their viewers to wage campaigns to keep shows off the chopping block? I didn't even know Earl had a chance of getting canned! I thought it was doing rather well, actually. I knew 30 Rock was on the bubble a while back, but it seems to have found its audience... or has it? I don't know! Am I supposed to check up on these things on a regular basis!? I'm also not going to sit around spending time on a campaign to save a T.V. show on top of the time I spend actually watching the show. Call me old fashioned, but my patronage of a show (or whatever the equivalent of that is for T.V.) should be proof enough that I want to keep watching it. Oh how I can't wait for another uninspired reality T.V. show to pop up in its stead...

[Tiara]

First Scrubs and now this. I can not believe NBC is canceling Earl. It is one of the few shows on TV my wife and I watch regularly. It is actually funny, witty, and original. I truly hope NBC reconsiders. Earl was an awesome show that delivered guaranteed laughs. It is not too late NBC

[miss understood]

Greg Garcia is a genius!!! He even finds the funny in the cancellation of his show. True, there have been a few klunkers in "Earl" but I can watch the same episode again and again and still laugh like I never do watching other coms. The brilliance of this show was always the combination of the redemptive plotlines that were presented by characters that had no boundaries or concept of political correctness. I have total affection for all the residents of "Camden" and really, how many shows give you belly laughs?? I even spit out iced tea once watching an episode.
Again.....Garcia RULES......
(not a relative or sycophant)

[MICHAEL]

The powers at NBC need a window on their stomachs to see out since they definitely have their heads up the ***. My Name Is Earl was one of the few shows that I regularly view on NBC.

[Jerry]

I find it very short-sighted of Garcia to have not arranged for a letter and email effort from the Church of Scientology. There's simply no better one-stop shop to foment a campaign of harassment and intimidation, where one of its money-makers is on the line (as well as high-dollar employment for so many of its members.)

[Manny]

I guess, with those cancellations, NBC will be shopping around for another lame game show like "Deal or No Deal", or maybe some staged reality show....NBC=No Brains Company.

[Paul]

If bad decision-making puts you in last place, bad decisions like these certainly won't help. The notion that viewers should've written NBC letters to keep "Earl" on air is just totally mind-blowing.