Character actors save (almost) the TV universe

As “The Big Bang Theory” neared its finale, people gathered for a ceremony.
In the front were the main stars and producers; looking on were reporters. And near the back — mostly unnoticed, as usual — was Kevin Sussman.
He had done 84 episodes as Stuart Bloom, the oft-overlooked owner of a comic book store. Sussman chatted politely with a reporter, then excused himself. “I have to go,” he said. “I have an audition.”
Life is like that for a character actor. There are scattered auditions, random roles, maybe commercials, maybe day jobs. It’s an endless cycle — except Sussman (shown here) has had two exceptions:
— First, “Big Bang” gave him at least second-hand fame. “I was in the Middle East,” he said, “and a woman in a burka ran over and said, ‘Oh my God, what is it like working with Sheldon?'”
— And now “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe” debuts Thursday (July 23) on HBO Max. It stars Sussman, 55, and three other character actors.
On “Big Bang,” John Ross Bowie, also 55, did 25 episodes as Barry Kripke. Brian Posehn, 60, did 15 as Bert Kibbler; Lauren Lapkus (shown here), 40, did eight as Denise. Now, with Sussman, they have their own show.
All are familiar with the makeshift lives of character actors.
“Kevin and I were auditioning for commercials at the same time,” Bowie said. “We’re both native New Yorkers. I’ve known him for coming up 30 years.”
They’ve also known the others. “I babysat Brian’s son when he was 1,” Lipkus said. “He’s 17 now, so that was a long time ago. And … John and I did improv at the same theater for years.”
Occasionally, they got steady work. For three seasons, Bowie was the quirky dad in ABC’s “Speechless.”
But mostly, jobs were scattereed. Sussman has played Tuba Guy, Calculator Guy, Tiny Shorts Guy and Supernerd, plus characters named Skeeter, Shakey, Scott Belcher and Daffy Giraffy.
Fortunately for him, and the others, there’s writer-producer Chuck Lorre.
Many of Lorre’s “main characters would be tertiary characters on another show,” Bowie said. “Like ‘Mike & Molly.’ (Other shows would have an overweight character who would be the butt of the jokes out on the fringes.”
Lorre has always been fond of the fringes. “Big Bang,” he said, was “about outliers. Despite enormous, sophisticated scientific minds, they were incompetent in the real world. They were helpless around a woman. (They) were struggling to be part of everyday life.”
By the end of the series, three of the four main guys had found true love. All had satisfying careers and great friendships; one had a Nobel Prize.
But that left some others, still on the fringes.
Lorre insists he’s “been a longtime fan of Mr. Sussman.” In the final episodes of the second “Big Bang” season, he finally found the role for him.
What he didn’t realize was that Sussman actually had worked at a comic store in real life. “It was just my day job,” he said. “I couldn’t get a waiter job, because no one would … think I could carry dishes around.”
So when playing Stuart, “I always just did what I did at the comic-book store — took inventory. I had the clipboard.”
Stuart is, Sussman said, “a multi-level failure.”
Or maybe not. “He has a relationship,” Lapkus pointed out.
That’s true. Denise is bright, attractive and fond of comic books. “At the end of ‘The Big Bang Theory,’ Stuart has this good relationship,” Sussman said. “It was really exciting. And then the show stopped, and it’s like: ‘That’s so Stuart.'”
Sussman did get a call from Lorre, saying to keep in touch because there might be something new. “When I got off the phone, I told my wife: ‘(He) was obviously just being polite, but that was so nice of him.'”
In the seven years since then, Sussman was back to random roles.
He had get a couple good mini-series jobs. In “Lessons in Chemistry,” he was the TV producer who gave an upstart a chance; in “The Dropout,” he was the lab director who ultimately helped expose his boss.
Other roles were scattered — two “Call Me Kat” episodes with former “Big Bang” colleagues, two “Better Call Saul” ones as a scam victim, some one-shots … and a lot of free time in-between.
That’s a character-actor’s life … until now. Now there’s a universe to fail to save.