“Sitting down to write a script by myself after 25 years in a room full of comedy writers, I realized those comedy writers were in my head. They were still with me. … And they would say things to me like, that's not funny. What are you fucking kidding me? That's just glib.”
Breaking Bread with Tom Papa · Food & Beverage · October 2026
Lorre on deliberately writing a single-camera show alone after decades of writers' rooms. He found the room had become an internal critic, and says you keep the lessons, good and bad, that you learn from other writers.
Transcript
a whole different thing. That was a big experiment on my part to A, do a single camera style show. No audience.
Yeah.
…in comedy rooms, comedy writers' rooms for whatever 25 years, right? And I wanted to see if I could still write by myself. Yeah. And I actually, one of the coolest discoveries about that was sitting down to write a script by myself after 25 years in a room full of comedy writers. I realized those comedy writers were in my head. Yeah. They were still with me. Right. They were in the room with me. And they would say things to me like, that's not funny. What are you fucking kidding me? That's just glib. That's just glib. Come on. Come on. Let's stop here and think about this moment. And they would use harsher language in my mind. But their perspective, you learn by being in a room with other writers. Right. Yeah. You know, you learn good and bad lessons from other writers, but you learn. Yeah. And they stay with you. Right. You know, I was fortunate enough on Roseanne and Dorman Greg. I work…
Yeah.
Malero, Steve Malero, on Big Bang and Young Sheldon. Those people become part of your, you're in a room. You're with them more than you are with your family.
Yeah.
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