Chuck Lorre first encountered slapstick comedian Leanne Morgan through her 2023 Netflix particular “I’m Each Girl,” which grew to become a smash for the platform. Morgan was a 50-something mom — and now grandmother — from Tennessee, and her routine resonated with the “Two and a Half Males” and “The Massive Bang Principle” comedy titan.

“It’s actually easy: I noticed her stand-up and I went, ‘Oh my God. That is an authentic voice,’” says Lorre — who famously received his begin writing sitcoms for the likes of Roseanne Barr and Brett Butler. “It’s authentically who she is. Her supervisor mentioned, ‘Would you want to satisfy her? She may come go to you.’ I went, ‘You understand what? I feel I ought to go to Knoxville.’ So I went to Tennessee to spend time together with her household, and so they’re simply great individuals.”

That go to ultimately led to the creation of her upcoming Netflix sitcom “Leanne” (from Warner Bros. TV), which premieres July 31. Morgan says she has had loads of improvement offers that went nowhere, together with one with Matt Williams (who created “Roseanne”) and one other with Sony TV. However this felt completely different.

“When Chuck Lorre flew to Knoxville and sat on my again porch and held my grandbaby and requested me if I’d do a tv present with him, the entire thing was loopy,” she says. “My husband sits and watches ‘Massive Bang Principle’ each night time, all night time lengthy. Honey, that’s all he does. That’s his present… I actually felt validated after 25 years of doing stand-up and getting quite a lot of nos, quite a lot of ‘You’re not edgy sufficient,’ ‘You’re too plain.’”

Netflix shortly caught wind of Lorre’s go to. “I received a name from someone at Netflix who mentioned, ‘We perceive you’re speaking to Leanne Morgan. In the event you do one thing there, would you name us?’” Lorre remembers. “Since her stand-up’s on Netflix, they will need to have some darkish, deep arithmetic about it.”

Certainly, the streamer has been busy constructing out its “Netflix Is a Joke” enterprise, and now’s creating sitcoms round a few of these stars.

“On the stand-up facet, we work with best-in-class comedians from throughout that attain very completely different audiences,” says Netflix comedy head Tracey Pakosta, who has discovered success with Shane Gillis’ “Tires” and Wanda Sykes’ “The Upshaws,” and simply gave a greenlight to Bert Kreischer’s sitcom “Free Bert.” “And as everyone knows from again within the day when a majority of these exhibits had been extra common and resonated, once you discover someone that has a really particular genuine voice, it is smart to lean in. And Leanne is totally a type of abilities.”

It’s additionally a throwback to the Nineteen Nineties comedy frenzy — when expertise like Barr, Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Drew Carey, Martin Lawrence and Ray Romano all hit it massive by transferring from the stage to the set.

“That was my purpose,” Morgan says. “Being my age, arising in stand-up and loving tv, that was my dream.”

Netflix was bullish sufficient on the present (and Lorre’s involvement) to present it an unprecedented 16-episode order. In “Leanne,” which is ready in Knoxville, Morgan performs a girl whose life is upended when her husband (Ryan Stiles) immediately leaves her for one more.

Morgan is fortunately married, in order that a part of the story isn’t autobiographical — however having kicked her profession into excessive gear in her 50s, she will completely relate to her character’s massive life adjustments. That features studying how one can star in her personal TV present.

“The primary three weeks, I received these scripts, and I used to be in each scene, and I by no means discovered a script like that,” she says. “I didn’t know what digicam blocking was. I didn’t even find out about tons wish to go in and movie at Warner Bros. in Burbank, all the things was new to me. I used to be overwhelmed. I’ll be 60 in October, and I don’t assume my life is over, however issues are a bit exhausting for me at my age. I assumed, ‘there’s no manner I’m going to study all this’ and there was an enormous studying curve. After which I sort of settled into it, as soon as I received over the shock and the being overwhelmed.”

Morgan mentioned she received a bit bit of recommendation from one in all her comedy heroes: Jerry Seinfeld, who has turn out to be a fan, reached out to supply some phrases of encouragement: “He mentioned, ‘I’m telling you, Leanne, you’re going to stroll on that set, and it’s going to really feel like dwelling.’ And by the tip of it, that’s what it felt wish to me. He was proper.”

It additionally helped that Morgan’s daughter, who’s her make-up artist, joined her on the journey to L.A. And her co-stars embody sitcom vet Kristen Johnston (“third Rock from the Solar”): “She was like my trainer and my finest buddy, after which the writers, Susan McMartin and Nick Bakay, had been so loving. All of them wished to see me win.”

Says Lorre: “We threw her into the deep finish too. She has some actually dramatic scenes to play in these first few episodes. She wasn’t being requested to only merely hit a mark and inform a joke. She needed to go from zero to 100 and turn out to be an actor in a short time. And he or she did.”