Another day, another feud in the anarchic opinion zone known as Twitter. This time, the verbal bombs are being lobbed at prolific sitcom producer Chuck Lorre. The lobbers? Producers of ABC's The Bachelor franchise.
It all began with Lorre's self-censored vanity card -- a politically charged screed which he resisted appending to the end of CBS' The Big Bang Theory, and instead posted on his own website.
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Among the many provocative questions posed in it, the comedy writer asked, "What does it say about us when we think the institution of marriage is threatened by gay people who love each other, but not by idiotic game shows like The Bachelor?"
Bachelor producer Elan Gale then took to Twitter to make a few pointed observations of his own.
"Someone has been freebasing crushed up copies of Dharma & Greg DVDs," Gale observed on his page, referring to the Jenna Elfman sitcom that Lorre executive produced from 1997 to 2002. Gale followed that up with another zinger: "Two and a Half Men. Zero salient points."
Robert Mills, another producer of the franchise, then pointed out that one of the stars of The Big Bang Theory is a fan of the shows: "Ironic that Chuck Lorre decides to bash #Bachelor and one of his stars Kaley Cuoco is a card carrying member of #Bachelornation," Mills wrote.
Mills then tweeted: "Chuck Lorre's getting #TwoAndAHalfMenNation to retaliate against #BachelorNation Step 1: teach their geriatric audience to turn on a computer."
Ooooh.
Longtime Bachelor host Chris Harrison got into the melee, too, re-tweeting Gale and Mills' tweets, and posting one of his own: "Love it when people expose their own ignorance!" Harrison tweeted, then linked to the vanity card story.
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The Bachelor, now in its 17th season, and its companion show, The Bachelorette, approaching its ninth, has a less-than-stellar track record when it comes to finding true love for its contestants. Most recently, Bachelorette star Emily Maynard ended her engagement to Jeff Holm, the man she had chosen to marry on national television after her previous engagement, to Bachelor star Brad Womack, had also fallen apart.
The series has only ever tried to pair heterosexual couples. A lawsuit contending the show violates racial discrimination laws by failing to feature non-white cast members was defeated, with the judge ruling that the casting of an entertainment show such as The Bachelor is protected as speech by the First Amendment.
Email: seth.abramovitch@thr.com
Twitter: @SethAbramovitch
