Chuck Lorre Honored at Variety’s New Leaders Event

Debra Birnbaum

25 October 2016 at 2:04 am

“Greetings from dinosaur land,” quipped veteran producer Chuck Lorre, as he accepted Variety’s Creative Leadership Award at the fifth annual New Leaders event, held Monday night at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills.

Lorre was effusive with praise for his fellow honorees, the industry’s up-and-coming executives and content creators whose achievements were being celebrated. “I’ve seen a great deal of the work being done by these people, and it’s extraordinary,” he said.

Lorre said his own successes were credit to those he’d worked with throughout his career. “I’ve been blessed to work with extraordinary talent for many, many years, both behind and in front of the camera,” he said. “I’ve been lucky enough to writers that are on the way up.” He recounted how when he was working on “Dharma and Greg,” he tried to recruit a young writer who worked with him on “Cybill” to join him, but he was busy writing a screenplay. “What are the chances of this movie getting made?” he told the writer, Alan Ball — who was then writing “American Beauty.” “I’m a better writer for having written with people like Alan, Eddie Gorodetsky, Bill Prady, Steve Molaro,” he said.

“Being part of television right now is such an honor,” said Lorre. “It’s the greatest work being done. To be even the tiny part of it that we inhabit is such a great honor.”

Lorre was presented with his award by the stars of his hit CBS sitcom, “Mom,” Anna Faris and Allison Janney — even though Janney was caught in traffic, because of President Obama’s visit to Los Angeles. Janney delivered her lines via FaceTime, thanks to Faris, who held up her phone to the microphone.

“We are very excited to be here tonight to show our love and appreciation for our boss, up-and-comer Chuck Lorre,” joked Faris.

Janney pointed out that inspired by the success of “The Big Bang Theory,” Lorre created a scholarship at UCLA for low-income students in the field of science and technology. “And all he asked for in return is that they protect him when the robots take over,” quipped Faris.

Also in attendance was Kaley Cuoco, star of “The Big Bang Theory,” “Mom” executive producer Gemma Baker, as well as many of the honorees from Variety’s New Leaders list. The event was sponsored by Delta and BMW.