SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald
AUTHOR: Michael Idato
DATE: December 8, 2008
With the hit sitcom Two And A Half Men to his name, you'd think writer-producer Chuck Lorre would have had a leg up when it came to selling his latest comedy, The Big Bang Theory, to a television network. Not so, he says. "Nothing is different, you still have to deliver the best pilot. They don't have to be nice to me because they already have Two and A Half Men. Once they own the show, people like me are expendable. The actors are not, but me, yes."
Lorre says The Big Bang Theory, a comedy about "two twentysomething socially inept prodigies" and their neighbor, a socially adept, intellectually average girl, was successfully pitched because it was "just bent enough away from young people hanging out together".
The series stars Johnny Galecki (Roseanne) as Leonard Hofstadter and Jim Parsons (Garden State) as Sheldon Cooper, flatmates and friends with a combined IQ of 360 (173 to the former, 187 to the latter). Kaley Cuoco (8 Simple Rules) plays Penny, the pretty free spirit who transforms their ordinary lives (typical evening's recreation: a game of Klingon Boggle) when she moves in next door.
Lorre believes great actors cast themselves in roles, recalling the immediate impact of Galecki, best known as Roseanne's David Healy, when he read for the role.
"People like Johnny Galecki and, for example, Jon Cryer [from Two And A Half Men], when they walk in the room and audition, the difference is so striking that no one need explain it to you," Lorre says. "They walk out and you have this warm glow in your chest because you know you have a show. You know you're in the presence of something special."
There is a gentle tone to The Big Bang Theory that sets it aside from a typical US sitcom. The episodes, which take their titles from plays on scientific theorems, exploit the obvious - the boys' social ineptitude and Leonard's growing affection for Penny - but with uncharacteristic depth for the genre.
The series was developed for more than two years before it was in the kind of shape that made Lorre and the US network CBS confident enough to proceed with a series. As a single sentence concept, Lorre says, it crystalized into something better than other ideas on the table because he cared for the characters.
"It's a gut check for me," he says. "It's an empathic reaction. The idea worth pursuing is the idea that you might care for the characters. If you don't connect with them on an emotional level, then it doesn't really matter, you're just watching jokes or funny situations and that isn't enough."
Lorre remains executive producer of both The Big Bang Theory and Two And A Half Men and says his newborn offers him welcome challenges. "It's a different tone, it's writing from a wholly different perspective and the enthusiasm of a young cast," he says. "At the same time, I love my firstborn and I am still very close to the cast and crew of Two And A Half Men. We've got more than 100 episodes under our belts, babies have been born, weddings, divorces, heartache . . . and this family has remained intact for five years."