In the worlds of sports and entertainment, superstitions can often be embraced as soon as success is found, leading to lots of strange behaviors comingling. It’s hard to argue with success, however, especially for someone like mega-producer Chuck Lorre, who has created (or helped create) one hit show after another for most of the 21st century, and that most definitely includes the 2025 TV schedule entries Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage and Bookie.
But it turns out Lorre attributes some of that success to a certain behavioral tic that he’s held fast to over the years, and it’s a superstition that The Big Bang Theory fans will likely find similar to one of Sheldon Cooper’s biggest quirks. Speaking with press at Warner Bros. Television’s winter press panel (via People), Lorre revealed a personal choice he sticks to when it comes to his career. As he put it:
A long time ago, I picked up a ridiculous neurosis that I have. It's contagious. It has spread. And for some reason, I cannot sit in a chair with my name on it. Can't defend it, but things are working okay, so I'm going to stick with it.
Those kinds of massive achievements are enough to inspire me to also refuse to ever sit in a chair with my name on it, although I suppose I’d have to also write a variety of multicam sitcom scripts in order to truly test whether the superstition worked for me or not.
Not that Lorre’s career has been a 100% smooth ride from start to finish, or lese his quirky behavior might be pushed as mandatory for everyone behind the scenes. It’s likely that no superstition could easily thwart Charlie Sheen’s highly publicized downfall and exit from Two and a Half Men, which sparked a years-long feud with Lorre that was only cleared up ahead of Sheen joining Max’s Bookie for cameo appearances.
And I guess the superstition didn’t stop Netflix from cancelling the stoner sitcom Disjointed, or stop Anna Faris from exiting Mom ahead of its eighth season. But for as disappointing as those instances might have been, I have to think the sprawling success of Big Bang Theory, its prequel Young Sheldon, and that show’s Georgie & Mandy spinoff make it easier to look past setbacks.
Sounds Like Sheldon Cooper's "Spot" Might Come From Chuck Lorre's Superstition
Outside of TV and film executives, chairs with people's names on them aren't exactly the most common, so obvious Lorre's own specific quirk wouldn't necessarily work in a fictionalized setting. But the general idea of having very specific seating preferences can indeed be easily ported from a real person to a TV character.
Which is presumably part of how Jim Parsons' Sheldon Cooper wound up being extremely particular about where he plops down, a behavioral pattern that quickly became shorthanded as "Sheldon's Spot." Not just in the apartment, either, but pretty much wherever he felt the need to be precise, including bathroom urinals. Check out a fun supercut of Sheldon's Spot declarations below.
Will TV audiences ever see the comic-adoring character making someone move from his couch cushion again, perhaps as part of the upcoming spinoff that's in development at Max? Jim Parsons has expressed a lack of interest, while his on-screen wifey Mayim Bialik had the opposite opinion, saying she'd always love to return to the role that reignited her career.
While waiting to see if that happens, and to see Sheldon eventually popping up on Georgie & Mandy, Chuck Lorre's biggest (and bangest?) co-creation can be streamed in full with a Max subscription.
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