Just noticed this while replaying this week's installment of "The Big Bang Theory" on, yes, a DVR. Co-creator Chuck Lorre's trademark end-credit vanity card has a stark, simple message this week that doesn't take a quick-trigger finger on the pause button to read. Peel slowly and see...er, click here and see. (Sorry, Lorre's always reminded me of a bit of Lou Reed.)
Sad that the strike is likely to exact a heavy toll on this charming new CBS comedy that deserves every bit of ratings momentum it has built up during the past eight weeks. (It's multicamera and has a theme song -- what's not to like?) As "Big Bang" costar Jim Parsons' Sheldon character observed in a recent seg: "What fresh hell is this?" --Cynthia Littleton
I did notice the message while watching the show, I was quite surprised and happy when I saw it, I wonder how he managed to get it past the network.
Posted by: Inar | November 14, 2007 at 02:01 AM
Encouraged by your description of the show as "charming," I just logged on to CBS.com and watched a clip.
Here's what I saw:
Fade in on some nerdy guy sitting at his desk, going through the contents of his wallet. Immediately, the laugh track kicks in. Why? Nothing funny has happened -- it's a guy going through his wallet. And yet this two-and-a-half seconds of screen action must be sweetened, lest the audience decide in that brief moment that they're not being sufficiently entertained.
And then when the actors actually start talking, nothing they say is very funny either, and yet the laugh track is in absolute hysterics.
And people wonder why the sitcom is dead.
The sitcom is dead because of people like Chuck Lorre, not because of anything Nick Counter will ever say or do.
Please stop calling crap like this "charming." It's not charming. It's crap.
Posted by: Jake | November 14, 2007 at 07:29 AM
"What fresh hell is this?" is how poet/prolific cynic & wit Dorothy Parker used to answer her telephone.
Posted by: Steph | November 14, 2007 at 07:33 AM
Interestingly enough, there's also an oddly prescient vanity card from sometime in the middle of Dharma and Greg (presumably around 2000?): http://www.chucklorre.com/index.php?p=76
Posted by: seasleepy | November 14, 2007 at 11:43 AM
Uh, Jake, do you know which sitcoms Chuck Lorre has written for in his career? He's an old pro.
Roseanne: In my opinion, he wrote the funniest Roseanne episodes, including the ones where the Conner clan goes to Vegas and Jackie sleeps with Arnie.
Cybill: I think he wrote the pilot and several episodes of the first two seasons (when it was really good).
Grace Under Fire: Not a favorite of mine, but it was a decent show.
Dharma and Greg: Creator of perhaps the most underrated sitcom EVER. The reason it isn't held in higher esteem is because Lorre poked fun at both the right and left, which either side didn't like very much.
Two and a Half Men: Another underrated sitcom, although it's a hit. Anyone who has the brains to put the phenomenally talented Holland Taylor and Conchatta Farrell on a show together has my respect.
I haven't seen Big Bang Theory, so I can't give my impressions of it.
The vanity card at the end of Monday's "Two and a Half Men" also had "United We Stand" on it.
Posted by: C C | November 14, 2007 at 01:41 PM
CC: you're forgetting Venus on the Hard Drive. Some Chuck Lorre fan you turned out be.
Posted by: Jake | November 14, 2007 at 06:58 PM