Bill Prady on his journey to TV icon

New York, New York (February 9, 2021) – TV icon Bill Prady sat down with The Creative Coalition CEO Robin Bronk in the latest episode of “At Home With The Creative Coalition,” a podcast featuring unplugged and uncensored conversations with today’s biggest stars. In the newest episode, Prady opens up about why Chuck Lorre almost turned down Jim Parsons for the role of Sheldon on “The Big Bang Theory,” how the show came to be, why it’s best to never meet your heroes, and more. Highlights below.

“At Home With The Creative Coalition,” sponsored by the Pioneering Collective, is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud, and more.

Listen now at:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bill-prady-when-opportunity-becomes-destiny/id1521900273?i=1000508304044

For planned coverage, please link to:
https://thecreativecoalition.org/podcast/

Highlights from “At Home With The Creative Coalition” featuring Bill Prady —

On why Chuck Lorre almost turned down Jim Parsons for the role of Sheldon in “The Big Bang Theory”: 
“We saw — oh God, I don’t know — 100 people? And when Jim Parsons came in, he was Sheldon on a level — you know, there were people who came in and you went, ‘Okay, well he’s kind of okay,’ ‘Oh he’s pretty good,’ ‘Maybe he’s the guy’ — and Jim came in and he was just from that audition, he was the Sheldon that you saw on television. He created that character at that audition. And he left the room and I turned and I went, ‘That’s the guy! That’s the guy! That’s the guy! And Chuck turned and he said, ‘Nah, he’s gonna break your heart. He’ll never give you that performance again.’ And I have to say, in the story of my relationship with Chuck, the number of times that I’m right and Chuck is wrong may be — I’m gonna go with one. This may be the only example of where I actually was right. And Jim Parsons came back in the next day and gave us that exact same performance again. It was like this is Sheldon.”

On how “The Big Bang Theory” came to be:
“I called Chuck Lorre and said, ‘Do you want to write a pilot?’… Chuck, who had no real need — you know, he was doing ‘Two and a Half Men,’ he was incredibly successful, there was no real need to do another project — he said, ‘Sure.’ And we decided that we would just noodle around this stuff ourselves, we wouldn’t come up with a pitch, we would just write something. We went through a dozen ideas. I started talking to Chuck about the guys that I had worked with back in my days in the computer days. And they were really interesting people, and I started describing one particular fellow, who — now, in retrospect, we’d have a diagnosis for, but you know, at the time, he was just unusual. One of the qualities about this particular guy was that he was a mathematical savant. But the thing that amused us about him was that he couldn’t figure out a tip at a restaurant, and the reason was the formula of a tip is 15 to 20 percent depending on quality of service and he was unable to quantify ‘quality of service.’ I was telling that story to Chuck, and then Chuck said, ‘Well, why doesn’t he just leave 17 and a half percent?’ And I said, ‘Well, we suggested that to him’ to which he responded, ‘Well, the odds that the service is exactly middling are infinitesimally small, it’s much more likely to be good or bad than it is to be middling. So that by leaving a 17 and a half percent, I am sure that nearly all of the time, I am either over or undertipping.’ I said that to Chuck, and Chuck said, ‘You know, I’ve never seen that guy on television.’ And I said, ‘Well, let’s see if we can figure that out.’ And starting from that, which is the genesis of Sheldon.”

On the time famed sci-fi author Isaac Asimov taught him it’s best to never meet your heroes:
“Isaac Asimov was going to be there. I’m beside myself. I’m a kid of science fiction. It is as if you’ve said, ‘Listen, one of the guests is going to be a god from Mount Olympus.’ So I arranged to be the greenroom PA that day, I swapped with somebody else, and I’m in the greenroom and there’s Isaac Asimov, my hero, and he was incredibly mean to me. I mean as mean as you can be to somebody… I’m so upset by this experience when it comes to an end. I remember going home and just shaking with anger and sadness.”


More about “At Home With The Creative Coalition
Hosted by The Creative Coalition CEO Robin Bronk, “At Home With The Creative Coalition” brings listeners intimate portraits, key moments of discovery, and “art and soul” conversations with iconic entertainment industry personalities from the big screen to the boardroom, from L.A. to D.C. “At Home With The Creative Coalition” is sponsored by the Pioneering Collective. Listen now at http://thecreativecoalition.org/podcast.

Upcoming guests include David Alan Basche (“The Exes,” “United 93”), Asante Blackk (“When They See Us,” “This Is Us”), Carly Chaikin (“Mr. Robot”), Griffin Dunne (“This Is Us,” “Dallas Buyers Club”), Willie Garson (“Hawaii Five-0,” “White Collar”), Clark Gregg (“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “The Avengers”), New York Times Bestselling Author Susan Isaacs (“Compromising Positions,” “Takes One to Know One”), Richard Kind (“Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Big Mouth,” “Gotham”), Chad Lowe (“Supergirl,” “Life in Pieces,” “Pretty Little Liars”), AnnaLynne McCord (“Let’s Get Physical,” “90210”), Eric McCormack (“Will & Grace,” “Travelers”), Rob Morrow (“Billions,” “The Fosters”), Kathy Najimy (“Duncanville,” “Dumplin’,” “Veep”), Haley Joel Osment (“Future Man,” “Entourage”), Jessica Queller (“Supergirl,” “Gossip Girl”), Alysia Reiner (“Better Things,” “Orange Is the New Black”), Yolonda Ross (“The Chi,” “How to Get Away with Murder”), Reid Scott (“Why Women Kill,” “Veep”), Matt Walsh (“Veep,” “UCB Comedy Originals”), Alfre Woodard (“Clemency,” “Luke Cage”), and Constance Zimmer (“Condor,” “UnREAL”).

Previous guests include Jason Alexander (“Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Harley Quinn,” “Saturday Night Seder”), Wilson Cruz (“Star Trek: Discovery,” “My So-Called Life”), Alan Cumming (“Briarpatch,” “Instinct,” “The Good Wife”), The Creative Coalition President and Actor Tim Daly (“Madam Secretary”); Lea DeLaria (“Orange Is the New Black”), Jim Gaffigan (“Tesla,” “The Jim Gaffigan Show”), Judy Gold (“The Other F Word,” “Nightcap”), Jason Isaacs (“The OA,” “Star Trek: Discovery,” “Harry Potter”), Wendi McLendon-Covey (“The Goldbergs,” “Reno 911!”), Katherine McNamara (“Shadowhunters,” “Arrow”), Anthony Rapp (“Star Trek: Discovery,” “Rent”), and Julie Taymor (“The Lion King,” “Frida,” “The Glorias”).

More about The Creative Coalition
The Creative Coalition is the premier nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) social and public advocacy organization of the arts and entertainment community. Founded in 1989 by prominent members of the creative community, The Creative Coalition is dedicated to educating, mobilizing, and activating its members on issues of public importance. Actor Tim Daly serves as the organization’s President. The Creative Coalition also creates award-winning public service campaigns including #RightToBearArts to promote the efficacy of the arts. The Creative Coalition harnesses the unique platforms of the arts community and entertainment industry to make positive impacts on social welfare issues. For more information, visit https://thecreativecoalition.org.

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