Zoneboy
04-26-2009, 08:36 PM
Link (http://lohud.com/article/20090424/ENTERTAINMENT/904240305/1164)
Many observers declared the sitcom dead when "Everybody Loves Raymond" signed off the air in 2005 and creator Phil Rosenthal, who grew up in New City, joked that it was the end of laughter everywhere.
But somebody forgot to tell Chuck Lorre, whose "Two and a Half Men" eased into "Raymond's" spot as the No.1 comedy and has remained there since.
"I never bought into that," Lorre said." There's no reason to think the genre doesn't work."
Last month, CBS and Warner Bros. signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Lorre to produce three more seasons of "Men" and two more of "The Big Bang Theory," a solid hit in its sophomore season.
"I think Chuck has a great mind for stories and characters and a great sense of humor," said actor Johnny Galecki of "Big Bang." "It's got to be true to the characters and it's got to be very, very funny. And those sound like two simple rules but they're really not."
Not everything in Lorre Land has been jokes and laugh tracks. His career, like his life, has faced many challenges and disappointments, which he admits he didn't handle well at times, turning to alcohol and becoming depressed. His reputation as an angry man still dogs him, even though these days he seems softer and more satisfied.
Lorre, 56, grew up near Syracuse, and his first love was music. He was moved by Bob Dylan's "magical musical journeys" and, he said, the "little worlds with characters and viewpoints" created by Randy Newman.
"I also saw Jimi Hendrix light a guitar on fire when I was 17 and that kind of explosive power - what rock 'n' roll can do - it made a big impact," he said. "Music was everything back then. TV was nothing.
"TV was 'Bewitched' and 'My Mother the Car.' When you had the Stones, the Beatles, Dylan, Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Airplane, The Doors and The Who - television? Come on!"
He spent a decade touring as a guitarist-for-hire until he had children and needed a stable income and health insurance. He believed he could make it as a comedy writer, so he wrote scripts and begged for pitch meetings.
That Lorre began his TV career in 1987, when he was 35, speaks volumes about his work ethic. His list of credits is long and storied, having written, produced and/or created eight sitcoms in 22 years. Five were considered hits, including "Roseanne," on which he got his big break in 1990.
The product, he said, of a "childhood bereft of love," Lorre - whose birth name was Chuck Levine - has been divorced twice and doesn't like talking about those times publicly anymore, unless he's writing about them in his popular vanity cards shown at the end of each show.
It's a tradition he began on "Dharma & Greg," using the few seconds of air time that other producers use to display company titles as a journal. They're also on his Web site, ChuckLorre.com.
"With his vanity cards, I think Chuck has exposed his psyche pretty clearly," Bill Prady, co-creator of "Big Bang," said. "I would say that Chuck is a sweet curmudgeon. He has mellowed. ... there's a genuine sweetness to Chuck, which I think, at times, he works to conceal."
Then again, Prady, who was a writer-producer on "Dharma," has been around only for the professional good times. That comedy marked a sea change for Lorre, who had spent eight years working on emotionally explosive sets with Roseanne Barr, Cybill Shepherd and Brett Butler.
"I used to liken it to trying to produce a sitcom in Hitler's bunker in 1945," said Lee Aronsohn, who co-created "Men" and worked with Lorre on "Cybill" and "Grace Under Fire."
But Lorre, who was fired from "Roseanne" and "Cybill" and quit "Grace" over creative differences with Butler, doesn't cast all of the blame on the actresses.
"If you're in a really difficult environment over a sustained period of time, you become part of the problem," Lorre said. "You become an emotional wreck and you're hard to work with and you're anxious and you're angry. Insanity is contagious. But so is sanity."
Lorre has enjoyed professional and courteous relationships with the cast of "Men" since the beginning, and the same holds for "Big Bang."
"I am immensely grateful for how it is on these shows because I know how unhappy people can be in success," he said. "It's nice to be around people that are successful and grateful."
On May 17, his alma mater SUNY Potsdam, has invited him to give the commencement address. It should make for an interesting ceremony.
