Chuck Lorre Productions vanity cards.

June 8, 2009 7:14 PM

Ever wonder what those 2 second screen flashes after a Chuck Lorre Productions TV show are? Well, here you go. Chuck uses the 2 second time allotment to screen his views on - well - everything. Previously - here and here.
posted by torquemaniac (54 comments total)

I have wondered, but not enough to go trolling through old MeFi posts to find out. Thanks for htis.
posted by jessamyn at 7:15 PM on June 8, 2009

I haven't wondered and do not know who Chuck Lorre is.
posted by sfts2 at 7:22 PM on June 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

Awesome.
posted by Decimask at 7:24 PM on June 8, 2009

He definitely doesn't have the greatest dog in the whole wide world, because that particular dog lives at my house.
posted by txvtchick at 7:27 PM on June 8, 2009 [3 favorites]

As seen on:

The Big Bang Theory
Two and a Half Men
Dharma & Greg
Cybill
Grace Under Fire

Unfortunately, I don't think I've ever watched any of those programs.
posted by box at 7:28 PM on June 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

box, if you're a tv watching type, I suggest The Big Bang Theory. Except for some dopey boy/girl humor which is entirely predictable, it's a braniac buddy show with some nerd humor thrown in for good effect.
posted by jessamyn at 7:31 PM on June 8, 2009

Do I even want to know who these three guys are?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:31 PM on June 8, 2009

Ever wonder what those 2 second screen flashes after a Chuck Lorre Productions TV show are?

No.
posted by ericb at 7:32 PM on June 8, 2009

I liked this one from a recent repeat of Big Bang. My husband can't stand the show because of Sheldon, but I like to save the vanity card scene for him. And my town made it onto one as well.
posted by saffry at 7:33 PM on June 8, 2009

Box, you're missing out. Big Bang Theory is awesome. All the rest though... bleh.
posted by Bageena at 7:33 PM on June 8, 2009

I tried watch Big Bang Theory. It went like this:
Line. Line. Line. Laugh track.
Line. Laugh track.
Line. Line. Line. Laugh track.
Line. Laugh track.
Line. Line. Line. Laugh track.
Line. Laugh track.
...
in totally monotonous rhythm.

So I stopped. Did I miss something?
posted by hexatron at 7:44 PM on June 8, 2009 [3 favorites]

ericb: "Ever wonder what those 2 second screen flashes after a Chuck Lorre Productions TV show are?

No."

Oh sweet irony.

This is cool. Thanks for posting it. I am a Two and a Half men fan (yes, I'm a sucker for crude humor) and have seen this thing flash up so many times but never bothered to freeze frame it.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:46 PM on June 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

This is awesome -- I've never gotten more than a couple of sentences before they're gone.
posted by middleclasstool at 7:48 PM on June 8, 2009

Yeah, I likes me some teevee. Tell me more about this Big Bang thing.

I need a show to watch, now that we're between the season finale of Breaking Bad and the season premiere of Mad Men. Well, I could watch Life After People, but you know what I mean.
posted by box at 7:54 PM on June 8, 2009

I have wondered what those flashes of text were in the credits of the Big Bang Theory although not enough to bother checking up on the internet nor buy a DVR. And having a quick click through a few of them I doesn't look like I'm missing too much. Interesting nonetheless.

I'm new here and looking at posts by ericb and sfts2 should I be making my disinterest in the subject clear in every post I don't like? Seems like a twattish thing to do. It adds even less to the conversation than my meagre post does!
posted by Transparent Yak at 7:55 PM on June 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

ericb also posts a lot of good links, and sometimes laughs at my Rakim jokes. stfs2, I don't know real well. Anyway, not the point. That making-your-disinterest-clear thing? We were just talking about it over here.
posted by box at 7:57 PM on June 8, 2009

"Ever wonder what those 2 second screen flashes after a Chuck Lorre Productions TV show are? No."

No dis on the FPP. A straight (hey!) forward answer to a question posed. No value judgment made regarding this post.

