The ongoing back-and-forth over the future of HBO and its parent company Warner Bros. Discovery calls to mind a line from one of the network's great recent series: the business magnate Logan Roy telling his squabbling children "You are not serious people.

He and Gunnar Weidenfels detail the blockbuster unbundling of WBD: Decision "reflects our belief that each company will go further and faster apart than they can together."

Hours after David Zaslav announced Warner Bros. Discovery was spinning off its networks business, Chuck Lorre has tabled a bid. The Big Bang Theory co-creator jokingly offered to buy the business, which includes networks such as CNN,