Each and every one of the following series recently given the green light by ABC has comedy thrown into the mix. A couple I’ve mentioned in the past.

Dramedies

CASTLE: In this crime-procedural dramedy, Nathan Fillion stars as the title character Nick Castle, a famous mystery novelist who is bored with his own success. When a real-life copycat murderer starts staging scenes from his novels, Nick partners with NYPD Detective Kate Beckett and realizes he loves the challenge and rush of helping solve the crime. However, Nick and Kate’s styles instantly clash, leading to both danger and a hint of romance. Nick is kept grounded by his Broadway diva mother, quick-witted teenage daughter, and long-suffering ex-wife, who is also his editor.

Regular Cast: Stana Katic as Beckett, Molly Quinn as Alexis, Susan Sullivan as Martha, Monet Mazur as Gina, and Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Captain Montgomery.

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Comedy casting news out of the TV entertainment industry has veteran actor Beau Bridges (Stargate SG-1, Into the West) playing Alyssa Milano’s father on her forthcoming untitled ABC sitcom written by Kristin Newman.

Most recently seen as the recurring character Billie on the last season of My Name Is Earl, Milano portrays a woman struggling to get away from her annoying family, friends, and job. Also joining the cast is actress Meagen Fay (How I Met Your Mother, Malcolm in the Middle), who will play the fiancée of Bridges’ character.

Interestingly, Bridges has been a recurring presence on My Name Is Earl, as well, playing the father, Carl Hickey, of the title character. In fact, Bridges was even an Emmy nominee for that then-guest role last year, but Monk guest star Stanley Tucci prevailed.

Desperate Housewives occasional cast member Jay Harrington, who fans know as Dr. Ron McCreadie on that series, has also joined another untitled ABC sitcom in the lead role. The show from My Name Is Earl (here we go again) consulting producer Victor Fresco is set at a prominent company, and Harrington stars as Ted, the uptight head of research and development.

Original Air Date: May 15, 2008

Watching the one-hour My Name Is Earl season finale made me realize something — the show is very rarely funny anymore. When I do laugh, it’s usually at the ridiculous sight gag-type situations, such as Randy falling over after a driver throws a bagful of garbage at him when he’s doing what Billie wants him to in order to “earn” a Klondike bar. (Get it? The ice cream’s advertising tag line is “What would you do for a Klondike bar?” So, Randy would do just about anything, including humiliate himself, for one.)

More often than not, even the visual stuff doesn’t work as intended, though, which means as it stands now, Earl is one unfunny sitcom; you have to really care about the characters to get anything out of it. I laughed twice, tops, as I watched this two-parter: once during the aforementioned Klondike pratfall and once when either Randy or Joy said something else stupid; I can’t remember which one or what was said, a fact that’s telling in itself.

The main premise of “Camdenites” is that Earl’s marriage to Billie sucks, primarily because she’s painfully cheap, controlling, and annoying. But, Earl has to rely on her money now after spending all of his own. This puts him in a bind since he can’t figure out why Karma would hook him up with his literal dream woman, who was so loving and doting and perfect in his coma sitcom, and then have her turn out to be such a turn off.

A discussion with his mom (Nancy Lenehan) for advice leads Earl to realize his father has survived decades of marriage to his mother — whom Billie has nothing on in the annoying department — by working all the time to stay away from home. Earl decides to follow suit and focus on his Karma list, which leads him to #86, Didi (Tracy Ashton), the one-legged woman whose car he stole. After he hops a mile in her shoe as instructed, she allows Earl to cross her off his list, and things improve with Billie.

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Original Air Date: May 8, 2008

How ironic is it that when Earl gets ecstatic over his alleged soul mate Billie’s decision to start her own Karma list, everyone nearby reacts negatively? Very, and the contradiction — or at least the gunshot — should have warned Earl of the difficulties to come with regards to his new wife.

Once the glow of being newlyweds diminishes, Earl is left with the shocking realization that he and Billie have different opinions on just about everything, from which Van Halen is better (the one with Sammy Hagar or David Lee Roth) to whether it’s okay to barge into the bathroom when the other is peeing.

Earl’s dismay decreases a little when Randy and Joy, neither known for their great wisdom, both advise him that having a partner means putting up with differences and little annoyances. So, Earl tries his best, but he draws a line when it comes to Karma. Props to Earl for making it clear he won’t tolerate Billie’s early approach to doing good, which is lazy at best. Read on to see why.

After Billie gets inspired by Earl and makes her own Karma list, the newlyweds realize they have one item in common regarding a local grocery store employee named Joel (Blades of Glory and Napoleon Dynamite’s John Heder). A competitive bagger, he returned home from a prominent national bagging competition to find his house empty after being robbed by thieves, two of whom were Earl and Billie (at different times).

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Original Air Date: April 24, 2008

The hospital decides to kick out still comatose EARL, and RANDY is offered a choice: put Earl in a state-run home or accept $2000 in Camden cash, redeemable at over six local locations. After he sees the Camden cash can be used for paintball, Randy chooses the second option, of course.

As he reveals to doubtful JOY and DARNELL later, however, his main concern looking after Earl is to get his older brother better so he can start taking care of things on his Karma list himself. In fact, that’s what Randy becomes preoccupied with — identifying those past trespasses on the list that Earl can rectify while still comatose.

