Not since television comedy legendNorman Lear’s prime has one man so overwhelmingly dominated the sitcom genre more thanChuck Lorre. From his start in television writing forMuppet BabiesandMy Little Pony, to his prime-time break writing forRoseanne, to creating, co-creating and producing crowd-pleasing sitcoms likeDharma & Greg,Two and a Half Men,Mom, and the ubiquitousThe Big Bang Theory, Lorre has earned the “Sitcom King” moniker he’s been given.
An overwhelming majority of his sitcoms have seen multiple seasons, includingThe Big Bang TheoryprequelYoung Sheldon, which entered its seventh and final season. It’s what makes the two-season run of his sitcomB Positivestand out, a series that, in Lorre terms, came and went in the blink of an eye. With what seemed to be a winning course-correction of its premise in its second season, it begs the question: What happened?
B Positive
Newly divorced dad Drew faces finding a kidney donor and is at the end of his rope and his hope when he runs into Gina, a rough-around-the edges woman from his past who volunteers her own.
‘B Positive’ Has a Unique But Unsustainable Premise
B Positivepremiered on CBS in November 2020, a series created byMarco Pennette, who also served as executive producer with his longtime collaborator Chuck Lorre. The series centers on Drew Dunbar (Thomas Middleditch), an uptight, newly divorced therapist who discovers he is in the early stages of renal failure,a condition that will become terminal unless a kidney transplant can be done in short order(the show is actuallybased on Pennette’s own transplant experience). Drew tries desperately to find a kidney donor, to no avail, which isn’t helped by the fact Drew has a rare blood type. (Guess what that is.) But fortune smiles on Drew when he attends a wedding and runs into Gina (Annaleigh Ashford), an old school acquaintance, who offers him her kidney on the spot. He reluctantly accepts her offer when it turns out her blood type is compatible with his own.
The first season is, for all intents and purposes, a countdown to the inevitable life-saving operation. Gina, who drives a bus for a senior citizen center, has a big heart and a big personality. Gina also has big troubles, including being in debt to gangsters and frequent turns to alcohol. It’s a lifestyle that isn’t conducive for an organ donor who needs to be drug and alcohol-free for three months prior to the operation. To keep her (and the kidney) safe, Drew invites Gina to live in his home. From there, it’s pretty standard sitcom fare, a “will they won’t they” dynamic paired withThe Odd Couple. Drew finds support with his dialysis group, a collection of misfits in the same situation as himself, and over the course of the first season he learns to be less prudish, while Gina learns how to be more responsible. Again,B Positiveis standard sitcom fare, but Ashford elevates it, giving Gina a quirky, fun, and larger-than-life presence.
‘B Positive’ Season 2 Switches Gears for the Better
The first episode ofB Positive’s second season confirmed that the kidney transplant was a success, and then left the plotline behind. The kidney transplant arc of the show’s first season was never going to be sustained,something even Chuck Lorre himself stated. There were ways it could have been extended, say complications from the surgery, but at some point it would have crossed over to ridiculousness. Lorre’s answer was to completely revamp the show,essentially reinventing it as a different show altogether. It wasn’t the first time Lorre switched gears on a show, having done the same withTwo and a Half MenandMom.
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Annaleigh Ashford took over as the series' lead, with her Gina clearly the most popular character in the show’s first season (sexual misconduct allegationsagainst Thomas Middleditch likely contributed to his lessened role in the series as well). The setup for the second season was Gina’s inheritance of millions from one of the seniors that had lived in the retirement home she worked for, and her buying the home to make things better for its residents (it wasn’t the only change made, as Lorre utilized Ashford’s Tony-winning song and dance skills for a new opening credit, starting with the third episode.
With the second season now set primarily in the retirement home,B Positiveplaced more emphasis on the home’s senior citizens.Linda Lavin, who plays Norma, was promoted to a lead role, and storied actors likeHector Elizondo,Priscilla Lopez,Jane Seymour, andBen Vereenrounded out the cast.The changes Lorre made toB Positivefor its second season make the show significantly better. The comic moments are more natural, the veteran actors anchor the show, and Ashford is given the room to make Gina an even more fully-recognized character.
CBS Cancelled ‘B Positive’ Anyway
Season 2 also allowed for opportunities that play to one of Lorre’s strengths:serious moments that ground his sitcoms in the real world. Moments like the drug overdose death of Jodi (Emily Osment) off-screen,a tragic momentthat hit the characters and the fans ofMomhard, or Leonard (Johnny Galecki)confronting his mother Beverly(Christine Baranski) about her negative impact on his life, but choosing to forgive her, in Season 12 ofThe Big Bang Theory.B Positivedeals with the tragedy of terminal illness and dementia, with the latter a particularly poignant moment in the series where several handwritten notes point to Ben Vereen’s Peter being in the early stages of dementia.B Positivebecame a celebration of being positive, a series that brought optimism into a setting that is often devoid of it.
Despite Chuck Lorre’s new vision for the series, there would be no Season 3 forB Positive, which hadplaced a respectable 43rdamong all 2021-22 network series in Nielsen’s final seven-day ratings. What’s even more surprising was Lorre’s other 2-season CBS sitcom,United States of Al,wasalsocancelled.For anexecutive producer who had consistently seen his sitcoms run for multiple seasons, the one-two punch of CBS' cancellations was tough, which CBS Entertainment PresidentKelly Kahlspoke toin an interview withDeadline: “I’m not going to pretend and tell you he [Lorre] was happy. He was disappointed with the news but he’s the single most talented comedy producer I’ve certainly ever worked with.” For his part, Lorre chose to take a page fromB Positiveand turned his frown upside-down, initiating talks with the network on new projects. His most recent venture,Bookie, is not on CBS, however, but on Max, and was recentlyrenewed for Season 2.
B Positiveis available to buy on Prime Video in the U.S.
