The Big Bang Theory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Big Bang Theory is an American
sitcom created by
Chuck Lorre and
Bill Prady, both of whom serve as executive producers on the show, along with
Steven Molaro. All three also serve as head writers. It premiered on
CBS on September 24, 2007.
[5]
The show is centered on five characters: roommates
Leonard Hofstadter and
Sheldon Cooper;
Penny, a waitress and aspiring actress who lives across the hall; and Leonard and Sheldon's equally
geeky and socially awkward friends and co-workers, aerospace engineer
Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist
Raj Koothrappali. The geekiness and intellect of the four guys is contrasted for comic effect with Penny's social skills and common sense.
[6][7]
Over time, supporting characters have been promoted to starring roles:
Leslie Winkle, a physicist colleague at Caltech and, at different times, a lover of both Leonard and Howard;
Bernadette Rostenkowski, Howard's girlfriend (later his wife), a microbiologist and former part-time waitress alongside Penny;
Stuart Bloom, the cash-strapped owner of the comic book store the characters often visit, and neuroscientist
Amy Farrah Fowler, who joins the group after surreptitiously being matched to Sheldon on a dating website.
On January 12, 2011, CBS announced that the series had been renewed
for an additional three years, extending it through the 2013–14 season.
[8] As of the
2012–13 television season, the series is in its
sixth season, which premiered on September 27, 2012.
[9]
Production
The show's initial pilot, developed for the 2006–07 television
season, was substantially different from its current form. The only
characters from the initial pilot that were kept for the reshot pilot
for the series were Leonard and Sheldon (portrayed by
Johnny Galecki and
Jim Parsons respectively and named after
Sheldon Leonard).
[10] The cast was rounded off by two female leads: Canadian actress
Amanda Walsh
as Katie, "a street-hardened, tough-as-nails, woman with a vulnerable
interior" who the boys meet after she breaks up with her boyfriend and
invite to live in their apartment (Katie was replaced by Penny in the
second pilot);
[11][12] and
Iris Bahr as Gilda, a scientist colleague and friend of the boys who was threatened by Katie's presence. The initial pilot used
Thomas Dolby's hit "
She Blinded Me with Science" as theme music.
The series was not picked up, but the creators were given an
opportunity to retool the show and produce a second pilot. They brought
in the remaining cast and retooled the show to its final format. The
original unaired pilot has never been officially released, but it has
circulated on the Internet. On the evolution of the show, Lorre said "We
did the 'Big Bang Pilot' about two and a half years ago, and it
sucked... but there were two remarkable things that worked perfectly,
and that was Johnny and Jim. We rewrote the thing entirely, and then we
were blessed with Kaley and Simon and Kunal." As to whether the world
will ever see that original pilot, maybe on a DVD, Lorre said "Wow that
would be something, we will see. Show your failures..."
[13]
The first and second pilots of
The Big Bang Theory were directed by
James Burrows, who did not continue with the show. The reworked second pilot led to a 13-episode order by CBS on May 14, 2007.
[14] Prior to its airing on
CBS, the pilot episode was distributed on
iTunes free of charge. The show premiered September 24, 2007, and was picked up for a full 22-episode season on October 19, 2007.
[15] However, production was halted on November 6, 2007 due to the
Writers Guild of America strike. The series returned on March 17, 2008 in an earlier time slot
[16] and ultimately only 17 episodes were produced.
[17][18] After the strike ended, the show was picked up for a second season airing in the
2008–2009 season, premiering in the same time slot on September 22, 2008.
[19] With increasing ratings, the show received a two-year renewal through the 2010–11 season.
[20][21] Since then, the show has been picked up for three more seasons.
[22] The show is filmed in front of a live audience,
[23] and is produced by
Warner Bros. Television and
Chuck Lorre Productions.
[24]
David Saltzberg, a professor of
physics and
astronomy at the
University of California, Los Angeles, checks scripts and provides dialogue, mathematics equations, and diagrams used as props.
[6] According to executive producer/co-creator
Bill Prady,
"We're working on giving Sheldon an actual problem that he's going to
be working on throughout the [first] season so there's actual progress
to the boards ... We worked hard to get all the science right."
[7]
Several of the actors in
The Big Bang Theory worked together previously on
Roseanne including Johnny Galecki, Sara Gilbert, and
Laurie Metcalf (who plays Sheldon's mother,
Mary Cooper). Additionally, Lorre was a writer on the series for several seasons.
