When Opportunity Becomes Destiny
Chance Events or the Hand of God?
“Leonard was that part of me that was willing to go out in the world and try things, and Sheldon was that part of me that just wanted to stay home and watch Star Trek. And to me, the Big Bang Theory was always a triangle with Leonard caught in the middle and Penny representing the world, and Sheldon representing retreat from the world.”
Many of us are brought up to believe we must graduate high school, go to college or university, and settle into a life-long career. We’re warned of the miseries that can befall us if we do anything less than this. But when college drop-out Bill Prady followed his then-girlfriend to New York because he had nothing better to do, no one could have imagined the incredible journey he was about to begin, much less where it would take him. In this episode, Prady discusses the chance events that became defining moments in the fascinating career.
Bill Prady is an American television writer and producer, and has either won or been nominated for numerous awards. During the course of his impressive career, he has worked on many American sitcoms and variety programs, including Married… with Children, Dream On, Star Trek: Voyager, Dharma & Greg, Two and a Half Men and Gilmore Girls. He is also the co-creator of the Muppets and The Big Bang Theory. Born in Michigan, he began his writing career in Canada with You Can’t Do That on Television. As a college dropout, he began a career in computers and writing software, eventually being part-owner of The Small Computer Company, which ultimately played an enormous part in the creation of one of the all-time biggest television success stories in history.
What You’ll Learn from This Episode:
- How college drop-out Prady ended up in New York with no plan to be there
- How his Radio Shack job led to owning a computer company
- The blunt and bordering-on-rude question that a stranger asked, changing Prady’s life forever
- The moment that might have made Prady believe in “a deterministic universe”
- Why Isaac Asimov’s shockingly “mean” behaviour on a bad day was responsible for Prady’s television writing career
- The fluke that landed Jim Henson in Prady’s basement office with jaw-dropping news
- An entertaining story about Muppet dog, Rolf, and the postal service
- Prady’s journey through Married…With Children, Dharma and Greg, Gilmore Girls, and more
- How an absolutely terrible job led to Prady and Chuck Lorre creating the Big Bang Theory
- The fascinating story behind the Big Bang Theory and what it meant to Prady
- The interesting audition process for BBT and what happened when Jim Parsons showed up
- How Sheldon came to be…
- Prady’s advice for the best decisions