Chuck Lorre, the creator of The Big Bang Theory spin-off Stuart Fails To Save the Universe, has revealed why some of the episodes in the show’s first season are so short.
The newest expansion of The Big Bang Theory universe, which premieres on HBO Max on Thursday 23 July in the US and Friday 24 July in the UK, stars a few of the original show’s lesser characters, including comic book shop owner Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman).
The 10 episodes in the first season are set to drop weekly but fans may notice something a little unusual: the changing episode length. Some are as short as 15 minutes, while others stretch to 25 minutes.
The show, which Lorre created alongside Bill Prady and Zak Penn, leans into science fiction and involves alternate realities but the shorter episodes are not due to budget constraints caused by its elaborate sets and special effects.
“No, no. We just felt that we’d successfully told the story,” Lorre told Deadline. “And to add would be padding, and padding, generally, is a hammock between important scenes, and why would we do that if there’s no real reason.
“The historic length of a show is entirely arbitrary, it comes from network television where a certain amount of advertising has to be sold to pay the way of making this television, but it’s not an element any longer in streaming.”
Viewers will soon get used to a familiar formula as episodes of Stuart Fails To Save the Universe end with the characters arriving in a new alternate reality, which offers them a glimpse at what is to come.
Lorre explained: “The way we structured it, it just fell into our laps, it’s a teaser for the next week but it also felt like a natural way of telling this story,”
Prady noted that they tried it for the first episode and liked doing it so much that they repeated the trend.
So it sounds like we have some interesting glimpses to look forward to!
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe premieres on HBO Max on Thursday 23 July in the US and Friday 24 July in the UK.
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