Theme song
The Canadian
alternative rock band
Barenaked Ladies wrote and recorded the show's theme song, which describes the history and formation of the universe and the Earth.
Ed Robertson,
lead singer and guitarist in the band, was asked by Lorre and Prady to
write a theme song for the show. Having been asked to write songs for
other films and shows only to have them rejected in favor of another
artist's, Robertson agreed to write a theme only after learning that he
was the sole writer whom
Lorre and
Prady had asked. He drew inspiration from
Simon Singh's book,
Big Bang, which he had coincidentally just finished reading.
[25][26]
On October 9, 2007, a full-length (1 minute and 45 seconds) version of the song was released commercially.
[27] A music video was also released via special features on
The Complete Fourth Season DVD and Blu-ray set.
[28][29] The theme was included on the the band's greatest hits album,
Hits from Yesterday & the Day Before, which was released on September 27, 2011.
[30]
Creating a space environment
The
season finale of
season 5 depicted
Howard Wolowitz traveling to the
International Space Station (ISS) on board a
Soyuz rocket, and
season 6 featured him working in the ISS. Thanks to technical consulting from Astronaut
Mike Massimino,
who also played himself on the show, the production crew was able to
put together sets that realistically depicted the Soyuz capsule and the
ISS. The Soyuz capsule was constructed based on photos from NASA, the
Kansas Cosmosphere
for dimensions, and scavenged parts from an aerospace junkyard in Los
Angeles. A small 20-foot (6.1 m) portion of a chamber that is a model of
the ISS was rented and used as the set for the ISS. "Unique camera
angles and creative framing" were used to make the set look larger. To
simulate
weightlessness,
the production crew decided to use "long skinny platforms" to support
the actors from below, rather than use tethers to suspend from above.
The actors were required to act out "motions of microgravity" in order
to create "theatrical authenticity".
[31]
Actors' salaries
For the first three seasons, Galecki, Parsons and Cuoco, the three
main stars of the show, received at most $60,000 per episode. The salary
for the three went up to $200,000 per episode for the fourth season.
According to their contracts, their per-episode pay will go up an
additional $50,000 in each of the following three seasons, culminating
in $350,000 per episode in the seventh season.
[32][33]
Main cast
Characters in
The Big Bang Theory. From left: Howard Wolowitz, Leonard Hofstadter, Penny, Sheldon Cooper and Rajesh Koothrappali.
These actors have been credited in all episodes of the series:
- Johnny Galecki[34] as Leonard Hofstadter, Ph.D. – An experimental physicist with an IQ of 173. He received his Ph.D. when he was 24 years old. He is originally from New Jersey. The straight man of the series, he shares an apartment with colleague and friend Sheldon Cooper. The writers immediately implied potential romance between him and neighbor Penny,
and their sexual tension is frequently explored including occasional
dating. In Season 3, Leonard begins an on-again, off-again romantic
relationship with Penny, although the two continue to live separately.
- Jim Parsons[35] as Sheldon Cooper, B.S., M.S., M.A., Ph.D., Sc.D.[36] – Originally from East Texas, he was a child prodigy with an eidetic memory
who began college at the age of 11 (after completing the fifth grade),
started graduate studies at 14, and earned a Ph.D. at 16. A theoretical physicist researching quantum mechanics and string theory,
he has a master's degree, two Ph.D.s, an Sc.D., and an IQ of 187. He
exhibits a strict adherence to routine and a lack of understanding of
irony and sarcasm; he is also uninterested in many of the romantic
hijinks of his friends. Sheldon shares an apartment with Leonard
Hofstadter, across the hall from Penny, and relies on both for advice in
social situations. Sheldon is very egotistical, and he often boasts
about his intelligence, although he lacks social skills. Sheldon relies
on his friends to drive him around, and he eventually tries to go for
his driver's license but is unable to complete the task. In the fourth
season, he begins a relationship with Amy Farrah Fowler, who becomes his
first girlfriend during the fifth season, even though he is wary of
germs and physical contact. He is a very introverted character. He is
also famous for knocking on a door before saying the name of whom he's
addressing, repeating this three times.
- Kaley Cuoco[37] as Penny – From a small town outside of Omaha, Nebraska,[38]
a blonde who lives across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard. She is
pursuing a career in acting, and has been on casting calls and auditions
but has not been very successful thus far. To pay the bills, she is a
waitress and occasional bartender at The Cheesecake Factory.