I had never heard of Lorre until this post. I've learned something new this evening. One of the benefits of reading MetaFilter.

Now, what about Ubu Productions' closing tag and other vanity cards?
posted by ericb at 8:11 PM on June 8, 2009

...and other vanity cards?

And FWIW -- the linked article was authored by Mefi's own Wendell Wittler!
posted by ericb at 8:16 PM on June 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

I've heard that early episodes of Big Bang Theory are pretty awful, but it improved significantly over time. If this is so, where's a good place to start watching?
posted by brundlefly at 8:21 PM on June 8, 2009

Neat! I heard an NPR piece about these "tv notes" about a year ago. One thing I remember is that in the early days, he didn't censor himself very much, and one of the notes for a Dharma & Greg episode contained some harsh words about the TV Emmey Awards committee. He didn't think they would ever notice, but someone did, and he got in trouble for it from the TV studio (I think it was Fox). He blamed that single episode for the fact that the none of the lead actors on the show ever got an Emmy.

Dunno if it's true, but interesting nonetheless.
posted by thewittyname at 8:27 PM on June 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

brundefly: id start watching from about two months ago. if you want to start from the beginning, its not that bad, but its true that it has gotten a lot better than when it started. the characters have developed a surprising amount for such a typical comedy.
also, the show has struck a chord with the asperger's community. gives the show a little more depth.
posted by radcopter at 8:33 PM on June 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

I miss the Big Bang Theory (and How I Met Your Mother). Unfortunately, CBS seems to be the only one of the networks that doesn't put episodes of their shows online. Hell, even the CW puts their shows up. WTF, CBS?
posted by Thoughtcrime at 8:48 PM on June 8, 2009

Unfortunately, CBS seems to be the only one of the networks that doesn't put episodes of their shows online. Hell, even the CW puts their shows up. WTF, CBS?

However, CBS does run reruns more often than the other networks.

which is nice for writers who work for CBS shows
posted by Bookhouse at 9:01 PM on June 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

Big Bang Theory is another one of those polarizing shows. Except that I don't know there is anyone who would defend it as much as other people want to tear it down.
posted by smackfu at 9:06 PM on June 8, 2009

Unfortunately, I don't think I've ever watched any of those programs.

I've wandered by my sister's TV once or twice when D&G was on, but otherwise, no, me neither. But I liked this post quite a lot; thanks torquemaniac. I also enjoyed Wendell's article. I think they should be called 'humanity' cards, not vanity — it's always a pleasant surprise to me whenever anyone involved with television takes the time to show any sign at all of being an actual human being.
posted by LeLiLo at 9:06 PM on June 8, 2009

Yes, I had wondered what those big blocks of text were, but never did look into it.

My husband and I love to watch Big Bang Theory. We find it's specially funny when we can relate something that's going on to something that one of out geeky friends (or my husband, even) has done in the past.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 9:22 PM on June 8, 2009

it's a braniac buddy show

Two zany roommates who eat nothing but oat bran?

I was not familiar with the vanity cards of Mr. Lorre, nor did I know the name for those logos at the end of the show. I feel strangely edified by this trivia.
posted by dubold at 9:41 PM on June 8, 2009

Holy crap, it's the soundtrack to Suspiria?
posted by hillabeans at 9:48 PM on June 8, 2009

gah wrong post. So wait what?
posted by hillabeans at 9:50 PM on June 8, 2009

Big Bang Theory is pretty funny and sometimes has some bizarre niche geek humour.

I still think How I Met Your Mother is the funniest sitcom I've ever watched.
posted by sycophant at 10:04 PM on June 8, 2009

>: I tried watch Big Bang Theory. It went like this:
Line. Line. Line. Laugh track.
Line. Laugh track.
Line. Line. Line. Laugh track.
Line. Laugh track.
Line. Line. Line. Laugh track.
Line. Laugh track.
...
in totally monotonous rhythm.

So I stopped. Did I miss something?

