Teacher Earl - S1-E5
Trivia: One of the lamps stolen by Ralph is the 'special prize' leg lamp won by the father in A Christmas Story (1983).
Trivia: Most of Catalina's speeches in Spanish (the ones that are not translated) are actually actress Nadine Velasquez speaking to the camera, addressing the viewers. For example, in episode 1-11 (Barn Burner), although it appears that she is throwing insults at Joy, she is actually saying "I want to take this moment to thank our Latino audience for watching. And for those of you who can understand me but who are not Latino, I want to commend you for learning a second language".
Trivia: At the end, Earl's father says that he talked to John Sheppard earlier that day. Earl's father is played by Beau Bridges who portrays General Hank Landry on Stargate SG-1. John Sheppard is the main character of Stargate: Atlantis, SG-1's sister show.
Trivia: Randy fills in the bubbles on a GED test form in the shape of a sailboat. This is a reference to Ethan Suplee's role in Mallrats, where he played a character that could not see a sailboat hidden in a picture.
Van Hickey - S2-E5
Trivia: Strong Friends link with this episode - it guest stars Beth Grant (the woman who gave Phoebe the soda can with a thumb in it), Larry Hankin (Mr. Heckles) and Giovanni Ribisi (Frank, Phoebe's brother).
Number One - S1-E24
Trivia: Show creator Greg Garcia makes a cameo in this episode as Too Tall Maggie's husband, complete with fake moustache and wig. He also appears in the gay bar in the first episode as the man Randy snags into dancing. According to the commentary track, this is the same character leading a double life. (00:16:25)
Trivia: Willie the one-eyed mailman is played by Bill Suplee, real father of Ethan Suplee.
No Heads and a Duffle Bag - S3-E17
Trivia: The drug dealer calls Dad (played by Beau Bridges) "Dude" and "Lebowski" an obvious fun reference to the character played by Beau Bridge's brother Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski.
Larceny Of A Kitty Cat - S2-E4
Trivia: In the part where Randy is listening to the love song and Earl is standing behind the car, at 6:27 we can see the actor playing Earl starting to laugh. It's only a second (the rest probably got cut) but it is pretty cute seeing him laugh like that. It must have been really funny filming this scene. :)
Answer: The premise of the show is he atones for mistakes he did in the past. Winning a car for Joy probably atones for something he did wrong regarding her in the past.
Rob245