Raising Hope/Trivia


 * Actor Allusion: In the Episode "A Germ of a Story" when watching home movie from Virginia's childhood, Burt says Maw Maw looks like the neighbor from The Mary Tyler Moore Show - Cloris Leachman's character on that show.
 * Virginia calls the whipped husband played by Ethan Suplee from the episode "Baby Monitor", "...a skinny version of the dude from Mallrats." Ethan Suplee did play that character in the movie.
 * Smokey Floyd, played by Jason Lee A.K.A Earl Hickey, calls Barney (Gregg Binkley) "Kenny" by accident. Guess the name of the character Binkley played in My Name Is Earl...
 * Role Association: Cromartie cleans pools now?
 * Or for Burn Notice fans, psychopath Simon Escher apparently cleans pools. Still quirky and keen on mischief and self-interest though.
 * If you watched Life, you were probably wondering how a Russian mobster had such a convincing American accent before realizing he probably just faked a Russian one.
 * Fans of Garcia's last show, My Name Is Earl, will recognize Earl's gay friend Kenny and stolen goods fencer Jasper as the supermarket manager and a cop on TV, respectively.
 * And, to no ones surprise, Jason Lee (Earl himself) finally appeared as washed up "rock star" Smokey Floyd.
 * Add another former Earl actor cameo, with Eddie Steeples (Darnell AKA Crabman) as the gas reader in the funny hat.
 * And the pizza man that had to reposes Burt's sausage
 * Apparently Joy and Randy are now married.
 * No mention of Maw Maw being the grandmother in another dysfunctional family?
 * Steven Hyde was Lucy's first victim. (Hilariously enough, the actors are married in real life.)
 * Burt's parents are Colonel Steve Austin and Shirley Partridge.
 * Shout Out: After the news report about Lucy being a boyfriend-killer, the news anchor begins to do a lighter side story about "a small-time crook with a long list of wrongs he was making amends for has finally finished, and you'll never guess how it ended!"
 * The opening credits are also a sendup of See Spot Run books.
 * Shelly gets her dead tooth fixed after watching Maureen Ponderosa getting made fun of for also having a dead tooth.
 * In the Thanksgiving episode, the owner of the store answers his phone with "Go for Barney."
 * Burt's news report on him clobbering Smokey Floyd is auto-tuned and turned into a viral hit.
 * In Baby Moniter, Virginia mentions Modern Family.
 * Burt and Virginia write their live on their own plan on a bag from "Chubby's Burgers" one of the many businesses owned by Richard Chubby (and later Little Chubby) from My Name Is Earl
 * In the season finale, in a flashback, Jim watches one of Ernie Belcher's fetish videos (the one where Joy repeatedly kicks a guy in the groin) from the two-parter "Inside Probe" of My Name Is Earl.
 * During "Prodigy" Burt and Virginia note the similarities to an episode of Family Guy, because Jimmy can only play the piano when he's drunk. Except for the final twist that.
 * One of the movie posters in "It's A Hopeful Life" is My Name Is Earl, The Movie
 * The penultimate episode of season 2 features the return of "Inside Probe" from My Name Is Earl, but paradoxically, one of the commercial breaks has an advertisement for the My Name Is Earl TV show.