To date, her last name has not been revealed. She dated Leonard at the
end of the first season, and during the third, fifth, and sixth seasons.[39]
By season four, Bernadette, Amy and Penny have formed their own group,
who like to hang out in Penny's apartment or go out together.
- Simon Helberg[40] as Howard Wolowitz, M.Eng.[41] – He works as an aerospace engineer.
He is Jewish, and lives with his mother. Unlike Sheldon, Leonard, and
Raj, Howard lacks a Ph.D. He defends this by pointing out that he has a
master's degree in engineering from MIT
and that the apparatus he designs are launched into space, unlike the
purely abstract work of his friends, including going to space himself in
the Season 5 finale. He fancies himself a ladies' man and devises outrageous pick-up lines, with suitably unimpressed reactions from Penny and limited success with other women. He claims to be a polyglot. He dates and later marries Bernadette Rostenkowski.
In the fifth season, he trained as an astronaut, and blasted off into
space in the season finale to serve as a payload specialist on the International Space Station.
- Kunal Nayyar[42] as Raj Koothrappali, Ph.D. – Originally from New Delhi, India, he works as a particle astrophysicist at Caltech.[43]
His family is very wealthy. He communicates with his parents, Dr. and
Mrs. V.M. Koothrappali, via webcam. He is very shy around women and is
physically unable to talk to them (except for his mother and his sister) unless he drinks alcohol, or at least thinks he has been drinking alcohol,
or has taken experimental medications provided by the pharmacology
department at the university. However, he has often had better luck with
women than his overly-confident best friend Howard. He has very
feminine tastes and often takes on a stereotypical female role in his
close friendship with Howard, but he insists that he is not gay.[44] During the fourth season, his sister Priya (Aarti Mann) stays with him and becomes Leonard's girlfriend.
These actors were first credited as guest stars and later promoted to
main cast. However, even after promotion, they are only credited in
episodes in which they appear:
- Sara Gilbert as Leslie Winkle, Ph.D. (recurring season 1, starring season 2, recurring season 3)[45][46] – a physicist
who works in the same lab as Leonard. In appearance she is essentially
Leonard's female counterpart, equipped with the black framed glasses and sweat jackets.
She is an enemy of Sheldon's, due to their conflicting scientific
theories. Though each considers the other to be intellectually inferior,
Leslie is much wittier than Sheldon, regularly calling him "dumbass",
and she usually bests him in their repartee. Leslie has had casual sex with Leonard and later Howard;
in the case of the former, it reunited Gilbert and Galecki on-screen
after the two played the on-screen couple of Darlene Connor and David
Healy during the run of Roseanne.
Gilbert was promoted to a main cast member during the second season but
was demoted again because producers could not generate enough content
for the character.[45] Gilbert left the series after season 3 concluded to focus her efforts on The Talk, on which she serves as executive producer for CBS.
- Melissa Rauch as Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz, Ph.D. (recurring season 3, starring since season 4)[47] –
a young woman who is initially a waitress and co-worker of Penny's,
paying her way through graduate school microbiology studies, she defends
her doctoral thesis and lands a high-paying science position at the end
of season 4. Bernadette is introduced to Howard by Penny. At first they
do not get along, apparently having nothing in common. When they find
out that they both have overbearing mothers, they feel a connection.
During season 3 they date and then break up off-screen, then get back
together in season 4. They become engaged near the end of season 4, and
marry at the end of season 5.
- Mayim Bialik as Amy Farrah Fowler, Ph.D. (guest starring season 3, starring since mid-season 4)[48] –
a woman Raj and Howard met on an online dating site after secretly
setting up an account using Sheldon's name and information. The site
matches her to Sheldon, and the two share many similar traits though Amy
is more interested in social and romantic interaction. Once she and
Sheldon meet, she becomes, as Sheldon puts it, a girl who is his friend,
but not his "girlfriend". Their relationship slowly progresses through
seasons 5 and 6. Amy also believes she and Penny are best friends
("besties", by her own definition), a sentiment that at first Penny
respectfully indulges but doesn't share. Penny eventually becomes a real
friend, overlooking Amy's "Sheldon"-like qualities. Amy's admiration
for Penny has at times bordered on attraction. Amy Fowler has a Ph.D. in
neurobiology, while Bialik herself has a doctorate in neuroscience; in
the season 1 episode "The Bat Jar Conjecture", Raj suggests recruiting the real-life Bialik to their Physics Bowl team.
