Vanity Cards

Chuck Lorre is an American TV producer, best known for popular shows such as Grace Under Fire, Two and a Half Men, Dharma and Greg and Big Bang Theory, among many others. I am unfamiliar with the first three - well I recognize the names, but I never watched them. I have, however, enjoyed Big Bang Theory quite often. It reminds me of Three's Company.

Chuck Lorre

Early on I noticed and was intrigued by the panel inserted into the closing credits of Big Bang Theory (and apparently this panel was also part of other earlier series). The panel is numbered and has a page of writing on it, impossible to read since it's on the screen for only a second or two.

Finally, I watched a recorded episode and was able to freeze that frame on the screen. Each panel, one per show, has an essay of varying length, usually an observation about life but sometimes is a tribute or a criticism. The panels are called Vanity Cards and, I've since found out (thanks to Google) that they appear on Lorre's website. They are fun to browse through. CBS censored some of the cards for their TV airing but the uncensored version of those is available on the website if you're curious. 

This is the one that was on the Big Bang Theory re-run I caught the end of the other night:

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #472

I believe in reincarnation. Not in the traditional sense. My feeling is that I have lived many different lives within this lifetime. I've also observed that each new incarnation came about after a period of intense physical and/or emotional pain. In other words, just like childbirth, it hurts to be born. Or reborn. A lot of crying happens. Death, illness, poverty, divorce, giving up a dream, waking up from a dream, getting fired, divorce again, substance abuse, being publicly ridiculed by a former friend - all these things have led to rebirth. To new lives.

The Buddha taught that change and impermanence is a fundamental fact of existence. He further pointed out that this fact made suffering inevitable. He didn't mention that sometimes, after the pain is gone, you open your eyes to a life beyond your wildest dreams. That's what happened to me. But I know that this too shall pass. There's a cosmic uterus up ahead, I just can't see it yet.



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1st Aired: 20 Nov 2014

Here's another, with an image:



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CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #305

For Your Emmy® Consideration

Suzie Q for her startling, gender-bending performance as "Jim"

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1st Aired: 25 October 2010

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #489

I start most of my vanity cards without knowing how to end them. I purposely write myself into a corner and then try to wriggle out of it. Which, I now realize, is the story of my life. Over and over, I have consciously entrapped myself in difficult situations and relationships and then struggled to get free. Which leads me to wonder, is this cycle the very essence of existence? Are we destined to live out an endless, self- imposed drama entitled "stuck, free, stuck, free"? Or, with a bit more flourish, "woe is me, hallelujah, woe is me, hallelujah"? And if this is the case, is life and death just one more variation on the theme? And is it the last? Does the pendulum swinging between entrapment and freedom continue beyond the grave? (Perhaps on a quantum level?) Which poses a new question. If we exist in an eternal loop of suffering and escape, why bother escaping? Why not just embrace the prison we're in? The answer, of course, is that surrender is its own form of freedom. Which is why I've given up on writing my way out of this vanity card. I intend to remain here, happily trapped in a weak premise.

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1st Aired: 12 Feb 2015

Intrigued? Want more? Visit Lorre's website and lose yourself! Might be the best part of the TV shows ;)