Hello, Ten Years Ago

Robert sent me an article yesterday on Chuck Lorre's vanity cards - something we've read and chatted about for quite some time now. Chuck Lorre is a big guy in Sitcomland, Hollywood; he was a writer on Roseanne, and created Cybil, Grace Under Fire, Dharma & Greg (well, co-created at least), Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory. He has well-documented his conetentious relationships with the leading ladies on the first three programs I mentioned - when CBS did their switch-a-roo with the writers of Men and CSI, Chuck Lorre wrote Katey Sagal's (pointedly murdered) CSI character as an amalgam of Roseanne, Cybil and Bret) - and has been tacking personal little essays (where most companies insert their vanity cards) at the end of his shows for years now. I first noticed them on Dharma and Robert and I used to be avid pause-rs of his cards at the end of Men. Anyway, when Robert saw this article in the Wall Street Journal about the cards, he passed it along to me. It's a pretty lengthy article, so I won't repost the entire thing here but here's a little excerpt:

This season, which was interrupted by a months-long writers' strike, more of Mr. Lorre's messages focused on behind-the-scenes negotiations between television's creative and corporate forces. In a recent script for "The Big Bang Theory," Mr. Lorre included a reference to a fictional Catholic priest molesting a boy. CBS insisted the reference be removed, out of concern that it might offend certain viewers. (The line was changed, to refer to a "chaplain.") In a vanity card that he wanted to run at the end of the episode, Mr. Lorre shared the censored reference, explaining how and why he fought to keep it in the script.

After submitting that card to the network, Mr. Lorre says he received a call from Nancy Tellem, president of the CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment group. "What are you thinking?" she said. A spokesman for Ms. Tellem confirms this account.

"You know you're in trouble when someone that high up the ladder bothers to call," says Mr. Lorre.

That card never aired. Instead, he wrote a new one for the show that read: "Just two episodes back from the strike and I've already managed to write a vanity card that is completely unacceptable to the good folks at CBS." He posted the outlawed version on his own Web site.

"We sort of imagine Chuck sitting around saying, 'What can I try to get away with this week?'" says Chris Ender, a CBS spokesman.

Now, I think it's great that someone finally noticed ol' Chuck's episodic blurbs (I actually saw Chuck in the flesh when Robert and I went to a taping of Men - I know, I'm special... and you know me!) but... Hello, ten years ago!! The man's been doing this for ages! Sure, their a bit more snarky and feature more corporate commentary these days but c'mon, people! Old news!! And, not necessarily news Chuck is uber-thrilled about, as this card points out: