After a much longer than expected hiatus, Jason Lee and My Name is Earl return to the NBC airwaves in a special one-hour episode on April 3 from 8-9pm. Featuring a recap guest appearance from NBC President Jeff Zucker and the return of guest star Alyssa Milano, My Name is Earl also welcomes celebutant Paris Hilton to show, who appears to Earl in an alternate reality as he's caught in a fevered state, lying on the road after being hit by a car. The only hope for Earl as the series returns rests with a small little boy who can cure everything with his finger.

A couple of days ago, The Deadbolt caught up with Jason Lee and My Name is Earl creator/executive producer Greg Garcia to get the goods on the return of Earl, working with Paris Hilton, the evolution of the show, and how long it takes Jason Lee to grow his moustache.

Jason Lee and Greg Garcia on what it was like to work with Paris Hilton:

JASON LEE: She was here for 15 minutes and she was playing herself and doing her thing. And, you know, she was a trooper. I mean, she knew what she was, what it was all about, that she would be playing herself and she didn’t - I mean, she just went along with it.

GREG GARCIA: Yeah, She was really nice. I mean, like Jason said, she wasn’t here that long and so we don’t have a lot of dirt on her or anything like that. I can just say that she came in, she knew what to do and she was very professional and very sweet and nice to everybody. You know, there are a couple people on set that I think knew her from before. I believe Ethan [Suplee] knew her and Jaime [Pressly] seemed to have known her. So, it was just a nice little friendly hour here.

Lee and Garcia on future guest stars they'd love to have on the show:

LEE: Well, we had Burt Reynolds, which was great. We’ve been trying to get Steve Buscemi, but I guess he’s never around. I’d like to get John C. Reilly on the show. I’d like to get Harry Dean Stanton on the show. Jeff Bridges, because his brother Beau plays my father on the show. I just like the idea of getting [a lot of people]. I mean, anything goes with Earl. And all the great character actors that we like, all of the great film character actors that we like, would be so well-suited for a show like ours, and all the people that I’ve always admired, the left-of-center actors like John C. Reilly and Buscemi and Harry Dean Stanton. I’d love to get Tom Waits on the show, because again, the backdrop, the world that we’ve created, it’s network television. But because it’s sort of our own world and Greg’s created this bizarre thing that somehow fits on television, we can really afford to get these [stars], we can kind of do whatever we want because we’ve got the fans and it’s really grounded in enough reality to where we can really afford to play and go out on a limb. So those are the kind of actors. But, unfortunately, I think a lot of actors of that caliber aren’t interested in television as much as they are about in film. But, we’ll keep trying. In the meantime, we’ll settle for, you know, Giovanni Ribisi and...

GARCIA: Yeah. I mean, we have some really good people. I think that the thing, too, as we keep going and we get more and more people to come on and have a great time, then [we'll get] more and more actors who sometimes are reluctant to do T.V. and go, 'Wow. Look at Giovanni Ribisi on there. And he’s doing a great job and he gets to go in there and have fun. You know, maybe I will do it.' We’ve got Ben Foster in the beginning of the year, who was fantastic, and we’ve got Michael Pena doing a role for us this week. Like Jason was saying, the more people that you don’t necessarily see on T.V. that we can get in here to come play with us for a week, we always welcome the opportunity.

Lee and Garcia on the fans making their own lists like Earl:

LEE: I haven’t experienced that myself but you do hear stories about [how] a friend heard a DJ on a radio station talking about karma, how they’ve started their own lists. It started getting popular. I think the idea of karma, the word is being used a lot more. It felt that way, anyway. And Greg’s whole point at the very beginning was - we’re talking about karma. We’re talking about redemption. We’re talking about a low-life dude trying to turn his life around. Why not make it mean something you know? If that’s ultimately what happens at the end of the day, great. I mean we’d never pretend like it - that that’s not important. It’s just about the jokes and the characters and the moustache, you know? There can be something to take from it without being too preachy and I think it’s because the show is very accessible. The characters are very likeable and at the end of the day you find yourself wanting to root for Earl. And I think people have really grown to like the show a lot. And if it makes them feel good, that’s a bonus for sure.

GARCIA: I’ve read a couple things online about people making their lists and stuff. I’ve never had anyone actually come up to me and say that, but there are some things that I have experienced that are pretty cool. I’ve had people clip out things and bring them to me or come to me and say that they were at church and the sermon, the guy was talking about an episode of Earl and certainly that’s not your intention... You’re making people laugh and we don’t take ourselves too seriously at all. But if they want to use an example of something we did in a sermon, well, that’s pretty cool. And if people are going to watch it and go, ‘Hmm...’ If somebody out there goes, ‘Eh, I did something to somebody,’ and this show’s about redemption, maybe I will go make that up. Well, if that happens, that’s fantastic. But obviously our first goal is to make you laugh.

The Return of Earl with Jason Lee and Greg Garcia Page 2