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My Name is Earl

Randy In Charge (1)

Season 3, Episode 9, Aired Nov 08, 2007

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The warden wants Earl to develop a "scared straight show" for children to scare them away from committing crimes, but while doing this, Earl and Randy are having an argument about who is in charge.
Meanwhile, Joy starts to get annoyed by her pregnancy and wants the baby out.moreless

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Cast & Crew

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GUEST STAR
Stephen Keys
GUEST STAR
Ed Gale
GUEST STAR
Tamala Jones

Liberty Washington

Nadine Velazquez

Catalina
Ethan Suplee

Randy Hickey
Jaime Pressly

Joy Turner
Jason Lee

Earl J. Hickey
Eddie Steeples

Darnell Turner

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Fan Episode Reviews (3)

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Earl vs Randy in a hilarious argument.

8.7

"Great"

By jimbo_001, May 02, 2008

This episode is very funny, and the fight between Earl and Randy is hilarious, particularly the confrontation as to why Randy became a guard in the first place. The green theme seemed forced but worked in well since Earl called attention to the stupid idea, and the episode stands well without it.

Randy was especially good in the episode, and had some great moments, especially those towards the end where he lets prisoners go in to get the ice-cream and the twist with Frank escaping instead, with the unintentional diversion.

Joy's pregnancy is working good as a subplot, with some hilarious friction with her and the unborn child.

Overall, the episode has a fantastic tension between Randy and Earl, and the prison concept is not stale at all, with a great cliff hanger and a hilarious plot.moreless
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A bad episode in a Season that has gone down hill since the Premiere Episode of Season 3.

5.0

"Mediocre"

By gbvfan13, Nov 11, 2007

This was a sad excuse for an episode. What has happened to this show? I absolutely adored the 1st Season and loved the 2nd, but, ever since the Premiere of Season 3 (which was a great episode), this 3rd Season has done nothing but go downhill. The writing and story lines have been stale and each week I find myself saying, 'They've done this already!' After last week's hour long essential rerun of the exceptional 2nd Season episode of 'Our Cops is On,' this week was even worse. Randy isn't supposed to be some sort of authority figure over Earl. This whole Earl being incarcerated has run its course. This episode's only redeemable factor was the (always) magnificent acting of the characters Joy and 'Crabman,' who are going through the experience of Joy being a surrogate mother for her half-sister. Every part of Randy and Earl's bickering towards each other was dull and didn't bring even a smirk on my face, let alone a laugh. Randy saying that he is the one who always looks over Earl? C'mon writers, this is getting out of hand.moreless
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Though perhaps better than "Our other COPS is on", this episode again shows that season three may be getting worse before it gets better.

6.5

"Fair"

By deca57034, Nov 10, 2007

After suffering through "Our other COPS is on", I was secretly hoping that karma would reward me this week with a great episode of "Earl". While "Randy in charge" is easily better than last weeks episode, it still felt like not much more than a filler episode. This episode starts off somewhat weak. Randy seems to be getting stupider by the moment, and his dialoge in the first thirty seconds minutes did not help. This wouldn't bother me so much, except that most of the series has been about Randy becoming a more "well-rounded" person. After getting his GED and having Joy give him the "tough love" that he always need, one would think that Randy would be atleast somewhat more intelligent than he was in Season 1. Sadly enough, this doesn't seem to be the case.

While Randy is busy showing himself to be the most inept security guard in existance, Earl begins working on a project that will help him get out of prison another month earlier. Unfortunately, while there was some serious potential from this part of the story (some of my favorite moments in the episode arise from the auditions), it i completely dominated by the fighting between Randy and Earl.

This wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that the entire fight between Randy and Earl seemed a little ridiculous. The fight starts after Randy and Earl disagree as to who is in charge. Before too long, Earl manages to cuff Randy to a bedpost, which (after Randy calls over the radio for reinforcements) results in Earl being stripped naked and forced out into the yard. This entire scene didn't seem true to the nature of either character. Though looking after Randy was probably tiresome, I can't see present Earl cuff his brother to a bedpost (I say present, because I could easily see pre-karma Earl doing such a thing). Likewise, I don't think I could see Randy be so vendictive towards his brother (the fact that he seemed like less of a jerk when he was starving in the season one finale speaks to this). While Earl and Randy are fighting, Joy is slowing being driven insane by her pregnancy. This part of the episode offers some entertaining moments, but is never developed enough (again, thanks to the Randy/Earl fight) to offer more than a couple of one-liners.

And then there was the green factor. Doesn't take too much insight to see that Garcia was not all that happy to be jumping on the "Green" train, and I don't blame him. Earl has already had his environmental moment - doing it again would seem a bit ridiculous. It's no surpise then that most of the green jokes and dialoge were worthy of various groans and eye-rolling.

Overall, the episode never feels like it comes to fruition. The frightening thing is that this episode is the first of a two-parter, which means that this storyline is going to continue forward into another episode. Personally, I would have liked to seen this episode edited down so that the entire two-parter could have been done in one episode. There's no exciting reason to tune in to the episode next week, we already know what is going to happen. Frank will be found, Earl and Randy will make up, and Joy will have her baby.moreless
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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (1)
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- Featured Music: "25 or 6 to 4" by Chicago "Right Place Wrong Time" by Dr. John "Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf (Joy tries to get her baby out) "Freeze Frame" by J. Geils Band (Closing scene)
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QUOTES (4)
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- Frank: ...and I'm gonna kick in all your teeth and rent you out for cigarettes, and then when I get a hundred cigarettes I'm gonna stuff em' all up in your mouth and make you smoke em' like that dude from the Guinness book of world records! You know why? Cause prison is boring!
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- Randy: Everyone, this is Fred. It's his first time in prison and he's a little nervous. He used to be a police officer and then he molested a little boy, so make him feel welcome.
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- Joy: When I agreed to become their surrogate, I didn't realize they were part of the Nazi gazpacho.
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- Liberty: No fried foods, no trans fats, no alcohol, no tobacco... Joy: You first-timers are way overprotective. I was that way with Dodge. I even switched to Marlboro Lights and he still come out with asthma.
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NOTES (3)
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- International Episode Titles: Czech Republic: Randy je kápo (Randy Is Capo)
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- Although credited, Nadine Velazquez (Catalina) does not appear in this episode.
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- Original International Air Dates: Denmark: May 30, 2008 on TV3 Slovenia: September 18, 2008 on Kanal A Belgium: June 1, 2009 on 2BE Czech Republic: June 15, 2010 on Prima COOL
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- Title A take on the theme song of the show, "Charles in Charge."
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