8:00pm – Friday, August 31 on FOUR
My Name Is Earl’s Jason Lee brings some ’80s glam into the lives of the Chance family in Raising Hope, screening on Friday, August 31 st at 8pm on FOUR. Lee joins the hit comedy as musician Smokey Floyd, who headlines the local market’s “Grocery-Palooza” concert, much to the thrill of Burt (Garret Dillahunt).
“Jason plays this sort of aging, falling-apart, former hair-band lead singer,” says Martha Plimpton, who portrays Virginia Chance on the series. “He comes to town to help rescue my husband [Burt], who’s always wanted to play in a band.”
The guest appearance reunites Lee with Raising Hope creator Greg Garcia, who also created My Name Is Earl.
“There are probably 30 crew members on this that worked on My Name is Earl and being with Greg [Garcia] at the monitors, it literally feels like I’m on the set of Earl,” Lee explains.
“It’s sort of like a Kevin Smith thing now with Greg,” Lee continues, referring to the Clerks director. One of Lee’s first starring roles came in Smith’s 1995 film Mallrats and he has since appeared in six of Smith’s directorial efforts.
“It’s nice to have what feels like a group of go-to people that feel like they are your friends outside of the business.” Having spent hours in the makeup chair to get Smokey’s worn-out look, Garcia says Lee was the logical choice for the aging rocker.
“Early in the process, we looked at having an actual musician play this role, but because the character is not very flattering, nobody was really interested in making fun of themselves that much,” he says.
“Then we made it a fictional character and immediately I said, ‘Let’s see if Jason will do it because he’ll be absolutely hysterical’.”
Make sure not to miss him in all his ageing rocker glory when Jason Lee guest stars in Raising Hope, screening on Friday, August 31 st at 8pm on FOUR.
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