Big Bang Theory Annoyance

[MrAtoz]

@Stranger_On_A_Train

There is a rumor that Charlie Kaufman (writer of Being John Malkovich, Adapatation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and writer/director of Synecdoche, New York and the recent Anomalisa) pitched a story concept and partial script for the mercifully short-lived Ned and Stacey (on which he was a staff writer) where the constantly bickering main characters start setting boobytraps and end up killing one another in the final scene as a way of venting his frustration over the facile writing and plotting of the show. As the rumor (told to me by a runner and aspiring writer who worked at Columbia TriStar, but not on that show) goes, Kaufman was complemented for the wit in the scenes he wrote but asked if he could tone it down to be less edgy and not kill off the main characters, which (if true) just illustrates just how badly television executives actually miss the point. (Given that it was Kaufman I also have to assume that he made a bunch of obscure references to Alexander Pope and rare neurological disorders that flew over the heads of everyone involved.)

Stranger

When Rob Lowe was a guest on Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, he claimed that although his short-lived series The Lyon’s Den was cancelled after six episodes, they were contractually required to produce all 13 episodes for DVD distribution. So they supposedly made the final episodes more and more outrageous, finally ending the thirteenth episode with the revelation that Lowe’s character was a serial killer. In the final moments of the episode, he murders Kyle Chandler’s character, finishes his steak dinner, and then commits suicide by jumping from a high-rise building.

I’ve never seen that show, so I can’t confirm it, but I would love it if that story were true.

[gigi]

@quiltguy

Penny said they had a barbecue when the pig died, but she never said they actually ate the potentially toothsome porker.

Well, I’ve learned something new today. I was about to yell at you and Food Network that “toothsome” means beautiful and had nothing to do with food, but even the (pocket) OED allows this usage. :mad: It looks like I am also losing the battle with “fulsome”.

[Richard_John_Marcej]

@Stranger_On_A_Train

There is a rumor that Charlie Kaufman (writer of Being John Malkovich, Adapatation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and writer/director of Synecdoche, New York and the recent Anomalisa) pitched a story concept and partial script for the mercifully short-lived Ned and Stacey (on which he was a staff writer) where the constantly bickering main characters start setting boobytraps and end up killing one another in the final scene as a way of venting his frustration over the facile writing and plotting of the show. As the rumor (told to me by a runner and aspiring writer who worked at Columbia TriStar, but not on that show) goes, Kaufman was complemented for the wit in the scenes he wrote but asked if he could tone it down to be less edgy and not kill off the main characters, which (if true) just illustrates just how badly television executives actually miss the point. (Given that it was Kaufman I also have to assume that he made a bunch of obscure references to Alexander Pope and rare neurological disorders that flew over the heads of everyone involved.)

Stranger

Actually, that kind of sounds like the second (and last) season of Chris Elliot’s sit-com “Get A Life”, In that second season, most every episode ended with Chris getting killed.

[notfrommensa]

Nevermind, I think it is a whoosh

[Tired_and_Cranky]

@ivylass

I’m not sure of the veracity of that. Actors sign contracts. I don’t think a writer can kill off a character on a whim.

Most of those contracts bind the actor to the show but don’t bind the show to the actor. I’m guessing, however, that the TBBT contracts do in fact bind the show to use the leads for the length of their contracts unless the show is cancelled by the network.

[Ranger_Jeff]

This thread got me thinking of this tangent. I thought it more appropriate to put it in it’s own thread.

[BigT]

@quiltguy

Penny said they had a barbecue when the pig died, but she never said they actually ate the potentially toothsome porker. Maybe they had a barbecue, like many families have a luncheon, after all the funeral business has been taken care of. They could’ve all been standing around, grilling burgers and wieners, and sharing sweet remembered times with ol’ Porky. A very slim point, I’ll grant you, but still…

I was going to say something similar. Except I wonder if they ate her pig and she didn’t know. And then she just assumed they wouldn’t know.

I could also make up an excuse that her “pet pig” in the past wasn’t real, and just a story she told. By the time her real pig died, she’d either forgotten or realized how bad it sounded.

Or it wasn’t really a “pet,” but a pig they were saving to eat later that she named. That might be different to her than eating a real pet.

The fun to me of these gaffes is making them work anyways. They call it fanwanking, and it’s still fun.

[quiltguy]

@gigi

Well, I’ve learned something new today. I was about to yell at you and Food Network that “toothsome” means beautiful and had nothing to do with food, but even the (pocket) OED allows this usage. :mad: It looks like I am also losing the battle with “fulsome”.

“Yur a right cricketer!”