Chuck Lorre Shows Ranked
cybill
3. CYBILL
With Cybill, Lorre walked a fine line between "refreshingly candid" and "too bawdy for broadcast" — an endeavor made all the trickier by the fact that he undertook it with a lead female character who wasn't afraid to talk about her Hollywood struggles, her sexuality or, come to think of it, anything. Ironically, what kept the comedy from stumbling like a drunk was the Absolutely Fabulous chemistry that resulted from mixing Cybill Shepard and Christine Baranski as boozy, brassy BFFs.
dharma-and-greg
5. DHARMA & GREG
During the show's five years on the air, Dharma Finkelstein and Greg Montgomery emerged as one of TV's most entertaining couples. They oozed chemistry. (Jenna Elfman, especially, has never been more charming.) Historians will likely regard the sitcom as Lorre's most underrated.
frannies-turn
8. FRANNIE'S TURN
Frannie was the first TV show that Lorre created himself, after nearly a decade of writing for other series. But the comedy did not land with audiences — and almost 25 years later, the idea of Frannie constantly placating the rude men in her life seems especially dated.
grace-under-fire
4. GRACE UNDER FIRE
Lorre had the unenviable task of finding humor in his title character's struggles; a recovering alcoholic herself, Grace was also raising her three children alone after divorcing her abusive husband. And yet, with this forebearer to Mom, Lorre struck a balance between writing genuinely funny material and honoring Grace's complicated journey. But, as with Two and a Half Men, the show was plagued by off-screen issues, namely star Brett Butler's stints in rehab, which ultimately led to the show's abrupt cancellation.
mike-and-molly
7. MIKE & MOLLY
For all intents and purposes, Mike & Molly should have been a smash hit for Lorre and his fellow EPs: Combine the fearlessly funny Melissa McCarthy (who became Hollywood's hottest commodity not long after the series premiered) with a sweet love story at the show's center, and the rest should be history. Instead, having cycled through a series of generic plots, Mike & Molly struggled to establish itself as a must-watch comedy, and it quietly left the airwaves in 2016 after six seasons.
mom
2. MOM
Mom's tricky premise — a newly sober single mother reconnects with her own deeply flawed mama — could've easily resulted in a bummer of a series. But four seasons in, Mom boasts one of TV's funniest representations of a complicated mother-daughter relationship. Credit certainly belongs to the dream comedic duo of Anna Faris and Allison Janney, but Lorre & Co. deserve props for finding the funny in the dark subject matter without minimizing alcoholism and the hardships that stem from it.
the-big-bang-theory
1. THE BIG BANG THEORY
If we were ranking Lorre's series based purely on ratings, The Big Bang Theory would still be No. 1 — it's dominated the Nielsens for years. But we're not just playing a numbers game, so that's not the only — or even the main — reason we put it in first place. Rather, it's there because, while every other sitcom producer in La La Land was scrambling to find "the next Friends," Lorre and co-creator Bill Prady quietly created an ensemble show about geniuses that, even in its 10th season, has as much heart as brains.
two-and-a-half-men
6. TWO AND A HALF MEN
Before Charlie Sheen self-destructed, Men quietly established itself as one of TV's most consistent guilty pleasures, due in large part to a cast that just clicked. And as crude and low-rent as many of the jokes were, admit it, they made you chortle. But as the show neared the 10-year mark, and Sheen's reckless behavior led producers to replace him with Ashton Kutcher, the novelty had worn off. And even though a show shouldn't be defined by its series finale, we can't help cringing at the thought of Men's last episode, which included a strange cameo by Lorre himself.