Charlie Sheen and the creator of My Uncle Charlie reunite for the new series “Bookie”, ten years after their publicized argument.
What did you find interesting about the world of betting, and why did you decide to make it the subject of a series?
Chuck Lorre (co-creator of the series): It is an illegal activity but is nevertheless tolerated by the police. It is a world that exists in parallel to the laws of our society. It’s a world of money. All transactions are done in cash. And it’s impossible to complain to the police if you find yourself high and dry.
One aspect that interested me from the beginning is that this world has its own language. (…) When a subculture develops its own language, it becomes something truly authentic.
While we were thinking of you angry for goodhow did the surprise appearance of Charlie Sheen – the star of your series My uncle Charlie – in this series?
Chuck Lorre: We were both at a point in our lives where water had flowed under the bridge for over ten years, and that was all history. It’s forgotten, it’s just a shame that all this happened. It was a painful and horrible time, but it’s in the past.
He was in exactly the same state of mind as me. And as you can see, it’s absolutely awesome. He’s really in great shape.
Warner Bros.
What was the biggest challenge you encountered while filming the series?
Chuck Lorre: It rained every day for three months. The series, as you saw in the first season, is mainly filmed in natural settings. This is not an indoor comedy.
The series is set in Los Angeles and out of the 90 days of filming, it rained about 85 days. This has been one of the coldest winters in a hundred years. (…) We were able to meet the challenge, and I would add that there was also the return of Covid last winter, so these are the kinds of difficulties that we had to face for the filming of this series.
Nick Bakay (co-creator of the series): From a creative point of view, we had a great experience. We had a lot of fun writing this series. We quickly found the tone that fit, and we were very lucky to be able to work with this cast. The planets have aligned perfectly.
Chuck Lorre: Nick and I were able to write all eight episodes before filming, and that gave us a huge advantage to then take the time to improve them and ensure continuity between each of the stories.
Warner Bros.
The reunion ten years later between Charlie Sheen and Angus T. Jones (My Uncle Charlie)
What do you think are the main themes of this series?
Chuck Lorre: Hopefully the show will make you laugh. And I hope that at the end of the first episode, the story of Ray and Danny will interest you enough to realize that this is much more than just a series about this slightly strange job, but that it also touches on the difficulties we encounter in this world.
It’s a world where everything is expensive, and where people’s profession and everything that defines them is reduced to money. This is largely what we wanted to tell. The moment you think you know what you are doing, that’s when you make your first mistake.
Nick Kaday: We knew from the beginning that the story of the series was about two dinosaurs watching the meteorite hurtle towards Earth. That they are affected, like many of us, by technology replacing what we do, and that is exactly what is happening in America right now.
Betting is legal in just about the entire country. But fortunately that’s not the case in California, which has allowed us to tell these stories of bookmakers who manage to make money, but who are like an endangered species.
And it was really important for me to write this story, because it’s my vision of working as a sitcom writer. We too are an endangered species.
The Bookie series can be followed exclusively on the Warner Pass, available as a paid subscription on Prime Video.
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