Is TV's Earl working the Twelve Steps?

I've been re-watching one of my favorite sitcoms, My Name is Earl, lately and I've made an interesting observation. It appears the show's protagonist. Earl J. Hickey, a reformed petty thief, drunkard and general ne'er do well, is working his own version of the Twelve Steps, popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous and a host of other recovery groups.

The premise of the series is that Earl is trying to improve his lot in life by making a list of all his past transgressions and making amends for them with the help his not-so-bright brother Randy and a healthy dose of redneck humor.

The first clue that the Twelve Steps might be at the heart of this show's premise can be found in the title. It is customary in Twelve Step recovery groups for members to introduce themselves by first name (e.g., My name is ______ and I'm an alcoholic/addict/gambler/codependent/etc.) but the parallels run much deeper than that. Let's see how Earl's (mis)adventures with his list mesh with the Twelve Steps:

1. Came to the realization we were powerless over alcohol (or some other addiction), that our lives had become unmanageable.
In the pilot episode, Earl comes to a similar conclusion while laying in a hospital bed after being hit by a car only seconds after scratching off a $100,000 lottery ticket, paid for with funds acquired by picking someone's pocket in the men's room. He begins to put the pieces together and realizes his problems just might be his fault

2. Came to believe a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Earl has a similar epiphany while watching an interview show on TV. The host of the show, Carson Daly, mentions his belief in Karma--that if you do good things, good things will happen to you and if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you. Earl buys into this philosophy on the spot and decides if he doesn't change his life, Karma will eventually kill him.

3. Gave our will and our lives over to God as we understood him.
Earl indeed hands his will and his life over to his higher power, which he calls Karma, and dedicates himself full time to righting his past wrongs.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to ourselves, to God, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Became entirely ready to have God remove these shortcomings


7. Humbly asked God to remove these defects of character.
Earl appears to work steps 4, 5, 6, and 7 in rapid succession during the first episode.

8. Made a list of all people we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them
Earl's list is the very crux of the show's premise.

9. Made amends to such persons, except when to do so would injure them or others.
In each episode, Earl makes amends for one or more of his past transgressions, learning an important life lesson in the process.

10. Continued to take inventory and when were wrong, promptly admitted it.
Like most people in recovery, Earl has the occasional slip, but when this happens, he makes a concerted effort to avoid adding to his karmic debt by making immediate additions to his list and addressing them before the ink is completely dry.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to achieve a closer contact with our higher power, asking only for a better understanding of his will for us and the power to carry that out.
Earl invests significant time and energy trying to determine what Karma wants him to do next. He is open to all manner of signs and portents and when the appropriate path becomes apparent, he proceeds without hesitation.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we sought to bring the message of Alcoholics Anonymous (or some other 12-step recovery fellowship) to those who still suffer and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Hilarious as this show is, it quickly becomes obvious to the viewer that Earl's experience is transformative on a spiritual level. He becomes aware of and in tune with his higher power--Karma. While Earl is not shy about explaining his list and his mission to others, he isn't evangelical in his approach. To his credit, he lets others draw their own conclusions about whether it will work for them. In this respect, Earl is clearly following the 11th Tradition of AA, which espouses attraction over promotion. As for the last part, Earl consistently uses his belief in Karma to guide his daily actions. He frequently checks his baser impulses and then acts based on what he believes Karma would have him do.

I have no idea whether the show's creator, Greg Garica, is a member of a Twelve-Step fellowship or whether he consciously modeled Earl's quirky life journey on Twelve Step recovery, but the parallels are too obvious to ignore. Although Earl doesn't attend weekly meetings, pick up chips to mark milestones in his recovery, or sponsor new members, he arguably is working his own, unique, quirky, and hilariously entertaining version of the Twelve Steps. In the process, he is achieving his goal of living a better life. The moral to this story is that the Twelve Steps are for all of us, regardless of the nature of our character defects. Their wisdom is simple, and if applied honestly, they simply work.