My Austrian roommate spends his life sitting around the room watching dubbed American television, a large part of which is Two And a Half Men. It's pretty much the same- lines followed by canned laughs, all the while my roommate's rolling around in his boxers going HAR HAR HAR at this show that I haven't seen being funny, not once.
posted by dunkadunc at 10:20 PM on June 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

I need a show to watch, now that we're between the season finale of Breaking Bad and the season premiere of Mad Men.

United States of Tara.

I would never have given it a second look without the endorsement from posted by dchrssyr, but I now admit: it's golden, and a little like Breaking Bad in that there's a lot more there than you get from the first episode. Great story arc.
posted by rokusan at 10:54 PM on June 8, 2009

Used to tape D&G to read the cards before cluing in that the text probably would be in a posting to the appropriate Usenet group; which they were.
posted by Mitheral at 10:59 PM on June 8, 2009

No disrespect to Tina Turner, but isn't "River Deep, Mountain High" more of a Phil Spector song, really?
posted by zoinks at 12:11 AM on June 9, 2009 [2 favorites]

You know, now that he mentions it, we should give that guy who invented the bumps on the side of the road a big hug. Without him, I would have driven off the edge of a cliff long ago...
posted by callmejordan at 12:33 AM on June 9, 2009

Geez! I've been snarking all over mefi all week and ignoring the losers who posted things like "gosh, this place is nothing but snarky negativity." Now Karma's kicking my ass.

Gosh, this place is nothing but snarky negativity.

and Big Bang Theory is awesome.
posted by mmoncur at 1:08 AM on June 9, 2009

Did anyone else read hexatron's critique of "Big Bang Theory" in Sheldon's voice?
posted by Pronoiac at 1:53 AM on June 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

I think I saw an episode of "Dharma and Greg"once, and I used to rather enjoy "Grace Under Fire." (I was eleven, I think. Maybe twelve.) All I remember now is something about an episode where she wins opera tickets and meets a wonderful man whom she thinks is an escort hired by her friend, and so she is carefree and very relaxed and ends up charming him, but she blows off his attempts to give her his contact information and then finds out he really was a visiting Romanian prince or whatever and that episode always made me really sad.

Naturally, I never had time to sit through credits of any kind. I was a very busy preteen with many important Final Fantasy battles to fight. I like the fact that these exist, even if I had no idea who Chuck Lorre was previously and very little now.
posted by Scattercat at 2:07 AM on June 9, 2009

No disrespect to Tina Turner, but isn't "River Deep, Mountain High" more of a Phil Spector song, really?

You're right, and that's definitely Spector's own Pet Sounds, but at a certain point a singer really does take over and own a song.

And goddamn, but Tina Turner was born to sing that song.

Decades later and still, just, wow.
posted by rokusan at 4:55 AM on June 9, 2009

Oh Lord. I was totally surprised and impressed with the with unexpected wit and candor of Chuck Lorre. A little later I am wondering who the hell the guy in the swimming pool is.

Then I discover the entire time I have been thinking of the wrong man.
posted by Xoebe at 6:43 AM on June 9, 2009

My Austrian roommate spends his life sitting around the room watching dubbed American television, a large part of which is Two And a Half Men. It's pretty much the same- lines followed by canned laughs, all the while my roommate's rolling around in his boxers going HAR HAR HAR at this show that I haven't seen being funny, not once.
posted by dunkadunc at 10:20 PM on June 8

No shit? My roommate is Hungarian, and she does that too - it's all Two and a Half Men, all the time. Is it a Habsburg thing?
posted by Optimus Chyme at 6:44 AM on June 9, 2009

i think How I Met Your Mother is also chuck lorre.
HIMYM is definitely not Chuck Lorre. The way you can tell is that HIMYM is a good show.

(Your favorite sitcom sucks.)
posted by kmz at 7:00 AM on June 9, 2009

I'm sad to say I regularly confuse Chuck Lorre for Chuck Jones.

