TCA Press Tour: Todd Holland says ‘Sons of Tucson’ is the anti-’My Name is Earl’

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Fox’s ‘Sons of Tucson’ is a new comedy following three brothers who hire a slacker-turned-schemer to stand in as their father when the real one goes to prison.

It’s a premise not entirely unlike NBC’s recently canned ‘My Name Is Earl,’ which starred Jason Lee as a slacker hillbilly trying to make good.

But ‘Sons’ executive producer Todd Holland says, if anything, his new show is ‘the anti-’Earl.’ ‘

‘We heard about ‘Earl’ a lot’ while the show was being developed, he said. ‘So we really worked hard’ to distinguish it.

Holland said the show was much more a hybrid of his previous series ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ and ‘The Larry Sanders Show.’

‘Sons of Tucson’ stars Tyler Labine, who most recently starred in ‘Reaper,’ as the dad-for-hire. Matthew Levy, Frank Dolce and Benjamin Stockham play his surrogate sons.

Asked about the cancellation of ‘Reaper,’ Labine said the ‘writing was on the wall for a long time.’

‘I love that show. It was a real point of pride for me,’ he said. ‘I didn’t jump ship.’ He said he was ‘just being a smart actor’ when he took the next job.

‘Sons of Tucson’ premieres March 14 at 9:30 p.m.
-- Denise Martin