vanity cards

You know those 'cards' that run at the end of shows with the name of the creating company etc.? Well, here's an interesting article on these 'vanity cards' - how they're created and the story behind them. And here's the website of Chuck Lorre, the guy behind Dharma & Greg, and Two and a Half Men. You can actually read every single vanity card that he put up at the end of these two shows - they were enormous blocks of text that changed every week. I always wondered what they said, but never wondered enough to tape an episode and freeze-frame it. But now I can know. I particularly like card 109, the 'Two and a Half Men Pledge'. I really like that show, and this pretty much sums up why:

We assume an intelligent audience holding remote controls. The only laughter you will hear is the laughter of real people. We will do no "very special" episodes. Nobody's having a baby. No one's getting married. Someone is getting divorced. Our characters are flawed, yet smart. The kid is, and will remain, a real kid. There will be no bachelor auctions. No one's getting stranded in a cabin or stuck in an elevator. There will be no dream sequences, talent shows, or fantasies.... at least in the first season.

I'm all for tv writers "assuming an intelligent audience". If they all did this, we'd get more Two and a Half Men and The West Wing (the early seasons - even I'm intelligent enough to acknowledge the crapness of the current episodes) and Six Feet Under, and less Fear Factor: Twins Edition and Extreme Makeover and Wife Swap. Rock on intelligent audiences and intelligent writers creating intelligent shows for them!
[via tv tattle]