Since I happened upon Chuck Lorre’s “vanity cards” (which he puts at the end of his sitcoms), I’ve been “watching the credits” of “Mom” episodes (my current “Chuck Lorre Productions” sitcom on Netflix). The “vanity card” (#435) at the end of the episode of “Mom” that I watched (during a treadmill session) tonight originally aired way back on 16 December 2013!
In it, Mr. Lorre admitted that he’d “achieved a state of exhaustion that (he’d) never known before” AND that he’d “managed to completely burn (himself) out.” He continued by saying “the phrase ‘words fail me’ has suddenly become deeply and frighteningly meaningful.”
He ended with: “Dammit. I just remembered I have to stick around ’til January. I’m really curious to see if “The Big Bang Theory” wins a Golden Globe. I already know about the People’s Choice.”*
After reading “Chuck Lorre Productions, #435 vanity card”, I was curious, too. So… I did a quick online search, and I discovered one possible reason for how/why he’d “achieved a state of exhaustion” and “completely burned out” as well as the results of January 2014’s Golden Globe Awards show.
First, I discovered that during that television season (2013-2014), he was working on FOUR sitcoms at the same time:
- “The Big Bang Theory”;
- “Two and a Half Men”;
- “Mike & Molly”; AND
- “Mom” (his 7th sitcom series)!
This meant that he was writing FOUR “vanity cards” each week from about September through May AND that’s in addition to whatever else he had to do to keep those FOUR series on the air! No wonder he felt exhausted and burned out! WOW!!
- FYI: “The Big Bang Theory” did not win a Golden Globe in 2014. It received two nominations: (1) Best TV Series — Musical or Comedy (which was won by “Brooklyn Nine-Nine), and (2) Best Actor in a TV series — Musical or Comedy (Jim Parsons). Note: The award for the (2) nomination ended up going to Andy Samberg, of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”.