When you’re the co-creator of some of the biggest sitcoms on TV, you don’t have to toe the line when it comes to corporate loyalty — which might explain why Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon producer Chuck Lorre was making cracks about arguing with fellow Warner Bros. studio, DC Studios. The cause of the comedy schism? None other than DC’s emerald knight, Green Lantern.
“We had an argument with them recently,” Lorre told the audience at the Banff World Media Festival, where he was presenting the latest Big Bang Theory spin-off, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe. “They’re very protective of the Green Lantern. All of a sudden, we were making fun of the Green Lantern in scripts, and it’s like, ‘really, the Green Lantern? Even when I was 10, I knew that stunk.’”
Well, there goes the Green Lantern fanbase. Which is potentially a shame, as Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is a break from the Big Bang Theory tradition, in which it’s reported a sci-fi sitcom with a “lot of CGI.” The show, which hasn’t been officially picked up by CBS yet, is “trying to incorporate some of that world of science fiction, fantasy, into a comedy,” Lorre said, adding, “I’m completely out of my element, which is what I wanted, which is what I was hoping to do, something that I had no experience with, and maybe I can learn as we go.”
Ten episodes of the series have been written, he revealed, with Big Bang Theory co-creator Bill Prady and Zak Penn — who co-wrote X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Marvel’s The Avengers — collaborating on the series. Yes, that’s right: there’s an X-Men and Avengers writer on a series where the showrunner’s making jokes about Green Lantern stinking. That Marvel/DC rivalry keeps popping up everywhere, doesn’t it…?
(And before anyone gets too upset about the Green Lantern jokes, just remember that Sheldon kept wearing Green Lantern shirts in The Big Bang Theory, so perhaps don’t take Lorre’s jokes that seriously…)
