There’s no question about it, Chuck Lorre is an incredibly successful and well-renowned writer, producer and creator. He’s the mastermind behind megahits like Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory and Mom, and now he has a new show on the 2025 TV schedule. So, when CinemaBlend got the chance to chat with the creative team behind this new Netflix series, Leanne, we asked what they’ve taken away from their time working with the super producer.
Ahead of Leanne’s premiere (you can stream it with a Netflix subscription now), CinemaBlend’s Nick Venable sat down to chat with Lorre as well as his fellow executive producers, Nick Bakay and Susan McMartin. He asked them what they’ve learned from working with The Big Bang Theory’s co–creator that they wouldn’t have learned otherwise, and after some joking around – which you can see above – and Lorre humously saying “careful,” Bakay sincerely said:
I used to despise breaking story. I found my value elsewhere in the forest until I came into Chuck’s influence and started to learn that the more you make it about what would actually happen, and something that’s real and emotional, you can trust the funny will follow. And that changed me as a writer, profoundly.
Nick Bakay has quite the history with Lorre. He wrote here and there on shows like Sabrina the Teenage Witch and King of Queens, and he penned the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop before he started writing and producing with Lorre on Two and a Half Men in 2013. After that, he became a frequent collaborator of his as he wrote and produced on Mom, The Kominsky Method, Young Sheldon and more before Leanne, which just premiered on Netflix’s 2025 schedule.
All these projects are so different, too, so it sounds like Nick Bakay got to put this knowledge to use in a lot of different ways. However, along with being great sitcoms, they all have a fair dose of heart to go along with the humor, and as the EP explained, knowing how to write something real and emotional is vital, because the funny will always follow.
While he took a writing approach, Susan McMartin’s takeaway was significantly more personal. She’s also a long-time collaborator of Lorre’s, as she’s worked on Two and a Half Men and Mom as a writer and consulting producer. Both those were very long-running shows, and that sustained success gave McMartin, who co-created Leanne with Lorre, a security she’s eternally grateful for, as she explained:
I will take away the fact that I was able to put my daughter through college because of Chuck. I often tell Chuck [thank you] . Because I was a single mom, and before I got on Two and a Half Men, the phone had stopped ringing, and I was dragging used clothing to like, Crossroads Trading Company to put gas in the car and food on the table, and it was bleak. Then I got on Two and a Half Men and started saving, and my daughter was little, so when she went to college, I’m like, ‘Thank you. Chuck Lorre.’
The success of Lorre’s shows cannot be underestimated. Just think about the fact that along with 279 episodes of The Big Bang Theory, he created another wickedly successful show by spinning it off with Young Sheldon, which then inspired another successful spinoff, Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, which will continue on CBS’s fall lineup this season. And that’s just one example. Mom also had over 100 episodes. Meanwhile, as those were running, he also worked on series like The Kominsky Method, Bob Hearts Abishola and more.
That kind of success was able to provide job security and opportunities for many people, McMartin included. So, I see why she told us this when we asked about working with Lorre.
Now, let’s hope that Leanne can see the kind of success these other series have found over the years.
The sitcom stars Leanne Morgan and Kristen Johnston, and it follows Morgan’s titular Leanne after her husband of 33 years left her. Like the other comedies these three have worked on, Leanne seems like it’s hilarious and full of heart, which speaks right to the points both of these producers and writers made.