"Well, I think I'll point out that when I was there I was told I'd never make it as a writer," Lorre said. "That might be the kickoff point of the speech."
Many observers declared the sitcom dead when "Everybody Loves Raymond" signed off the air in 2005 and creator Phil Rosenthal, who grew up in New City, joked that it was the end of laughter everywhere.
But somebody forgot to tell Chuck Lorre, whose "Two and a Half Men" eased into "Raymond's" spot as the No.1 comedy and has remained there since.
"I never bought into that," Lorre said." There's no reason to think the genre doesn't work."
Last month, CBS and Warner Bros. signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Lorre to produce three more seasons of "Men" and two more of "The Big Bang Theory," a solid hit in its sophomore season.
"I think Chuck has a great mind for stories and characters and a great sense of humor," said actor Johnny Galecki of "Big Bang." "It's got to be true to the characters and it's got to be very, very funny. And those sound like two simple rules but they're really not."
Not everything in Lorre Land has been jokes and laugh tracks. His career, like his life, has faced many challenges and disappointments, which he admits he didn't handle well at times, turning to alcohol and becoming depressed. His reputation as an angry man still dogs him, even though these days he seems softer and more satisfied.
Lorre, 56, grew up near Syracuse, and his first love was music. He was moved by Bob Dylan's "magical musical journeys" and, he said, the "little worlds with characters and viewpoints" created by Randy Newman.
"I also saw Jimi Hendrix light a guitar on fire when I was 17 and that kind of explosive power - what rock 'n' roll can do - it made a big impact," he said. "Music was everything back then. TV was nothing.
"TV was 'Bewitched' and 'My Mother the Car.' When you had the Stones, the Beatles, Dylan, Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Airplane, The Doors and The Who - television? Come on!"
He spent a decade touring as a guitarist-for-hire until he had children and needed a stable income and health insurance. He believed he could make it as a comedy writer, so he wrote scripts and begged for pitch meetings.
That Lorre began his TV career in 1987, when he was 35, speaks volumes about his work ethic. His list of credits is long and storied, having written, produced and/or created eight sitcoms in 22 years. Five were considered hits, including "Roseanne," on which he got his big break in 1990.
The product, he said, of a "childhood bereft of love," Lorre - whose birth name was Chuck Levine - has been divorced twice and doesn't like talking about those times publicly anymore, unless he's writing about them in his popular vanity cards shown at the end of each show.
It's a tradition he began on "Dharma & Greg," using the few seconds of air time that other producers use to display company titles as a journal. They're also on his Web site, ChuckLorre.com.
"With his vanity cards, I think Chuck has exposed his psyche pretty clearly," Bill Prady, co-creator of "Big Bang," said. "I would say that Chuck is a sweet curmudgeon. He has mellowed. ... there's a genuine sweetness to Chuck, which I think, at times, he works to conceal."
Then again, Prady, who was a writer-producer on "Dharma," has been around only for the professional good times. That comedy marked a sea change for Lorre, who had spent eight years working on emotionally explosive sets with Roseanne Barr, Cybill Shepherd and Brett Butler.
"I used to liken it to trying to produce a sitcom in Hitler's bunker in 1945," said Lee Aronsohn, who co-created "Men" and worked with Lorre on "Cybill" and "Grace Under Fire."
But Lorre, who was fired from "Roseanne" and "Cybill" and quit "Grace" over creative differences with Butler, doesn't cast all of the blame on the actresses.
"If you're in a really difficult environment over a sustained period of time, you become part of the problem," Lorre said. "You become an emotional wreck and you're hard to work with and you're anxious and you're angry. Insanity is contagious. But so is sanity."
Lorre has enjoyed professional and courteous relationships with the cast of "Men" since the beginning, and the same holds for "Big Bang."
"I am immensely grateful for how it is on these shows because I know how unhappy people can be in success," he said. "It's nice to be around people that are successful and grateful."
On May 17, his alma mater SUNY Potsdam, has invited him to give the commencement address. It should make for an interesting ceremony.
"Well, I think I'll point out that when I was there I was told I'd never make it as a writer," Lorre said. "That might be the kickoff point of the speech."