- Kevin Sussman as Stuart Bloom
(recurring seasons 2–5, starring since season 6) – Stuart runs the
comic book store that the guys frequently visit. He is also a nerd, but
he has a talent for drawing, is a graduate of Rhode Island School of
Design and possesses more social skills than the rest of the guys.
During Stuart's first appearance, the guys brought Penny along to the
store and he managed to ask her on a date. They go on a few dates until
Penny mistakenly calles him "Leonard", leaving him devastated. As Stuart
runs a comic book store, he has vast knowledge of comic books and
superheroes. In the Season 4 episode "The Toast Derivation", he implied
he was in financial trouble and that the comic book store is now also
his home. At Howard's bachelor party during the "The Stag Convergence"
episode, Stuart uses his toasting turn to tell Howard how lucky he is
and compares it to his own situation of living in the back of a comic
book store. In Season 6, he is invited to be part of the guys' group
while Howard is in space. Sheldon is not very accepting of this due to
Stuart's art degree, but relents after Stuart offers him a 30% off
discount in the comic book store.
Recurring themes and elements
Science
Much of the show focuses on science, particularly
physics. The four main male characters are employed at
Caltech and have science-related occupations. The characters frequently banter about scientific theories or news (notably around the
start of the show), and make science-related jokes.
Science has also interfered with the characters' romantic lives.
Leslie broke up with Leonard when he sided with Sheldon in his support
for
string theory rather than her support for
loop quantum gravity.
[49]
When Leonard joined Sheldon, Raj, and Howard on a three-month Arctic
research trip, it separated Leonard and Penny at a time their
relationship was budding. When Bernadette took an interest in Leonard's
work, it made both Penny and Howard jealous and resulted in Howard
confronting Leonard, and Penny asking Sheldon to teach her physics.
[50] Sheldon and Amy also briefly ended their relationship after an argument over which of their fields was superior to the other's.
[51]
David Saltzberg, who has a Ph.D. in physics, has served as science
consultant for the show for five seasons. While Salzberg knows physics,
he sometimes needs assistance from Mayim Bialik, who has a Ph.D. in
neuroscience. Salzberg sees early versions of scripts which need
scientific information added to them, and he also points out where the
writers, despite their knowledge of science, have made a mistake. He is
usually not needed in a taping unless a lot of science, and especially
the whiteboard, is involved.
[52]
Sci-fi, fantasy, comic book fandom and gaming
The four main male characters are all avid sci-fi,
fantasy, and comic book fans and memorabilia collectors.
Star Trek in particular is frequently referenced and Sheldon identifies strongly with the character of
Spock; when he is given a used napkin signed by
Leonard Nimoy as a Christmas gift from Penny he is overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude ("I possess the DNA of Leonard Nimoy?!").
[53] Star Trek: The Original Series cast member
George Takei
has made a cameo, and Leonard Nimoy made a cameo as the voice of
Sheldon's vintage Mr. Spock action figure (both cameos were in dream
sequences).
Star Trek: The Next Generation cast members
Brent Spiner and
LeVar Burton have had cameos as themselves,
[54][55] while
Wil Wheaton has a recurring role as a
fictionalized version of himself. All four male characters can speak
Klingon to varying degrees—the opening of the episode "
The Panty PiƱata Polarization" shows them playing "Klingon
Boggle".
During the "The Launch Acceleration" episode, Amy and Sheldon were seen
playing doctor with Amy dressed in a Star Trek medical uniform.
[56] In the episode "The Bakersfield Expedition", the four male leads dress up as
Star Trek: The Next Generation characters for a
Star Trek
convention. When they return home, they hear the women discussing comic
books. They believe that they have crossed into an alternate reality in
which their girlfriends care for such things, and set their phasers to
stun and investigate.
In addition to
Star Trek, the group are also fans of
Star Wars,
Battlestar Galactica and
Doctor Who; numerous quotes from
Star Wars are made and references to
Battlestar Galactica can be seen in some episodes. In season two, Raj once likens Sheldon to
C-3PO,
[57] an intelligent, yet semi-annoying
protocol droid in the Star Wars series. In episode 5 of season 2, Sheldon wants to return a set of white
Star Wars sheets to
Pottery Barn as they are too exciting for sleeping in.
