Unaired Pilot Episode of The Big Bang Theory

I was going to post these videos on my Facebook page, but Facebook seems to have gone kerflugy tonight, so here it is on the blog. I wouldn't be surprised to see these clips pulled, so enjoy them while you can. . .

Most shows change a bit after their pilot episodes, and when they change a lot, they never make air. It's easy now to say that the unaired pilot of The Big Bang Theory is not as good as what they later came up with.  But then, I wasn't wowed by what eventually did air until it grew on me.  And honestly, the show has still changed a bit from the pilot that did eventually air.  But the unaired version shows a little too much cross-pollination with Two and a Half Men, with the "dumb girl" character being a lot like Charlie Harper.  Penny is an improvement.

Still it can be interesting to see these alternate versions of characters we've grown to love. But Sheldon having sex? And talking about it somewhat cavalierly?  I don't think so!

NBC's 100 Questions: I Have One. . .How Did This Get On?

I'm sure that making a sitcom is a tricky business.  Sometimes broad comedy works, sometimes it's forced. Sometimes a quirky character is funny, sometimes stupid.   A show like The Big Bang Theory has managed to combine what could be all of the worst elements of a standard issue sitcom, and turned them into gold.  But sometimes a very funny show (The Class, The Comeback, SportsNight) never catches on, while horrible shows (Family Matters, Full House, According to Jim) go on for year after tedious year. 

You'd think that after over 60 years of trying, the networks and all concerned would be able to tell when something is working and when it is not. Tonight, I tuned to NBC for noise (since the main TV season is over), expecting their usual slate of comedies, many of which I missed during the regular season.  Community was on first, and I didn't really pay much attention to it, though I recognized it as a quality production. I'm just not a fan.  But I wasn't prepared for what came next.



100 Questions, apparently a summertime series (or a burnoff or whatever), lit up my screen.  The premise isn't clear, except that there is a group of friends, with a lovelorn British girl at its center.  I didn't catch any of the stars' names, though I doubt it matters. This show is toast.  Everything about it is dreadful. Well, most everything.  It is shot well, probably edited well. It looks like it filmed rather than videotaped, but the incessant laughter would point to a studio audience. Probably not though, since the laughter was painfully obviously the canned variety. Grating and mechanical would be the best description.

The show is obviously trying to be a little like Friends or other ensemble comedy.  The characters hang around a bar that is obviously a set. They're all sitcom stock characters, and while the acting wasn't exactly bad, it was somehow off.  Even the opening title sequence felt artificial, like a parody sitcom within a different TV show. I suspect the concept may have been tweaked after the fact, the addition of a laugh track being the key indicator. Maybe it was intended to be a laugh-trackless sitcom like The Middle? I don't know, but something was up. And it wasn't good. At all.

Was Sarah Palin's Tonight Show Bit "Laugh Tracked?"

Image from source, Wonkette

I put up the clip of Sarah Palin's Tonight Show stand-up act last week. Radio host Randi Rhodes was offended that Caribou Barbie got to debut her comedy stylings on the show, when seasoned comics often wait years for the gig. Or never get it at all. I thought Palin's set was amusing enough, though I never for a second believed they were her own jokes. But she didn't seem to bomb. Or did she?

A laugh track is often added to comedy in order to cue the home audience to laugh. This--I assume--is to kind of put the home viewer into the experience, much like viewing a movie in a theater with a bunch of other people. The group response at a theater can definitely affect your perception of the film. For a demonstration of this effect in reverse, watch this clip from The Big Bang Theory without a laugh track.



Strange, isn't it? And I really like TBBT. So the question remains, was Palin's Tonight gig sweetened with a laugh track, to make it seem as though she didn't bomb? Perhaps so. Also.

[Excerpt]

Sarah Palin Totally Bombed On Leno Show, Which Is Why She Got a Laugh Track

Hollywood sideshow Sarah Palin got to do a comedy spot on Jay Leno’s new late-night informercial, Why You Should Dump GE Stock, but nobody laughed at her dumb bullshit, which she also didn’t write herself, because come on there are LITTLE PEOPLE to do those write-y things, she’s got shit to steal from the Red Cross Oscar Movie Charity Suite, she’s got reality shows to sell, gonna get her real-estate-mom hair all tarted up and tall again, by one of those fancy West Hollywood hairdressers who will just love her, and her beauty, until she doesn’t tip and then it’s going to be “THAT BITCH,” etc., but anyway when the weary, beaten old people who haven’t yet found the remote saw Sarah Palin do some jokes on the teevee, they heard laughter and delight! SCANDAL. . .

Read more at: Wonkette.com

Frivolity Break: Chuck Lorre Title Cards

Image from source, ChuckLorre.com

If you've ever watched The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men or Dharma & Greg, you've probably noticed the title cards from Chuck Lorre Productions. They're usually paragraphs long, but are only on screen for a second or two. I don't know why it took me so long to get curious enough to check it out, but I finally did. And they're pretty funny. But be warned, if you go to check them out, you'll find that there are over 260 of them. Keep an eye on the clock!

[Editor's Note: Yes, I'm aware that I'm late to the party on this one. Procrastination is my muse]

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #262 (From Big Bang Theory, Oct. 12, 2009)

As best as I can tell, life is intolerable. Oh, not always of course. A case can be made for all the big wonders and little blessings and blah, blah, blah. But when you really boil it down, our entire existence rests on a few really ugly premises. First, life, and by that I mean the big life, life with a capital L, must ingest other life in order for it to remain life. Or, put another way, in order to witness the miracle of creation, we must continually eat, and then poop out, a little bit of that miracle. Second, one of the charming side effects of sentient life is emotional pain. The fact that dead and fermenting plant life creates alcohol - a terrific anesthetic for emotional pain - might cause one to think that this is, by nature, a compassionate universe. Think again. Keep dulling that pain with booze and you wind up, if you're lucky, in a church basement sharing your tears with complete strangers. If you're not lucky, you wind up on a waiting list for a motorcyclist's liver. And finally, there is the ever-present knowledge of death. In order to "more fully appreciate the gift of life," we all get to ponder a violently sudden or slow and agonizingly painful descent into oblivion -- after which our beloved bodies turn into the stuff of nightmares. Which brings me back to my original premise: life is intolerable. But rather than go gently into that creepy night, I've decided to start a petition to protest the fundamental conditions of existence. I know it's not much, but it's a start. And damnit, I'm just the guy to do it! The petition is available at chucklorre.com. Sign on now and make your voice heard before you're dead and your vocal chords are being eaten by a swarm of disgusting bugs.

PETITION FOR IMMEDIATE CHANGE IN THE CONDITIONS OF EXISTENCE!


Chuck Lorre Productions

Big Bang Theory Takes Sneaky Swipe at FOX "News"

Image from source, Raw Story

Not much time to blog with guests coming over, but this story was right up my alley. Good going, Chuck Lorre!

[Excerpt]

CBS sitcom takes stealthy swipe at Fox News

Sitcom producer Chuck Lorre has developed a cult following for the lengthy diatribes he includes at the end of his shows. The "vanity cards," which are too long to read during the two seconds they air following CBS sitcoms "Two and a Half Men" and "Big Bang Theory" serve as mini-journal entries for Lorre, who has taken pot-shots at other media outlets and even his own network executives. . .

Read more at: Raw Story