They can laugh, now

AFTER 100 days on the picket line, this is how Chuck Lorre, the veteran TV writer-producer, brought his two CBS sitcoms back to life.

On Stage 26 last week, at Warner Bros. Studios, “Two and a Half Men” star Charlie Sheen writhed on the floor of a pizza joint after having been Maced by a woman. His costar, Jon Cryer, had it a little rougher. His first scene involved underwear as his only wardrobe item and an ice pack on his burned crotch.

“It wouldn’t be ‘Two and a Half Men’ without some fresh assault on my dignity,” Cryer noted wryly as he sat in the hair and makeup room, covering himself with a robe.

The writers strike has been over for two weeks, but the TV industry is just starting to get its groove back. Although the writers for all of the programs returning this spring are back at work, only seven series have begun shooting, including “Men” and “The Big Bang Theory,” which were the first two shows across the five broadcast networks to begin production.

Next door to “Men,” on Stage 25, Simon Helberg, who plays nerdy Wolowitz on “Big Bang,” sent signals around the world via the Internet so that a “cybernista” in Bogota, Colombia, could use his computer to grind coffee in Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment. In another scene, Jim Parsons tried to make the most of a direction in the script: “Sheldon puts his fingers to his temple and concentrates fiercely, trying to explode Leonard’s head.”

“That’s one instance where plain English doesn’t help,” observed Parsons, who had just received the script with the addition of the brain blast. “That’s just more confusing. What do you mean, I’m trying to explode his head? But it’s fun to do, actually, now that I know what it is.”

Indeed, if the gag survived several rewrites and rehearsals before this “Big Bang” episode taped in front of an audience, Parsons’ scrunch-faced blowup of Leonard’s (Johnny Galecki) intellect is one of the funniest moments of the half-hour. The joke had occurred to co-show runner Bill Prady the previous night as he thought of the film “Scanners” and pictured Sheldon doing “an angry face like in that movie.”

But executive producer Lee Aronsohn thinks there’s more to it than Prady’s penchant for sci-fi flicks. This “Big Bang” episode was in the middle of production when the Writers Guild of America strike began, and now the writers can’t help but draw from their unemployment experiences.

“The whole runner with Sheldon trying to explode things with his mind is something we didn’t have in November and something I don’t think we would have if it wasn’t for the strike,” Aronsohn said. “You know, we have a lot of frustration stored up, which comes out in comedy. The transition from sitting around doing nothing but being stressed out to sitting around trying to be funny and stressed out is not that big of a stretch, it turns out.”

Starting up

Multi-camera comedies are easier to start up than dramas. ABC’s “Boston Legal” was the first one-hour series to begin filming, and three more CBS series -- “Shark,” “Ghost Whisperer” and “Cold Case” -- begin Thursday. But Lorre’s sitcoms were ahead of the half-hour pack because his company was ready to tape one episode of each of his shows when the strike was called on Nov. 5. The “Men” script would have taped on Nov. 9. “Big Bang” was set to tape its eighth episode Nov. 6.

Returning to his 200-member TV family felt “terrific and a little surreal,” Lorre, a prominent creative force in Hollywood, remarked. Over the years, he has been at the helm or toiled on some of the most popular comedies on the small screen: “Dharma & Greg,” “Roseanne,” “Cybill” and “Grace Under Fire.”

“The three months was traumatic,” Lorre said. “It wasn’t a hiatus, a vacation. It was miserable. I thought we might be rusty and stuff, but it felt like the writing staff was firing on all cylinders. It’s strange. It’s like the strike didn’t happen.”

At least on Lorre’s stages. The Warner Bros. lot was virtually empty Thursday as the three lead actors of “Two and a Half Men,” the No. 1 comedy on television, and the crew pre-taped a few scenes. The rest of the episode was shot before an audience on Friday night.

“It felt very comfortable,” Cryer said. “Although having peeked into the abyss, there was a certain maturity. You tend to take a situation like this for granted, and when it’s taken away from you, you have a newfound appreciation.”

Cryer was touched that the head of catering had remembered his affection for Pop-Tarts and had welcomed him with a “spectacular assortment” of them. Second assistant director Chris Jensen, who had used his time off to train as an emergency medical technician, said he laughed when he arrived at the Warner Bros. security gate and realized he’d forgotten the number for the stage where he has worked for five years.

Camera technician Nigel Stewart, who worked at the Apple store in Santa Monica during the strike, was surprised at how quickly everyone adjusted: “For us, on the technician side, it’s like riding a bike. At first, I was a bit nervous, but already it feels great.”

Fourteen-year-old Angus T. Jones, who grew 2 inches during the strike and dropped at least an octave in his voice, nailed his character Jake’s awkward flirtatious moment with a cute blond: “I see you like the diet cola. If I may say so, you don’t need to watch your weight.”

While Jake was (half) succeeding as a player, his uncle Charlie (Sheen) thrashed about miserably on the floor, covering his burning eyes.

After taping the scene, Sheen talked about returning to work. “It feels good, but it’s been difficult. Just getting used to being back on your feet all day long. There’s no midday naps. There’s no spend-the-day-with-’SportsCenter.’ No, it’s good. I think it was just getting that first take out of the way today. Just knowing we can still do this. I can still remember some lines. I can still hit a mark. I can still get a laugh.”

And writhe?

“I can still writhe,” he said, painfully. “Yeah, that was terrible. I was on the ground for like two hours. I thought it was an unwarranted Macing. I think she overreacted.”

Full schedule ahead

When the “Men” set broke for lunch, Lorre, who was feeling under the weather, took five minutes to eat some of his chicken soup before heading to the “Big Bang” stage for the first rehearsal between the cast and the producers. CBS surprised the freshman comedy with a second-season renewal days before the cast and crew returned to work. That means both of Lorre’s comedies will produce nine episodes to air beginning on March 17, take a two-week hiatus and produce 24 more for next fall.

“That’s OK, because the desperation and fear is what I missed the most,” Lorre said. “I really enjoy that panicky feeling.”

The cast members of “Big Bang” said they also felt like they had been away from Stage 25 for only a weekend, even though Kaley Cuoco had spent three months riding her horses in Simi Valley, Kunal Nayyar had traveled and Helberg said he “tried to go the gym. My activity is trying to go.”

“There’s a surreal element of no time went by at all,” Galecki said. “But everything I see -- dirty, dusty tape marks on the floor -- I’m so grateful. I’m looking at everything around me with softer eyes. I was afraid that I’d come back and not know my character and that I’d need time to get into the rhythm of the language. But no, not so much.”

From memory

Still, the telltale signs of post-traumatic strike distress were evident as the actors and producers began working on the episode from scratch. During a scene in which Sheldon and Penny (Cuoco) chatted by their mailboxes, director Joel Murray (son of Bill Murray) saw a ghost: “Imagine if you were on strike today,” he said, looking at the producers. “And there was nothing to do but get the mail.”

“Oooh! Good times,” Lorre replied. “Netflix! Great. Movies I don’t want to see are here.”

At one point, Lorre reminded Parsons where he had stood in November when he delivered one line, and Aronsohn pointed out where Parsons had used physical comedy three months earlier.

Parsons couldn’t recall but took his boss’ word for it, and in less than half an hour, the first run-through was finished. Lorre complimented the cast for a “great first day,” and Parsons shook his hand, saying, “Thank you, it’s so good to be here.”

Quickly, Prady added: “We’ll have the network run-through in three months. That’s the new production schedule. We’ll do a run-through and stop for three months.”

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maria.elena.fernandez@latimes.com