Maybe it's just wishful thinking.
posted by deliquescent at 7:35 AM on June 9, 2009

Thanks, radcopter. Whenever I watch Big Bang Theory (which I quite enjoy) I wonder what their official position on the Asperger's thing is and what the reaction has been from Aspergers folks.
posted by yarrow at 7:55 AM on June 9, 2009

> >My Austrian roommate spends his life sitting around the room watching dubbed American television, a large part of which is Two And a Half Men. It's pretty much the same- lines followed by canned laughs, all the while my roommate's rolling around in his boxers going HAR HAR HAR at this show that I haven't seen being funny, not once.

>No shit? My roommate is Hungarian, and she does that too - it's all Two and a Half Men, all the time.

...Data point: both my parents also love Two And A Half Men, and neither one is, to my knowledge, either Hungarian or Austrian. (My father comes close by being half Polish, but Mom's half Canadian, half generic-British-Isles-Mix.)

Just for the record. :-)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:18 AM on June 9, 2009

The Big Bang Theory is very much a conventional comedy, no doubt about it. It was my lovely but very conventional younger sister who introduced me to it a year or so ago. She had the entire first season on her DVR and sat down with me to watch it. She doesn't get many of the references (that was one reason she had me there, to act as an interpreter) but it was Sheldon who really sold her on the show.

I don't have a DVR, and I forget to watch it live most weeks, but when I do catch it, it's generally worth it just for Jim Parsons playing Sheldon. With his lightbulb shaped head and constrained movements, he looks like the world's tallest and prissiest fetus. And the way he rolls his voice about, I recently realized, makes him sound a bit like Frank Nelson's less oily and less socially aware grandson.

Yeah, some of the geek humour works and some doesn't. The Leonard-Penny romance isn't terribly interesting, but the byplay between Penny and Sheldon is. Plus, it's nice to see Moist getting a little action.

Data point: I'm Canadian and I HATE Two and a Half Men.
posted by maudlin at 9:30 AM on June 9, 2009

MetaFilter: it's a braniac buddy show with some nerd humor thrown in for good effect.
posted by fijiwriter at 10:23 AM on June 9, 2009

I'm not a big fan of any of these shows, but I feel obliged to point out that it isn't a laugh track, it's a live audience, mic'ed with microphones, laughing at the actors' performances.

They have likely been goosed into responding enthusiastically, but it isn't "canned."
posted by YoungAmerican at 8:32 PM on June 9, 2009

I heart Cybil. And I don't care what you think about that.
posted by mippy at 4:53 AM on June 10, 2009

I watched 1.25 episodes of Big Bang Theory. It was actually more like:

line line line laughtrack
line laughtrack
nerd stereotype laughtrack
line laughtrack
female stereotype laughtrack
line line nerd stereotype laughtrack
sex laughtrack
line line line laughtrack
credits

(alternate ending: veryspecialconclusion softmusic)

Also, a great way to grow to truly loathe laughtracks is to hear them from a distant room. Their monotony combined with the inaudible cause makes them seem 100x falser.
posted by DU at 5:00 AM on June 10, 2009

So I guess you don't find it funny. That's a good reason for you not to watch it.
posted by smackfu at 5:59 AM on June 10, 2009

Thanks for confirming that the reason I stopped watching it was a good one!
posted by DU at 6:40 AM on June 10, 2009

I think you missed my point. Are you not watching it because of the stereotypes and the laugh track? Or because it's not funny? I think the laugh track is annoying too, but it makes me laugh so I can accept it.
posted by smackfu at 6:52 AM on June 10, 2009

The outdated stereotypes are part of what makes it unfunny. The laugh track makes it grating. It's hard to say which really turned me off more, though. I have watched shows with laugh tracks, so it's tempting to say it's the unfunniness. Then again, having gone so long without laugh tracks and gotten to hate them from the other room so much, I might not be able to go back. Could I watch Cheers again? I don't know.
posted by DU at 7:05 AM on June 10, 2009