[58] In 2009,
Katee Sackhoff of
Battlestar Galactica
appeared as herself in "The Vengeance Formulation" episode as Howard's
fantasy dream girl. She appears again in season 4, in the same role.
Leonard likes
Babylon 5, but Sheldon refuses to watch it, calling it derivative.
[59][n 1] Sheldon also expresses a great liking of
Joss Whedon's
Firefly, as he is shown to be quite upset with the
Fox network for cancelling it.
[n 1]
The four males are also fans of fantasy and make references to
The Lord of the Rings and
Harry Potter novels and movies. Howard can speak
Sindarin, one of the two
Elvish languages from
The Lord of the Rings. In one episode, they find a prop of the
One Ring and they all fight over who gets to keep it. Leonard once wore a
Frodo Baggins costume and Raj once bought what he thought was a "hand crafted"
Harry Potter wand on
eBay. Raj is a
fan of Harry Potter making many references to the franchise. Sheldon in one episode gave Leonard a spoiler to
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that Dumbledore dies. Sheldon can be seen as fond of The Lord of the Rings franchise. He has a
Gollum action figure on his desk. Next to football, Sheldon knows a lot about the fantasy sport of
Quidditch in Harry Potter. Leonard and Sheldon have a fantasy sword collection.
Wednesday night is the group's designated "comic book night"
[60]
because that is the day of the week when new comic books are released.
The comic book store in question is run by fellow geek and recurring
character Stuart. On a number of occasions, the group members have
dressed up as pop culture characters, including
The Flash,
Aquaman,
Frodo Baggins,
Superman,
Batman,
Spock,
The Doctor,
Green Lantern, and
Thor (albeit as the original Norse god and not the
Marvel Comics character).
[61] As a consequence of losing a bet to Stuart, the group members are forced to visit the comic book store dressed as
Catwoman,
Wonder Woman,
Batgirl, and
Supergirl.
[62] Sheldon often wears t-shirts depicting Batman, Superman, Flash, or Green Lantern.
DC Comics announced that, to promote its comics, the company will sponsor Sheldon wearing Green Lantern t-shirts.
[63]
The characters are also fans of the
Indiana Jones series, and willing to spend several hours in line outside of a theater to watch a special screening of
Raiders of the Lost Ark with 21 seconds of new footage.
[64]
Various games have been featured on the show, including fictional games like
Mystic Warlords of Ka'a (which became a reality in 2011)
[65] and
Rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock.
Leonard and Penny's relationship
One of the recurring plot lines is the relationship between
Leonard and
Penny.
Leonard becomes attracted to Penny within seconds of seeing her in the
pilot episode. The first season frequently featured Leonard's attraction
to Penny as a basis for humor. Leonard and Penny go on a date that
started the final episode of the first season and ended at the start of
the second season; however, Penny quickly breaks up with Leonard because
she is afraid that her educational attainments aren't good enough for
Leonard and that he may become bored in "The Bad Fish Paradigm" episode.
Her excuse for breaking with Leonard was when he showed her some
brochures from a local community college and she took it as a knock
against her education level and that she felt that he would only date a
girl with a college education.
They both date other people throughout the second season, but clearly
still have feelings for each other as when Penny admits this to herself
in "The Monopolar Expedition". When Leonard returns from a 3-month
expedition to the
North Pole
in the season 3 premiere, they commence a relationship which lasts for
most of the season until Leonard tells Penny that he loves her and she
realizes she cannot say it back, and she reluctantly breaks up with him
after
Wil Wheaton meddles with their relationship in order to beat Sheldon at bowling per "The Wheaton Recurrence".
Again, both Leonard and Penny go on to date other people; most
notably with Leonard dating Raj's sister Priya for much of season 4.
Penny has shown regret towards her decision to break up with Leonard by
admitting to Raj that she misses Leonard in "The Roommate
Transmogrification". She also exhibits jealousy towards Priya,
especially after Priya demands Leonard stay away from her as in "The
Prestidigitation Approximation". After dating Leonard, Penny also has
negative reactions to her male dates who are not very intelligent after
dating Zack in "The Lunar Excitation".
Eventually, as the episodes rolled on, Leonard became more and more
interested in Priya. However she seemed to become less and less
interested in Leonard as they went on dating.
