Sitcom King Chuck Lorre’s Musings To Be Published In A Book

Prolific writer, creator, and executive producer Chuck Lorre worked on some animated favorites like MASK and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but it was later in his career — with hits like The Big Bang Theory and Two And A Half Men — that he became a household name.

It was announced today that Lorre’s frequently-paused-on vanity cards, seen at the end of every one of his shows, will soon be part of a hardcover coffee table book with the proceeds going to the Venice Family Clinic. Here are details:

Blockbuster comedy writer/producer Chuck Lorre — co-creator/executive producer of TV’s two most-watched sitcoms, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and ‘Two and a Half Men’, and executive producer of hit comedy ‘Mike & Molly’ — is expanding into publishing, signing a deal with Simon & Schuster for the release of What Doesn’t Kill Us, Makes Us Bitter, the first-ever print collection of Lorre’s irreverent and often controversial end-of-show vanity cards.

Since 1997, fans of some of the most popular sitcoms ever broadcast — The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Mike & Molly and Dharma & Greg — have been granted a fleeting glimpse each week into the unfettered and uncompromising mind of the incredibly prolific creative force behind those series, Chuck Lorre. That’s because Lorre devotes exactly one second of airtime per show to expressing his deepest thoughts at the end of the credits on his now-infamous vanity cards, which for many years could only be enjoyed by freeze-framing on a VCR and squinting to read the tiny, wobbling words.

Now, for the first time ever, hundreds of Lorre’s witty and insightful musings have been gathered together in a published volume that reveals a hilarious, thought-provoking and scandalous body of work unlike any other creative endeavor. Veering from philosophical treatises to personal revelations to the occasional furious diatribe, Lorre never shies away from controversy — even in the face of network censorship, as has often happened.

The hardcover coffee table book will be published in October 2012, with a retail price of $100 (U.S.) and $110 (Canada), and will feature a curated selection of Lorre’s vanity cards. All proceeds from the sale of What Doesn’t Kill Us, Makes Us Bitter will benefit the Dharma-Grace Foundation, established by Lorre in 1999 to further his ongoing support of the Venice (Calif.) Family Clinic — the largest free medical clinic in the country, dedicated to providing free, quality health care to people in need — as well as many other health care-related charities and educational efforts.