'Big Bang...' assistant director files lawsuit against Warner

Los Angeles: "The Big Bang Theory" assistant director, Christopher Klausen, has alleged that the producers of the hit TV show conspired to remove him after he turned 50.

Klausen filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Warner Bros Television, which produces the CBS sitcom, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

He claimed the studio and members of the production staff reduced his work on the series over several seasons and illegally terminated him after the eighth season.

With the show's sixth season in 2012, he claims, the producers reassigned his duties of interacting with the actors to Nicole Lorre, "who was in her early-to-mid twenties," and T Ryan Brennan, "who was in his early thirties."

Klausen claims with the seventh season, he went from second assistant director to the uncredited position of second second assistant director, and his duties were reduced only to blocking the actors.

He also claimed that during the production of the seventh season, he was asked to stand in for the first assistant director, which he says demonstrates his alleged lessening of responsibilities was not caused by poor performance on his part.

Klausen, who started working on "The Big Bang Theory" as a second assistant director on the pilot, which aired in 2007, says he was fired after the eighth season of the series.