Welcome to a new Sitcom Tuesday, on a Wednesday! My coverage of The Big Bang Theory will begin next week. In the meantime, I’m excited to set the figurative table by resurrecting an entry from this blog’s twelve-year run. As usual, I’ll provide a link to a piece that I first published several seasons ago, and then I’ll offer a bit of updated commentary, relevant to today…

Let’s revisit… The Ten Best TWO AND A HALF MEN Episodes of Season Four: https://jacksonupperco.com/2024/02/27/the-ten-best-two-and-a-half-men-episodes-of-season-four/

Before The Big Bang Theory became Chuck Lorre’s most successful sitcom — with the longest run, the most awards, and a terrific star character in Sheldon Cooper who was able to launch a whole universe of shows — Two And A Half Men was king. It was the foundation for a multi-camera empire, allowing Lorre to become synonymous in the late 2000s and throughout the 2010s with this style of sitcom. But Men was not the most favorable ambassador for his legacy, let alone for the multi-cam as a format. Despite a textbook design for sitcommery and a strong character in Charlie Harper, whose persona the show itself could justifiably adopt in self-reflection, it’s seldom truly excellent… substituting crass for comedic. That is, it’s not a show I’d personally call great. Fortunately, compared to Two And A Half Men, The Big Bang Theory is a breath of fresh air. Okay, okay, it also starts with something of a sexual leer — “four nerds and a hot girl!!!” — but that first-glance hook belies a much more sensitive setup, offering a human study of relationships and the difficulty of connection for people who are inexperienced and somewhat socially dysfunctional because of it. And with a group of characters who are also collectively defined by their scientific pursuits (and accordingly “nerdy” interests), the situation is granted a distinct identity that most of the other ensemble hangout rom-coms in the same subgenre don’t have, enabling Big Bang to always remain elementally unique. Plus, it’s got that aforementioned Sheldon — the most extreme version of what the four guys all represent, and therefore the one who’s most conducive to both exploring the premise and plumbing it for big laughs. He remains an ambassador for the show and what makes it special, in the same way that Charlie did for Men. And although I wouldn’t say the tone of Sheldon’s character influences the tone of Big Bang in the same way Charlie’s does for Men, Sheldon’s ability to drive situationally approved comedic story is sublime, rendering his show, for me, a much more enjoyable situation comedy on the low-concept terms that all sitcoms thrive, especially multi-cam rom-coms like this. Of course, we’ll talk a lot more about the series and Sheldon Cooper in the weeks ahead, but I just wanted to preview what’s to come by drawing a few distinctions between Men and Big Bang, reminding us all of their inherent connection via Lorre. Stay tuned for more…

Come back next week for The Big Bang Theory and another Wildcard Wednesday!