[episode needed]
Later in the season, in "The Roommate Transmogrification" episode,
Leonard is at Raj's apartment, making out with Priya, when her parents
call from India, and she has Leonard leave the room as she answers the
call. Unknowing of Leonard's presence or his secret relationship with
Priya, her parents state that they will be so happy when Priya moves
back to India. Leonard comes in, shouting out that he is shocked she is
moving back to India, and assumes it means he and Priya are breaking up.
Leonard goes home to his apartment, where Raj has been sleeping because
of Leonard staying at Raj's apartment. Penny and Raj, while enjoying a
friendly evening, got drunk and ended up in bed. Leonard assumes the
worst when they emerge from his room, although Penny assures the group
"It's not what it looks like." In "The Skank Reflex Analysis," Penny
learns from Raj that they did not have sex, but agrees not to tell
anybody. Leonard forgives both Raj and Penny, and never learns the truth
about what really happened.
In season five in "The Infestation Hypothesis", Leonard resumes his
relationship with Priya online. It seems to work for Leonard, but he is
conflicted when he meets Alice, a girl who is really into him, at the
comic book store. Leonard decides he must be faithful to Priya, ending
things with Alice. Leonard confesses to Priya about going out with
Alice, only to discover that Priya has slept with an ex-boyfriend, and
they break up in "The Good Guy Fluctuation".
Penny is still single and dating, though when drunk has confessed
that she regrets breaking up with Leonard, as in "The Roommate
Transmogrification". In "The Ornithophobia Diffusion", Leonard and Penny
go to the movies as friends. Leonard decides that since they are no
longer dating he can be honest and does not have to pay for everything
or do whatever Penny wants to make Penny like him and have sex with him.
The two bicker all evening and sabotage each other's attempts to chat
up people in the bar. Penny decides that she likes the new, more
assertive Leonard. Leonard sees this as another opportunity to grovel
and try to get Penny to sleep with him, so she leaves.
On the spur of the moment in "The Recombination Hypothesis", Leonard
asks Penny out on a date after he imagined what getting back with her
might be like. Their real date ends successfully, and they agree to try
to renew their relationship slowly in "The Beta Test Initiation". They
share a kiss. During her renewed relationship with Leonard she has
dismissed comments about him ever leaving or dumping her or about
worrying about his unfaithfulness around other women and strippers as in
the episode "The Stag Convergence". After Penny suggested having sex in
"The Launch Acceleration", Leonard breaks the mood by proposing to her.
They later meet and Penny has the courage to tell him "no" and not
break up with him as she did two years previously when he told her that
he loved her in "The Wheaton Recurrence". In the sixth season episode,
"The 43 Peculiarity", Penny finally tells Leonard that she loves him.
When Alex Jensen asks Leonard out to dinner, the dynamics of their
relationship is reversed with Leonard feeling good at the extra female
attention and Penny insecure about their relationship.
Showrunner
Bill Prady
has hinted that Leonard and Penny's relationship may get "rocky" in
season six. Prady explained that the series' on-again-off-again couple
will continue to face "challenges", such as their conflicting views
about when to "settle down". "What we've always said about Penny and
Leonard is they met each other at the wrong time in their lives," he
told E!. "Leonard is ready to settle down and Penny isn't yet and it
will make things rocky for a while. I think that until she grows up a
little bit – and I don't mean emotionally, I mean chronologically – I
think they have challenges [ahead]."
[66]
Sheldon and Amy's relationship
A storyline that began in the third season finale is the relationship
of Sheldon and Amy Farrah Fowler, Ph.D., a neurobiologist. Raj and
Howard found her as a possible match for Sheldon through an internet
dating service (without Sheldon's knowledge) in "The Lunar Excitation".
By Sheldon's own admission, she is most like him by any standard to his
mother in "The Zazzy Substitution". Like him, she has previously avoided
relationships (whether romantic or otherwise is unclear), and only
participated in the online dating herself to fulfill an agreement with
her mother that she date at least once a year (in exchange, her mother
does not discuss Amy's lack of a love life, plus she gains use of her
mother's
George Foreman Grill) as told to Penny on her date with Sheldon during "The Robotic Manipulation".
