Chuck Lorre's memoir says Anna Faris left Mom after six years, and she counts seven

Chuck Lorre has a new memoir, and Anna Faris has read the part about her. In Sitcom, the co-creator of Mom writes that his initial reluctance to cast Faris as Christy Plunkett turned out to be "in fact, correct". Faris answered on social media on Thursday: "Yikes. Yes, I read a few things. I really didn't see that coming. Of course it hurts."

They do not even agree on how long she was there. Lorre writes that she left "after six years". Faris says that "for seven years" she never took a day of the job for granted.

Six years or seven

Both numbers can be defended, which is what makes the disagreement so specific. According to Wikipedia's season table:

• Seasons 1 to 6: 22 episodes each, from September 23, 2013, to May 9, 2019.
• Season 7: 20 episodes, from September 26, 2019, to April 16, 2020. Faris's last season.
• Season 8: 18 episodes, from November 5, 2020, to May 13, 2021, with Allison Janney as the sole lead.

That is seven seasons and 152 episodes with Faris, made over six years and seven months. Lorre counted the calendar. Faris counted the seasons, and so does Deadline, which says she starred in the first seven.

What Lorre wrote

The excerpt, as quoted by Deadline, starts with doubt. "I wasn't sure Anna would be appropriate for this kind of material," Lorre writes. "Then I thought about how badly I'd bungled my working relationship with Charlie Sheen."

After Two and a Half Men, he says, he conceded: "Someone's personal life is none of my business. The mom in Mom would be, and should be, Anna Faris."

Then the passage that Faris objected to: "As the years went by, it became apparent that my initial reluctance to hire Anna was, in fact, correct. After six years, she left the show for mysterious reasons that were not mysterious to anyone on the show."

The book does not stop at Faris. Deadline's interview with Lorre about Sitcom lists Roseanne, Tom Arnold, Cybill Shepherd, Brett Butler and Charlie Sheen among the stars whose behaviour he describes, and says much of the memoir focuses on difficult stars who made life unnecessarily hard for those around them. It also includes his vanity cards and marked-up pilot scripts from Two and a Half Men, The Kominsky Method and The Big Bang Theory.

What Faris said

Her statement is short and avoids attacking him. "Chuck gave me a job I loved, and for seven years I never took a day of it for granted. I'm proud of what we made together, and nothing changes how grateful I am for those people and those years."

Then she added something the memoir does not have: "I've been sober for a year and a half. I was on a show about recovery, and then I lived it. Now I'm healthy, I'm working, and I'm happier than I've been in a long time. If anyone reading this is where I was, I hope that's useful. It gets better. I'm proof."

The exit, as it was announced in 2020

At the time, the official explanation was brief. Deadline reported that Faris left in 2020 "to pursue new opportunities". Wikipedia dates her announcement to September 4, 2020, two months before the eighth season premiered without her.

Wikipedia is less sure about what happened next. Its summary says CBS announced the end of the series "shortly thereafter". Its production section dates that announcement to February 2021, five months later, when the eighth season was already on air. The finale aired on May 13, 2021.

A show built on recovery

Mom was created by Lorre, Eddie Gorodetsky and Gemma Baker. It followed Christy, a single mother restarting her life in Napa, California, after battling drug abuse including alcoholism, working as a waitress and attending AA meetings. Her mother, Bonnie, played by Janney, is also a recovering addict.

• Casting: Faris joined in January 2013. Wikipedia calls it her first full-time television role as a lead, after guest spots between films and an unused NBC pilot, Blue Skies.
• Janney: cast on January 28, 2013, as Christy's mother. She won two straight Primetime Emmys for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, in 2014 and 2015.
• The pickup: CBS ordered the series on May 9, 2013, giving Lorre four sitcoms on one network for the 2013 to 2014 season.
• Format: unlike most CBS multi-camera sitcoms, Mom used serialized storytelling, with storylines running across episodes.
• The run: eight seasons and 170 episodes on CBS.

By the third season, Wikipedia says, the focus had moved to Christy, Bonnie and their AA group, and the restaurant set and other roles were reduced. The two women in recovery became the show.

What is still unknown

• What Lorre means by "mysterious reasons". The excerpt does not say, and neither does Faris.
• Whether Lorre will respond to her statement.
• What else the memoir says about Mom, beyond the passage Deadline quoted.
• Whether Janney will comment. She carried the final season alone.

Mom spent eight seasons on CBS telling stories about people getting sober. Its co-creator and its first lead have now each published their version of her exit, and they cannot agree on how many years she was there.