Chuck Lorre Talks About The Magic Behind Casting 'The Big Bang Theory'

[Brian Damage]

AWARDSLINE: I wonder, is it better to create shows around established stars like Charlie [Sheen] and Cybill Shepherd or come up with a great concept like The Big Bang Theory and let the casts become stars? You’ve obviously had both experiences.
LORRE: Well, they’re both valid approaches to development, to try and find the essence of an established star. Capture a voice that already exists and fictionalize it the way that makes it palatable and makes it part of an ensemble. That’s a nice Chuck Lorrething to do but I enjoyed doing it. It kind of gives you a little bit of a leg up in a way ’cause you’re starting with a voice in your head. And the other way to go is what we had with The Big Bang Theory, which was also a wonderful experience and feel the false starts and miscues and attempts by [co-creator/writer/EP] Bill [Prady] and I to find these characters and that’s a journey into darkness because you really don’t know – you’re hit by lighting one afternoon when you’re sitting in a casting room and Jim Parsons walks in.

And, you know, then there’s that casting moment that is a wonderful experience where it’s literally like feeling your hair is blowing back because you’re really okay, you’re in the presence of someone remarkable and can we be this lucky? It was a great experience when that comes together when Jim and Simon [Helberg]walked in the door and Kunal [Nyyar] walked in the door and we were fortunate enough to get Kaley [Cuoco] and Johnny [Galecki], who I’d worked with when he was 12 years old on Roseanne. He was really the rock that we were building on.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/emmy...y/#more-287581