During the four months of their relationship (taking place off-screen
between seasons 3 and 4), they communicated on a daily basis via text
messages, email and Twitter, but never saw each other in person per "The
Robotic Manipulation". Sheldon, however, did not consider Amy his
girlfriend. Penny later suggests that they should go on a date and ends
up driving them and having dinner with them in "The Robotic
Manipulation." Penny refers to Sheldon and Amy collectively as "Shamy"
as in "The Shiny Trinket Maneuver", but discontinues this after Amy
indicates that she dislikes that nickname.
In "The Agreement Dissection", Amy, Penny, and Bernadette decide to
take Sheldon dancing. Sheldon dances only with Amy, which he does not
mind. He later follows Amy back to her apartment. They talk for a few
minutes before she kisses him on the lips. Instead of getting annoyed,
Sheldon just says "Fascinating." This is a catalyst for later events
[citation needed]
and clash of personalities in the relationship of the more scientific,
masculine Sheldon, and the more socially open, feminine, and annoyed
Amy.
In "The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition", after Amy agrees to go on a
date with Stuart the comic book store owner, Sheldon asks Amy to be his
girlfriend interrupting her date with Stuart with the stipulation that
no other changes occur in their current relationship. The same night and
episode, he draws up "The Relationship Agreement" to verify the ground
rules of him as her boyfriend and her as his girlfriend (similar to his
"Roommate Agreement" with Leonard). Amy agrees but later regrets not
having a lawyer read through it.
After Penny and Bernadette go wedding shopping without Amy in "The
Isolation Permutation", Sheldon comforts a depressed Amy by cuddling
with her on her couch; however, Amy first suggests that they have
coitus.
In the episode "The Launch Acceleration", Amy says she’d like to do
an experiment using her neurobiology bag of tricks to increase Sheldon’s
feelings toward her. Sheldon is skeptical, but goes with it. Amy says
she’d like to put on some romantic dinner music, and ends up putting on
the
Super Mario Bros. theme
song. Sheldon catches on, and calls Amy out on the fact that she’s
trying to engage his feelings of the happiest times of his life as he
starts to hum along. This is further reinforced when she offers Sheldon
his favorite drink, Strawberry Quik. She also prepared "spaghetti with
little pieces of hot dog cut up" for dinner, which is Sheldon's favorite
since his mother used to make it for him. Sheldon is thrilled, and says
they should do this more often – instantly realizing he’s been caught
in Amy's "trap" as Amy stands next to him with a big smile. At the end
of the episode, they were playing doctor "Star Trek style" (Amy dressed
in Star Trek attire). Amy’s actions seem to work on Sheldon, who isn’t
happy about it but makes no attempt to stop her.
In the final fifth season episode "The Countdown Reflection", Sheldon
takes Amy's hand as Howard is launched into space. Amy glances over at
him looking quite surprised.
Religion
Religion plays a minor role in the series. Sheldon was raised in a
fundamentalist Christian
household. He refers to his childhood as "hell" during his date in "The
Robotic Manipulation", and a recurrent theme is his conflict with his
devout mother, Mary, who is a
creationist, and whose beliefs often clash with Sheldon's knowledge and understanding of
evolution. In "The Lunar Excitation", Sheldon mentions his promise to his mother to attend church once a year.
[67]
Further evidence of Sheldon's agnosticism is seen when he is heard
exclaiming "Why hast thou forsaken me, o deity whose existence I doubt?"
upon the discovery that his World of Warcraft account has been hacked.
[68]
Another example is, according to Raj, his begging the deity in which he
didn't believe to kill him quickly upon getting food poisoning at the
Rose Bowl.
[n 1]
Despite this, his religious upbringing leads to moments of religious
interjection when his emotions are high – on one occasion, he happily
exclaims "Thank you, Jesus!" when he scores a strike in bowling.
[69] In addition, he frequently uses the word "Lord," as interjections.
At the same time, a running gag in the series is the fact that Howard, who is Jewish and Raj, who is
Hindu,
frequently defy many of their respective religious customs without
worry, such as their constant flouting of dietary prohibitions. They
both also tend to give each other grief about them — In the episode "The
Financial Permeability," Raj quotes from the book of Leviticus after
Howard eats pork, and Howard counters with the fact that he keeps quiet
when Raj eats a
Whopper.
[70] Nevertheless, they are seen to be semi-observant. Raj, for example, occasionally mentions
reincarnation and explains his belief in
karma, stating that he believes it to be "practically
Newtonian
– for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." Howard
celebrates at least some Jewish holidays, once refused to pray in a
Christian church so he doesn't "burst into flames" and also wore tattoo
sleeves instead of getting real tattoos so he "still can be buried in a
Jewish cemetery".
