Chuck Lorre on Surviving Sitcoms, Difficult Stars, Replacing Sheen, and Ghosting Scientology
The Town with Matthew BelloniShow Notes
Matt is joined by legendary showrunner Chuck Lorre to discuss his new memoir ‘Sitcom’, the heyday of network television, the decline of the general sitcom and if it can be revived, working with difficult people, how to build a perfect writers room, replacing Charlie Sheen with Ashton Kutcher on ‘Two and a Half Men’, working with Les Moonves, leaving Scientology (02:50). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about Universal Studios (31:55).
Host: Matt Belloni
Guest: Chuck Lorre
Producers: Craig Horlbeck, Jessie Lopez, and Stefano Sanchez
Theme Song: Devon Renaldo
The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More from The Town with Matthew Belloni
Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss why Elon Musk invested $1 billion in the new Skydance mega studio, if the new Hollywood superpower is a threat to Netflix, and if any streamer has a shot competing against YouTube (02:47). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about the World Series ratings (18:42).
The Town College Film School is back with a visit to USC, where Matt and Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw are joined by writers-producers-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller ('Project Hail Mary', 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse', '21 Jump Street') to discuss making ‘Project Hail Mary’, how they work together as a director duo, why the 'Spider-Verse' movies take so long to make, the difference between good and bad studio executives, getting fired from ‘Solo’, their thoughts on the state of 'Star Wars', and more (01:57).
Matt is joined by Jason Brenek, CEO of Fathom Entertainment, to discuss why the creators of the new big-budget animated film 'Wildwood’ are bypassing a traditional studio to distribute and market the film with Fathom Entertainment instead. They get into the growing popularity of going to the theater for things other than first-run movies, like rereleases, digital creator–led projects, and sports viewing, and what the advantages are of skipping a traditional movie studio to distribute your idea independently. (00:43)
Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss the big executive shakeup at Netflix, which included the firings of chief content officer Bela Bajaria and head of film Dan Lin. They break down why this happened now, what to expect from new chief content officer Peter Rice, how will this affect Netflix content going forward, and more (02:53). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about the new hit documentary ‘You Can See Everything’ (30:20).
Matt is joined by head of business affairs at UTA Rich Shuter and producer Cathy Schulman to discuss why the government needs to reinstate the Fin-Syn rules (Financial Interest and Syndication Rules), the pressures the current era of vertical integration and consolidation has put on Hollywood, and what a new law giving ownership back to producers could do to return Hollywood to the '70s, '80s, and '90s (03:30). Matt finishes the show with opening weekend box office predictions for ‘Street Fighter,’ 'Whalefall,' and ‘You Can See Everything’ (29:42).