After buying a pimp’s pimped-out wheelchair from prostitute PATTY, Randy first determines that Earl can make amends to DERRICK STONE, a fellow trailer park resident who had a 9-to-5 job, until the Hickey boys got him fired when they buried his car under a mountain of dirt, making him late for work.

Why did they do that? Because the noise Derrick’s car made when he started it each weekday morning kept them from sleeping to their normal wake-up time of 5pm. Randy leaves Earl in the back of the car to help Derrick use the carpool lane to get to work faster, unaware that Derrick sold the vehicle to a woman in the trailer park after they buried it and he lost his job and girlfriend, who didn’t want to be involved with a slacker.

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Original Air Date: April 10, 2008

Still in a Coma

Following EARL and BILLIE’s double car accident, Earl remains in a coma in the hospital. RANDY has already learned that his brother’s health will improve if he crosses things off on his Karma list for him, so Randy arrives at the hospital to determine which item he should tackle next. Since all Earl does is drool these days, the only way for him to choose the next item is by drooling on the list. His spit lands on “Stole a motorcycle,” to Randy’s great dismay.

Earl and Randy Take a Crime Walk

One day, Earl and Randy were out taking a so-called “crime walk,” scoping out stuff to steal, when they came across a motorcycle in the lot of a garage. The keys were still in it and the garage employees, the Teutul family from TLC’s American Chopper, were off somewhere arguing and distracted, so Earl and Randy hopped on, drove away, and proceeded to get blackout drunk on beer and booze in a park. The next day, they woke up on a school bus full of students, and Randy can’t remember how they got there or where they left the stolen ride.

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Original Air Date: April 3, 2008

BILLIE (Guest Star Alyssa Milano) is in the room right next to EARL’s at Camden County Hospital, and while he’s in a coma, his dream TV World has created a new theme for his sitcom The Hickeys. It basically revolves around his blissful marriage to Billie, which annoying RANDY, JOY, DARNELL, and CATALINA constantly interrupt.

In real life, the gang feels Earl’s predicament is their fault, and they decide to draw him out of his coma by enticing him with new stimuli. Randy tries bacon, Joy boobs, Darnell postcards of foreign places, and Catalina a celebrity magazine with current events about quasi-stars and wannabes. When those don’t work, they try singing to him together and ultimately lighting a row of firecrackers on his chest.

Although there’s no visible impact on Earl in reality, in his dream world, he wakes up and goes into the kitchen to find bacon from Paris — Hilton, not the country — who only says “That’s hot” repeatedly. Stoopid.

Frustrated, Randy asks God what he should do, and the response is to go see a kid faith healer named GERALD who’s called God’s Little Finger. The little guy is the real deal — Randy and Joy saw him cure some stranger’s blindness and heal Earl’s hurt leg a while ago. He was also about to heal another person when Joy jumped in at the last moment to get the gigantic zit on her forehead cured instead.

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Original Air Date: April 3, 2008

After NBC Universal CEO JEFF ZUCKER gives what he probably thinks is a funny brief recap of the last episode, “Bad Earl,” the show gets down to business.

Lying on the ground unconscious while medical help arrives, EARL’s mind does what he trained it to do as a child when his parents would argue — retreat to a sitcom dream world where he’s the star and everything’s hunky dory because problems are always solved within a half-hour. This time, the imaginary world is like the set of Leave It to Beaver, without the kids, and Earl, dressed like Mr. Rogers in a cardigan, is married to BILLIE (Guest Star Alyssa Milano).

Meanwhile, in reality at the scene of the accident, the driver who hit Billie has called it in, although he claims to be just a passerby. Then RANDY steals the ambulance to rush Earl to the hospital when Billie is driven away first and the EMTs don’t react as quickly as he believes they should for his brother.

As Randy rushes Earl to the hospital in the stolen ambulance, they pass by JOY, DARNELL, and CATALINA stranded alongside the road. Their car ran out of oil, and instead of filling it up properly, Joy sprayed in a mixture of regular and butter Pam spray. Stoopid.

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Apparently, the gang wasn’t too successful reviving Earl on the previous episode of My Name Is Earl because he’s still unconscious when this one, “Stole a Motorcycle,” kicks off. Fortunately, his brother Randy picks up on a weird thing (as he typically does) and then runs with it to help improve Earl’s health.

Earl’s not doing as badly as everyone around him believes, however, because he’s wrapped up in a dream world where he and Billie (Guest Star Alyssa Milano) are blissfully wed. It’s about time Mr. Karma scored in his love life, even if everything is just imagined.

The Teutul family from the TLC series American Chopper also appears.

My Name Is Earl airs Thursdays on NBC at 8pm EST.

What have we here? It looks like My Name Is Earl is back in business, with an extended hourlong return, no less!

On the two-part, supersize post-strike premiere “I Won’t Die with a Little Help from My Friends,” the series picks up after the car accident that felled Earl and his new love interest Billie (Guest Star Alyssa Milano) at the end of the January episode “Bad Earl.”

Earl is now in a coma, and it’s up to the usual suspects — namely, Randy, Joy, Darnell, and Catalina — to make sure he doesn’t leave this world forever. Can the gang do it?

I don’t know. Maybe the real healer will be Earl’s dream featuring hotel heiress Paris Hilton. Nightmares like that should wake up just about anybody.

My Name Is Earl will air Thursdays on NBC at 8pm EST after this week’s special post-strike premiere, which also begins at 8pm.