[71]
Another frequent theme is Penny's confidence in beliefs that
frequently conflict with Leonard and Sheldon's scientific beliefs and
knowledge, such as ghosts, astrology, psychics and voodoo. This is first
seen in her very first appearance, when she makes reference to her
being a
Sagittarius,
to which Sheldon criticises her belief in astrology, but is most
frequently seen in an episode in which she and Leonard had a falling out
over the validity of psychics.
[72]
Howard's mother
In scenes set at Howard's home in which he interacts with his
never seen mother (voiced by
Carol Ann Susi),
he always does so via shouting conversations between the rooms in his
house, and she similarly interacts with other characters in this manner,
though she did appear momentarily in the overhead photo of Howard and
Bernadette's wedding, though her face was not shown.
[73] She reflects the
Jewish mother stereotype
in some ways, such as being overly controlling of Howard's adult life
and sometimes trying to make him feel guilty about causing her trouble.
She is dependent on Howard, as she requires him to help her with her wig
and makeup in the morning. Howard in turn is attached to his mother to
the point where she still cuts his meat for him, takes him to the
dentist, does his laundry and "grounds" him when he returns home after
briefly moving out.
[74]
Until Howard's marriage to Bernadette in the fifth season finale,
Howard's former living situation led Leonard's psychiatrist mother to
speculate that he may suffer from some type of pathology,
[75] and Sheldon to refer to their relationship as
Oedipal.
[76] Her tendency to communicate with Howard by shouting between rooms has led Bernadette and Raj to do impressions of her,
[77][78] and Bernadette to attempt to communicate with her in one episode by imitating her style of shouting.
[79]
Vanity card
Like most shows created by
Chuck Lorre,
The Big Bang Theory ends by showing a
vanity card written by Lorre after the credits, followed by the
Warner Bros. Television closing logo. These cards are archived on Lorre's website.
[80]
Reception
In a 2010 issue of
TV Guide, the show's opening title sequence ranked No.6 on a list of television's top 10 credits sequences, as selected by readers.
[81]
U.S. standard ratings
The Big Bang Theory has been highly rated since its premiere.
During its fourth season, it became television's highest rated comedy,
just barely beating out eight-year champ
Two and a Half Men. However, in the age 18–49 demographic (the show's target age range), it was the second highest rated comedy, behind
ABC's
Modern Family. The fifth season opened with viewing figures of over 14 million.
[82]
The sixth season boasts some of the highest-rated episodes for the show
so far, with a new series high set with "The Bakersfield Expedition"
(Season 6, Episode 13), with 20 million viewers,
[83] a first for the series, which along with
NCIS,
made CBS the first network to have two scripted series reach that large
an audience in the same week since 2007. Showrunner Steve Molaro, who
took over from Bill Prady with the sixth season, credits this to the
sitcom's exposure in
syndication, particularly on
TBS, while Michael Schneider of
TV Guide
attributes it to the timeslot move two season earlier. Chuck Lorre and
CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler also credit the success to the
influence of Molaro, in particular the deepening exploration of the
firmly established regular characters and their interpersonal
relationships, such as the on-again, off-again relationship between
Leonard and Penny.
[84]
When the third season premiered on September 21, 2009,
The Big Bang Theory
ranked as CBS's highest-rated show of that evening in the adults 18–49
demographic (4.6/10) along with a then-series-high 12.83 million
viewers.
[85] CBS moved the show to Thursdays at 8:00 ET for the
2010–2011 schedule.
Some of the show's success can be attributed to the 2010 timeslot
move, the influence of showrunner Steve Molaro (who took over from Bill
Prady) on the characters' storylines, and the series' exposure in
off-network syndication (program reruns on stations outside of CBS).
[84] Thus far throughout the 2012–13 season,
The Big Bang Theory has usually placed first place in all of syndication ratings, receiving formidable competition only from
Wheel of Fortune (
first-run syndication).
If the show is to be named the highest rated syndication offering by
the completion of the 2012–13 season, it will have dethroned
Judge Judy
(first-run syndication) which was the syndication leader in the 2011–12
season but has been in 3rd place throughout much of the 2012–13 season.
[86]
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