Chuck Lorre's Vanity on Display

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Chuck Lorre

For the past decade and a half, Chuck Lorre’s sitcoms havebrought viewers a little something extra – whether they noticed it or not.

“When I was growing up, record albums had liner notes, wherethey added stuff that made the whole thing cooler,” Lorre remembers.  And so, rather than finishing off each of hisepisodes with a static production company logo, Lorre decided that “each showwould have something to read at the end – if you cared to.”
Now, after a full generation of Lorre’s fans has squinted tospy his words on their sometimes wobbly screens – remember VCRs? – the prolificwriter/producer of Two and a Half Men,Big Bang Theory and Mike & Molly has compiled his nearly400 mini-essays into a new coffee table book, What Doesn’t Kill Us Makes Us Bitter (Simon & Schuster, $100)

In his vanity card following the November 2 episode of Big Bang Theory, Lorre referred viewers to his web site, where he could blast Mitt Romney without having to have his message approved -- or more likely rejected -- by his network's censors.  The contents of that card, #397, earned lots of press, showing that like me, people really care what Lorre has to say on these things.  That's why this past summer, during the semi-annual Television Critics Association convention in Beverly Hills, I caught up with Lorre for the following exclusive interview, to find out how it feels to see his Bitter experience turning out so sweet.

Must-Hear TV:  What has it meant tohave that small amount of network airtime each week, to express what’s on yourmind?Lorre:  My vanity cards are on the air at the end of the show for maybe a second.  But it’s been a nice opportunity toexperiment with writing something other than a script, these little essaysabout things that would never have found their way onto the page.
MHTV:   Is it therapeutic to have a way to get thingsoff your chest?Lorre:  The only way to call it “therapy” would be if one might sayI was getting better.  It’s just a chanceto write in a way that hopefully is amusing to somebody.
MHTV:   Obviously they havebeen.  When did you notice they werecatching on?Lorre:  About 14 or 15 years ago, when I was doing Dharma & Greg, I noticed that therestarted to be web sites with my name on them. The late ‘90s on the Internet were the wild wild west.  I realized I could possibly lose control overmy own writing.  So, defensively, I hadto create a web site of my own in order to maintain some kind of control.
MHTV:  Proceeds from thebook benefit your charity, the Dharma-Grace Foundation.  What is its focus?Lorre:  I started the Dharma-Grace Foundation in 1999, to funnelfunds into the Venice [Calif.] Family Clinic, which provides free healthcare toanyone who walks in the door.  It’s ameaningful organization to me, having been without healthcare earlier times inmy life.  I know what that feels like –it’s a frightening thing.  Now the Foundationalso distributes money to other organizations that seem like they are doinggood work, in education as well as healthcare.
MHTV:  Some of the cardsare appearing in the book for the first time, having been originallycensored.  Why weren’t they originallyallowed to air?Lorre:  There are about a dozen of them, and there were differentreasons each time.  Sometimes they wereconsidered risqué, and sometimes the politics were not acceptable.  But I very rarely get political.  I try to honor the fact that CBS is not inthe business of broadcasting my political opinions.  So I’ve been very careful, and I try to seethe big picture and avoid any controversy. Lots of different people like to watch Two and a Half Men, Big BangTheory and Mike and Molly.  They’re coming to my house as guests, and itwould be rude to use that access to offend them.
MHTV:  You startedpresenting the cards on Dharma & Gregand Grace Under Fire, both of whichaired on ABC.  Has there been anydifference in doing the vanity cards on ABC versus now on CBS?Lorre:  No, both networks are very nervous about [the cards] ingeneral, and they scrutinize them.  Iimagine both networks would prefer that they didn’t exist at all.  But CBS has been patient and reluctantlytrudged forward with these things. There’s no upside to them.  They’rein the business of selling ad time, and making money, and vanity cards are nota profit source.  But my whole argumenthas always been, if they bring in just one more viewer who might be curious,that’s got to be good for CBS.
MHTV:  It is a smartinvestment – a random production company logo isn’t going to bring inanybody.  So why not write somethingfunny that might grab viewers?Lorre:  With DVRs, every second of television time is now availableto you.  Literally, every second can befrozen forever.  So it’s changed the waytime works in television.  It’s madeevery second more valuable or more problematic – your choice.
MHTV:  You have three showson the air on CBS, bearing your name each week. Do you still get that thrill of authorship, seeing your name on thisbook?Lorre:  It’s really gratifying any time you make something up and itbecomes a reality.  On Big Bang Theory, Wolowitz went intospace.  To walk onto the stage, and seethe Soyuz space capsule!  Made of balsawood, but it was still there.  It wasstartling and immensely gratifying. There was a guy with hammers and nails making it real.
MHTV:  And now there’ssomeone with a printing press making it real. Is it the same feeling?Lorre:  Very much so.  It’svery gratifying.  And the best news is,that it’s already written.  The best partof writing is having written.
MHTV:  Some of your morefamous vanity cards over the years have mentioned conflicts with coworkers andcostars.  Are those in the book?Lorre:  They’re all there.
MHTV:  So we can relive allkinds of sitcom history by this book, whether for good or for bad?Lorre:  That’s very wisely put. I wrote the cards at times in my life when that was the only way I knewhow to articulate my feelings, my frustrations and my fears.   My attempts at being funny sometimesfail.   But there they are.