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My Name Is Earl 's Creator Reveals the Inspirations Behind this Week's Laugh 'N Sniff Episode

My Name Is Earl 's Creator Reveals the Inspirations Behind this Week's Laugh 'N Sniff Episode
Jim Borowski  |  by www.tvguide.com. All rights reserved. 17.07 | 3:18

This week's (Thursdays at 8 pm/ET, on NBC) the second in the three-episode arc of the finale is where Earl ( ) gets a job. What's different about this episode is that it features Laugh 'N Sniff cards. I've always been a fan of and his movie, , featuring "Odorama.

" When he guest-starred on My Name is Earl [in "Kept a Guy Locked In a Trunk," January 18], I asked him if he minded if I stole his idea. He said it wasn't his idea, so go ahead. Because of the planning and costs of creating the cards, we needed to get a sponsor for the promotion, so TV Guide and Oreo got involved to be the sponsors.

We also knew that it had to air on May 3rd.
We were told we could do six scents and we, the writers, were given this list of about 30 different ones we could choose from, and we had to integrate it into the episode's storyline.
When John Waters did it, he did it with disgusting smells and we didn't go for that.

Because of the cost, we had only the 30 choices. We weren't going to hire a chemist to create a special scent for us.
The list gave us the parameters, and we couldn't have gone crazy with any random smell.

We wrote around what we had. We used the new-car small for the sex doll Joy ( ) buys for Crab Man ( ).
I also absolutely love the [1993] movie , it made me laugh, I thought it was great.

It makes me giggle, so this episode ended up having a really cool element in addition to the smell thing. We pay homage to Rudy. We even have original cast members in it, we have , and .


We always knew the episode would have some Rudy element. Earl has decided that in order to grow up he needs to get a job. His first job is working for an appliance store in the loading dock.

While he's working back there he looks in and sees that the salesmen are all upfront in the store, with their short-sleeved shirts and ties and he decides, "That's what I want." So his coworkers tell him, "You could never work up there, you've got a GED and those are junior college guys." So Earl has a dream, much like Rudy.

They keep telling him he's unrealistic. Dutton plays the head of the loading dock, Ross plays the owner of the appliance store and Astin plays one of the envied salespeople.
There are three places where we get to mimic Rudy, so it was great to get these actors together to recreate scenes from the movie.

Plus, I got a poster signed by them and that was good.
If audiences see Rudy, and they like and remember it, it will really add to the special nature of the episode. But, you can still enjoy the episode without having seen Rudy and without the scratch-and-sniff card.

The smells are pretty accurate, and it's a fun thing to go with the show. The notices to now sniff the numbers on the card are pretty unobtrusive so it won't bother you if you're not playing along.
Shooting it was pretty easy, although you always run long and have to cut things out and the things we could cut out to make the show go faster were things that were the smell things.

The whole promotion was tied around it, so you couldn't cut those scenes!
I don't really have a tease for the episode, except to warn that one of the scents may not match what it's actually called.
For more on My Name Is Earl and to get your Laugh 'N Sniff card, pick up the new issue of TV Guide.

Subscribe to TV Guide for more exclusive stories like this. !
Check out from behind the scenes of this TV Guide cover shoot.


Coming up this week in Interviews Features: Q As with Earl's Jaime Pressly and Ethan Suplee.

Read more on by www.tvguide.com. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Tv Guide, Laugh n Sniff, n Sniff, My Name, Laugh n, This Week, This Episode
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