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Back to #2564 - Chuck Lorre, with Chuck Lorre.

How Did Two and a Half Men Get the Big Bang Theory a Second Pilot?

Chuck Lorre said the success of Two and a Half Men granted him the freedom to take a couple of tries at getting The Big Bang Theory right. He said they failed at first and made a lot of mistakes.

Two and a Half Men was so successful that CBS gave him unbelievable leeway to make decisions and to do the work over again, including the pilot. He said nobody gets a do-over. They got a do-over on The Big Bang Theory pilot. He said it never happens. They got one, and it worked out.

Transcript

#2564 - Chuck Lorre ·

The Joe Rogan Experience

More from this episode

  1. How Did Chuck Lorre See the Big Bang Theory Characters?Joe Rogan called The Big Bang Theory unusual, and he called the lead a genius. Chuck Lorre said that was not his way in.
  2. How Did Young Sheldon Stand Without the Big Bang Theory?Chuck Lorre said Young Sheldon worked on Netflix. A whole generation of kids watched Young Sheldon and had never seen The Big Bang Theory.
  3. Did the Big Bang Theory Ever Use a Laugh Track?Chuck Lorre said the shows have never used a laugh track. For 40 years they have been accused of one, and he said they never used it.
  4. Why Did Hollywood Dismiss the Big Bang Theory?Chuck Lorre said The Big Bang Theory was a huge hit in Germany, in Mexico, and in Brazil. He set Brentwood apart from that response.
  5. Why Did a Fan Cry When She Met Jim Parsons?Chuck Lorre tells a story from his book about an early Comic-Con for The Big Bang Theory. Thousands of people camped overnight to see the panel.
  6. Why Did Young Sheldon Become a Story About His Family?Chuck Lorre said Young Sheldon became a show about the family around an odd child with normal parents. The father is a football coach.
  7. Were the Early Two and a Half Men Years Sober?Joe Rogan said Chuck Lorre has worked with some of the craziest people of all time.
  8. What Changed for Charlie Sheen in Season Eight of Two and a Half Men?Joe Rogan said he had not known that Charlie Sheen was supposedly sober for most of the early run. Chuck Lorre said that as far as he knew, Charlie was.
  9. Why Did Young Sheldon Work With an All-new Cast?Joe Rogan said the miraculous chemistry of All in the Family was gone, and the same thing happened with Joey from Friends.
  10. Why Did Chuck Lorre Take the Roseanne Rip-off?After Chuck Lorre left Roseanne, the owners of that show brought an idea that was strangely like Roseanne: a heavyset unhappy housewife, a domineering…
  11. How Did a Trip to Elgin Lead Chuck Lorre to Brett Butler?Chuck Lorre said the next assignment was a show about a single mom. On Frannie's Turn he had wanted the lead to leave her husband and live with her daughter.
  12. What Horrible Truth Did Success Teach Chuck Lorre?Chuck Lorre said actors and comics can be damaged in a certain way, succeed, and still learn a horrible truth at two o'clock in the morning.
  13. What Did Fame Do to Brett Butler on Grace Under Fire?Chuck Lorre said Grace Under Fire was in 1993, when there were only four channels and cable was not where people watched sitcoms.
  14. Why Did Chuck Lorre Write Sitcom: a Memoir?Chuck Lorre said the first page of the book is that if he had been able to be better, he would have.
  15. Why Did Chuck Lorre Buy Dianetics?Chuck Lorre said he bought Dianetics on a late-night television commercial and did not know what the book was. He did not understand the book was Scientology.
  16. Why Did Whitney Cummings Tie Stage Fright to Tribal Exile?Joe Rogan said the worst thing a million years ago in a tribe was getting thrown out. A person who gets kicked out dies.
  17. Why Does Chuck Lorre Say People Will Die to Protect a False Belief?Chuck Lorre said a belief works as a tent pole.
  18. What Did Norman Lear Tell Chuck Lorre About Running Two Shows?Chuck Lorre said that when he started The Big Bang Theory he was barely keeping up with Two and a Half Men, at 60 hours a week, and he was about to have a…
  19. When Did Chuck Lorre Trust Himself on Two and a Half Men?Joe Rogan asked whether running both shows at once ever felt like too much. Chuck Lorre said it did, always, the entire time.

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