GOODBYE, EARL

My crush on Jason Lee began with my viewing of Chasing Amy, in which he played alongside Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams and followed throughout his appearances in other Kevin Smith films as well as romantic comedies such as Kissing A Fool and A Guy Thing.  Then something happened. in 2005, NBC premiered a new comedy to add to it's Thursday night "Must see TV" lineup. That show was My Name Is Earl and starred Lee as Earl J. Hickey, a man who loses a winning lottery ticket when he is hit by a car. Feeling that this was karma striking, Earl decides to make a list of all the bad things he has done and try to right them, thereby gaining positive karma. Now, I am in no way dissing the show, which ran from 2005 until 2009 and was an quite a  hit. However, I never watched it. This is because seeing Jason Lee, the Jason Lee I came to know and love, sporting a scruffy mustache and beard just, well, it just was something I couldn't watch. Shallow? Yes, I admit it,  and that is not like me at all. Part of the reason I so loved Lee was because of his ability to be so damn funny and NOT about how damn good looking he was-er-I mean is. I just can't explain it,but something about him changed. Or maybe I should saysomething about ME changed,  but sadly something just made me lose interest.

Now today I was reading the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine, and something caught my eye. It was an ad for a new TV show premiering on TNT Tuesday, June 22 at 10pm EST. It's called Memphis Beat and is about a Memphis, Tennessee police detective named Dwight Hendricks who happens to moonlight as an Elvis impersonator and live with his mother. Now that is not a show I can say sounds really all that interesting to me personally,but it wasn't the show's premise that got me. It was the photo of  it's stunningly handsome star. Yes, the one and only Jason Lee. The show also stars Alfre Woodard and Celia Weston and is executive produced by George Clooney (who is pretty easy on the eyes himself), but it's Mr. Lee, all clean-shaven with a cool new haircut that grabbed my attention. Will this show be as big a hit for him as My Name Is Earl was? I am betting not. Will I watch it? Possibly. And believe me, I am not proud of the fact that I am basing that decision on the fact the it's lead looks so good, but I guess I am only human. But I am glad Jason Lee is coming back to tv. And I'm glad he he looks the way he does. If he stays remains to be seen.